Shreem x Celtic Remixing

Jay Andrews combines two very different musical genres into a sonic hybrid.

“I think one of the biggest challenges is that sometimes Celtic music and electronic music just don’t work together,” shares Jay Andrews via e-mail. “For this new sound, I have really had to look everywhere I can for inspiration, and it comes from the oddest places.”

“This new sound” is Andrews’ latest music project: Shreem – Celtic Remixing.

A percussionist currently based in Toronto, Andrews has performed both as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians across Canada. His musical ventures started in his hometown of Halifax at the age of 7, drumming in local and area pipe bands. Within a few years, he was composing his own drum scores, soon after trying his hand at the turntables.

“When I started DJing at 17 I really took an interest in doing my own music and projects,” he says. “I began producing mashup music for another show I performed called ‘Sticks’, and then I started making my own beats and productions.”

Andrews’ interest in “mashups” came from a love of blending two musical genres together. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that his recent effort is a blend of two worlds that don’t, at least on first consideration, necessarily line up.

“When I was growing up, my Celtic music CDs were right beside my hip-hop and pop CDs.

“I have always been drawn to a really good ‘trad’ tune, and I enjoy making contemporary electronic music, so thought I would try it.”

Rawlins Cross, The Rankin Family, Natalie MacMaster are just a few of the East Coast artists he grew up listening to. Even as his sonic horizons expanded to reggae, hip hop and dance, the love of Celtic music never left him.

“I started mixing old recordings with electronic music, and then began playing electronic drums, beat boxing, and cajon with different fiddlers on the east coast. I would play a Celtic gig from 8pm-10:30pm, hop in my car, and DJ a club from 11pm-3:30am. After a while something had to give, so I began writing my own Celtic remixes.”

Andrews was fortunate to collaborate with one of his biggest influences, Cape Breton musician Ashley MacIsaac, producing the fiddler’s latest recording, FDLR, and touring with him across North America. He’s come full circle, he says, blending all his past musical experience together.

“My goal has always been to bridge the gap between traditional Celtic music and current electronic music trends and sounds,” he continues. “I want to take the traditional Celtic songs from my childhood and create a soundscape around them which covers a much larger sonic spectrum than is normally heard in that particular genre.”

He keeps an open mind during his creative process, seeing challenges as opportunities. There aren’t many other people dabbling in Celtic fusion – perhaps only Afro Celt Sound system and Martyn Bennett – so Andrews allows the ideas to flow freely, with limitless possibilities. The results are powerful; big, low-end drums and synthesizers contrast against traditional Celtic melodies, showcasing Andrews’ vocal percussion as well as his drumming.

“I’ve always felt a lot of emotion when listening to traditional Celtic music, and I want to magnify that experience and create something bigger from it.”

He also hopes to better connect Celtic and contemporary music lovers. If public response is any indication, he has succeeded, with positive feedback coming from listeners, young and old – including everyone from rappers to fiddlers – and even those who aren’t familiar with Celtic music.

“It’s awesome to see people really taking an interest in a new project that’s so close to my heart…something I created. It blows my mind!”

In the coming months, Andrews will continue to promote Shreem and raise awareness of Celtic remix music across the country, showcasing the album through concerts akin to a “non-stop Celtic music party” with a stage full of live fiddles, step-dancing, beat boxing and electronic looping. - Celtic Life International

Having just been involved in the Amazing Celtic Island event on Toronto Island, I had to follow up with DJ Shreem who played an absolute blinder to close the night!!

He had absolutely everyone on the dance floor and had more than a few new fan girls by the end of the night - CraicTO

Jay Andrews admits it’s kind of funny for a lifelong Haligonian to move to Toronto before finally releasing something quintessentially Nova Scotian: a Celtic album.

But his latest project, Shreem, was something that had been inevitable since his childhood. For close to six years now, Andrews worked on it while juggling his DJ gigs, touring and co-producing records with music legends like Ashley MacIsaac.

“I’d been trying to develop the sounds that were in my head, and it took a long time — and a lot of trial and error,” says Andrews. “I’m definitely not the first artist to combine Celtic and electronic music, one of my goals was to take a contemporary approach — taking newer styles of electronic music and blending that with my drumming and beatboxing.”

Celtic music has always been a huge part of Andrews’ life. Growing up, he drummed with pipe bands and took private drum lessons. His drumming talents led to his worldwide success as Sticks as he opened for the likes of Skratch Bastid, GirlTalk, Steve Aoki and The Black Eyed Peas.

His 2016 Sticks release, Mums Drums, included more than 230 samples from Top 40 songs like Kelis’ Milkshake and 2 Unlimited’s Get Ready For This to John Mellencamp’s Jack & Diane and U2’s With or Without You. Andrews knew he wanted to try the same mash-up approach except with Celtic music.

“It’s nobody’s fault, but Celtic music — like a lot of traditional music — doesn’t progress like other types of music, in this world where people always want something new,” says Andrews. “One of my goals is to try to make something new out of something that’s older, so I can help — even in the smallest way — to advance Celtic music and open it up to new people.”

The new eight-track album, Celtic Remixing, includes features from different artists he’s met over the years. It was recorded in Halifax and co-produced by Dartmouth hip-hop artist and producer Cam Smith, so Andrews says it’s a truly Maritime production despite his current Toronto address.

Halifax native and ECMA-nominated folk artist Shannon Quinn is featured on the track Good Good Bad. Wide Awake features rapper Kao, who’s from St. Lucia but went to school in Halifax and played drums with Andrews for a few years. Celtic musician Maggie Jane MacDonald — from the dynamic sister duo of Cassie and Maggie — lends her talent to Wasn’t I, and both sisters are featured in Hurricane.

Andrews says he honestly wasn’t sure what kind of reaction Shreem would garner, but it’s been positive.

“I’ve heard from so many people — all different walks of life — who are really enjoying it,” says Andrews. “Some of them have never even heard Celtic music, and some really enjoy traditional Celtic music and like how I’m remixing it.”

He’s also released a four-track EP that anyone can download free on his SoundCloud page (soundcloud.com/shreem_music). He’s in the process of booking live dates and plans to incorporate lots of live musicians — running the sets together so it feels like an energetic kitchen party.

Andrews still DJs as Sticks, and describes Sticks and Shreem as “two separate entities.” It’s obvious why his intense drumming led to the name Sticks, but how did he come up with the name for this new project? He says he was inspired by the Hindu Goddess Lakshmi — the goddess of prosperity, wealth, purity, generosity, and the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm.

“Shreem is a Buddhist word with tons of meanings, but one of them is ‘to gain prosperity for doing something you love or enjoy.’ Not financial prosperity, but spiritual happiness,” explains Andrews. “I make the stuff I really like making, and now — with Celtic and DJing and production — it’s kind of gone full circle for me.” - Chronicle Herald

Shreem is the alias of Jay Andrews, a former pipe band drummer and professional percussionist based in Toronto. Possibly seeking to redress the absence of Celtic folk music from nightclub soundsystems, Celtic Remixing sees him combine samples of traditional tunes and songs with a variety of electronic genres.

What’s clear from the outset is that, as well as being grounded in traditional Celtic music, Andrews is also an adept producer, with a feel for what makes good dance music tick, electronic or otherwise.

Polka’s Stay Trill flips back and forth effortlessly between regular, double and half time, creating a well-balanced sense of build up and release. Meanwhile the aptly named Forward is a ball of positive energy, with all the makings of a dancefloor anthem - but with a driving fiddle reel at the centre.

Perhaps the best thing about Celtic Remixing though, is that while the electronic elements of the tracks stand up in and of themselves, neither do the folk tunes jar against them or seem out of place. The uilleann pipes are perfectly suited to the cavernous and foreboding atmosphere of Steps, while on Good Good Bad, Shannon Quinn’s snaking fiddle line fits in perfectly where the lead synth normally would in a dubstep track.

Similarly, Wasn’t I is a gorgeous down-tempo trip hop track, where the lead vocals happen to be in Gaelic, interspersed with staple hornpipe The Rights Of Man on fiddle. Unfortunately, the same doesn’t quite hold true for Wide Awake, where Kayo’s monotone rapping doesn’t do a lot to justify inclusion either in terms of wordplay or delivery.

Regardless, in Celtic Remixing Shreem has crafted a well-produced album of up to date sounding dance and electronica with a strong Celtic identity running through it. And hopefully one that will turn more producers and listeners on to the traditional material that inspired it. - Bright Young Folk