Simon Marlin and former member Max Reich make up The Shapeshifters. They are one of the most successful UK dance acts of all time, currently with well over 1,250,000 Spotify monthly listeners.
I’d worked with Simon Marlin (otherwise known as The Shapeshifters) showing him music theory, riff repetition and keyboard techniques to be utilised in his sophisticated Ableton and Logic masters. Simon’s a great guy and deserves his success. The course was an intensive two months; similar in many ways to the musical mentoring I’d given fellow dance music sensation, top international DJ/Producer Jamie Jones who attracts huge numbers to his raves across the globe.. Simon had a worldwide Number One smash, Lola’s Theme, now one of the best-selling dance music singles of all time, certainly from the UK.
The year was 2003, and quite unbelievably, Lola’s Theme was Simon’s debut release. The lifestyle of these hard-working and creative musicians is very lucrative, very competitive and very international. They deserve every penny they earn for the almost super-human work rate they somehow manage to maintain.
Anyway, all this took place at his then-wife Lola Marlin’s North London home, around 2013. I was surprised to discover that the key sample that underpins Lola’s Theme was in fact taken from vinyl sitting in a cabinet directly below where the piano stood! Definitely a story to dine out on for me. Lola, who I’m still occasionally in touch with was the song’s inspiration. She’s pretty impressive herself – and her pet dogs were the friendliest I’ve ever met. They used to prance in excitement to the music. In fact one might say that they’d bark to the beat!
