Two guys from London, both are songwriters, singers and dancers. One sings in Hindi the other in English, both are true entertainers. They are Shekie and Sham.
Shekie n Sham are definitely unpredictable, unquestionably versatile but more importantly talented and humble guys simply doing what they love – entertaining. What’s the aim for the near future “Not take things too seriously, have some fun and do everything with a smile on our face. SnS Worldis a journey and we want people to join us on our journey”. The birth of this journey is their debut‘2 Sides 2 O.N.E Coin’ – one character and two paths.
Desi-Box bring you yet another EXCLUSIVE! Interview with the "Shekie and Sham". Sanam who recently joined Desi-Box has the pleasure of Interviewing Shekie. Read or Listen to the interview Leave your comments below and If you want to buy the album please visit the bottom of the page.
Audio (Interview)
PLEASE GO BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE:
1. Sanam (DB): So, Shekie, how you doing today? Shekie (SnS): Very good, very good Sanam
2. Sanam (DB): Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves, the real Shekie N Sham? Shekie (SnS): Shekie n Sham are something new for 2008, were R’n’B, Hindi Fusion collaboration were trying to do something refreshing and “2 Sides 2 O.N.E coin”which is our album, debut album. Which is releasing June is the birth of our musical journey.
3. Sanam (DB): You both started out as dancers. How did you guys get into dancing and what led both of you into taking it up professionally? Shekie (SnS): Well me and Sham we were part of a different dance group and we just kept meeting each other through the circuit. I think it was at NEC Birmingham when Sham approached me and he wanted to obviously to change and I was with Xtreme Fusion dance group and he took an audition and he got through and from there our friendship grew our journey grew. I found out he sings in English and writes in English and I obviously do the Hindi part and write Hindi we thought why not, we go to the studio try it out and see how it goes and it wasn’t going to be the one song being with us but the chemistry between us in the studio was great and from there we continued our journey.
4. Sanam (DB): Was dancing only going to be a temporary thing for you guys with the view of someday going into music? Shekie (SnS): Well dancing is our forsay and that is what we are trying to show that we are singers and dancers. Though in our performance when we do perform we want to give the audience a visual of our dancing aspect and singing aspect so dancing’s always going to be a part of us we both work very closely to our choreograph Sonia Shah who is part of Xtreme Fusion who is actually the manager of Xtreme Fusion. Dancing is obviously going to be a big part of what ever we do and when we perform as singers
5. Sanam (DB): You were both in the dance troupe Xtreme Fuzion can you tell us more about your time with them such as the dancing style and the various venues you preformed at? Shekie (SnS): Being part of Xtreme Fusion is very close to us, its special feeling being part of a group with such talented dancers and individuals we were with Xtreme Fusion for 4 years, it becomes a family and the choreograph Sonia Shah who is just exceptional. It was a great experience to perform at the biggest stages Wembley Arena, Asian Lifestyle with Viveck Oberoi and worked with Shahrukh Khan and it’s just been exceptional. Every performance we done the melas it’s a special feeling.
6. Sanam (DB): Which dancing style is your favourite? Do you guys enjoy eastern, western or perhaps a fusion of both? Shekie (SnS): That’s exactly what Xtreme Fusion was about it was a fusion dance group its R’n’B, Hip-Hop, Bollywood and Bhangra. What ever our music is we dance it depends on the beat. It was a mixture of everything hence that’s what our music is to so it’s a mixture. In our album we’ve tried to cater for everyone we got different kinds of styles in our album. So it’s a mixture we love dancing and performing.
7. Sanam (DB): Whilst on the subject of dancing, who out of you guys is the better dancer? Shekie (SnS): Well I would say Sham, Sham is a fantastic dancer his really good. I have learned a lot of dancing from him, so his a cool dancer. I obviously need hundreds of rehearsals and practises to get the move right I get there, but I would say Sham is a great dancer
8. DB: A mutual friend suggested you two work together, prior to this did you two know each other? And how has working together been like? Shekie (SnS): We met as I said in NEC Birmingham, and when Sham took auditions for Xtreme Fusion we got to know each other like that. Our friend who was in the dance group found out that we sing and write and said why don’t you guys collaborate and then he set up our trip to India. Where we went to record quarter of the album and hence obviously from actually being in the studio to our journey right now its been so quick and everything moves in such a fast pace that its unbelievable.
9. Sanam (DB): Could you tell us how you ended up signing for O.N.E Records? How did you come into contact with them? Shekie (SnS):O.N.E Records UK which was funnily enough we were in India. Our friend who organised our trip there introduced us to new people from India who was keen to set-up a record label company. While we were recording in India we had a lot of meetings with we discussed where we wanted to go with our music and obviously they were excited, they thought our music was fresh and a lot of energy in it and you know bollywood right now is has that mixture of English and Hindi going on. So it was that time, you know the time was perfect for them to say we want you guys to be the first artists, hence the reason we signed up with them. Here we are now waiting for album to be released.
10. Sanam (DB): Both your tracks “Uh Huh” and “All That I Want” made such big waves how did that feel? Shekie (SnS): Its satisfying Sanam, It really is because Uh Huh when we sat down and me and Sham were thinking that “Uh Huh”was going to be our first release. We knew it was going to be a hit because its kind of different type of song we actually hear in our brit asian music in the UK. So we knew it was going to be a big risk but I think people got used to it and thought it was a good track, club track. “All that I want”was a total opposite with Uh Huh being a club track, all that I want is nice mellow, easy listening kind of song and that shows two different varieties of songs that we have in our album. When it all pans out it all works out its satisfying.
11. Sanam (DB): Congratulations on your first album! Too all the fans who don't know can you tell us what we can expect from your first album? Shekie (SnS): Thank you, Thank You “2 Sides 2 O.N.E Coin” which is out June, June the 20th you can pre-order the copy online at www.snsworld.co.uk. Yes you’ll expect a lot of mayhem a lot of masti a lot of unpredictability, its an easy listening album nothing to complicated. I guess if your stuck on the motorway, just put “2 Sides 2 O.N.E Coin” in and just sit back and enjoy the SnS world. Its an album we tried to cater in every style of music its got a jazzy number, its got a hindi pop, its got a ballad, its got r’n’b track its got a variety so. I guess it s like our bollywood films alittle bit of something for everyone.
12. Sanam (DB): How did you come up with the name "2 Sides 2 O.N.E Coin" and why did you decide to call your first album that? Shekie (SnS): "2 Sides 2 O.N.E Coin" is me and Sham two characters that are path is one what we want from life, what we want from our album, what we want from our music that end result is just that one its pretty straight forward its two sides to everything my side is the hindi part his is English. We’ve obviously got the O.N.E to relate to our record comapy O.N.E Records UK which is Originality New and Exciting 2 Sides 2 O.N.E Coin hence the name.
13. Sanam (DB): What makes your album different from other albums already out in the market? Why should people buy your album? Shekie (SnS): Its original, its fresh sound were trying to create being dancers we got fair idea what people want to dance to, to listen to we’ve had that influenced in our dancing in our actual album. All the tracks are written by us so it’s an original album its an album that is easy listening, nothing too complicated its for everyone to enjoy. This is our birth as our journey continues we want our fan base to continue and to make Shekie n Sham into something really special. Which everyone has the response everyone has given us till today has been exceptional its been over-whelming. The album its self is a refreshing album and its something you might not hear right now because obviously the UK is influenced by Bhangra music and we’ve just stepped aside from the Bhangra and this is like hindi and English so that’s different from starters yea go and check it out.
14. Sanam (DB): Out of the album which are your favourite or personal tracks so fans can look out for them? Shekie (SnS): I think I can speak on Shams behalf here I think it has to be, all the songs we’ve written is special it means a lot to us but I guess if you told me to choose one I would have to say its “Dillagi” it was the first song we wrote and it’s the first song on the album, it’s a jazz number and its got a lot of energy it’s a cool song “Dillagi”
15: Sanam (DB): Describe yourself in 3 words: Shekie (SnS): Original New and Exciting, I guess must be because its what our record company thinks.
16. Sanam (DB): Your songs are the most requested on Club Asia and you guys entered no.7 in the official Asian charts on Asian Star Radio. As new-comers you must be feeling a sense of validation that your music is being appreciated. Did you guys expect such a response and how does it feel knowing that your music is being rightly recognised? Shekie (SnS): Its pleasing that people are giving our music the time of day, when we did write our songs and when we did the album me and Sham knew exactly that it will be a big risk as I said Bhangra music is something that is a very big influence in the UK music market we knew it was going to be a risk but its so pleasing. We can’t really describe that people are actually listening to our music and its playing on radio and you hear it on the radio you get overwhelmed. I just like to thank everyone that who are liking us and music and are appreciating it, it’s just really satisfying it’s really difficult to describe the emotions are so high its brilliant we love it.
17. Sanam (DB): You've raised a bar with your music video to "Uh Huh". It is very unique and stylish, how did the concept to the video come about and did you guys have any input in the direction of the video? Shekie (SnS): Our record company wanted to give “Uh Huh” the club video type and me and Sham were a bit reluctant to do that because at that time there were so many club videos going on and we just thought if we made “Uh Huh” as a club video we’d get lost somewhere in the other club videos out. We thought we wanted to do something different and because both of us love movies, we wanted to a short film short video style type. We were influenced by Michael Jackson’s Thriller and we love films when we wrote "Uh Huh" we had a visualised we do something like James Bond. We love the eerie, dark atmosphere which will compensate in a club. So we had a vision we want to x1x film and design production team and we give them the concept. They actually loved the concept and we took it from there, we had auditions with models. There were a lot of rehearsals and we got to know he models the whole cast. There was 3 months of hard work and some of the aspects we directed ourselves with them. The whole Uh Huh campaign we had a lot of input in it, It was our first one so we wanted that we wanted to be in control.
18. Sanam (DB): whose idea was it to shoot part of the video in Russia? How was it like in Russia? Shekie (SnS): I think it was meant to have the Russia look; the actual location was a secret location in London. We had to give the atmosphere of it in Russia, We give the look of it like if it was Russia, a lot of people ask me that was it shot in Russia. The concept was it being in Moscow.
19. Sanam (DB): Do you guys find it nerve-wrecking to perform to your own tracks on-stage or did being professional dancers, where you had already performed to crowds help you in any way? Shekie (SnS): As being dancers we’ve performed around the UK and to different venues and that’s really helped us. It’s more of a buzz and adrenaline and rush to perform in front of people with your own songs. Its not being nervous, nervous iust just the adrenaline more of a buzz to perform in front of many people so its good really we like it so its really good.
20. Sanam (DB): How similar are your musical tastes? Were they any arguments over how the music to a certain track should go or were both of you able to agree from the outset? Shekie (SnS):Sham has the influence of Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Justin Timberlake and I’ve got the similar tastes on that and my bollywood input. RD Burman, Javed Akhtar hence that’s the reason why from one song we wanted to record, we recorded a full album. The chemistry the way we work its just that we got a similar taste, we got a similar understanding and we stood each other when we were working. You know what we like what we do if we did have arguments it was a contractive arguments nothing like dissing or anything like that. Majority of our decisions we agreed so arguments or anything like that there weren’t any.
21. Sanam (DB): Concerning the song writing were all the songs written by yourselves? How did that work out? Did both of you write the tracks together or was it the case of you each coming up with your own individual lyrics? Shekie (SnS): Actually when we wrote all our songs we sat together and wrote them. Obviously Sham writes in English and I write in Hindi so we sat together we thought of the melody and how we wanted the song to feel like, so we wrote the whole album ourselves we had a melody in mind and took it to our producers and they brought the melody to life. That’s how we recorded the album we did quarter of the album in India and the rest of the album here but yeah all the tracks were written by us together.
22. Sanam (DB): Who would you guys most like to collaborate with? Shekie (SnS): That’s a difficult question, because there are so many talented artists out there. Being newcomers who would want to work with us? There are so many artists I would love to work with, Sunidhi Chauhan the playback singer I would love to record a song with her. I feel shes amazing and am sure Sham would say the same and I guess Justin Timberlake would be great. You know when you collaborate the song has to be written and if it fits that person you want to collaborate with, but we wont mind working with anyone and everyone whose talented it would be cool working with anyone, because we easy going it would be amazing.
23. Sanam (DB): What do you find comes easy singing/writing songs or dancing? Shekie (SnS): I guess I started my first passion which was writing so it’s writing because that’s what I enjoy, I love doing the rest but obviously you asked me one I would say song writing and Sham is just brilliant so for him it’s singing, dancing and writing everything
24. Sanam (DB): Is there any music or maybe a particular track that one of you likes which the other is not so keen on? Shekie (SnS): Me and Sham got the same style, we appreciate each others influences. His is like Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Usher and Justin Timberlake and mine is obviously more on the bollywood side so we appreciate each other. How can you not like Michael Jackson, Justin or Usher people like that and I think we got similar tastes and hence the reason we work so well. That’s why the album has worked so fittingly and perfectly because of how our chemistry is. We love all kinds of music, we just love everything were cool like that.
25. Sanam (DB): What next for SNS? And where would you guys like to see yourselves in 5-10 years time? Shekie (SnS): Well Shekie and Sham I guess right now we are really, really busy you know going up and down the country promoting the album “2 Sides 2 O.N.E Coin”. Were doing radio and TV interviews most of our time is taken up. We doing shows in between were going to be performing at Melas and shows and everything. We obviously are talking about deals in India and everything so I guess the next few months will be very exciting but nothing has been confirmed yet were just getting up to working hard and rehearsals. I guess in few years from now having another interview with you guys.
26. Sanam (DB):What advice would you give to the younger generation who think of you guys as an inspiration? Shekie (SnS): I guess be happy being yourself and if you have a passion for something just keep at it. You are going to get a lot of rejections and criticism but if you believe in yourself and believe in what you are doing, just keep at it and god is great and I guess you will get there me and Sham. Shekie and Sham our birth is “2 Sides 2 O.N.E Coin” is happened our dream has come true, Impossible is nothing if you put your mind to it.
27. Sanam (DB): Any last min message to your fans worldwide and Desi-Box.com fans? Shekie (SnS): I would just like to say guys you’ve been exceptional. You made Shekie and Sham dream come true, you’re loving our music and keep supporting us and showing the love that you have been. If you haven’t joined in on our website come and join our musical journey www.snsworld.co.ukas we grow our music grows we want our fan base to grow. We want all our fans to be part of our musical journey and Luv n Tunes keep it real guys.
DB: It’s a rap people
CREDITS: Sanam & Umar B
PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM
RELEASING: 20th June
Album: 2 Sides 2 O.N.E Coin Label: O.N.E Records UK Artist: Shekie 'n' Sham Tracklisting: 01. Dillagi 02. All That I Want 03. Baby Jaan (feat Akriti Kakar) 04. Night Out (Outro) 05. Friday Night 06. Tere Mere (Promises) 07. Uh Huh (Intro) 08. Uh Huh (feat English Kid) 09. Tantanaa (feat Akriti Kakar) 10. Its You
sheki and sam what can i say lol i think ur great good singers. any ways im lost of words so im writing what evers coming to my head lol oh ye sanam i think it was a brilliant interview and i hope u get more confident in what you do. keep it up babe nuff love xxx the one and only xxx (you know who sanam)
