In our last opportunity to sit-down with experimental bass gurus Mike and Andrew of Shanghai Doom, the talented pair teased an audacious amount of material to rain down in 2019, including but not limited to explorations into a downtempo style as well as some heavier tracks to really get your heart racing.
Making right on their promise, the duo pieced together a 30-minute gauntlet that is packed to the brim with unreleased tunes with TYNAN and TVBOO as well as a dirty dozen solo IDs from Shanghai Doom.
While Rituals provided an opportunity for Shanghai Doom to initially make a name for themselves, a tireless work ethic and dynamic vision, as demonstrated in the guest mix and interview below reveal the true differentiator that will catapult the duo into the upper echelon of producers before 2019 is through.
Brace yourself for 30-minutes of pure sonic mayhem as you get to know the boys a little better below!
Tell us a little bit about the backstory with Shanghai Doom.
Mike: I actually met Andrew through some mutual friends at our school (Rutgers), he was playing a lot of shows under Aylen and I ended up connecting with him on Facebook. We got together a lot and wrote random stuff; he actually taught me a shit ton about Ableton because I was using Logic at the time.
Andrew: The vision for the project has gone through a couple different phases. We started out with a more aggressive dubstep sound, but after being inspired by sets from the likes of G Jones, Yheti, & Toadface we started to shift towards a more experimental approach. I think we really began to find our sound as we started to mess with different tempos (specifically the slower ones i.e. 120bpm).
Mike: Moving forward we’re kind of blending everything and continuing to expand upon what we’ve been doing.
This is a question we tend to favor with duos as its interesting to hear the variety in responses. What are some of the biggest benefits and hindrances in both producing and performing as a duo?
Mike: The coolest part of being a duo for me is that when one person starts an idea and sends it over the other person is listening completely with fresh/objective ears; that’s something you don’t get very often working solo.
Andrew: I think the main downside would be when we have creative differences – they are not game breaking for sure but sometimes one of us will really feel the direction of certain track while the other wants to take it a completely different way.
I think any type of art growing in popularity is a good thing.
As a whole it feels like the trap genre received a lot of love and saw a tremendous amount of growth, do you view the rising popularity of the genre as a benefit — meaning a wider audience and more potential listeners for your music, or moreso a downside because with it comes an influx of new talented producers?
Mike: I think any type of art growing in popularity is a good thing. More producers = more fun, but as long as everyone is staying true to themselves and not trying to copy other people, that way things don’t become super saturated or hinder creativity. I think no matter the popularity of the genre there will still be producers pushing boundaries :-)
We both love movies and get a ton of inspiration from composers and movie scores (and video game scores).
With Rituals marking your first major collective release, what were some of the biggest improvements from your perspective that you had the chance to showcase in the EP?
Andrew: We both love movies and get a ton of inspiration from composers and movie scores (and video game scores). I think we both love darker vibes and this EP was a chance for us to have fun with some of our favorite horror movies and showcase some of our weird sound design alongside it.
I’m really curious about the backstory with ‘High Noon’ and the more recently released VIP of the track. Did you initially make the track with some unspent creative juices still in the tank, with the intention of revisiting it at a later date, or was it advancements in your own capabilities that revealed a new direction that called for the revision?
Mike: Shanghai Doom honestly started out more on that type of sound. We made more distorted sounding stuff with dubstep drums. We still love/play stuff like that but the whole project shifted. Although the sound and direction of Shanghai changed, we both just loved that track so we decided to revisit it with a more refurbished sound.
What have you got in store for us with this guest mix?
Mike & Andrew: Lot’s of unreleased shit from us (alot of heavier stuff than your probably used to from us!), some new collabs with homies, and some good old fashion Shanghai billboard top 100 hits.
Anything exciting you care to tease fans with for the upcoming year?
Andrew: Planning on putting out a bunch more music this year including a couple dope collabs which will be on some labels (can’t say where yet) but both are included in the mix!
Tracklist
Shanghai Doom – ID
Shanghai Doom – ID
Shanghai Doom – ID
Peekaboo & G-REX – Babatunde (TYNAN Remix)
Shanghai Doom – ID
FLY – Bengali
Shanghai Doom – ID
Shanghai Doom – ID
Shanghai Doom – ID
Shanghai Doom – ID
Shanghai Doom – High Noon VIP
Shanghai Doom – Contact
TYNAN & Shanghai Doom – ID
Shanghai Doom – ID
Shanghai Doom – Raptors
Shanghai Doom – Interdimentional Funk
Shanghai Doom – ID
Shanghai Doom – ID
Shanghai Doom x TVBOO – ID
