Shaka Loves You Interview

A few weeks ago you appeared as guests on my 45 Raiders event and absolutely killed it. Why do you like 45s, what styles do you have in your collection, and how does DJ with 45s compare to Serato?

Yeah, thanks for having us on 45’s raiders, it was a fun night! I’m still fairly new to playing 45’s but it’s just a really fun medium! I love the digging and collecting side of it and they’re just really good fun to DJ with. I love that there’s a whole 45’s community too. I have a bunch of different styles on 45 but mainly funk and disco. They’re all fairly cheap records too, I love digging through dusty charity shop crates to find hidden gems! So, it’s obviously pretty different to DJ’ing with Serato but it’s a refreshing change from relying on certain tech features to help you. It’s just a lot more raw and much easier to mess things up. I’ve really got to concentrate when I’m DJ’ing 45’s!!

You have produced a whole of host of amazing edits and releases which brought you to the attention of Craig Charles. How did that hook up come about and how has it helped your career? 

So, the Craig connect came about through a track we released a few years ago called ‘If you give’. It was sent to Craig by the label and he loved it and played it on his 6 Music show loads. We then met him backstage at a festival we were both playing at and since then we’ve got to know him fairly well over the last few years. It’s been a real boost for us! Getting regular national radio play and supporting him all over the country has really helped our profile. We even got on the Gadget Show thanks to Craig!

Prior to the pandemic you guys were gigging constantly at events and festivals up and down the country and abroad. How did you deal with the sudden loss of gigs and what have you been doing to keep yourselves active creatively? 

At first, it was pretty tough! We had a good Spring/Summer lined up in 2020 and we were pretty gutted when it became clear none of it was going to happen. We’ve tried to keep as busy as possible and use the extra time to focus on other things we’d been meaning to do for a while. We launched a Patreon page, started live-streaming and we’ve been writing lots of new music too!
You have been very active live streaming over the past year with Jamie DJing and Marty running the always great chat. Congratulations on recently becoming a Twitch Partner. How do you see this going forwards as gigs in real life start to happen again and will you still carry on streaming on Twitch? 

I reckon, we’ll definitely keep the livestreams going once we get back to playing real shows. We might cut the frequency down a bit or we might start streaming some of our regular shows too. Either way I think livestreams are here to stay and I’m totally cool with that, it really is a great way to connect with your fans around the world!

Can you tell us about your production process. How do you choose which songs to re-edit, what hardware or software you use and how you collaborate together?

So, it varies, I usually try and choose not too obvious tracks and as long as they have a good groove and a vibe to them that’s pretty much my baseline for starting out. So, I use Ableton and it’s all software-based production. I would love to start getting into some hardware synths but sadly my studio isn’t big enough at the moment, I need a bigger flat first!

On 02/05/2021   /   2021 Line up, 2021 lineup, 45 Day 2021, 45 Raiders, 45s, 7" Vinyl, DJ Duo, Interview, Latest News, Live Stream, Twitch, vinyl