1. I heard that, "The Beach Side of Life", that's the album title, what's behind that ?
Roger Shah: Yes, I came to this title while recording a beach in Salinas/Ibiza. While recording I said to myself: "I always walk on the beach side of life." Back home when I listened to the recording I liked it somehow and kept it as album title and also used it for the intro of the song.
2. You have a very deep, soulful and unique sound, which is missing from EDM today, who influenced your sound ?
Roger Shah: Actually I don't really know. I think it's a long time development. A lot of influences I get from natural surroundings, while touring or spending time at beautiful places. I love to create beautiful atmospheres and melodies and enjoy to do real song writing with my singers.
3. Explain what we can expect from your new album compared to what you just released previous years such as "Another Day On The Terrace", then 2008's "Sunny Tales" ?
Roger Shah: It's a development in sound but I also tried to keep the Sunlounger trademark sound. The down tempo side is more like world music genre with influences from a lot of different countries, the uptempo mixes are much more groovy and clubby than for the first two albums, because this is the first time I'm touring an album.
4. "Another Day On The Terrace" went double platinum and "Sunny Tales" already flying past gold status... right ? What was the process of putting "The Beach Side of Life" together especially after coming off the success of "Sunny Tales" ?
Roger Shah: Oh, I don't think about this things when working on an album, this would bring just any pressure which I don't need. My goal with this album has been just to create another beauty. The first reactions are amazing, so I think I was right in what I did.
5. Las Salinas beach, the most prestigious Ibiza's spotlight. Is this your main inspiration still ?
Roger Shah: No, not any more, since I travel so much, I found so many new magic islands for me, beautiful places full of inspiration.
6. What do you see the next trend being in the bay ? Despite that nowadays your music is always related to that ?
Roger Shah: I never follow any trend, I just do the music I love and enjoy to do for myself, but have to say that at the moment I like a lot of the Progressive House tunes, so it might be possible that I will do the one or other track into this direction for my next Roger Shah solo album.
7. In 2008 you and Zara Taylor were "Lost", now in 2010 are both "Found". Who came up with the idea ? What's next for Roger and Sara in terms of productions ?
Roger Shah: Zara is responsible for the lyrics, when I wrote the music for found I mentioned that I would like to have a kind of continued story for lost, that's why I made also the music like for a lost part 2, so she came up with the idea for "Found". We recorded another tune for this album, so after "Lost" and "Found", now she realized that it "Feels Like Heaven" but this tune is not a "Lost" part 3, it's totally different.
8. Female vocalists have played a major key role ever since the first two Sunlounger's albums, who else made it this time again ?
Roger Shah: Yes, I did two other songs with females. One with one of my main singers Lorilee, I did a lot of tracks with her for other projects but she also performed on the last Sunlounger album on "Your Name" we recorded a song called "Life"and my first time collaboration with Antonia Lucas for "Beautiful Night". Both mentioned tracks will be the next upcoming main singles taken from this album. Last but not least I teamed up with Inger Hansen again, we recorded "Breaking Waves" and shouted a very nice video for it in New York. He also played guitars for the tracks "Summer Escape" and "Acapulco Waves."
9. What's the writing process like for you ? I know you wrote a lot of your own material. Or else you are also being helped/assisted by the vocalists too ?
Roger Shah: When it comes to lyrics, they always come from the singers, that's why all my singers are also good song writers, this is the only thing I can't do for myself. When it comes to music I compose the most songs for myself, besides doing collaborations with other artists. For Sunlounger I had a Co-composer Ingot Zielinski, he is also a classic music influenced composer like I am and it's fun to create some melodies together instead of sitting in the studio just for myself, but a lot of tunes I also compose while being on tour. When it comes to production/mastering I do everything 100% just for myself, that's why I have my own kind of sound.
10. I always wanted to know, what made you decide to get into Balearic music sound-a-like as Sunlounger ? Has it always been a passion of yours ?
Roger Shah: Yes, it has always been my favourite music style, I always listened to Chicane or Solarstone when I just started to produce my first tracks. I'm happy that nowadays people announce me as master of Balearic Trance, which makes me also a little bit proud, because it's such a beautiful and emotional genre.
11. Tell us about your label Magic Island ? How did this come together ? What artists are on your roster (any producers) ?
Roger Shah: After having the first hit records, Armada the record company where I've been signed offered me a kind of label deal and gave me the freedom to do whatever I want to do. So I focus now on my productions but also have some great talents on my label like Nuera, Kim Svärd, Dulac & Dubious or Pedro del Mar.
12. What's the release schedule looking like ?
Roger Shah: For the fact that I released a 100% exclusive mix album earlier this year, we have still a very hectic release schedule with 2 - 3 releases each month to release all this tracks taken from my Magic Island vol 3 album, but we will change this way of working for next year. So I don't do another mix album and will just sign single tracks and focus on my biggest talents and of course my own releases.
13. Are we going to see different dimensions of you on this 3rd installment of yours ?
Roger Shah: Yes, kind of, I always try to develop myself in sound and also views, so as I mentioned earlier this album is more a kind of world music genre than just Chillout or Balearic Trance.
14. What's the message you are trying to come across with for this album ?
Roger Shah: I always walk on the beach side of life, with this album I want to give the listeners the feeling that they do it, too. I know a lot of people are not so fortunate to travel around the world to all those beaches every month as I do, so I try to bring all those inspirations I got to the people's homes.
15. Please write your answer/comment about it, but I just simply wanted to pin-point my own reflections in relation to your music, what it does to me and what it means to me, thanks :)
"The Beach Side of Life's" album was "Found" by the "Coastline" the other night, "Breaking Waves" somewhere along "Kuta Beach" in Bali, Indonesia. It was a "Beautiful Night" indeed, a proper "Summer Escape", with an extraordinary feeling. Speaking about it, I felt like having a whole new original "Trademark White" persona, where "Life" just began, once more, in it's pure and epic spectrum, ever since that happen'. On the other hand, a glimpse of happiness just emerged, remembering the "Acapulco Waves" in Mexico, that "Feels Like Heaven" most of the time, especially by the shore. Nowadays, same as usual, listening to your music, I am always traveling the world from one side to another keen and willing to find out what's next, since "musical make-up are imaginative emerging world music themes & purpose-captured ambient effect-ology". And that doesn't make me a "Son of a Beach" by writing this, am I ?
Roger Shah: WOW, this is very well said :-)) and almost reflects my feeling about this album, too. Thanks a lot. Cheers. Roger
Interview made by Cosmin Lukacs (TranceSound.net admin/founder)
Links:
Roger Shah aka Sunlounger official website
Roger Shah aka Sunlounger @ MySpace
Cosmin Lukacs official website
Cosmin Lukacs @ MySpace
