Vancouver Producer Shamik Bilgi Infuses South Asian Samples In His Music
February 29th, 2020 - Written by Adam Ben David
Photo by Northlore Creative.
Shamik is a Vancouver-based South Asian producer and beatboxer. He has performed in 15 countries, and toured with Method Man & Redman, Tanya Tagaq, DJ Q-Bert, and DJ Kentaro. He has opened for Flying Lotus, George Benson, Dam Funk, Kool Herc, The Glitch Mob, Dub FX, and Excision. Internationally, he has showcased at Colours of Ostrava (Czech Republic), Southbound, Sub Sonic (Australia), Sunburn, Mood Indigo (India), Electric Forest (USA), and Dubplate (Philippines). In Vancouver he has performed at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, New Forms Festival, and TEDx.
Hey Shamik, so nice to have you on campus with us!
Thanks, excited to be in Kingston for the first time!
To begin, tell me a bit about yourself - where you’re from, how you got into music, your DAW of choice, your influences... You know, the basics.
My hometown is Edmonton, and I have been Vancouver-based for 12 years.
I grew up listening to a lot of rap, RnB, pop, rock, and electronic music. I’ve been doing music professionally since 2005. I grew up singing with my sister and I also used to play tablas (Indian percussive instrument). That eventually evolved into me beatboxing in my early 20’s. I toured extensively as a beatboxer from 2006 to 2012 and then started producing in 2012. I use Ableton Live for my production and performance.
I know that your music is largely inclusive of South Asian influences - tell me a little bit about your artistic style and its evolution. Did you always make the type of music you make now? How do you feel your current style makes your music unique? Do you look for ways to incorporate your culture and background into your music, or do you find it works its way in naturally?
I watched a lot of Hindi movies with my family when I was a kid and loved how rich and colourful all the sounds and instrumentations were. There have been a few hits in the hip hop world over the years, but when I was growing up a lot of the South Asian sample based stuff was kinda cheesy - often in lounge compilations or in trance music. I have a series called Channeling India which samples old South Asian film songs and I chop them over my modern day electronic beats. Vol 1 started out from a huge record collection that I brought back from Bangalore in 2013. I went back to India last February to work on Vol 3 and it came out late last year. There are definitely some good projects out there like Madlib - Beat Konducta in India, and a few other great producers who I love (State of Bengal, Sikh Knowledge, Sub Swara), but I guess I just wanted to do my own thing. Over the 3 volumes, I’ve tried to include various styles including footwork, trap, and boom bap hip-hop. Music is always changing so I hope the series continues to change with it.
Would you ever stray from the music you make now? Do you find a sense of comfort in producing around the same style or do you like to push yourself outside of your norm?
I actually do wear several hats within my production. Aside from my sample based hip-hop and electronic beats, I am in Too Attached with my sister Vivek Shraya. Our sound in the band is more indie pop / electronic. We have released 2 albums so far. I run Sensing Waves which is an ambient and experimental digital label in Vancouver, and that led to my Ebbwebs project. I produce under that moniker for my left-field music. I have had a couple releases that came with a visual component, and hope to keep building on that.
It’s nice to be a part of several projects and it definitely keeps me busy! I think the challenging part is trying to make time for everything, and also have time to just have fun and create.
You’ve toured with an impressive amount of artists, many of whom are quite popular in the music industry. What did you learn on tour that you took back with you into the studio? What’s a particularly fond memory of yours while touring?
Thank you. It’s been a long run! I think being part of high-level shows has taught me to always be prepared and to try to bring my A-game, because you never know who is watching. A lot of the artists have been generous with giving me time and space, so I try to do my best. My sister and I toured with Tegan & Sara in 2016 across Canada, and we were fortunate to perform at amazing venues for super lovely audiences. It was a dream come true to reach Massey Hall in Toronto on that tour. I play stems when I perform originals, so sometimes I tweak performances after shows if things are or aren’t working.
On a closing note, what are some of your favourite and go-to plug-ins to use and why?
I have a very old pack from Native Instruments and still sometimes use Absynth. I also use the Ana Synth which came with my subscription to Sonic Academy. These days though I mostly build instruments by finding loads of royalty free sounds and then tweaking them in Simpler/Sampler in Ableton Live. Plug-in instruments can eventually sound dated so I think it’s good to switch it up sometimes or try to modify the presets within the plug-in. At the moment, I have a Korg Minilogue that I play around with as well.
Thanks so much for your time Shamik, QWave can’t wait to see what you do next!
Cheers, thanks for this opportunity!
Check out Shamik’s website:
shamikbilgi.com
Shamik’s new album Ci3 is out now, listen using the links below:
