Erik Shiboski, born in Berkeley, CA, picked up the bass
at age 10 and started making beats when GarageBand first popped up on the iMac.
Influenced as a young musician by the production of beat-makers like J- Dilla and Flying Lotus, Shibo began experimenting more with beat-making as a side project to his jazz studies on the bass.
As a student at UCLA’s music school, Shibo studied jazz composition and bass performance while also becoming more involved in a growing community of young musicians and producers. His jazz background and his peers continue to influence his approach to music-making. While so much of the hip-hop that’s influenced him involves sampling of others records, Shibo replaces the familiar process of digging through discographies by creating and recording his own samples.
With an organic pick-up through sharing of track snippets on social media, and inspiration from the music climate surrounding him, Shibo released his first single ‘Getaway’ in 2018, which appeared at the top spot of Spotify’s ‘Fresh Finds’ playlist the week of release. Shibo would go on to release his debut EP ‘Things Are Good’ in 2019, further establishing his unique blend of instrumental funk and lofi beats.
Around the same time, he formed a musical partnership with college friend and bandmate Nick Dorian. Shibo would go on to produce breakout singles ‘Yawn’ and ‘pH‘ with Dorian, along with Nick’s first two albums ‘Hamburg Style’ and ‘Planet Stardom’. Dorian and Shibo released a fully collaborative EP in late 2019 under AWAL entitled ‘My Friend Dorian’.
at age 10 and started making beats when GarageBand first popped up on the iMac.
Influenced as a young musician by the production of beat-makers like J- Dilla and Flying Lotus, Shibo began experimenting more with beat-making as a side project to his jazz studies on the bass.
As a student at UCLA’s music school, Shibo studied jazz composition and bass performance while also becoming more involved in a growing community of young musicians and producers. His jazz background and his peers continue to influence his approach to music-making. While so much of the hip-hop that’s influenced him involves sampling of others records, Shibo replaces the familiar process of digging through discographies by creating and recording his own samples.
With an organic pick-up through sharing of track snippets on social media, and inspiration from the music climate surrounding him, Shibo released his first single ‘Getaway’ in 2018, which appeared at the top spot of Spotify’s ‘Fresh Finds’ playlist the week of release. Shibo would go on to release his debut EP ‘Things Are Good’ in 2019, further establishing his unique blend of instrumental funk and lofi beats.
Around the same time, he formed a musical partnership with college friend and bandmate Nick Dorian. Shibo would go on to produce breakout singles ‘Yawn’ and ‘pH‘ with Dorian, along with Nick’s first two albums ‘Hamburg Style’ and ‘Planet Stardom’. Dorian and Shibo released a fully collaborative EP in late 2019 under AWAL entitled ‘My Friend Dorian’.