Shur-i-kan: i paint the rainbow with music

DJ Shur-i-kan plays Prague's Yes Club on June 18. We have chatted with him about his music and other work.

You used to work as an IT person, what was your journey to music?

No I never worked as IT, I was a software developer – its different. IT use programs, developers create them. :)

I've always been interested in technology and music, they are two separate strands in my life, they pretty much co-existed side by side through out my life so it wasn't a journey from one to another but more a symbiosis.

We have heard you are also playing with The Bays? How is the band going now?

I'm not playing with the Bays at the moment, I did in the past – it was great fun. Maybe I'll play once again in the future who knows.

You are doing monthly podcasts, how important are they for you?

I started doing them without much expectation and has been surprised about how popular they are. They get tens of thousands of plays every month and wherever I travel in the world someone always comes up to me and thanks me doing them. So as long as people want to listen I'll try and keep doing them. Its a bit of investment of time, but I get a lot of pleasure from it and hopefully that shows. I'm pretty confident that it is one of the best regular selections / mixes out there.

How did your find your style? And what was it in house music that was so beautiful for you that you started to play it?

I don't know if I found it, its just one of things I seem to have always had, and even if I try and shake it off it comes through somehow. Well I guess I'm stuck with it!  House music is a very warm music but at the same time it can encompass a lot of different sounds and I guess that is the attraction. Within the confines of a four-four beat there are a lot of variety to play with.

What is your most beloved instrument and why?

My Fender Rhodes, I bought it as a student for cheap.  The owner was using it as a table. The Rhodes has a unique sound and you can't really reproduce it electronically.

What are you doing when you are not making music?

Lots, I'm inventing mobile applications for the telecoms industry at the moment, but I've tinkered in lots of other fields.

Any new releases coming up?

Yes there will be a few this year, I don't like to flood the market and these days I'm so picky about the quality very few tracks get past my filter. But still I'll have a new EP on Lazy Days in the September, there will be a new one on Dark Energy also and perhaps some other labels like Freerange – who knows!?

Anything else we should know?

London has the same average rainfall as Israel.

What are you doing against the gray?

Painting the rainbow in music.