Um..
In a world of egos inflating, Um.. has been keeping things light and playful. Ben Bruce and Dylan Gold attended Icon Collective after some friends in the industry urged them to be there. For those who don’t know, Icon Collective is a music school whose slogan is “You were born an original, don’t die a copy” and has housed artists such as JAUZ and Snbrn. On the first day of class, they sat beside each other and became fast friends.
Before he even thought of producing music, Gold had been attending every heavy-hitting bass show in the UK and eventually he decided to take up the mantle by mixing and producing. He started introducing Bruce to the world of dubstep and the musical genius that is Um.. was born. They’ve been touring a lot in the last couple of years and seem to be carving out quite a name for themselves. They mentioned that they’ve been watching Shambhala for a while now and they feel very honored to be included in the lineup.
Vanic
The native of Vancouver, Canada is known almost exclusively for his remixes of artists like Lana Del Ray, CHVRCHES, and Major Lazer in a House infused style of dubstep and trap. When Vanic was four years old, he learned how to play the piano and in middle school he turned into a metal head. After a while, he realized, “I was better at the prettier stuff instead of the harder.”
In 2014 he released the track Circles with LA-based band Machineart, and it was so successful that it garnered one million plays in less than two weeks. At the end of his opening act for Adventure Club he played Skinny Love and they loved it so much that they’ve been playing it at festivals all around the world since.
Vokab Kompany
Vokab Kompany is yet another group that seems to be pushing the boundaries of music. They’ve had a lot of success with collaborating with other artists with their band. Despite being considered an electronic funk they won some awards for Best Hip-Hop Band at the San Diego Music Awards in 2011, 2012 and 2015. They’ve also fostered friendships with some key players in the electronic scene.
After being invited on tour with Love and Light in the Fall/Winter of 2012, they were invited to perform at Shambhala Music Festival. They made a Facebook post regarding the headliner release and according to them: “Keep in mind this is a mostly electronic music festival, so the fact that they would take a chance on a band they had never heard in-full, really shows their willingness to create family with like-minded individuals.”
WBBL
Photo Credit: Fun Fair
Popular series Rick & Morty has come back for it’s 3rd season (finally!) and WBBL and Father Funk have done the show quite a bit of justice by remixing popular song The Recipe for Concentrated Dark Matter. The UK based groove-master is gaining popularity rapidly, not just with his fans but with fellow DJs. He’s becoming recognized widely in the Ghetto Funk scene by big players Featurecast and A-Skillz, who featured his tracks in their promo mixes.
2016 was a crazy busy year for him. He had a run at the major festivals in UK and finished off the year by doing a massive tour around Canada. After learning about all that he’s been up to it’s very clear why Shambhala booked him for their 20th anniversary.
Whipped Cream
Whipped Cream (Caroline Cecil) has played at Shambhala for a few years now, and based on her Facebook post on the headliner release, it’s pretty safe to say that she’s happy to go back home. The Vancouver Island-based DJ has been blurring the lines between genres for as long as we can remember. It may come as a surprise to find out that this DJ, known for playing “mammoth-sized bass” is a former figure skater. She had great dreams of going pro with the sport, when an unfortunate accident occurred and she had to give up her dream.
At first, she had no idea what she wanted to do, but fate intervened. After attending Sasquatch Festival she used the money she had saved to go to Australia to buy all of her equipment. It’s for this reason that she always has a way of bringing her artistic inspiration to the stage, and her goal is for everyone to have fun.
Wollymammoth
Wollymammoth broke out into the scene at a very young age, and he started gaining recognition for his hard work when he was still in high school. Once again, when he was in high school and could not even frequent the clubs he was playing in. Even more impressive is his natural talent for chopping up vocals and mixing them into melodic sounds and swelling bass. He released an EP titled Tricks in November of 2015 and Thump said that, “‘Tricks has something for bassheads and chinstrokers alike, a rarity in today’s bass music milieu.” Much like Thump, we’re going to keep an eye on the music Wollymammoth will be producing from here on out.
Yheti
Yheti has been known for mixing heavy bass with nostalgic soundbites from popular media. You’ll definitely have a blast from the past while you’re listening to him (Pac-Man or Mario anyone?), and you’ll want to groove all over the dance floor. He closed out his set at Shambhala 2016 with a freestyle rap session, and it certainly was memorable. Yheti himself has admitted that when he’s older he’ll likely play jazz and children’s music. All the better reason to catch him live while you can!
Z-Trip
Z-Trip shared with the world how stoked he is to be going back to the farm, and he didn’t hesitate to say that Shambhala is one of the best places to be in the world. He reminisced about Shambhala by mentioning that he had a chance to spin the spirit animal wheel, found out that he was an elephant, and that theme has resonated in this post (there was also a tongue-in-cheek comment about how he has some tricks up his “trunk” for this year).
Zeke Beats
Our last artist for the headliner guidelines is Zeke Beats, a DJ that has been taking the industry by storm. Not only has he received recognition from many big name artists (DJ Craze, DJ Shadow, Bleep Bloop, and G Jones to name a few), he was also the first person to be selected to be the “Qbert Skratch University Valedictorian”.
Zeke Beats has also dropped a new EP called Dispatch in the last month and simply stating it to be “sick” isn’t giving it enough justice. The popping bass and the synths will hopefully satisfy you until you see him throw down at the farm. If you’ve ever listened to his gritty sounding bass, you’d see why he’s going back to the farm for the biggest celebration they’ve ever had.
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Well, there we have it! After going through this list, it’s not hard to imagine that there will be many a schedule conflict. However, no matter where you find yourself in the amazing paradise that is Shambhala, it will be where you’re meant to be. Additionally, If you’re still searching for tickets to this year’s festivities, the Shambhala Ticket Exchange Group on Facebook should be your first stop. They have great group rules about not selling tickets above face value, and the people on there have the Shambhala spirit. Hope to see you on the farm!
Some artist biographies sourced from: Resident Advisor, Soundcloud and Bandcamp.
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