“After hosting the segment ‘Young Guns’ on HouSeductive Radio, I soon began to realize a lot of young talent is out there undiscovered. I wanted to create a community where these ‘Young Guns’ could be heard. By giving these young producers radio play every week on our radio show, they became more motivated in their productions and as word spread more and more producers started submitting tracks. I found myself going through 20 to 30 clips of their amazing work, I needed to do something about it.”
byGeorge Monev
Young Guns is a brand dedicated to showcasing the talent of aspiring producers. Founded in 2011, it was initially featured as a segment on HouSeductive Radio, a weekly radio show aimed at the dance culture of Melbourne, where young artists were given their opportunity to have their productions played on National radio.
Overwhelmed by the interest and talent of unknown underage producers, George Monev decided to create a platform on which the young guns can display their skills by releasing original material by producers less than 20 years of age.
Currently featuring more than 20 young artists, Young Guns is fast becoming a leader in the Australian Dance scene. What makes Young Guns internationally unique is that it is the only brand that is completely dedicated to assisting young producers in making their debut in the music industry.
"Here is my special guest mix for "Too Much Bass EP 55" podcast by Riste Markov! Hope you like it!" "All kinds of feedback will be more than welcome! Thanks for listening & support!" DOWNLOAD LINK: http://soundcloud.com/kristina-d/too-...
Shade was born and raised in Amsterdam. However his story is not of someone who started listening to music from an early age on. With an occasional exception Shade never listened to any music at all. This lasted until he was 16 years old. When finally hearing some music he liked he found out about the existence of ‘Remixes’. A friend of his who had just come back from a vacation in Spain had remixes of the songs that Shade liked. Shade was intrigued by how those 3 minute songs became 8 minutes long. When that friend also showed him what megamixes were and told him that they were done by DJ’s, Shade knew that he wanted to make those as well.
Within 3 months Shade had bought himself 2 turntables and a mixer. Another 3 months later he would do his first DJ gig. That was at a disco night organised by the high-school he attended. Later on he would participate in a mixing competition which he won. He also started DJ’ing at people’s parties. Basically playing in living rooms.
By this time he was listening to so much music and learnt so much about music that he felt he could make music himself. Buying a small keyboard confirmed his suspicions. In the later years he would expand his gear. He made songs for several local artists. He also started his own hip-hop group called VCE.
By now Shade started DJ’ing in a club called ‘De Prins’ (translated: The prince) which was based in Almere. It lasted until a friend who wanted to start DJ’ing borrowed his record collection and lost them. With no more record collection he now concentrated more on production. He was asked to do the music for a major television commercial for a Dutch Internet provider called ‘Nok-Nok’. It was a last minute job but the commercial was aired on all major Dutch television channels. Many times in half time of Champion league games.
While he was getting deeper into the business he started his own record label. He produced tracks for artist and formed groups. With one of his groups (T-Nice) he would release an EP called ‘Summerlove’ and later on a single called ‘Sexy’. The music video became the video of the week of local TV station ‘L1’. He also had formed a girl band called ‘Exhale’. He trained them in singing and dancing and eventually shot a music video of one of their song (called ‘Fantasy’) in Los Angeles which became #3 in the ‘Box video chart’. However he had trouble with the name of the group. At the same time former Heavyweight boxer Evander Holyfield also had a girl band called ‘Exhale’. He discovered this after the Midem festival of 2002. At the Midem festival of 2002 he had seen Evander Holyfield but did not speak with him or know about what he was doing. Shade always jokingly said: “I was very disappointed when I discovered that there was another ‘Exhale’ out there. But the man is Evander Holyfield. Former Heavyweight boxing Champion of the world. I could not go to him and beat him up, right?”
In late 2004 he began to DJ again. It was easier now to get back in the DJ game because it was easier building up a CD collection than a record collection. Things started taking off from there. He got residencies in La Rumba, Club Classics, Three Sisters and most of all Club Smokey's. That is where he grew a name. He also played for various other clubs like ‘Club M’ and ‘Club 7’ He was able to do this full time. He also started doing his own parties. In 2006 he made a remix of the Lambada and small music video to promote one of his party concepts called ‘Dare 2 Be Sexy’.
Right before he was going to play in White Russia he found out that there were more people named ‘DJ Shade’. Remembering what happened to Exhale he began to imagine what would happen if he would not be able to keep the name ‘DJ Shade’. When driving from a gig in Gomel to a gig in the Minsk. He began to form new ideas about his future.
Shade states: “DJ Melnik was driving like crazy on the freeway. And the other drivers on the road were just as crazy. This was an 800km long trip. I was tired of seeing my life flash by so I just laid down on the backseat of the car. I didn’t want to look at what was happening. Two things popped in my head. One was a song called ‘My name is….’. The other was a possible new name for me. It was ‘Mr.Shade’. Immediately I liked the feel of it. I knew that ‘Mr.Shade’ would be different than ‘DJ Shade’ in just about anything. However I did not follow up on this yet”
In Mid 2007 he started living and DJ’ing in Barcelona. He DJ’ed in various clubs. He also started doing his own parties. His most successful party was called “Shade’s party”. Together with a promotion company called ‘Jamsonik’ he transformed a lounge area of the 2nd floor of a Restaurant called ‘Living’ into a club. The club became a huge success. It was originally intended to open only 2 days a week. The success made it so that it opened 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
In Spain he received a mail from someone claiming to be the real DJ Shade (which) he wasn’t. Also back in Amsterdam someone started calling himself ‘DJ Shaade’. To make matters worse someone living in Barcelona about 10 minutes walking distance from Shade’s address had just taken the name DJ Shade and also the URL djshade.com. Shade had tried to get this URL for many years and now it was lost again. He had enough of it and changed his name to Mr.Shade.
In 2009 he moved to Berlin seeking new challenges. Berlin changed his view and his music. Seeing how the city was and how other DJ’s like DJ Size and Mr.Crowdrocker operated, he changed his view. Mr.Shade should no longer be the man behind the artist. He should be the artists. His production style change from pop and R&B to House and electro tracks.
One thing was missing. He felt that he had to do this in the UK. This time he moved to London making it his 4th country in just 4 years. He made that move in 2011. After some preparation Mr.Shade is ready to make his return. Together with the company ‘Silverkoi’ he has shot a music video for his track ‘Shake that ass’. The video will be released in January 2012. Together with PR Agency ‘ANP Media’ he is setting up a promotion tour that will start in late January.
Check out this sneak peek of behind the scenes of the music video 'Shake that ass' :-
