Roger Shah

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Roger Shah
Birth nameRoger-Pierre Shah
Also known asSunlounger, Purple Mood, Savannah, Black Pearl, High Noon at Salinas, Magic Island, Global Experience, Raul-Pablo Sanchez, Jukebox 80s
Born (1972-11-29) 29 November 1972 (age 48)
Esslingen am Neckar, West Germany
GenresBalearic trance
Balearic beat
Occupation(s)DJ, producer, radio show host/DJ.
InstrumentsSynthesizer, Equalizer, etc.
Years active1996 – present
LabelsArmada, Black Hole, Anjunabeats, Magic Island
Associated actsSunlounger, Global Experience, Mellomania, North Dakota

Roger Shah (German pronunciation: [ˈʁɔdʒɐ ˈʃaː]; born 29 November 1972), also known as DJ Shah and Sunlounger is a German electronic music composer and producer.[1]

Biography[]

History[]

Roger Shah was born in Esslingen in West Germany to a German mother and a Pakistani father. His brother Pedro del Mar (real name Patrick Shah), also a trance DJ, hosts a bi-weekly vocal trance show called Mellomania. Roger first began to hit his production stride in his native country in 1999 putting out the tracks "Claps", "The Mission" and "Tides of Time". In 2003 his "High" release was signed by Virgin Records imprint Nebula. This marked his first non-domestic release, and over the course of the next 5 years he inked productions to a range of trance labels such as Black Hole Recordings, Anjunadeep Records and Vandit Records.

Roger Shah has featured in DJ Mag Top 100 list 5 times, peaking at #21.[citation needed] He received a double EMPO nomination for Best Trance & Progressive DJ and Best Radio Show and an IDMA award nomination as break through artist in 2008.[citation needed]

As a producer he has worked with and produced for artists such as Tiësto, Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Sarah MacLachlan, Kosheen, Bryan Adams or Moya Brennan, who is best known for her works with Hollywood producers like Hans Zimmer.[citation needed]

The Armin Connection[]

In 2007 Armin van Buuren named Shah’s "Who Will Find Me" release as his favourite track of 2007. Having heard the demo of its follow-up, Van Buuren saw crossover potential in the track and made contact in early 2008 to ask if Shah would like to collaborate on it. The result was the Chris Jones song ‘Going Wrong’ which reached number 5 in The Netherlands, the track went on to become one of the biggest selling trance singles of the year. From there – Shah’s primary label moved from his own stable to that of one of Armin’s Armada Music.[citation needed]

Solo albums[]

Songbook released in 2008. Singles taken from it like "Don’t Wake Me Up" and the aforementioned "Going Wrong" & "Who Will Find Me". This was followed up by another solo album Openminded in 2011. Again this featured 2 CDs, one of club mixes and one of album mixes.

Live and DJ performances[]

In late 2008 Shah took the decision to change his artist name. Dropping the ‘DJ’ prefix, he revised it to Roger Shah – a move that signalled a move away from straightforward DJ sets.[citation needed] During live performance, Roger Shah frequently uses a wireless keyboard interface such as the M-Audio Oxygen 25 (25 key USB midi controller). Roger Shah has mentioned numerous times[citation needed] that he will perform with his laptop instead of CDs.

Pseudonyms and side projects[]

In addition to his own name Roger has also produced under various other aliases. Notable among them are his ‘pka’ DJ Shah, High Noon at Salinas, Magic Island and Savannah. Shah is also one half of the Anjunabeats released act Purple Moods, Black Hole project Global Experience and ASOT’s Black Pearl, whose ’06 – ’09 spanning singles ‘Coral Sea’, ‘Java’, ‘Bounty Island’ and ‘Rise’ generated much additional interest in Shah’s solo productions.[citation needed]

Sunlounger[]

This project included the release of the ‘Another Day On The Terrace' album in 2008 which reached No.1 on Dutch iTunes’ ‘all-music-genres’ chart and spawned four singles: ‘In & Out’, ‘Aguas Blancas’, ‘Crawling’ & ‘White Sand’. The project became so celebrated that Roger expanded Sunlounger into a live act - a performance of which was featured on Armada’s ArminOnly DVD. It was this experience that he credited with his latter wholesale move into live Roger Shah performances. In 2009 Roger released the Sunlounger follow-up LP ‘Sunny Tales'. Its progeny singles included ‘Catwalk’, ‘Mediterranean Flower’, ‘Change Your Mind’ and the much-revered ‘Lost’ - voted as Tune of the Year for the 2008 A State of Trance radio show hosted by Armin van Buuren and numerous #1 airplay positions across the globe. His third album, The Beach Side of Life, was released in 2010.[1]

Magic Island: Music For Balearic People – The Compilations[]

Shah’s compilation series has so far seen ten outings (2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021).

Remixes[]

Shah has reworked tracks for vocalists like Sarah McLachlan and Nadia Ali. He’s also remixed tunes for Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, Mark Norman, York, Cosmic Gate, Josh Gabriel, Johan Gielen, System F, The Thrillseekers, Solarstone, Three Drives, Matt Darey and Oceanlab. Most recently Roger has rewired Andain’s ‘Beautiful Things ‘10’ and Richard Durand’s ‘Always The Sun’.[citation needed]

Discography[]

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