Abeer Sheikh: Bringing EDM to Pakistan!

At only 25, Abeer Sheikh is coming on strong as an electronic dance music (EDM) DJ and producer with his own trademark sound already established. The genre of music is largely unknown in Pakistan but Abeer Sheikh has been received very well by listeners and musicians in other parts of the world. He is already signed to record labels and appears well connected in places that matter such as Berlin, Toronto, New York and of course in Pakistan. Born in Lahore, Abeer Sheikh began his musical journey at the age of 12 when he started a band with his friends.

“Music is my first love and something I never see myself growing tired of. It’s literally my comfort zone or sanctum sanctorum if you will!” he says. After an up-close interview with the talented musician, it’s hard to get a different impression!

He had a Beatport top 10 chart topping release “I wanna be like you” on Philip Bader and Nicones label Dantze Records in Berlin -that stayed on the Beatport top 10 charts for a solid three weeks. Only a week following its release, he was signed to Gastspiel Records, Momentum League, Tretmuehle, Budenzauber Records (mostly based in Germany) and Bleep Bloop Records based in Brazil.

Abeer Sheikh has also done remixes for Talal & Zoi and has a distinctively original sound that encompasses everything from Chicago House, Deep House, old school disco and techno into one refined package. Abeer Sheikh is without a doubt an up and coming contemporary EDM trail blazer. The Berlin hit-maker talks to Pakistan Today about how he builds grooves, his flare for going into experimental areas with his sound and the utility of technology available at the click of a button that rivals analogue components in any big studio.

Q-So how did it all begin and what has changed significantly between the beginning and now?

A-I started singing and playing the guitar when I was 12. I was in a few bands and when I was 14 I heard my first Aphex Twin song called windowlicker. That was really when electronic music entered into my aspirations as a musician. It simply blew me away and still does to this day! It was a revelation to realise that I didn’t need a band. I just needed to know the recording and layering process and I needed to know the instruments. So I learnt how to play the piano, drums and began fiddling with synthesisers, learning mostly through trial and error. By the time I was 15 I had two 14 track albums completed that I have never played to the general public mostly because I was an amateur at the time so the quality is low compared to the stuff I do now, having gone to music college and getting an undergraduate degree in music production and sound engineering. Now everything is composed and made with professional industry standard software and the sound quality is at par with the professional standard required in clubs worldwide. I use everything from real instruments to software synths in my music and I’m a huge MIDI fan so I prefer using MIDI to samples so that I can micromanage and fine tune every hit, melody, beat and instrument per my requirements. It gives you a huge array of control that just using samples to make your music does not. So I make my own samples and synths and then use those in my productions.

Q-How come you use your real name and not an alias like most other DJs? 

A-To be honest, I feel my name is unique enough as it is- especially to western people. So I never saw the point in creating an alias or even putting a DJ before my name. I’ve always played as ‘Abeer Sheikh’ and I plan to keep it that way.

Q-Did the Dj’ing come first, or production? Also what’s your take on newcomers in the DJ circuit in Pakistan? 

A- It started with producing music. I’ve been producing electronic music since I was 14, when all I had was an old Yamaha MIDI synthesiser hybrid and fruity loops. The Dj’ing came next, much later. It was actually when I went to Canada that it started. One of my housemates had a pair of pioneer cd-j’s and I would spend anywhere from four to eight hours at a stretch messing around with them learning how to beat-match. One of my biggest complaints with most of the new age DJ’s popping up in Pakistan is they don’t know how to beat-match. They think hitting sync and play makes you a DJ. It’s their loss though because if they manage to land a gig anywhere abroad they’re going to get laughed out of the DJ booth because standard equipment is two pioneer 1000’s, an amazing mixer but no sync button which is their lifeline. Most of them are also just following the trend. It’s the ‘IN’ thing to be a DJ now so suddenly everybody wants to be one! You hand them two cd-j’s which don’t have a sync button and they are lost because they don’t have a clue about how to manually beat-match which is what really teaches you how to DJ properly and make a set flow smoothly. Being able to beat-match manually is a pre-requisite to being a good DJ. Once you know how to do it, I’d condone the use of a sync button so you can focus on other parameters of the music like live sampling and using up to six decks at a time!

Q-Which countries have you played in?

A-Canada was the starting point but the largest show I’ve played was actually ‘Shut Up 4.0’ at Haroon and Hamzas warehouse in Lahore where we had about 800 to 900 people in attendance. The video is up on youtube. If you google “Abeer Sheikh live at Shut up 4.0” it will pop up on the front page. There’s a shot in there of the crowd from the DJ booth which was on the second storey that actually shows the full crowd and the entire set up, which was quite spectacular to say the least!

Q-What was the first event you ever played at?

A- It was a show at an art gallery in Toronto where I was playing back to back with Talal & Zoi. I was nervous as hell but it went pretty well!

Q-What was the first record you bought?

A- It was a track called “Fresh” by “Kool and the gang” from the 80’s. I heard it in one of Magdas sets and decided to drop it at one of my shows. I cut the bass bit out of it and mixed Carlo Lio’s Scylla in with it for the kick, snare and bass part. It was pure disco with a badass thumping beat and the crowd went crazy. I still remember feeling nervous about whether it would work and when I saw the crowd’s reaction I couldn’t stop smiling through the entire set because I realised I had just blown the entire crowd away.

Q- Out of all the tunes you have, which one ‘never fails’?

A-Well, I’m not about to reveal my top three secret weapons for dance floor annihilation because I’m willing to bet nobody else in this country even knows the artists but if I had to pick something people already know about I’d say “Tudo Vem” by “Gabe”. You can throw that in anywhere and a completely dead crowd will suddenly come to life and not be able to stop their legs from moving. The song has a magic bass line. Never fails!

Q-So how is the scene in your eyes at the moment?

A- It’s still young and has a lot of potential for growth in the right direction provided organisers who are there just to make money out of it whilst compromising on setup and crowd quality get weeded out which they eventually will.

Q- Other DJs you rate?

A- These days my top 6 in the House/Techno circuit would have to be Stimming, Frivolous, Maceo Plex/Maetrik, Oliver Huntemann, Rodriguez Jr and Robert Babicz. If it’s encompassing all EDM then Four Tet, Dj Shadow and Bonobo would be in there too. Bonobos new album “North Borders” is a masterpiece!

Q-What do you do outside of the dance music scene?

A- I have a project called Abeer Sheikh & The Wonderband which you can check out at www.facebook.com/abeersheikhandthewonderband. We’ve done a City Fm 89 live session with a few videos up and have been on Fm 89’s show counter-revolution and moonlight mile, twice. I never stopped playing guitar and singing. This is my project for collaborating with other indie musicians such as ‘Saad Follows’ and ‘Poor Rich Boy’ who also happen to be really good friends. I write pop/indie music with quite a bit of electronic stuff in there. Something like Gorillaz meets Radiohead.

I am also currently in the process of completing my second undergraduate degree which is an LLB degree from The University of London.

Q-When you play, is the set pre-planned?

A- Nope. I just chuck an appropriate number of tracks I feel like playing into a playlist according to the number of hours I’m going to be playing for and then bounce off the crowd in terms of what to mix in next. So its 100% spontaneous!

Keep tabs on Abeer Sheikh on his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/abeer.music) and his Soundcloud (www.soundcloud.com/abeersheikh).

His podcasts and sets are available at www.abeersheikhspodcast.podomatic.com