London's experimental bass music artist Shadient started producing music around 2007-2008.
"I was about 10 years old and all the kids in my year group were given a laptop as part of some program to help all the kids have access to internet based homework sites," he says. "I of course did everything my parents were telling me I wasn't allowed to do. I remember I spent weeks begging my mum to let me download FL Studio 8. When she finally did I think I just never stopped even to this day. I never ever once took an interest in DJing until it became a necessity for live performances as a part of Shadient - from 2019-2020 when I was starting to play a lot more shows I definitely found myself winging it most shows and not really curating and sort of coherent story or emphasis on "moments" or whatever."
"Now my shows are a lot more intentional and worked on beforehand. It all started getting serious for me around 2016 when porter robinson played a demo of mine that I'd uploaded to Soundcloud in 2016. I may be remembering this wrong but his brother, now one of my good friends, Mark, found the song after a mutual friend reposted a different song and he immediately sent it to porter to put in his sets, which felt really really special. Not long after that a few other djs started hitting me up for music including Mat Zo, who then signed some of the first (what i would call *serious* music) original Shadient music."
The artist says that his sound is hard to pinpoint.
"It's never really a conscious thing I pursue audibly," he says. "It's always more the feeling I'm chasing, however corny that may sound - each and every song deserves its own story and feeling that I'm chasing within its own musical nucleus, I think sounds are just as much part of the music as the notes being played are, the rhythm at which they're played, etc. In recent times, I've definitely realized my childhood experience in drumming definitely has impacted how I write rhythmic/groove focused music."
His latest release is the INTRUDER EP.
"A lot of music that I specifically wanted to put a spotlight on the music that influenced me when I actually started producing," he says. "A lot of that music is now being stylistically revived in the modern landscape of dance music, low quality rips from rinse fm, rave music, the Prodigy, Skream & Benga, Hudson Mohawke, the whole Ed Banger crew... it all served some big ambitious image in my head that I truly don't think until this release I've really gone back to and paid true homage to."
As for gear: "These days I keep it pretty simple, during COVID, I was all about hardware and experimenting with tape machines, analog synths, etc - but all that stuff just collects dust now. These days I'm almost entirely in the box on my computer. Just a desktop PC with FL Studio 20 and toooooooooo many plugins to count haha. I use Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro headphones whenever i'm mixing music consciously - Apple Airpods when I'm checking a mix during breaks."
Looking ahead, Shadient has plenty planned for the rest of 2025.
"I have this EP coming out, a lot of new collaborations with many friends old and new still being worked on (LYNY, Syzy to name a couple)," he says. "I'm playing lost lands this year and red rocks with my good friend Rezz!"
Shadient's INTRUDER is out now.
