Words JOSHUA EVANS

It can be so difficult these days to carve out a unique space in the Youtube gaming landscape, with millions of channels dedicated to the craft, but for content creator Shae OT, he saw the challenge and rose to it. Combining his love of music with his passion for gaming, Shae began creating drill remixes of popular game themes such as The Last of Us, Assassin’s Creed and God of War, to name a few. Keeping him driven throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Shae’s passionate tracks started to gain respectable traction in the various online communities, until he posted his remix of the popular Nintendo game ‘Super Smash Bro’s Brawl’s main theme, which blew up entirely, with currently over 10 million views on TikTok and rising.

Shae’s talents were soon spotted by Sony, who hastily signed him to RCA Records, after a fierce bidding war. Fast forward a year, and Shae is about to release his first debut single “Choices” ft Backroad Gee, which is guaranteed to propel his career even higher. Determined to take his music to the masses, Shae OT has already started performing live, with a smash hit set last year at Birmingham’s MADE festival, with dreams of playing Coachella in the not too distant future.  

What first inspired you to remix game soundtracks?
It came from a love of gaming really. During the pandemic I sat down and played old computer games and I came across this game called Watchdogs and I set myself a challenge, that once I completed it, I would sample the main theme. I did that and I put that out and it got a little buzz, so from there on I started sampling other games and stuff and then obviously the Smash Bros one was the one that got a lot of wind and traction.

You come from quite a musical family don’t you?
Yes, yeah. My mum was a radio presenter and she’s also DJ as well and my dad was in So Solid Crew, he’s Neutrino from Oxide & Neutrino.

You mentioned the Smash Bro’s remix which went viral, with currently over 25 million views on Youtube. When did you realise that was taking off?
Literally, I put it out and went to sleep and I woke up and saw that it got a buzz, but the view count on TikTok was going up exponentially, it was ridiculous and I remember I went to my friends house and it went from 5,000 views to 300,000, and I thought it was unreal. It was such an amazing feeling at the time.

Did that put pressure on you when thinking about future content?
No, do you know what? It actually made me feel comfortable because I felt like I had an audience that was into what I was into. For me, it felt like more of a connection and you know, making more music will only make the connection better.

The success of that video led to you being signed by RCA Records, what was that like?
I remember, my management also managed my dad at the time, and they came in to help me out. There was a massive bidding war from other major labels and I remember the approach from RCA that came through and they had a really good deal proposed to me and I had to take it. It was the perfect deal for me, with the gaming side of things as well because it’s run by Sony.

Your debut single “Choices” is about to be released. What can listeners expect from the track?
So it’s called “Choices” (featuring Backroad Gee) and basically, off the back of the Smash Bro viral beat, the video is amazing, It’s literally me and Backroad Gee and it has a gaming feel to it. Backroad Gee has a mission and he needs to complete it, and I’m helping him through and it’s resolved around that. Even the title “Choices” revolves around that, so there’s a lot of meaning to that, the video, and where I’m at in my career right now.

Following on from the single, can fans expect your debt album soon?
Definitely, I’d say more singles at the moment though. I have thought about eventually recording an instrumental album as I have a lot of followers who love my beats, so that might be something I might consider down the line as well, collaborating with more producers and artists.

Do you have any advice to other content creators who want to follow your path?
Yeah, I’d honestly say don’t give up. It’s hard of course but for me, it was about testing out different types of content and finding my audience, but literally it’s about going out there and putting yourself out there and not having a fear of failure, because you’ll come back ten times stronger.

Without the fear of failure, in a dream scenario where would you like your music to take you?
Definitely, I’d say doing a massive performance at Coachella or something, you know places where you see the biggest artists in the world at those line-ups. Definitely something like that. To go down the DJing route is something I’ve wanted to do, so it would definitely to be performing in front of thousands to tens-of-thousands of people, for sure.