Sultan and Ned Shepard are two of the brightest dance music stars coming out of Canada. With a legitimate recording history that stretches across a decade of polished original productions, remixes and collaborations, their progressive house style is currently sitting firmly atop the industry. In the past year, Sultan and Ned have taken their game to the next level, releasing tracks on Tiesto’s Musical Freedom, Dutch powerhouse Spinnin Records, and NYC-based Strictly Rhythm, in addition to consistent output on their own label Harem Records, which recently released a sure-fire summer festival anthem called Avon, by fellow Montreal producers Paris & Simo.
With the house room of this year’s Bal en Blanc walking the line be- tween big progressive house DJ’s like Calvin Harris and David Guetta, and underground techno masters like Dubfire and Nicole Moudaber, Sultan and Ned Shepard were an obvious choice to include in this lineup due to their versatile DJ skills, epic productions and a massive hometown fan base. We had some questions about their upcoming set, their current tour with Fedde le Grand, and their label Harem, read on to see their answers.
We started off by focusing on Bal en Blanc itself, and asking what makes this party so special.
Bal en Blanc is definitely the most legendary of all Montreal parties. One of the best things about it is that people come from all over Canada and the world, so you get to play for such a diverse crowd. It’s such a festive atmosphere, and people dress up in really creative white costumes! There’s always at least a dozen or so crazy wedding costumes that are hilarious. It’s also one of the few festivals where people actually still dance. It’s a real club crowd as compared to some other festivals that have a more concert feeling to them. But honestly, it just creates such a party atmosphere that it’s a real pleasure to play again this year.
With the bulk of their recent productions consisting of uplifting pro- gressive tracks, we asked how their sound would fit into the diverse lineup at Bal en Blanc, and what we can expect from their DJ set.
There is a really great resurgence of darker records coming up and we’ve been putting more of those tunes into our set. The crowds are more ready for it now as well, judging by the reactions we get when we play them. We actually have a record coming up on Hardwell’s Revealed Records called “Draw Close” that is pretty dark but goes off really well. We will be dropping that one for sure! We also have lots of special edits of our tracks and other songs that we listen to outside of the EDM world that we incorporate into our sets. We love to sneak some of those sounds into our sets through our mashups and I think our fans can appreciate that now because people listen to so many different kinds of music. People often ask us what our sound is, and it’s always a difficult thing to pinpoint. We love playing all different styles, but at the end of the day we want the vibe to be all positive, to create an atmosphere where people feel good about themselves and their environment. Obviously the club and the visuals and lights can really help with that but at the end of the day the vibe really starts with us in the booth and if we put out enough good energy we start to see it come back from the crowd and that’s a great feeling.
Next we turned our attention to the vibrant Montreal scene that has supported their artistic development, and how it has influenced their style.
Definitely the fact that Montreal is a mix of European and North American influences makes it one of the most unique cities on earth. Montreal is what would happen if Paris and New York had a baby. And musically you can really see that. Songs and artists that are big in Europe often have a following in Montreal before anywhere else in Canada or the US. People in Montreal also have their ear to the ground as far as new bands and pro- ducers in North America. It has one of the best indie scenes in the world as well as more experimental electronic music. Besides great parties like Bal en Blanc there are also festivals like Mutek, Igloofest and Osheaga where you see a huge diversity of incredible music - so all of these things make it a great melting pot of creativity.
Sultan and Ned are currently on tour with Fedde le Grand on the Road to Ultra, so we asked how this amazing opportunity came up, and what they’re trying to accomplish on tour. We’ve known Fedde for a few years now and he’s become one of our really good friends. He’s a great guy, incredibly talented and one of the most down to earth people you’ll ever meet, so it’s great to go on tour together. Recently, we’ve done a few tracks together including our new song that is coming out in March called “Long Way from Home” on his la- bel Flamingo Records, and which is also one of the anthems of Ultra Music Festival this year. We all met up in LA for a few days in December and we had a blast in the studio. We’re all on the same page musically so working together always goes smoothly. He had this concept for a Road to Ultra tour and asked us to be a part of it, so of course we had to say yes! We are all playing the main stage at Ultra this year, we wanted the tour to start building the momentum a few weeks in advance and bring our sound and new tracks to all the fans on the way down to Miami. The greatest part is that so many people who have been coming to the shows have told us that they’re going to be at Ultra so that should be a crazy weekend.
From here the conversation turned to their label Harem. We asked about their experience launching the label, and what kind of sound they aim to release.
We started Harem back in 2008, as a way to get our music out because we were frustrated with waiting on other labels, especially since our releases would often get delayed for weeks or months. We love that we can finish a track and then release it a few weeks later if we want. It’s total freedom! We’ve recently rebranded the label and have started releasing more big room records that fit with what we play. In general we are looking for unique sounds, stuff that sounds a little different but is still accessible. For us, good production quality is a big must, which is why we like artists like Paris & Simo. Also good melodies that create a real “song” feeling are incredibly important. Right now, there are lots of producers with great sounding tracks that don’t really “say” anything melodically. We like stuff that you can remember for months down the road and not just the flavour of the week. Definitely keep an eye on the most recent Harem release “Chemical Love” coming out this month by Australian artists Matt Caseli, Marrs TV and Joel Edwards. It’s a great song, that for us feels completely timeless, and that’s really what we’re looking for.
Next we turned back to Bal en Blanc, and asked the do how they thought the night would flow musically in the house room, and who they are most looking forward to seeing perform.
There’s a great mix of more house and techy artists this year, so it looks to be a really well rounded lineup! When there is too much of one sound, it’s never a good thing. It’s always a pleasure to play with David Guetta and the last set we heard of his this past month in Vegas was rocking, so we’re looking forward to his set. And of course, Dubfire always brings the freshest underground music and he’s really a fantastic DJ. We go way back with him. In fact Sultan and Dubfire performed “Flashing For Money” live on the guitar together at Bal en Blanc back in 2008 when Deep Dish were still together, so it will be great to catch up. He is also known as the guru of the best restaurants in the world, so maybe we can get some tips from him!
Lastly, we asked Sultan and Ned to tell us about the mix they have submitted for our Bal en Blanc special edition podcast.
This set is a live recording from the road. It’s a good reflection of what we play and has a nice mix of our originals as well as special mashups that we’ve done for our sets. We hope everyone enjoys it!
With that, it’s time to wrap up the interview and get back to their busy touring schedule. Listen to the Bal en Blanc special edition mix by clicking on the podcast logo, and start planning your best white outfits for what is sure to be another epic edition of Montreal’s most legendary party. Stay tuned to Sultan and Ned Shepard on social media by click- ing the hotspots on the picture, and make sure to catch their Revealed Records release coming soon!
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