The Shazam Experience: What a genie would wish for

The Gold Coast isn't renowned for its substance, and it was with great relief when I encountered these guys pumping it out in the city of shallowness. In a two part series D.M.M. interviewed Jay and Tash of the The Shazam Experience on their origins, experiences and recent track releases. Enjoy:

If Crazy Penis ever made sweet love with Deadmau5 their lovechild would be The Shazam Experience.

Led by DJ Jay Please, The Shazam Experience harmonises a funky live performance mixed with DJ house grooves, colourfully combining to give some well needed house music depth to the Australian dancescape.

Weekly regulars to the Gold Coast music scene at The Deck, Perle and soon to be Mist, D.M.M. recently caught up with Jay and one of their lead vocalists, Tasha, to chat on their name, direction, and two new track releases, Lost in Surfers Paradise and Into the Deep.

“I came up with the name Shazam when I started DJ’ing for one of the first ever club nights I organised back in 2001. Shazam began as a concept of adding live instrumentalists to a DJ set. As the number of live instrumentalists grew, and with live vocalists also added into the equation, what began as a concept developed into a band. From then on Shazam just didn’t cut it, so we came up with The Shazam Experience,” Jay explained.



In dance music terms, The Shazam Experience is one pumping outfit of big band liveliness. Adding to Jay’s dex and effects are 11 other performers: two vocalists, three percussionists, two saxophonists, two trumpeters, a guitarist, and in what may be an electronic dance music first, a didjeribone. A sort of slide didjeridoo, the didjeribone Jay outlined, “is really cool as Dave actually plays it with the microphone in his mouth, hitting some really nice notes and making some great effects.”

With such a large ensemble Jay chuckled it can be sometimes hard to fit everyone onstage and they normally tailor their numbers depending on the gig. “We normally play as a group of five to six, and usually rotate everyone over the night as we often play such long shows,” he added.

“We love long sets as it gives us an opportunity to show our range. We’ll often start off funky and soulful and as the night progresses we’ll jack it up with a more techy and proggy house sound,” Jay said.

Check back real soon, or simply subscribe to the RSS feed, for part two of D.M.M.'s interview with The Shazam Experience, where we discuss some gig highlights and get behind the scenes on their recently released tracks.

Keep groovin',

DC