Planetary Group took some time to get to know Eva Shaw…
Planetary Group: Tell us about your latest release. How did you come to create it?
Eva: I just dropped my debut album called Solo. I started it during the pandemic because I wasn’t doing DJ shows and I had a little bit more time to spend on developing my sound and kind of figuring out what I wanted to create. The project is 27 tracks, so it’s really massive. And it has 30 rappers on it, 30 features. It’s an experimentation that I’ve been wanting to do for a while, but I just didn’t have the time yet. So during the pandemic, I just found that now’s the time to do my debut album.
PG: Share a bit about your musical journey, from when you first started making music until now.
Eva: As a kid, I was always making music, writing stuff all the time. I took singing lessons, dance lessons, guitar lessons and piano lessons, but nothing really clicked with me as a kid until I was a teenager. Then I discovered music production, and I heard deadmau5 and people like that who basically made music on a computer. And I thought that that was so dope, and that that was maybe something that I would be interested in. So I started teaching myself how to make beats and how to DJ. And that’s kind of how I got into being a music producer and a DJ.
PG: Let’s talk about the music that you love. Pick one album for each category below & tell us a bit about it!
- An album you grew up listening to:
Eva: This is a difficult one because I like a lot of different stuff and a lot of different genres. Even as a tiny little kid, I listened to a very wide range of music. I had this pure funk compilation… I think it was made by MuchMusic (I’m from Canada). I listened to that all the time. It had “Car Wash” and stuff like that on it.
And I also really liked classical music. I didn’t have an album, but I always wanted to listen to the classical station on the radio. I was also obsessed with the Tupac album, All Eyez On Me – I think that’s probably what really got me into hip hop. I also liked TLC’s Crazysexycool.
I liked stuff that was a little bit older, like even Journey, the Greatest Hits album. So as you can see by the music I liked, I definitely have pretty eclectic taste – it’s kind of all over the place.
- An album that inspires you as an artist (I’m sure there are many, but pick one of your choosing):
Eva: I think what influences my sound today would probably be Pharrell, N.E.R.D, and Clipse. I was a huge fan of songs like Rockstar and Lap Dance, and the way Pharrell fused hip hop with rock… he has a different type of sound from other people.
And in terms of style, I really was a big fan of Aaliyah and TLC; they were just very confident. I also liked the Spice Girls and how they just didn’t care what people thought and were all about girl power. So seeing that strong female kind of style and presence from those artists, I think that really made me wanna be an artist. Even though at the time I was so young that I didn’t know what exactly I would be doing, and I definitely didn’t know I would be DJing, somewhere those strong women are really in my mind and in my style now today.
- The album you currently have on repeat:
Eva: Currently, I have the new Drake album on repeat. I think it’s really dope how he is mixing up his sound, including a little bit of dance music in there. I love that because I love mixing genres and I love experimenting and I think he did that really well.
PG: What do you want people to take away from your music?
Eva: If anybody takes anything away from my music and from me as an artist and personality, I hope that I can encourage people to be themselves and do what they wanna do and not feel like they have to fit into boxes too much. I am all for everybody being individual. Be yourself because no one else can be you.
What’s next up for you?
Eva: I’m gonna do a little bit more vocals probably, and kind of experiment with that. But aside from my own artist stuff, I really wanna get a production placement for somebody that I look up to, like Drake or Travis Scott or something like that.
And of course I’m gonna be dropping all my music videos with my crazy fashion sense. So if you like my videos, you’re definitely gonna see a lot more of that coming up. And of course my Hype Hop series, where I spin G House: hip hop mixed with dance music.
