Dennis Sheperd “Summer”
Pulling together enough tracks to fill out a full-length can be a daunting task, especially if the entire endeavor is completely crowdfunded. Next week, Berlin-based Dennis Sheperd can proudly say he’s accomplished such a feat as he arrives with his second artist album, Fight Your Fears. Released through his own A Tribute to Life imprint—and seeing the light of day all thanks to support from the Sheperd faithful—the 17-track album is a flurry of melodic glory featuring collabs with Christina Novelli, Jes, Katty Heath and more.
Over the last couple of weeks, Sheperd has been teasing tracks from the LP day by day, trickling down the love with previews as the run-up for the release gets underway. Today, Insomniac steps in to reveal the sun-soaked gem “Summer.” The instrumental floor-filler is overflowing with breezy synth lines, euphoric melodies and rolling basslines to make this one of the pivotal trance tunes this festival season. Boom!
Available April 17 via A Tribute To Life.
Describe the best setting/activity to hear this track.
I always had a summerish kind of feel with that track—hence I called it “Summer.” But just a few weeks ago, I had an exclusive pre-listening session with some of my fans who took part in the crowdfunding of the release of Fight Your Fears, and one of them said, “This could easily be an anthem for a festival that happens in summer.” And he said that without knowing the title of the track, by the way. So now, whenever I listen to this track, I have a big stage in mind, with people dancing to this tune on a daylight festival on a warm summer day.
How do you measure the success of a track?
If I know I make people happy with a track, I know I have done a good job, and then I know the track is successful! I produce electronic dance music, so of course part of the success is if the track is doing well on the dancefloor. But it’s important to measure that by knowing when to play which record. Some tracks, for example, are more for the opening sets, others for the peak time, and then even some for the closing sets. Having said that, each crowd is different, and each set of mine, too. That‘s why the crowd reaction is also sometimes very surprising to me. One day a tune can do OK; another day it can blow off the whole dancefloor. So it’s not that easy to take the dancefloor reactions into account of the success of a track. You only know for sure when people are singing along the lyrics of your tune in the breakdown. Then you have done everything right!
Creatively, how did the work on this track stack up to previous studio sessions? Was this more challenging to complete than others?
Actually, the whole basic idea was composed and produced on an afternoon in 2011! Yes, you are reading right, 2011! I always had intentions to finish this idea, but somehow I never found the time, and I kind of also wanted to wait for the right moment and a good possibility for the release of “Summer.” I don’t know, but it just felt right to wait for the album release and include it in Fight Your Fears. It’s a nice change to the other album tracks but nevertheless fits in perfectly.
What’s your favorite sound/synth/effect/etc. used here?
Definitely this long lead sound that comes in the second part of the main part. I love the movement of the oscillators in that sound. The sound is kind of living, is very dynamic and therefore even reflects the feeling that I wanted to transfer with that track.
Choose one feeling that sums up this release, and describe it to us.
Euphoria. The melody just completely reflects a euphoric feeling. Happiness. The tune sounds like a lovely day; you are enjoying life, and the sun is shining. One of those moments (and I have them quite regularly) when you realize how beautiful life is, and that you can be happy to live such a life, and that you should enjoy every minute of it!
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