Shadi Megalla

Summit Session: Dubai Underground Scene & Culture

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Kicking off his Djing career in 1999, Shadi Megallaa moved up quickly in the industry and made a name for himself. Megallaa was one of the pioneers of the Dubai electronic scene in the early to mid 2000s, where he continuously pushed the scene forward introducing new darker, minimal sounds to unsuspecting crowds at various venues.

Shadi has been a part of the UAE’s underground music scene in the UAE since its early days & is still going strong today. As Megallaa gained exposure in the music industry, he shifted his focus toward producing music and released his original sounds on labels including Igloo records, Tic Tac Toe, Kalimari, Pink Silver, SK Supreme, Miniscule, Igloo & Leftroom Records amongst others. He decided to further his education when he then moved to New York to study Sound Engineering at the SAE Institute. Following his success and leveraging off his broadened knowledge of music production, he launched his own record label called Ark to Ashes in 2013.

Ark To Ashes features artists like The Coastal Commission, Grant Dell, Silverlining, Matt Star, Stardub, Rhauder & Reedale Rise. The label’s sound floats around the realms of ambient, dub techno, deep house & electro.. One of Megallaa’s most recent achievements was the opening of Dubai’s first record shop in the last 10 years, The Flip Side in May 2017. Since its opening, he has worked towards introducing a new music culture to the Dubai scene. He has also hosted various events to support local artists in the community as well as his famously known radio show The Shady Shadow Show, which has been widely admired since 2014. The Flip Side record shop is the main umbrella for Shadi’s many musical & creative projects.

Among a few of The Flip Side’s achievements have been being named as one of the world’s best record shops by Vinyl Factory as well as Conde Naste Traveller. Shadi has played at some notable parties like Brooklyn’s Black Market Membership, Resolute, Moscow’s Arma17, Montreal’s Stereobar as well as most recently Saudi Arabia’s MDL Beast Festival. In 2018, The Flip Side collaborated with Bastakiya Tapes x FIBRE x Freeze Flow Media on a short documentary titled “Magnetic Fossils” (Cassette Archaeology).. The aim of the documentary was to shed more light on cassette tape culture in the UAE & the Middle East in general. The Flip Side record shop is the main umbrella for Shadi’s many musical & creative projects. Shadi was also invited to play at Abu Dhabi’s first Boiler Room session in December of 2019. A couple of Shadi’s most recent achievements in 2021 were releasing his new record, The EXP EP on his Ark To Ashes label as well as being listed on the UAE Music Power List by the UAE online publication IAMCRU.

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