Shift K3y Details

A London kid through and through – born, raised and living in the city for all his 19 years thus far… An early adopter to the trade of a musician, in part due to his musical family but convinced it was in his blood anyway. Lewis ’Shift K3Y’ Jankel started playing around on the piano at an pretty early age ‘it was there in the house so it was just natural for me’, a keen musical ear lead to experimenting with a few other instruments to try and find his grounding as a musician. ‘I ended up at the Bass guitar at around 8 years old, played a variety of funk, soul, jazz etc, lots of elaborate bass sections. I still play bass now which probably explains what drew me towards production and the sound I have’. The exciting chemistry of what makes up this young talent are the chords of another kind too, vocal chords that is, ‘Singing has always been a love of mine my whole life but I really started taking that seriously in my last year at school’ the soul full vocals that bless many of his track including the bomb ‘Let You Down’ are testament to a broad appreciation of musical styles.

‘At the age of around 11 years old my Dad purchased a copy of Logic 5 and I started messing around remaking songs I liked and I quickly realized I had a love for everything Bass Heavy – a lot of House, Garage, 2-step, Hip-hop, Crunk, Industrial Folk Step of-course’. It was at 16 that Music and its potential vocation fully manifested itself in Shift K3Y and the point where he really started refining his armory of Bass talent and skill for an infectious melody and started studying composition and harmony whilst at school. ‘I was really focused at this time, trying to learn as much as I could about mixing down and mastering to improve my production’.

2011 saw his debut release which came via Bullet Train Records the label run by Marco Del Horno who picked up on this talent straight away. The response from “Step In The City” was pretty instant too and track’s like “Manage Ya” garnered support from the likes of BBC Radio 1, Radio 1xtra alongside a healthy bunch of high end scenesters.

In 2012 the love at Radio 1 continued, with Annie Mac tipping Shift K3Y as “one to watch’ for 2013 off the back of his self vocalled Trap bullet ‘Let You Down’(which received a full house of support from Radio 1 including Toddla T, Rob Da Bank, Mistajam and DJ Target). The love from Ms Mac continued at the start of 2013 with her debuting ‘What We Had’ from the Froze EP (due for release in February 2013).

Its pretty clear that what turned a lot of DJs on to the first EP and everything up to the point of the latest release is what actually defines this young Artist ‘my desire is to always include some sort of harmonic tonality throughout the whole release and not just to make it ambiguous atonal dance music’. Reassuring words from a young Artist/Producer/DJ but words that should secure him some real longevity and we sit safe in the knowledge that during that time we’ll be blessed with some pretty damn fine music.

Since the release of the Froze EP the demand for Shift K3Y’s expertise has risen from many labels and artists demanding remix work. He can now count the likes of Angel, Kat Dahlia, AlunaGeorge and King L as fans with an impressive string of remix releases. On top of that DJ bookings at Annie Mac Presents (London), Outlook Festival (Croatia) plus a mini tour at a selection of the best promoters in the UK has seen Shift K3Y become an all-round performer and entertainer as well as an incredible vocalist and producer.