Today we’d like to introduce you to Sha Ked.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve always been playing music – but I’m always trying to find a new direction too. My little sister started playing the flute at school, and I picked it up one day and decided – “Ok. I’m learning this now.” Took the day, learned every note, and just started playing. It felt natural and fun, especially now that I’m playing bass and singing full stop.
The biggest thing I learned recently that changed my mindset was something the yogi gurus say: To nourish your passion, it must have a repetitive aspect and a meditative aspect. For bass, it’s the repetitive bass line and the meditative solo and mess around. You’re making a space to use it later. I’ve been working on using this in my playing.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I grew up in the New York City with lots of music always around. I think the real difficulty I had was deciding that I actually wanted to do music. I didn’t think it would be this way, and I assumed it’d be a fun thing from my past. But I went for it. After LaGuardia, I gave it everything and went to Berklee. You know, meeting and playing with musicians from all over is the best teacher you can have. Learning from the ears and not only the eyes.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a singer, producer, songwriter, bassist. The music I write is a blend of city funk with melodic storytelling and middle eastern spice. Like my latest track, “Love This Time”, which was produced with real weird techniques – We started without drums at all, and just took a day in the studio with guitar, keys, and me singing and playing bass. We said we’d do drums later, so we took down a few takes and called it a day. It ended up being way slow, and I couldn’t get the drums just right – so I brought it up vinyl style, taking the vocal and guitar and bass and everything up in speed and pitch. We tried lots on the drums and just took it to the edge. The end result feels real mint, with lots of energy.
I’m real proud of this first album we’re releasing – Conditionally. The idea is that love isn’t something that’s unconditional. You can see all the tracks as love songs in some way or another. Everything comes with a give and take, push and pull. Love is the same, it’s conditional.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Y’all can check it out on Spotify and Apple Music (Sha ked), we got music videos coming and all that good. Keep an eye out for “Conditionally”, dropping very soon! You can stream “Angie”, “WITHOUT”, and “Love This Time” now. Hit my line at instagram.com/sha___ked . Thanks for taking the time.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/sha___ked
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1ZKWBjk3QPWs1VqgbVFj66?si=w4nGnGDGTy-abXrLhCTuwQ
Image Credits
Yaam Gonen
Ofir Lavi