Shane Newville

Hip-hop beatmaker, drum'n'bass producer, and sound engineer Shane Newville grew up with classic rock but came to electronica by way of the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers. After beginning to make his own beats starting in 1995, he encountered the Sackcloth Fashion song "Pulling a Fast One" in the Christian music magazine Seven Ball. Newville was fascinated by the energetic hip-hop track, and when he noticed it was released by the Syntax label, he immediately decided he must work for the label. And he immediately did start working for the label, but for their street team, handing out flyers and promoting the music. Newville kept sending demos up the chain, and after a few years he got the call up to Syntax headquarters. Syntax would have to wait, though, since Newville had won a Mackie scholarship to the SAE Institute, a top audio engineering school located in Nashville. After graduating he would head to San Diego, join the Syntax team, and begin making beats for the likes of RedCloud and Marcos from P.O.D. In 2007 the label released Newville's own debut album, the drum'n'bass-flavored Formless.