19 Facts About DJ Shadow

1.

DJ Shadow was experimenting with a four-track recorder while in high school in Davis, California, and began his music career as a disc jockey for the University of California, Davis, campus radio station KDVS.

2.

Also in 1992, Shadow contributed scratching and production work to Sleeping with the Enemy, the second release by rapper Paris.

3.

Early in 1993, DJ Shadow was a part of the creation of the Solesides underground hip-hop label, in conjunction with Blackalicious and Lyrics Born.

4.

DJ Shadow continued to participate in releases on the Solesides label for years to come, until the label was disbanded in favor of Quannum Projects.

5.

The only pieces of equipment DJ Shadow used to produce the album were the AKAI MPC60 12-bit sampling drum machine, a pair of turntables and a borrowed-by-visiting Pro Tools setup from an early adopter of the technology, Dan "The Automator" Nakamura.

6.

DJ Shadow starred in the 2001 movie Scratch, produced by Doug Pray, alongside Z-Trip, Grand Wizard Theodore, Mix Master Mike and DJ Qbert.

7.

DJ Shadow makes multiple appearances during the turntable and digging sections of the movie.

8.

In protest of the 2003 invasion of Iraq DJ Shadow collaborated with Zack de la Rocha on the track "March of Death".

9.

In September 2010, DJ Shadow released a single with two tracks called "Def Surrounds Us" and "I've Been Trying" and taken from the new album as a preview.

10.

On May 10,2011, DJ Shadow released an EP called I Gotta Rokk featuring remixed tracks from the forthcoming album, titled The Less You Know, the Better.

11.

In May 2015, DJ Shadow revealed to Billboard that the group was in fact himself and trap producer G Jones working together.

12.

DJ Shadow later announced a double album entitled Our Pathetic Age that was released November 15,2019.

13.

DJ Shadow was approached by Deftones to contribute to their White Pony 20th anniversary re-issue remix project, Black Stallion.

14.

DJ Shadow ended up remixing "Digital Bath", alongside other confirmed producers such as Trevor Jackson and Clams Casino.

15.

DJ Shadow's "re-write" of "Black Hot Soup" was the first track on the album.

16.

DJ Shadow has a personal collection of more than 60,000 records, and "Shadow only keeps a small selection of vinyl at home with the rest occupying storage units around town".

17.

DJ Shadow's album Endtroducing was "created on an AKAI MPC60 and an ADAT".

18.

DJ Shadow's work involves manipulating samples, taking rare and seldom-heard pieces of music and reworking them into parts and phrases for his songs.

19.

DJ Shadow sampled American composer David Axelrod on his collaboration with DJ Krush, "Duality", sampling Axelrod's "The Warnings".