“Shayman’s music had an unexplained and unique magic to it . Its music that just comes out, without having to stop to think, just a pure flow of feelings.”
1. When and where did you first hear of Shayman?
I first heard of him through a mutual friend Omri (Omka) a promoter/dj/musician who does not realize he is a musician but he is, that is one of the Moksha parties crew (runs indigo festival etc.)
Omri used to tell me that he makes really good music and that I should check it out.
2. So what exactly was it about Shayman’s music that first grabbed your attention and why?
Shayman‘s music had an unexplained and unique magic to it . It’s music that just comes out, without having to stop to think, just a pure flow of feelings. I love it when that happens . I could feel that shay had really pure intentions of only making the best music he can and did not understand how artists that don’t give 100% in the studio actually make it in the music business. So innocent. So I felt I had to support him, because it reminded me why I started making music.
3. How was the experience helping him produce his debut album ‘Landing on the moon’ different to making your own music?
Well producing other people’s music, or just producing music for specific films and computer games etc. is something I do quiet often. Before shay I was working with shulman and his band on the last shulman live album on aleph zero and many other projects before that. I feel that providing a service for others improves me also as an artist, mainly because it teaches me to give that 110%. When people pay you for a job you gotta give it your very best. Giving it all you got is a great habit to have.
‘Landing on the moon’ was tough, because we wanted to do something simple and minimal enough for today’s sound and yet not loose the feel shay had . The MUTE button was the strongest tool while working on it . Shay had so many ideas we usually had to pick the best one out of many great ones and work on it.
4. Would you say the experience perhaps even taught you a thing or two?
Of course it taught me, every person you work with teaches you, if you are up for learning . Sometimes when a person has a lot of experience with playing at events and making music it helps but it also shapes the mind in one way and you end up loosing that pure innocence you had when you just made music for fun .
It’s important for me to work with as many people from totally different genres all the time (instrument players, singers, people who made music only once or never) you can learn from anyone and you can learn a lot!
5. What exactly was your primary role/s during the production of this album?
My primary role was to take an idea , a sketch and make the best of it in terms of overall sound , clarity of the ideas and of course fitting it to the 2013 dance floor and hopefully the many years after that).
I got down to whatever was needed. Selecting which elements to keep and which not to , remaking some for more precise synth work , rearranging some parts to make the track more dance floor efficient, mixing the tracks and handing them to ido Ophir (domestic) for mastering. Also I made the black Turkish coffee for shay and me (although we took turns on that one).
6. In your opinion, what is the overall feel of ‘Landing on the moon?’
In my opinion the overall feel is quality atmospheric dance music! We aimed for an album that is very trancey but that many djs could find tracks to play. I remember when Loud started it was so experimental only like two djs in the world played it. Sometimes you gotta put your ideas out there but as part of something communicative, after all making dance music is not just about showing the world how good a producer you are! It’s also (and maybe more important) about just making people have pure fun at a party and that’s a great cause especially if u put the ego aside. That was the lesson I learned lately.
If you ask me, this is only the beginning of shay, he will evolve a lot and keep making a lot of music. The guy is a true artist!
Read the Nano Shayman interview