When Oresile Joshua began his career as a professional disc jockey, nearly a decade ago, he nursed a particular desire to be distinguished. While he debuted his spin-offs journey with City FM, back in 2015, on the famous Ride With Kshow programme, he kept building capacity to expand on a nationwide-wide scale.
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Barely two years ago, DJ Shawn’s consistent efforts yielded fruit with his debut song dubbed, ‘O Pari’, which featured Falz and Timaya. The record propelled him to various music markets and expanded his bookings tremendously. It was this same drive to explore and expand that put him on major dance-floors including the Friday night party at the Big Brother Naija Season 7, last year.

Now, without resting on his oars, the young talented artiste has opened a new chapter in his career, and, conversely, the Nigerian music scene, as he steps out with his debut extended playlist dubbed, Awesome. The six-track EP pairs some of the biggest names in Afrobeats such as Pheelz, Niniola, Reekado Banks, L.A.X, Magixx, Bella Shmurda, Blaqbonez, KiDi, Oladapo, and Joshua Baraka.

With a soothing tracklisting that traverses genres such as Amapiano, Afro-pop and Afro RnB, DJ Shawn is a stellar addition to the library of Afrobeats songs poised to make an impact in global markets. He joins the cadre of entertainers like DJ Neptune, Kaywise, Obi, among others, whose discographies have reset the status quo and expanded the limits for other disc jockeys in the country.

In an exciting sit-down with today’s Guardian Music, the Ogun State indigene shares his story, nitpicking the elements of his music that befit the ‘awesome’ rating, as well as his creative processes, muses, visions and many more that continue to keep him apart from the crowd even while controlling it.
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Why did you title this project, Awesome?
So, first off, after I finished with the project we were trying to look for a name that fits the project. So, at some point I spun back to how everything started. From reaching out to the artistes, to getting everyone I wanted on the project, down to the producers and the mixing engineers, I felt like the project was perfect. So I named it Awesome, because it represents perfection.

How long did it take you to curate this?
About a year. I started working on it around August 2022.

Did you plan the features beforehand?
No, it was not planned. It started with me having a picture of what I wanted the songs to be in my head. I thought about the people that could be a best fit for what I wanted to achieve. Then, I reached out to a producer that I felt could give me that perfect sound that I wanted. But it was only once I got the right beat, that I reached out to the artistes I felt were right for it. It was not thoroughly planned. It was like a work in progress.

How did it feel for you branching into music around 2015?
Branching into music had been among my plans from when I started DJing. I got inspired by the likes of DJ Neptune, DJ Xclusive, among others. You know back in 2013, when these guys were dropping bangers, I felt like I wanted to do something like that. It motivated me more to do music. I still needed to be a DJ. There is a difference between being a DJ, and being a superstar DJ. I felt like branching into music gives you that vibe of being a superstar DJ.

How are you juggling both worlds at the moment?
It’s crazy, I won’t lie to you. You know, one thing about DJing is you have to keep practicing, and if you are branching into music, it will take a lot of your time. You have to be in the studio; you have to chase artistes, you have to chase their managers; you have to chase engineers. So, it has been really crazy, but I will say I’m used to doing a lot of things at the same time, so, I still manage to find a balance for everything.

You produced some songs on the EP. How did you learn production?
Production for me started from when I was like seven or eight. My older brother owned a studio around Festac area, back in the days, so, I used to be in the studio a lot of the time. I recorded songs for artistes for him when he was not around. So, I have been familiar with all the DJs and producers. When I started DJing, I felt I wanted to do more, you understand?

In other words, you are self taught?
Yeah! I am self taught from YouTube. I actually learnt how to be a DJ from YouTube. There are tutorial classes on YouTube that you can take.

How were you feeling the quality of your beats initially?
I’m looking for a word that would define it, because rusty is not doing justice. I was making ‘dead’ beats when I started. So, I have a lot of producer friends. And anytime I make beats, I just send it to them. And they always gave me feedback. They gave me great advice and they put me through some things. I have a couple of these guys from Tomzy, Finito, and Pheelz in particular.
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What was the beat that got you convinced that you could build a career with this?
Okay so, the first beat that made me feel like I could actually do this was when we were creating the song called, Baddest, with Reekado Banks and L.A.X. The producers were not really giving me what I wanted, I was directing the producers. Then, I felt like it would have been better if I actually did it myself. So, I started learning more. Then there was this time I created an amapiano cover for an Ebenezer Obey song and I posted it on my Instagram. I got a lot of comments, even the handler of Ebenezer Obey’s social media account reached out to tell me to finish the song up and send it. They wanted to have it released as an official remix. I became convinced that I was doing something nice.

What were your most memorable sessions while making this project?
Firstly, I will pick the one with Maggix, because it had more of an amazing vibe. We created three songs that night when I linked up with Maggix, and this one song called ‘Erima’ stood out of the three. Then, the one with Pheelz and Bella Shmurda.

So, now that you’re making music, what stories are you trying to tell?
I wanted something different. I wanted to do different genres of songs. If you listen to the project, you will see that I was trying to find a balance; that’s why there are some love songs, there are some party songs, and there are some songs that people on the streets can relate to, for instance the song called “Chop life”, then the one with Pheelz and Bella Shmurda. I wanted a project where everyone could relate to a song on it.

Tell us a few fun facts about you
I am a church boy. I also love playing video games. I think people don’t know I also play football really well. I was even considering going into football professionally when I was younger.

Finally, what would you say is the experience that you want people to get from your artistry?
Good music. Whenever someone listens to my music, I want them to feel proud of the project. I want to be able to keep up to that expectation and not deviate from it. Whenever you listen to DJ Shawn’s music, you know it has good vibes.
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