Interview: Roger Shah talks Sunlounger album

Written by Remco on 1 September 2021 in Interviews
Interview: Roger Shah talks Sunlounger album
'Sunsets & Bonfires' is the highly anticipated new album from Sunlounger. It's the first album in 8 years, the follow up to 2013’s ‘Balearic Beauty’. TrancePodium's Michelle sat down with Roger Shah to chat about this album.

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today and congratulations on your new Sunlounger album, 'Sunsets and Bonfires' released on Future Sound Of Egypt on August 20th!

Hello my friends, thank you very much, my pleasure to talk with you guys as always.

Can you tell us the story behind 'Sunsets and Bonfires'? What did the creation process look like and what inspired this album? Also, what is the significance of the title?

My fans kept on asking about a new Sunlounger album since many years, so I felt it’s really time to create another journey into the balearic and chill sound. I tried to keep the chill out versions very minimal and intimate, like an acoustic band would play it while sitting at a bonfire during a sunset. That’s been the starting point of my album.

Many of your tracks feature the amazing vocals of Susie Ledge and Inger Hansen. How did your relationship with these talented vocalists come about?

Before I started to work on this new album I thought a lot about where i wanna go with my Sunlounger brand and the new album and got that idea in my head to create a live band to take the new album and Sunlounger on tour at some point. I already work closely with Inger Hansen since many years and already did a few tracks with Susie, both are great singer/songwriter and guitar players and have live experience so I thought that they would be a great addition for a live setup.

Both liked the idea and we started to work back and forth on the tracks, Susie and Inger also met in person for some writing/jamming sessions, we talked back n forth a lot of our ideas and then I started to work on the trademark chill out/ day time versions and club mixes/ night time versions.

What has been your favorite part about making this album?

I think producing this album with the thought of playing it live gave me a new twist and energy while producing it. I also wanted to go back to the roots of my „Another Day On The Terrace“ album and used all those trademark guitars, orchestral sounds and tribal percussions but also with a modern twist.

I understand you had delayed the release on this. Was that due to the pandemic, or why did you choose not to release this at an earlier date?

Yes, when I sat down with the whole FSOE team in early 2020 we were just at the start of the pandemic and it was hard to predict how everything would move forward or closing down. Especially with the plan of a live band and world tour it didn’t make any sense to us, so we decided to move it to summer 2021 with the hope that things would be better. Unfortunately the situation is still difficult but we didn’t wanna push the album back again for another year and decided to start sharing our music with the world now.

I know you've put a lot into this album! Can you tell us what this album means to you and is there anything in particular you hope your listeners will take away?

I always put a lot into an album and always try to create a journey, an experience for the listener, it’s a lot of pre planning, especially I always have to keep in mind how the tracks would fit together in my nonstop mix, Sunlounger albums are always a nonstop listening journey, so I have to produce it this way.

This album means also a lot to me for the fact it’s the first Sunlounger long player since 2013 and I wanna take my brand to the next level with the live band idea and hopefully to tour Sunlounger for the first time ever.

I hope it takes the listeners right back to the feel of my older Sunlounger albums which are still on heavy streaming rotation on the different portals.

There have been some great remixes for some of the tracks on the album! What is one of your favorite remixes so far?

I really enjoyed working with my buddy DJ Yelow to collaborate on Sail Away and On The Other Side, he added a nice uplifting vibe to the tracks while I blended in some of the original sounds, those versions are very useful for my Roger Shah trance sets.

Where can fans go to get their hands on 'Sunsets and Bonfires‘?

It’s available since August 20th on all portals such as Spotify, Itunes etc. and sell the CD via the FSOE store. We have the linktree which should direct you to your favorite portal or store.

You have been in the industry for quite a while. How would you say your sound has evolved over the years?

Quite a while is nicely said, haha, I signed my first record deal in 1996! I think my sound is consistently evolving, there are always new sounds and styles to discover, I also work on so many different projects from my Roger Shah trance sound, Sunlounger balearic and chill, Jukebox 80s synth wave, High Noon At Salinas tribal, music for meditation or my orchestral works for clients in Hollywood, i’d say my sound is very diverse and I always enjoy to experiment with new influences. I see myself as a musician who simply enjoys to make music, no matter which genre, but starting out as orchestral composer my heart is always with touching emotional melodies, I guess that’s why no matter what I’m working on I’m always coming back to my trance releases, that’s my love and passion.

Thank you again for taking the time to meet with us! Before we go, can you give us an idea of what else you have in store for the rest of 2021?

That’s my 3rd album for this year after Night Ride and Magic Island Vol. 10 and we are still releasing my singles from Magic Island Vol. 10, a few more Roger Shah collabs are in the making and of course singles taken from the Sunlounger album. Next Roger Shah single is a collab with my buddy Yelow - Burasari, gonna be released on John Askew’s Deep In Thought label in September and I’m already working on my projects for 2022 such as a new Roger Shah artist album, also working on Magic Island Vol. 11 and a Piano/Orchestral album and a concept called Sunlounger Translations, this time working on the catalog from Askew’s labels. So I guess I’m not running short on new music releases.

Thank you for the chat and all your great support over all those years!

Sunsets & Bonfires is now available for download here or order your physical copy here.



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