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INTRODUCTION

Dennis Sheperd has thrust himself into the spotlight of the club scene in the past few years, offering prestigious music productions. The 25 year old DJ and Producer from Essen in Germany delights his fans and numerous, well-known artists worldwide, who support him and his music.

His musical success was rewarded with numerous, international DJ performances on events, festivals and in clubs and with the award “The Best New Artist 2010” of his hometown Essen.

Dennis Sheperd presents himself as talented and outstanding artist, who fills his fans with enthusiasm and gets the support of the biggest DJs and numerous media channels of electronic music for each of his releases. 2011 will lift Dennis’ development as an artist to a new higher lever, not least because of his debut album.

http://www.dennissheperd.com

DENNIS SHEPERD INTERVIEW BY BEATSMEDIA

Beatsmedia: Growing up in Germany, you have been surrounded by a myriad of EDM talent. Who were some of your most notable influences?

Dennis Sheperd: I started to listen to Trance in 1998. Trance became very mainstream at this time, running on TV Stations like VIVA or MTV and being played on mainstream radio stations. I’ve been listening a lot to Blank & Jones, Paul van Dyk, Fragma, Flutlicht, Members of Mayday. These are artists who definitely left their mark on me. But for me past is past and now is now. That means that nowadays I do not let me influence anymore by music from the past. I just do, what I feel is right at the moment.

Beatsmedia: Did you see your early days, with its richness of EDM producers around you, as a blessing or as a competitive challenge to overcome and breakthrough?

Dennis: Good question. Well, there’s a hard competition for sure and if you do not give more than 100%, you will remain unnoticed, that’s for sure. So, it’s definitely some sort of competition but it doesn’t feel like this for me, because producing music and playing it to people is what I love.

Beatsmedia: You have added the “Dennis Sheperd” remix touch to some well-respected names over the years, such as Tiesto, Above and Beyond and Gareth Emery. What is the common thread between all of these that makes a “Dennis Sheperd” remix so distinctive?

Dennis: If you compare these three remixes you will hear that those have completely different drumming, completely different sounds and different structures as well. It’s more a particular “Dennis Sheperd”-feeling that makes them distinctive in my opinion. I always imagine what I would like to hear in a club night and try to re-produce that. And apparently people like my “vision” of club tunes.

Beatsmedia: How do you approach a new remix project? Can you walk us through an average music process?

Dennis: It’s always different. It’s best to immediately get a remix idea when listening to the original mix otherwise it will be hard to produce a really good remix. But I’ve also done nice remixes without instantly having a remix idea in my mind, so it’s not impossible but a lot harder because it’s becoming more a “trial and error” way of work. Trying out what could sound cool and take it or leave it. But in mostly all cases I first work on the drumming and bassline.

“A TRIBUTE TO LIFE” DEBUT ALBUM
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Beatsmedia: Turning our attention to your debut album set for release September 16th 2011 on the High Contrast Recordings label, the album shares its title with your 2007 breakthrough single: “A Tribute To Life” Can you share with us your thoughts on paying tribute to this through the album?

Dennis: The album title reflects what the album is to me. I’m a very satisfied human-being and I’m very happy that I was able to live my life the way I did until now. So, I wanted to give life something back in form of a nice piece of music! The album title is a lot more to me than just a random album title and that was very important for me for my debut album. And, of course, back in 2007 “A Tribute to Life” was my first successful single release. Consequently, it was pretty obvious to name it like this.

Beatsmedia: In addition to the above question, compare yourself to where you stood as a musician back in 2007 to the Dennis Sheperd we hear today, how have you seen yourself evolve over that time period?

Dennis: Oh gosh, yes I have evolved a lot. I would call myself a professional musician nowadays. Back in 2007 it was more like a hobby. I have also improved a lot on my production skills, on my composition skills (due to my album production) and I have learned how to DJ. So all in all, it has been a big development since 2007.

Beatsmedia: The first track “Bring Me Back” featuring Jonathan Mendelsohn. Can you share with us the story behind this track and why you decided to select it, when launching your debut album?

Dennis: As you might know, I’m working with Richard Bedford quite a lot in the background. Originally this one was an acoustic song with drums, guitars and so on. Richard was really inspired by that tune and offered to write vocals for this. And as always, his writing was nearly perfect and we searched for a perfect singer for this and found Jonathan Mendelsohn. If you would like to get more background information on this song, watch my “Bring Me Back“.

Beatsmedia: Collaborations with Cold Blue feature numerous times throughout the album, one of the only artists to feature more than once. Can you share with us how your relationship with Cold Blue began and why you think this relationship in particular has spawned so many incredible tracks between you both?

Dennis: I am not sure how everything began back in the days. I think we already know each other since 2006 or so. He remixed a track I had produced under another alias, I think. And since then, we were in contact and sent track ideas to each other. His melodies and track ideas always inspired me so much that I often want to collaborate with him on particular tracks although it doesn’t always work.

Beatsmedia: With such an outstanding cast of highly regarded vocalists and producers, I am going to make it hard for you now, please select only 3 tracks from the album that you feel most represent the albums journey the most?

Dennis: “Bring Me Back”, “Fallen Angel” and “Silence”. Simple as that!

Beatsmedia: You have chosen to close the album on the track “Feeder”. Can you tell us why and furthermore on what note would you like to leave the listener?

Dennis: I just decided by heart and felt like “Feeder” was fitting most as an outro track. There isn’t any particular reason or thought behind this. I would like to leave the listeners on a good note. They shall hear that this album was a lot of work and that I’m paying a lot of attention to details. They shall hear that it was my dream to produce this album and that I really enjoyed it.

Beatsmedia: Reflecting back on the albums construction process, what part of the album did you find the most challenging? And what will you do differently next time?

Dennis: The album-production itself wasn’t too challenging as I knew what I wanted to achieve and what I have to do to achieve this aim. But everything around the album like contracts, design, marketing etc. was quite hard. I think a lot of musicians just like to do music and don’t want to care on that other stuff. Unfortunately it’s as important as production.

Beatsmedia: Finally, with an artist album now behind you, gigs across the globe and already a #1 Beatport single, all at the prime age of 25, what is next step for Dennis Sheperd? What does 2012 hold for you?

Dennis: There are still a lot of things to achieve…. I would like to collaborate with a well-known DJ, I would still love to play on some places I haven’t played yet and well, you always try to achieve more and more goals. So, let’s see what happens but one thing is for sure: The album won’t be the last thing which will cause attention!

Beatsmedia: And lastly, select 3 words that you feel best describe your new album “A Tribute To Life”

Dennis: Versatile, exciting and high-quality.

German viewers need use this link to watch the album trailer
Find out more about the album by reading our written review

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Posted in: Featured, Interviews | Posted on August 26, 2011 by Beatsmedia