As resident DJ at one of Sheffield’s premier underground rave dens Hope Works and runner of local label 100 years, producer Lo Shea is a lynch pin in South Yorkshire’s fertile electronic scene.
He’s been a key figure in maintaining nocturnal excitement bubbling over the years, but has recently upped the ante via his low end productions and bass heavy DJ sets. As a promoter, he’s been responsible for bringing the likes of Motor City Drum Ensemble, Ben Klock and Kyle Hall to Sheffield while releasing music by the likes of Mosca, Vince Watson, Akufen and Darko Esser to name just a few via countless imprints. Lo Shea’s already been tapped up by labels like Phonica and Ripperton’s Tamed for remixes and this Saturday (9 May) he makes his Fabric debut. Playing alongside the likes of Craig Richards, Levon Vincent and Session Victim, he’ll be bringing his own strain of ever shifting digital noise to the club’s main room and showing the capital just how the Steel City does it...
I first started writing music because…
I wanted to accompany myself on guitar. What began as a way of practising scales soon developed into a full scale release of another dimension that I became instantly addicted to travelling into and through.
I have been making music since…
The age of 15 ... though as a child I was already experimenting with tape recorders ... but that was creating imaginary sketch shows.
My music is…
Something that never seems to neatly fit into categories. It comes from the heart though, and ultimately reflects the places I've been and scenes I've been part of over the years. Always as a bit of an outsider though. That’s the common thread.
You'll like my music if you listen to...
I'd hate to make such assumptions actually. I realise more and more that my perception is mine alone. What I see as techno could be something very different in another person's eyes. What I would say is that if you like dance music with a bass end in it then you’ll at least appreciate that in my music.
My favourite venue is…
Hope Works. It’s the venue I run/curate and am resident at in Sheffield. It’s a very special place, and the crowd we have here is just wonderful. You need to visit it to understand why;)
Music is important because…
It’s a language you can understand without studying. You might not be able to read sheet music or compose an opera, but you can FEEL an emotion that is being conveyed.
I like it as an art form and medium as it’s also a physical experience (well...dance music is anyway...one aspect of music I am heavily involved with and can unite big groups of people in shared experience. Where as looking at a wonderful painting or piece of art stimulates my retinas and through that my mind, music does the same thing but with the addition of sound waves moving my molecules around ... and those of maybe 10,000 people standing around me in a field in unison (or 100 people in a small cellar).
For me, music is a celebration of life and a unifying force as well as something that can sooth me and generate very personal emotional journeys.
My biggest inspiration is…
Inspiration is everywhere if you are looking and/or receptive to it. It changes all the time too so it’s very hard to pin down. I suppose seeing Moderat live in 2009, when I first heard A New Error I realised I was witnessing something incredibly special. Modern masters in electronic music. That was inspiring.
As a kid it was Jimi Hendrix and in my late twenties it was discovering the jazz of the forties to seventies and going in HARD. There are so MANY inspirations across all artistic disciplines, from Kandinsky to Hundertwasser to seeing a good film by Stanley Kubrick or Ridley Scott.
My dream collaboration would be…
Working with Moderat.
To try me out, listen to my song…
My album, Distance.
If I wasn’t making music I’d be…
Finding some other way to be happy and fulfilled which for me as a creative person means generating things and communicating ideas.
In 10 years' time I want to be...
Still as excited to experience each day as I am now, and as eager to learn and grow as a human being.
Loshea.com
He’s been a key figure in maintaining nocturnal excitement bubbling over the years, but has recently upped the ante via his low end productions and bass heavy DJ sets. As a promoter, he’s been responsible for bringing the likes of Motor City Drum Ensemble, Ben Klock and Kyle Hall to Sheffield while releasing music by the likes of Mosca, Vince Watson, Akufen and Darko Esser to name just a few via countless imprints. Lo Shea’s already been tapped up by labels like Phonica and Ripperton’s Tamed for remixes and this Saturday (9 May) he makes his Fabric debut. Playing alongside the likes of Craig Richards, Levon Vincent and Session Victim, he’ll be bringing his own strain of ever shifting digital noise to the club’s main room and showing the capital just how the Steel City does it...
I first started writing music because…
I wanted to accompany myself on guitar. What began as a way of practising scales soon developed into a full scale release of another dimension that I became instantly addicted to travelling into and through.
I have been making music since…
The age of 15 ... though as a child I was already experimenting with tape recorders ... but that was creating imaginary sketch shows.
My music is…
Something that never seems to neatly fit into categories. It comes from the heart though, and ultimately reflects the places I've been and scenes I've been part of over the years. Always as a bit of an outsider though. That’s the common thread.
You'll like my music if you listen to...
I'd hate to make such assumptions actually. I realise more and more that my perception is mine alone. What I see as techno could be something very different in another person's eyes. What I would say is that if you like dance music with a bass end in it then you’ll at least appreciate that in my music.
My favourite venue is…
Hope Works. It’s the venue I run/curate and am resident at in Sheffield. It’s a very special place, and the crowd we have here is just wonderful. You need to visit it to understand why;)
Music is important because…
It’s a language you can understand without studying. You might not be able to read sheet music or compose an opera, but you can FEEL an emotion that is being conveyed.
I like it as an art form and medium as it’s also a physical experience (well...dance music is anyway...one aspect of music I am heavily involved with and can unite big groups of people in shared experience. Where as looking at a wonderful painting or piece of art stimulates my retinas and through that my mind, music does the same thing but with the addition of sound waves moving my molecules around ... and those of maybe 10,000 people standing around me in a field in unison (or 100 people in a small cellar).
For me, music is a celebration of life and a unifying force as well as something that can sooth me and generate very personal emotional journeys.
My biggest inspiration is…
Inspiration is everywhere if you are looking and/or receptive to it. It changes all the time too so it’s very hard to pin down. I suppose seeing Moderat live in 2009, when I first heard A New Error I realised I was witnessing something incredibly special. Modern masters in electronic music. That was inspiring.
As a kid it was Jimi Hendrix and in my late twenties it was discovering the jazz of the forties to seventies and going in HARD. There are so MANY inspirations across all artistic disciplines, from Kandinsky to Hundertwasser to seeing a good film by Stanley Kubrick or Ridley Scott.
My dream collaboration would be…
Working with Moderat.
To try me out, listen to my song…
My album, Distance.
If I wasn’t making music I’d be…
Finding some other way to be happy and fulfilled which for me as a creative person means generating things and communicating ideas.
In 10 years' time I want to be...
Still as excited to experience each day as I am now, and as eager to learn and grow as a human being.
Loshea.com
