Feature: Sam Shure [Interview]

One thing is clear, Sam Shure's reputation precedes him around the globe. In fact, you could fill books with his moving releases and talk for nights on end about his sets played all over the world. Over the years, his sound has become an unmistakable trademark of the Berlin producer and DJ and has not only brought him to almost every continent, but also to internationally renowned labels such as “Stil vor Talent” and “Frau Blau”.

Hello Sam, thanks for joining us. What is your current mood and what was the last piece of music you listened to?

Hey Guys, thanks for having me! My current mood is pretty great to be honest, its sunny in Berlin and I have a free weekend ahead so lots of quality time to enjoy. The last piece of music is called “People on Sunday – Domenique Dumont”, a great artist I discovered recently.

Can you tell us something about how you grew up with the musical influences of your father the Egyptian Jazz musician Basem Darwisch? How has it affected your musical taste and the music you make?

My father and his music definitely shaped my sound and my understanding for music significantly. I grew up listening to him rehearsing everyday, he took me to his concerts early on and sat me in front of Reason 4 when I was a child where I could play around and have my first touchpoints with a DAW. In my earlier productions from 2016-2019 I worked a lot with him and went to record with him. The tracks “Sultan”, “Arabiskan”, “Nandoo” and “Mirage” are all collaborations with my Dad or his band.

Can you name five tracks that were important in your musical development and why they are so significant for you?

Puhhh that’s a good one! I am not sure if I can get five together but let me give you four for now.

One of the key tracks to change my perception of electronic music was “Altes Kamuffel – Paul Kalkbrenner” for sure. His Album “Berlin Calling” had a huge impact to change my sound from Hiphop / Drum & Bass to electronic music back then around 2012/2013.

One track I remember very well and which referred to in quite some interviews already was “Limit to your Love – James Blake (Daniel Bortz Edit)”. It was my first party after I moved to Berlin in 2015 and the DJ played it while sunrise. It was an incredibly magical moment for me when I realized I want to make this for a living and go in with full force.

One track that introduced the slower side of music to me was “Adana Twins – Strange (Acid Pauli & Nu Remix)”, which led to experimenting with lower Bpm back then. I started listening to Nu and Acid Paulis releases after and was pretty amazed by their emotional soundscapes.

One track which was key to how I produce now and my gateway to a different scene of electronic music was “That min Aini – Unnayanaa (Toto Chiavetta Remix)”. I started listening to more of his music and checked out his Label Borders of Light, after I digged deeper and found a lot of great, fresh and different music on labels like ISOLATE and of course Innervisions.

Talk about the change you made in your production, what was it that shifted your focus to the more melodic spectrum of techno?

I think it came just naturally to make a change at some point. As mentioned above I started listening to different music and was amazed how much freedom this style in production offered. Also, I was a little over the genre Organic House because it got more and more hype and with the success of it there came a flood of music that sounded always the same and wasn´t really innovative anymore in my opinion.

Looking back over your discography, what release or track holds the best memories for you and is there a correlation between that track and how successful you are today?

I think there has been a few key tracks which built up on each other. My debut album “Laconia” and probably “Louna” from it reached quite a big audience and helped a lot to get my name out there. The track that opened most doors until now was the “Cowbell Dub” I made for Laroz on Sol Selectas I guess. It was the first time I received lots of videos from big Acts like Mind Against, Guy Gerber, Innellea and so on and everytime I play I have the feeling people are waiting for me playing it.

You have a new EP entitled ‘Malfunction’ out on Stil vor Talent, tell us about it and how it showcases your sound?

My latest Ep includes a mix of my earlier sound aesthetics with a more mature approach in arrangments and sound design. There are tools like “Attenuator” which are mainly to play in the club and tracks like “Sopra Il Mundo” with Francesca Siano which should build a bridge from my old to my newer sound.

Let us have a quick look into your studio. What’s a piece of gear that always gets used when you’re writing a track?

Two really important pieces of gear I used in all my recent productions are the Prophet 6 and the Moog Matriarch. The Prophet is super versatile, you can use it for huge chord progressions but also for FX, Bass and Leads and the semi Modular Matriarch never fails to surprise me with its crazy options to manipulate sound and to come up with exciting accidents.

Generally speaking, do you find it more difficult to come up with original tracks than remixing a track from another artist?

I was always more into making originals rather than remixes. Every remix I made in the past is pretty far away from the original because it doesn’t give me much joy to just change some drums and the bassline of a song and call it remix. Both can be fun and if it´s the right track to remix there is loads of amazing ways to deliver something special.

Apart from music, what makes you happiest?

Might sound very cliché but spending time with my loved ones is giving me the most inspiration and for sure skateboarding as often as I can.

What does 2022 hold for you? Anything you can share with us?

I wish I could tell you all about it already but I fear I will have to wait to announce the upcoming projects. I can say there are many new originals on labels I am extremely excited about to come and some remixes and VA´s this year :)

Connect with Sam:
https://soundcloud.com/samshure
https://www.instagram.com/sam_shure
https://www.facebook.com/samveryshure
https://www.beatport.com/artist/sam-shure/556647