Published on 10 June 2019 2 min read

Thinking Big with Maisie Williams is a monthly podcast where our Co-Founder, Maisie Williams, sits with influential creatives leading the way in their industries. This month Maisie is joined by Shy FX. They discuss his favourite places to perform, what his future looks like and the importance of giving back.

André Williams, better known as Shy FX, is a DJ and Producer from London who has dominated the drum and bass and jungle scenes for decades. The name, Shy FX, stems from a childhood nickname. He considered himself to be quite socially awkward at school, and so became known as 'Shy'; he says the 'FX' came later. Despite his world-fame, Shy claims that he is still not comfortable performing in front of large crowds.

Shy explains that his path into the music industry would have not been possible without the help of a scheme that was set up in Hackney, where he grew up; which allowed him to get onto a sound engineering course and into his first placement in a studio. This experience was the beginning of his long and successful career as one of the World's biggest DJ's and Producers and he believes that without this opportunity, his path would have been very different. Shy has recently curated a project called Cult.ure that consists of a series of events and pop-ups. Cult.ure was started as a way to give back to those who have supported him, but may not have the means to attend his shows. He has plans to build on this in the near future, organising workshops for those looking to get into the industry. Shy has a long-standing belief that it's his responsibility to give people the opportunities that he received, and this project will be part of that bigger purpose.

Collaboration has been a core element throughout Shy's career. However, at the beginning, Shy made music alone; and says that collaborating later on changed the game for him. Now, he always prefers to bring in other artists to bring new energy and mix up styles. He believes it's important to work alone for a while to develop your own style, but that there's a certain magic to collaboration. It is what has allowed him bring the innovation that we have come to associate with his music.

Shy and Maisie also discuss his most memorable performances and what he's got planned for the future of his music, listen to the full podcast here