Meeting with Steve Shehan

The excerpt from the concert of Nadishana with Hadouk Trio. Lyon, 16.05.08
Steve Shehan - Hadgini Udu
Vladiswar Nadishana - kou xiang, teapot with water

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Steve Shehan is the legendary multi-instrumentalist, composer, innovator and creator of new approach to world music production. In the beginning of 90's accidentally i got the cassette with his "Arrows" and "Indigo Dreams" albums. I was blown away by his revolutionary method of composition, playing and producing. Those recordings  stuck in my player for ten years and strongly influenced my own way to make music. I was infected by idea of multi-layered studio overdubbing and i started to search, collect and learn to play the instruments from various ethnic traditions of the world. Steve's recordings showed me the endless possibilities of one-man studio production. Self-taught musician, he, in fact, invented his own techniques of playing and recording/editing. The integrity of those two factors creates his unique universe of sound which is instantly recognizable. From the scratch he created the whole amazing world of music which never existed.

In one of interviews in Internet I mentioned Steve as an inspiration. And in unexpected way that gave me the possibility to get in touch with him personally. One day i got an email:

"Hi, Steve Shehan writing. I'm very happy to discover pieces of your music, I would be interested to hear more. Thanks for your kind words concerning your inspiration, it's such a joy and a feeling of achievement to see that creation has no borders. Be safe & happy holidays!
Steve"

I was really surprised and honored to recieve it! Of course I wrote him back the happy answer. The power of internet connected us: the director of Safar Productions Talia Mouracad?© found my interview by googling Steve's name and played to him my music.

Later Steve visited our place in Berlin during his tour with Hadouk Trio and then he invited me to play concert with Hadouk and visit his studio near Paris.

That was really unique experience to play with those monsters of world music and to learn from all three of them!

Later in his studio ( huge farm overwhelmed with hundreds of musical instruments) Steve explained me his way of production and I was even more amazed by this. I realized that in his records he never used the click or any electronic time sync and he never had used programming at all! All instruments are played in real time, even keyboards and samplers. While I thought he is a computer freak using most advanced digital/MIDI/sampling technologies:)

And what is most important for me, in personal communication with him i discovered that he is amazing personality: very generous, sincere and intelligent man, musical hard worker, great story teller who has tasteful sense of humor.

Check out his youtube account, myspace page and website 

this is my favorite videos from Steve: christal organ, utar udu demonstration, hang drumming, calabash .

Here's his latest CD/DVD Assikel (this one is awesome, trust me)

I hope our collaboration will continue!