Roger Shah (German pronunciation:[ˈʁɔdʒɐˈʃaː]; born on 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, 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, Virgin Records imprint Nebula signed his "High" release. This marked his first non-domestic release, and over the next five years, he produced a range of trance labels such as Black Hole Recordings, Anjunadeep and Vandit.
In 2007, Armin van Buuren named Shah's "Who Will Find Me" release 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. 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, Magic Island Records – Shah's primary label - moved from his stable to that of one of Armin's Armada Music.[citation needed]
Solo albums
Songbook was released by DJ Shah in 2008. Singles taken from it like "Don't Wake Me Up", "Going Wrong" and "Who Will Find Me". In 2011, this was followed up by another solo album, Openminded, released under the name Roger Shah. Again, this featured two CDs, one with club and the other with album mixes.
Live and DJ performances
In late 2008, Shah decided to change his artist name. Dropping the 'DJ' prefix, he revised it to Roger Shah – which signalled a move away from straightforward DJ sets.[citation needed] Roger Shah frequently uses a wireless keyboard interface such as the M-Audio Oxygen 25 (25-key USB midi controller) during live performance. 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 name, Roger has also produced under various other aliases. Notable among them are DJ Shah, High Noon at Salinas, Magic Island, Savannah and Sunlounger. Shah is also one half of the Anjunabeats act Purple Moods and in many more groups such as Global Experience and Black Pearl.
Sunlounger
This project included the release of the Another Day on the Terrace album in 2007, which reached No.1 on Dutch iTunes' 'all-music-genres' chart and spawned four singles: "In & Out", "Aguas Blancas", "Crawling", and "White Sand". The project became so celebrated that Roger expanded Sunlounger into a live act - a performance that was featured on Armada's ArminOnly DVD. He credited this experience 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 2008. A State of Trance radio show was 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.
[3]
Magic Island: Music for Balearic People – The Compilations
Shah's compilation series has seen eleven outings (2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022).
