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 It's surprising how much can happen in three years but in the case of Dennis Sheperd it's no surprise he's one of the most promising dance music talents on the scene today. He's german and he likes trance so we went to see whats what...
There are very few artists that can genuinely say that they’re in the running to stage the next big EDM breakout. After a 36 month production whirlwind, which has thrust him squarely into the dance spotlight, Dennis Sheperd is very much one of them. The 23 year old from Essen in Germany has spent that short period of time delivering some of the freshest, most creative music dance-land has heard in years. In doing so he’s recorded and remixed for some of the scene’s most forward-thinking & eclectic labels, racking up formidable club-anthems along the way! Dennis started his studio career in 2004, but rather than rushing to release simply ‘ok’ compositions, he took his time to learn the craft before sending out his first production. In the first half of 2007 ‘Pressure’ was signed and released by MPFS Records and pulled in visibly cross-genre support from a wide range of DJs. Charged highly by its playlist success Dennis set to work on the follow up. The resulting track, ‘A Tribute To Life’, became Sheperd’s essential breakthrough record. The track created instantaneous buzz and left a lasting impression on the floors of Tiësto, Ferry Corsten, Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk and Markus Schulz. It also brought him onto the radar of Kyau & Albert, who commented that "Dennis is Germany's most promising newcomer in Progressive Trance right now!"
Now in high gear and reaching more ears exponentially with every release, it became apparent to both observers and the fast-expanding fan-base that Dennis’ take on trance was both a unique and in-demand. Filtering the purer edges of progressive house and trance in a fashion not done before, he cross-pollinated them with minimal, electro and deeper house elements. This was no better demonstrated than the wider ranging remit of labels now aiming to release his records. ‘Infinity’ came out through Baroque’s devoutly progressive sub-label, Method in April of 2008. This was followed by his High Contrast debut ‘Prime Of Life’ and its follow-up ‘Not Too Late’ (which featured Cold Blue on co-production). brought with it a new artist/label relationship with Kyau & Albert’s label Euphonic. With ‘Run Away’ came another flood of new DJ support, prompting Gareth Emery to comment: "Dennis has made some great records, particularly ‘Run Away’, which has been rocking my sets for over six months. He’s definitely a hot name to watch for the future".
Remixed by Ronski Speed, ‘Black Sun’ quickly became Euphonic’s ‘Run Away’ follow-up. Its release proved to be Dennis’ most successful radio & club record to date. Armin van Buuren and Above & Beyond both spun it several times on ASOT & TATW, with it taking both the ‘Track of the Week’ and ‘Web Vote Winner’ titles on the latter show. It also picked up heavyweight support from Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz, Gareth Emery and Kyau & Albert. Dennis is about to expand his label remit once again with a release on Armada (in collaboration with Australia’s No.1 DJ, tyDi). Off the back of some hotly-received guest mixes (on shows including Tiësto’s Club Life & Solarstone’s Solaris International), Dennis has also just stepped out from behind the mixing desk and is about to deliver his own productions, this time from behind the decks!
i:Vibes: Hi Dennis, thanks for taking some time to speak to www.ivibes.nu. I have been meaning to interview since a while, but just didn´t get to it. Your status as a german trance producer as been on the rise. Has this quick rise been a surprise for you? Especially since now a days anyone can release a trance song online.
Dennis: Hi Miles, thanks for considering me. I wouldn’t call it a ‘quick rise’ to be honest. Other people do one record and everyone all over the world speaks of them. I’ve done a lot of remixes and originals since my project started in 2007 and now finally the efforts pay their selves and the attention for my work grows a bit.
Oh, and yes, everyone can release music nowadays but it’s all about quality not about having a release.
i:Vibes: How is your summer going? Is there anything that you have been looking forward to doing that you will be able to do this summer that you couldn’t do the last years?
Dennis: This years summer is really cool so far. Yes, of course. I will play in front of a few thousand people at Mysterland’s High Contrast stage this year together with people like Joop, Nic Chagall, Wippenberg, Marco V, Above & Beyond etc. This is something I’m really looking forward to and never did before.
i:Vibes: You are from Essen, Germany, not actually the home of German trance producers. What was your childhood like and how did you become interested in trance music?
Dennis: Is there a particular home for trance producers? Well, my childhood was a normal and happy one. I loved to do sports with friends and I loved to play Japanese RPG’s like ‘Illusions Of Time’ or ‘Secret Of Mana’ on the SNES with my best friend. My best friend also got me into Trance music by giving me some CDs. I instantly felt in love with the music.
i:Vibes: Are you a fulltime producer or do you have a 9-5 job and produce at night?
Dennis: I’m not a fulltime producer but I would love to become one. I’m a student and doing business studies at the moment. When I’ve finished the studies I will hopefully be ready to start as a fulltime producer I’m really working hard to achieve this goal.
i:Vibes: What was the first record/CD that you bought?
Dennis: A very hard question… But I think it was the ‘Michael Jackson – Bad’ album. I’m still in love with his music.
i:Vibes: You have a wide range of influences like trance heros Kyau & Albert to Fedde Le Grand. How have these two acts influnced you in your music?
Dennis: Kyau & Albert’s music is very inspiring for me. I loved and still love their older stuff, and of course I like their latest stuff. Their music developed extremely nice and they always put a lot of work into their tracks (you can hear this). Fedde Le Grand’s music is a whole different direction but what influences me is the awesome and hard to duplicate groove that he always puts into his tracks. His stuff sometimes is also very commercial but it doesn’t sound cheesy. That’s very hard to do I guess.
i:Vibes: Seeing these artists and influences, how would you describe the Dennis Sherperd sound of 2009?
Dennis: I would describe it as: ‘Groovy progressive Trance music with a lot of House and Techno influences’.
i:Vibes: How would you describe the trance scene in NRW? Groups like Cosmic Gate come from this area and other than many very hands up producers that I don’t want to mention come from this area. How difficult is it having to produce music in this area where techno and house dominate?
Dennis: Well, techno and house dominate all over the world. Not only in NRW. In my opinion the area in which you live doesn’t have to influence you if you don’t want to. Thanks to the internet it really doesn’t matter anymore where you live. By the way: NRW consists of some more good trance producers like Alex M.O.R.P.H., Woody Van Eyden, Wippenberg, Duderstadt and even some more.
i:Vibes: How did you get your fo0t into the trance scene? You started to dabble with music in 2004 and started releasing in 2007. did you go the usual route of sending demos to labels or did you get in another way? Perhaps you had some people that helped you?
Dennis: No, I knew no one when I started producing music. Even my family doesn’t have anything to do with music. So I had to network on my own and practice a lot. Soon I found some guys over the internet who gave me feedback when I sent them my songs. I also registered at some music communities. When I decided to send demos to labels I just did it via email. First I started with smaller labels and then went to the more popular ones. And now I found the people with which I want to work on a long term base (Euphonic and High Contrast).
i:Vibes: How has the Dennis Sheperd sound developed and progressed since “A tribute to life”?
Dennis: My sound always develops and gets influenced by other genres. I would say my sound became more housy and groovy since “A Tribute To Life”. And also technical-wise I’ve improved a lot if you compare “A Tribute To Life” with “Black Sun” for example.
i:Vibes: With “Run Away”, you had sort of a breakthrough by getting signed by Euphonic. How important have Ralph and Steven been for the German scene by giving young artists a chance. They seem to be known as great producers, but they seem not to get the credit for supporting young German talent.
Dennis: Euphonic is one of the best and most popular trance labels all over world. I think that is credit enough for Ralph & Steven as they are very ‘down-to-earth’ guys. They are both very nice people and give everyone a chance who is good enough. I also like the communication within the label which is very ‘family-like’ if you know what I mean.
i:Vibes: You have a very edgy sophisticated sound. You seem to have little to do with uplifting sounds. Is this something that could change in the future? Is it more important to having a distinct sound before going in to many other style directions?
Dennis: I think it’s important to have a distinct sound. Of course it can change a bit but basically it should stay the same. If you would like to change the music you represent as an artist you should do it very slowly by changing your own sound step by step with every additional release into the direction you want. This is very important because your fans will leave you otherwise I fear. I don’t have much to do with uplifting, that’s right. To be honest: I even don’t like 80% of all uplifting trance productions. But of course (as always) there are some exceptions like productions by Cold Blue, Sebastian Brandt, Ronski Speed, Stoneface & Terminal. And all the classics are also still in my mind. You shouldn’t expect uplifting productions in my sets though. And I also don’t think my style could change into this direction in the future.
i:Vibes: You have worked with vocalists like Marcie on “Somehow”. She is a friend of mine. What was it like working with her. She is one of the most busy vocalists at the moment.
Dennis: Marcie is a wonderful singer and always very keen to help. It’s great working with her because she is very reliable and determined. She’s also a very good example for a business woman as she is managing all of her stuff herself like interviews, PR in general, networking, contracts etc.
i:Vibes: How do you go about making a track in the studio? Do you have a certain formula when you go about making a track or does it change from mood or from track to track?
Dennis: You answered the question yourself! It always varies. Sometimes I’m beginning with a cool beat, sometimes I’m composing a melody and sometimes I’m just trying different things with old project files. The duration of producing a track also varies a lot very often. One time you just need 2-3 days to finish a track, the other time you need weeks…
i:Vibes: Your current track “Black Sun” has been getting much hype as has the Ronski Speed remix. What was your inspiration behind this track? It seems like you might have a dark interpretation of the sun.
Dennis: To be honest: I just thought it’s a cool title and didn’t interpret so much into it. I always try to let the music speak itself. So everyone should interpret the melody and mood themselves.
i:Vibes: Was “Black Sun” a difficult track to produce? It has a nice melody that sticks in your ear and I can imagine it took some bleeding to make?
Dennis: “Black Sun” wasn’t harder to produce than my other tracks. But it laid down a while with another theme and Euphonic first rejected it. Then I’ve worked again on the melody with Cold Blue’s help and we both came to the result you can listen to now!
i:Vibes: You have an upcoming release with Cold Blue “Freefalling”. Essen meets Mainz. One could say that you both belong to the big young German trance talents. Did you guys make this together in the studio. What was it like making a track with him?
Dennis: Cold Blue and I became very good friends. I would say he is one of the most important guys regarding music for me nowadays. “Freefalling” is our third collaboration already, with the first two ones being released on High Contrast. We both work together via the internet as the distance between Mainz and Essen isn’t that small. I also did a remix for his upcoming song “Mount Everest” due to be released on Anjunabeats.
i:Vibes: Tobias aka Cold Blue seems like a quiet guy at least that is my impression when I have seen him in clubs. I guess he lets his producing speak for him or have you experienced another side of Cold Blue that nobody knows about?
Dennis: Tobias and I are very keen to get told the truth. No matter if it hurts or we aren’t happy with it. We both do this to each other for sure, so I can say he’s very direct and true to me. But other than that he is just a nice guy who I wouldn’t have called quiet.
i:Vibes: A few days ago Cold Blue won web vote winner on Above & Beyonds trance around the world with “Mount Everest” You also have a remix for this track. What can we expect from your remix? How is it different from the Cold Blue mix?
Dennis: Am I allowed to quote my newsletter for this? Here’s the quote: “I did a more groovy and housy version of the track but kept the great melody and vocals of the original.” There’s nothing more to say I guess except a bit of self-advertisement: If you now subscribe to my newsletter, you will get a FREE 320kbps re-mastered copy of 'Pressure' (my first single released on MPFS) including remixes by Cressida, MoodFreak and DejaVu. Just follow the link: http://ymlp.com/signup.php?id=guwbwuegmgs
i:Vibes: Is there a lot of pressure on you to keep making innovative tracks? What are some of your producing goals for the future?
Dennis: Pressure just comes from myself because I always want to get better and reach higher stages. As I’m not doing music on a fulltime base I could always quit making it. But don’t be afraid, that won’t happen very soon. My producing goals are to land a real hit, a record that nearly every DJ has to play because everyone wants to hear it and which will appear months and years (which is really, really hard nowadays because of the fast growing digital era). But I’m very optimistic. Sooner or later this will happen for sure.
i:Vibes: Your also a DJ. You have an upcoming show in Russia. How excited are you about that?
Dennis: I even have two upcoming shows in Russia. One in Moscow (24.07.09) and one in Ufa (25.07.09). I’m very, very excited about this. I have never visited Russia before and I’m looking forward to the gigs. I also know that Russian people are able to party very hard. So this looks like a lot of fun and experiences.
i:Vibes: What can we expect from a 3 hour DJ set from you?
Dennis: A very housy and laidback begin with a big climax towards the end (more BPM and more Tech-trancy sounds).
i:Vibes: What do you know about the famous Technoclub with Talla 2XLC? Is that a club where you would like to DJ?
Dennis: Of course I would like to DJ there. It’s one of the best German clubs for Trance music and the crowd still seems to be amazing.
i:Vibes: Does an artist like Michael Jackson have any meaning to you as a trance producer? What did you think about him as an musician?
Dennis: As I’ve written at the top: My first CD album was “Michael Jackson – Bad”. He was one of my idols in my childhood. I love his music and I’m very sad he died so suddenly.
i:Vibes: With what artist would you like to be locked away with in the studio for 24 hours?
Dennis: Oh, there are a lot to be honest. But my favourite choice would be Kyau & Albert, Gareth Emery or Cosmic Gate.
i:Vibes: What are your 5 all-time favourite tracks?
Dennis: Wow, very hard question to only pick up 5 tracks. Here is my Top10:
Motorcycle – As The Rush Comes
Blank & Jones – The Nightfly
Fragma – Toca’s Miracle
Kosheen – Catch You
Rank 1 – It’s Up To You
Delirium – Silence
Oceanlab – Satellite
Chicane – Saltwater
Thrillseekers – Synaesthesia
Aurora - Ordinary World (Above & Beyond Remix)
i:Vibes: What are your hobbies?
Dennis: Well, there isn’t much time next to the music and studies to have hobbies but if I have some free time I like to go to the gym, go bowling, play billiard or get out with some friends.
i:Vibes: Thanks Dennis for the chat! Good luck with your music!!!
Dennis: Thanks for the interview, Miles.
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