Check Out Gabriel Shaddow’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabriel Shaddow.

Gabriel, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It started 11 years ago in a cold shack in a medieval village in Ireland… (DJ scratch) no no no… Really though, it started 11 years ago when I would sneak into shows and I was developing my passion for photography because I was going through hard times “a break-up” and needed some sort of distraction to blow steam.

My friend Kevin Melody who now is one of the co-founders of Tapped in Podcast introduced me to HAM (HAM ON EVERYTHING) and Low-End Theory concerts. I was working at Louis Vuitton during the day because I loved fashion more than anything and at night was when I’d sneak into rap shows. Anyways I really thought I was into rap music until I went to these underground shows and it opened up my senses to new sounds.

I started shooting up a portfolio and was one of the first people in the live show photography “Instagram scene”.

Early on I was figuring out the Instagram algorithm and decided to shoot polaroids of artists, sign them and give them away to stand out. I circulated a buzz that gave me some sort of exposure and kept doing my thing as the artists became bigger. Keep in mind this is 10+ years ago on Instagram. I shot polaroids of Mac Miller, The Weeknd, YG, and Lil Wayne just to name a few. Polaroids were such a good business card, especially having signed my name on them. People would tell me “Hey man I have that polaroid you took of me on my refrigerator”. Later down the line I started going to festivals and ended up meeting Ty Dolla $ign‘s Dj Dre Sinatra.

I was super hungry at the time so I would blow up his phone a lot to see if he needed a shooter. Dre and I were working a lot, I’d pull up to Supper club and all the “popping Hollywood parties.” I remember I was at LA Fitness in Woodland Hills and Dre Sinatra had called me with Ty Dolla $ign on a three-way and they asked me if I wanted to go on tour. I was so excited, I didn’t really know who Ty was at the time but the idea of actually going on a tour bus, traveling the whole country, and doing what I love was mind-blowing. We had a successful tour, I got broken in into the music industry and ended up working with Ty for seven years after that. I was his creative director, photographer, video editor, graphic designer, and created screen visuals for his tours.

Ty was really a mentor/big brother to me and I thank him for letting me express all my creativity. He taught me how to make beats which were crazy because he also taught DJ mustard. Speaking on Dj Mustard, one of my close friends now and super fire producer James Royo who was Mustard’s engineer and apprentice happened to come on Ty’s tour to mix his album. On off time James and I would start cooking beats together. A few years later after taking producing really seriously I started branching out as a freelance photographer/creative director as well. Picking up clients like Offset, Lil Pump, and a lot of big labels. Anyways back to the producing side of things since it’s really my favorite. I ended up getting 2 tracks on Ty Dolla $ign‘s album “Featuring Ty Dolla $ign” which were titled “Lift Me Up” with Young Thug and Future as well as “Nothing Like Your Exes”. James and I started having a lot of sessions and making hundreds of records together.

This leads to now, I work with Taylor Gang & Wiz Khalifa as a creative and marketing director during the day and going crazy till the sun comes up in music studios M-F. I also have a podcast (Tapped in Podcast) now with who I mentioned before “Kevin Melody”. The podcast is focused on upcoming Hip-Hop artists and is a safe platform for artists to express and share their stories. We don’t look to incriminate artists by bringing up their cases or shooting “clickbait”. How many safe platforms can you name? I can’t complain, I love life and how things ended up. I can’t wait for the future and I definitely appreciate the present.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
We have all heard that life’s a rollercoaster. Chasing your dreams is just a longer roller coaster with more loops and turns. Of course, it wasn’t smooth. I didn’t grow up rich and have all the best equipment right away. I did have a great upcoming because my family was supportive of my vision. But I had to invest everything I made in myself. Even when people told me to save and say “that’s not a good investment”. I just remembered to BLOCK OUT THE NOISE “FOCUS”. You only got one life and a bunch of confusing paths made by millions of people. Why follow anyone when you’re chasing YOUR dreams? I decided to just do what I wanted and learn from my experiences. I loved losing it made me feel as if I gained knowledge. I turned L’s into lessons and I definitely made that quote up way back. One of my “struggles” in the beginning was getting my car broken into while I was working for Ty and losing 15k+ worth of hard-earned equipment. I felt invaded and followed literally wanted to quit and go back to working at Louis Vuitton.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Well, I’m mostly known for my music photography work. But I do a lot of creative things every day. Art is everything to me, my mom was a painter and my father was a pretty big composer. I start my day by waking up around 9 AM, making coffee, and hopping on label calls. I do a lot of Adobe Photoshop song covers, assets, and tons of video editing on Adobe Premiere during the day. Coming up with strategies for Taylor Gang’s artists as well as curating viral posts on socials for the brand. My days are busy it’s filled with music production, music management, and a music podcast. Every week we shoot a couple of episodes of the Tapped in Podcast which has been doing really good lately. I’d say I’m really knowledgeable in the internet world as far as trends in music, fashion, and social media. Recently I came off tour with Wiz Khalifa and was shooting both videos/photos. It was fascinating and some of the biggest shows I’ve been to, he’s such a cool dude. We would make video recaps every day from the previous show and I’d have 50+ photos for him to pick from daily. It’s intense but for upcoming photographers that have somewhat of the same vision you have to go on tour, it will change your life.

What work are you most proud of?
The proudest thing I’m working on definitely has to be music. It’s wild how I went from documenting music to producing music and it’s the best feeling. My dad wasn’t in my life and left before I could remember but he’s the craziest musician and plays every instrument. Every picture I have with him would be in a huge studio or near a guitar. I really don’t like talking on the subject but I feel as if my love for music has a lot to do with that. It’s my favorite therapy its what makes me feel alive. The ability to create something from nothing and can affect your emotions? It’s just tons of mistakes trials and errors, creating new strategies and remedies; really chemistry in a volume shape. That’s why we call it “The Lab”.That’s the best job ever, and I’ll never stop.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I’ll start with I love since I love being positive. Man, being born in LA and in the industry I’m in is the greatest blessing ever. People move from different planets to be here and chase their dreams. It was in my backyard for god sake! I always thought about moving since it’s easy to get comfortable out here, there are so many people and I wanted to try new things. But after tons of thinking, I realized I have to be here if I want to do music. It’s the best place for that and the majority of my family lives here. LA has the best weather somewhat of the best food and you can go to mountains, snow, and beaches not too far from where you are.

The least definitely has to rub off on the people. People get over the hill and get full of themselves. Egos are not my friends and people get lost out here in these industries. They’ll do anything to be anyone and hate everyone later on. I stay on my path, I know good people when I feel good people and have a great gut feeling. I don’t spend any energy on negative things. I don’t really take life too seriously and definitely not social media since it’s the capital here. I’ve studied this city so much I’m good and I can definitely tell when someone is new here.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gabeshaddow.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabeshaddow
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Tappedin
• Other: https://opensea.io/collection/unlisted