Pop Music, DC Blizzards, and Selma Hayek: A Conversation with Shane 54
Myon unfortunately was not able to join us this time around, but we were lucky to sit down with Shane from Myon & Shane 54 for a few minutes before he laid down quite the eclectic set at Ultrabar two weeks ago. Here’s what we talked about,
Glow: Dance music has infiltrated the radio airwaves, that’s a fact. What’s your opinion on the effect that it has had on our genre?
Shane: First of all, an artist shouldn’t pay for their song to be played on the radio. If you have a good song, then it will surface wherever. It can’t be stopped, it can’t be placed into a box away from the world. If it’s a song that people want to hear, they will hear it, regardless of labels, or the people in charge of the radio. To reach a certain level of success, the first and foremost thing you must do as an artist is to create a truly interesting piece of music, one that separates itself from all the countless other tracks, so that people can remember it. It has to stand out in such a way that it can strike a chord in the A&R’s out there, the people whose job it is to listen to so much music day in and day out. This is where songwriting comes in, though. A nice bass drum and a good drop isn’t enough. That’s why some of today’s acts are so incredibly popular, like Above & Beyond, because they write songs. Listen to this people: THEY. WRITE. SONGS. That is the most vital part of any track. If you have a good song that can touch not only people’s lives, but also their hearts for whatever reason, then you’ve got yourself the golden ticket. And if it’s a good song, the radio will play it. If the radio plays it, then you’re going to be popular. With that said, a person should never make a song with the radio in mind. They should never approach a song like, “I will make this, because it’s what the radio will like.” No! Do something that you like! If we like one of our own tracks, then we will be our own worst critics, because we easily get bored with music, and it’s very hard to keep our own interest with the music that we make. We constantly feel the need to come up with something different, something that will be interesting.
“Why would you want to use the same sound over and over again for years? Why use the same bass drums, the same basslines, the same chord progressions? It’s careless. Trance is very nice, but you have to take care of it in order for it to be fresh, so that the people can enjoy it in the way that it’s supposed to be enjoyed.”
Glow: Are you guys the type to dismiss the usage of genres, or is there a certain label that you wish could be created to better describe your sound?
Shane: We would be in very big trouble if someone tried to put us in one genre. There’s a certain type of fun in making music that blurs genres, where you have the liberty to marry certain elements that don’t necessarily belong with each other. That’s the essence of a mashup, it’s why we’re big on mashups. To grab a vocal sample from somebody in the 70’s and place it over an instrumental that someone made 2 years ago, and to watch how well the two parts work with each other, is nothing short of amazing. If you put yourself into a sole genre, then you’re limiting yourself. We like so many different types of music, I myself am a heavy metal fan. I’ve always loved Iron Maiden, and I’ve always wanted to remix them. Their bass player even told me to fuck off once when I asked if I could remix one of their songs. He asked, “Why would I let a DJ remix my material?” to which I assured him that I would not be touching any of their stuff. We laughed about it later, but in this day and age, you can’t remix a classic heavy metal artist just because you want to. It’s good to play around with different styles though, I think we’re one of the few people that have played a rock song at a trance party and were actually able to get away with it. We did that at ASOT 450 in Bratislava back in 2010, where we finished with our remix of Smells Like Teen Spirit and blew everyone’s minds. I remember Jeff from Dash Berlin was standing behind us when we did this, and he had a look on his face like, “What on earth am I going to play after this?” But obviously, he was really good after us. The whole thing was a whole lot of fun, and that’s who we are. No one will ever be able to label us.
Glow: So you guys have said repeatedly that you don’t consider yourselves as trance artists, why is that?
Shane: We were very involved with trance at the beginning of our careers, especially when I started back in 2000. Trance was much more popular back then compared to now, as it was one of the one of the only big genres that dominated the dance charts in Europe at the time. The thing is, what people perceive as trance today does not coincide with what we perceived to be trance when we were younger, back when we were really into it. Naturally, we moved on. That’s not to say that we don’t like the whole genre altogether, only some parts of it, and that’s why we don’t necessarily want to be associated with those parts. What we have strived to do since then was to keep the elements of trance that we still really liked. Trance originally, in our opinion, was the most liberal of dance music styles, because you could do anything with it. You could make housey trance, techno-ish trance, 150 BPM psytrance, or even hardcore trance. You can still find those elements that we still love today, like those certain melodies and harmonies that can make you cry, the ones that give you goosebumps. And yes, we still make songs that incorporate those things, and we still do love trance. We just don’t like the trance that hasn’t changed, that hasn’t evolved, the trance that has parts of it that has been done over and over again. Trance is extremely free, it’s very liberal. Why would you want to use the same sound over and over again for years? Why use the same bass drums, the same basslines, the same chord progressions? It’s careless. Trance is very nice, but you have to take care of it in order for it to be fresh, so that the people can enjoy it in the way that it’s supposed to be enjoyed.
Glow: Speaking about mashups, we read elsewhere that you once mashed up Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”, and a collection of stems from a Armin & Deadmau5 collaboration that was still in the works. Have there been any other crazy mashup ideas that you gave have tried to make into tracks?
Shane: Yeah, they were working on a song online, and they sent stems back and forth to each other. They did so in a way that anyone had access to them, and we were sitting there thinking, “Oh we should troll them.” So we got the Rick Astley acapella, and it turned out that it was in the same key as the Armin x mau5 track. So we put it out, laughing our asses off, to which Armin asked us, “What the hell is this? Deadmau5 just told us not to touch their song, but it wasn’t even finished! That was probably the biggest troll that we’ve ever done to another artist. Luckily, Armin was very understanding. We got tons of likes on Soundcloud. It was just a lot of fun. Music is all about fun. It’s all about doing something that hasn’t been done before. As far as any other crazy ideas…if I were to tell you, then tons of people would start working on them tomorrow, so I can’t tell you any of them!
Glow: We’ve also read that you’re a huge Star Wars fan. If you could be any character from the original trilogy, who would it be and why?
Shane: I’d be the two suns of Tatooine. I’d do a lot of things if I were that. Actually, no. I’d be the Binary Sunset. That’s the best character, nobody ever picks it.
“There are so many guys out there that people consider them as just DJ’s, when they’re actually pop artists, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Glow: The 54 from your name, Shane 54, comes from movie “54”, which was about the most famous disco club ever, Studio 54 and–
Shane: Yeah it comes from the license plate of Ryan Philippes’ character, who worked as a bartender named Shane for Studio 54, and at one point in the film, things started to look good for him. He then went ahead and bought the car with “Shane 54” on the license plate, and that was when I knew that I had found my artist name. I had been looking for one for 6 months, but I grabbed it from the film, which to be honest, I don’t remember a lot about…but in all seriousness, if you haven’t seen 54, Selma Hayek is very young there. You should go check it out.
Glow: So, there’s no deeper meaning to it all? Since Studio 54 was probably the world’s most famous disco club ever..
Shane: Nope, absolutely not. I just wanted an artist name that sounded cool, and it was one of the coolest things in the movie. It looked incredibly nice, the “Shane 54” on the license plate. That happened at the end of a scene, and I just went “Ah, that’s it.”
Glow: You grew up listening to and being influenced by pop and some jazz. Can you tell us some more about that?
Shane: I actually did 14 pop albums back in Hungary, as a pop artist. So you’re right, we have very much been influenced by pop music. I am a pop artist. I think that a good pop song can be turned into anything. A good song, however it is covered or remixed, is going to end up being a good song. So as a producer, pop music can actually save your ass. There are so many guys out there that people consider them as just DJ’s, when they’re actually pop artists, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And I’m speaking about the most successful ones here. Like, no non-commercial artist would sell 20 million records as a DJ. That’s pop territory, Phil Collins territory. Pop has the ability to take a person back to a certain moment of time where you can remember how you felt then, where you can even remember how things smelled during that time. Only pop music can do this, nothing more.
Glow: We’re sure that there’s gotta be a few artists that truly influenced you. Can you name a few of them?
Shane: Well, Myon was really keen on Incognito, who was a jazz band. He loves music from the 80’s and 90’s. And that’s what we try to do with our music, we try to grab everything good from every genre and time period that we like. I have around 6000s CD’s at home, by the way, and I’ve listened to all of them. It’s important to know what’s out there, it’s important to listen to old music, because there are so many great parts in it. If you discover old club music– GO LISTEN TO THE GLOBAL UNDERGROUND SERIES. PLEASE. YOU’LL BE AMAZED. Anyways, pop music infused with dance music is always a good thing, it’s always a good match. Deep Dish, that’s all I can say. Deep Dish is the perfect example of underground + pop. Gabriel & Dresden too, look them up boys and girls.
Glow: Lastly, before you leave to go spin, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “DC?”
Shane: Blizzard. In 2009, the first time we came to play in DC, our show got cancelled by a blizzard. We ended up playing at a promoter’s house for 22 people, the cops ended up being called on us twice. It was unbelievable. We’re still friends with those people too. Old friends, that’s what DC means to us. We love it here.
Special thanks to Shane for taking some time out of his busy night to speak with us! Photos from the Ultrabar show can be found here.
Interview by: Kristin Boone & Daniel Chamorro