Love, Shaun

Intro

Meet Love, Shaun a Scottish producer and DJ in the electronic dance music scene.

What music has initially inspired your creative journey? 

My creative journey properly started after seeing a Caribou and Four Tet gig in Glasgow many years ago and being blown away by the sound and the emotion they created.

I grew up on indie music and had been in a few guitar bands but after this gig I was inspired to start making electronic music.

What are you finding challenging right now?

I think finding a good balance between everything I’m up to right now is a challenge. I’ve started a new journey as an independent artist after just leaving Astralwerks records and there is always the fear of going from a major label to now releasing music myself without that kind of support network.

The challenge is trying to balance all the things I want to do like making new music but also having to spend days finishing music I want to release and prep for gigs etc. 

What artists do you feel a strong connection with - musically, spiritually or aspirationally?

I love what Barry Can’t Swim is doing right now. He’s blending genres but it all feels part of the one project which is a difficult thing to do, and I just love that about him!  

I saw him recently at the Barrowlands and his set was huge. I’m also into a newer artist called Duskus who I’m supporting in Glasgow at the end of the month who makes atmospheric kind of house electronic music.

I also love digging through old music for samples and the surprise when you find something special. I had an app called Radioooo I was using which is a Radio Time Machine and you choose a place and year, and it plays music from that country and year. It’s cool!

I guess the last song I released ‘I’ll Carry On’ was a bit like that as I found the sample on a rare unheard-of gospel compilation album.

How can the current scene / clubbing experience be improved or supported further (thinking about up-coming artists especially)?

I’ve started a club night with fellow Scottish Electronic producer Rory James, and we’ve started collaborating with other nights. I think Collaboration is important.

I like this idea of holding open deck nights too with newer DJ’s coming and doing shorter sets. It gives people who are trying to get in the scene a chance and having more DJs on the bill bringing different crowds can start to build a community.

I think the difficult thing is trying to think outside the box as well from the classic clubbing experience.

I think daytime raving feels like something I want to get into after I saw a coffee shop rave recently which I thought was a great idea! 

What are you releasing/working on right now?

I think I tend to always feel more of a connection to dance music which just goes that bit deeper than just making you want to dance, and I feel like that’s what I want to do when I make music.

There’s a Spotify playlist ‘Crying on The Dancefloor’ which I think sums it up!  I just love the power music must transform your landscape or emotions.  

I remember when I was making ‘I’ll Carry On’ and I first played the strings over the vocals I felt such a strong emotional connection to it.

I was going through some difficult times and making the song genuinely got me through it and I thought maybe someone else might be going through something similar and it’ll help them.

In terms of new music, I have a new single ‘Waiting’ to come in a couple of weeks. I’ve posted a lot on Soundcloud the last year which I’ve kind of been using as a bit of a focus group where I can see which tunes react and which don’t.

I posted ‘Waiting’ over a year ago and I’d kind of forgotten to check back on it and I saw the other day it was one of the most popular ones, so I thought it was time to get it out there! 

Support Love, Shaun

https://www.instagram.com/thisisloveshaun/ 

https://www.tiktok.com/@thisisloveshaun

https://soundcloud.com/love-shaun

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4qvKSBd9PKGZQ7cmWdOllu