Today we’d like to introduce you to Shane Peterson.
Hi Shane , thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My relationship with music began well before I picked up an instrument. I was surrounded by the music that would inspire me to this day thanks to my mom, sister, and dad. I inherited our massive CD book that held 200 discs which acted as an alchemistic blend of music that wasn’t played on the radio or available in the over-compressed, 60 seconds or less HitClips cartridge format; Sade from my mom, DMX from my sister, and Black Sabbath from my dad. This along with the rot-your-teeth sweet slow jams from the radio and edgy industrial and nu-metal from video game soundtracks would set me on an undying quest for any and all music, especially if it was strange.
Playing the trumpet in school was never enough music in the day, so I begged for a guitar. These instruments would be my confidants for everything going on in my head while I was an outwardly quiet child.
I broke out of my shell in my late teens by the force of the Sunshine State. There is a certain belligerence that growing up in Florida will instill within you- and it is evident in Florida’s music scene. The face-melting heat and humidity caused artists to suppurate music from all genres with one thing in common… aggression. Florida raised me on the metal that would push the limits of detuning guitars, rap that blasted you in the face like machine gun fire, booty bass with dizzying 808 cymbals, and dub reggae that would rattle the windows off of a dancehall.
I was a bored kid with nothing to but take this all in and dig into the trenches of obscure music boards on the internet. My best friend and first collaborator Chandler, who now makes music as Chasm, and I started making brutal goregrind on an ancient laptop for no one but us. This has been my philosophy ever since; Make weird music for yourself and the sake of making crappy art rather than mass appeal or an algorithm.
We soon started making dark thumping trap beats which would never make it on any rapper’s mixtape or Soundcloud. Were they too experimental or ahead of their time? They were most likely terrible, but I guess we’ll never know. Regardless, this was my introduction to hip hop and rap production. With a lack of equipment or DAW literacy, I had to get creative. This led me to always seek sounds from bizarre places and teach myself how to produce in a way that was unorthodox.
In college I featured on others’ projects as a guitarist or contributing to half-baked beats but struggled to write for myself. I lacked the confidence of someone who could complete a project, perform live, or develop an aesthetic. This all changed when I moved to NC. Walking down Franklin st. in Chapel Hill, I saw a pull-tab flyer looking for an eggpunk guitarist. I had no friends in NC, was struggling to make beats for nobody to hear, but had nothing to lose. I submitted videos of me playing to this ad and heard nothing for about 2 months… I was devastated. That was until Dani (now in Hex Files) reached out about an audition. I tried out and they accepted… but we had a gig in 6 days. So I learned 11 songs and played Tracks Music Series with Bonies. This led me to countless gigs multiple times a week at times where I played all over the Triangle and met so many wonderful bands, venue operators, and people who accepted me as an artist. I could write a whole love letter to the NC music scene, but I’m being long-winded as it is.
While cutting teeth in the punk scene, then coworker, Eddie Lo helped me bring my rap beats and DJing to an audience and collaborators. He was the first person to hear my hip hop production and give me a chance. For this, I owe him everything that MADHUNNY is and will be. Bonies came and went after a year and a half, so the lovely people in Narsick took me in as a punk orphan and nurtured me as an artist in a vulnerable and uncertain time. Adapting to a new band with a sizable catalog was daunting but Narsick allowed me to finally be able to compose fully written songs where I felt stuck. Now my confidence is high because I can produce hip hop/ punk/whatever that makes me proud.
I recently left Narsick so I can pour my full heart into MADHUNNY and a psychedelic fuzzed out punk project that is in the works. MADHUNNY is and always will be an avenue to be genreless and keep the same philosophy I swore to as an adolescent. Though MADHUNNY is where I make beats for rappers and DJ house music , ghettotech, and jungle, I am ultimately a free agent held at gunpoint by whatever inspires me next.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The only reason music has not been a smooth road is my own mentality. I held myself back with a lack of confidence while doubt told me it was cringe to be authentic and nobody wants or cares about my art. The liberating part is that nobody does care and you have nothing to lose in being creative. I believe you can only reach true enlightenment when you accept that you are cringe and that being cringe can be good. The smooth road has been having the support of fellow artists, a thriving scene that gives you a platform as long as you have art to show, and supportive friends and fans that come out to show me how loved I really am.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I work as a case-manager at a local non-profit called Communities In School of Wake County. I have a caseload of 50 kids based on attendance, behavior, coursework, social-emotional learning, and basic needs supports. I get to work with young people all over Wake County in order to surround them with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Raleigh is lightning in a bottle. Music is oozing from cracks and crevices of the “DM for address” DIY spaces and dive bars while also enveloping the whole downtown in noise from festivals like Hopscotch and Dreamville. And we get to enjoy all of this with FOUR seasons? That means a lot to a Floridian who was stuck on broil for 26 years.
The thing I like least about Raleigh is that we are letting small music venues close. Enough with the gentrified gastropubs, mixology bars, and other places where social media tagging is the first thought. Hungry, go have some dubious popcorn from the corner of the music venue. Slip a crumpled up $10 bill in the artist’s tip bucket while you’re at it. They’re starving.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.vultressrecords.com/madhunny
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/madhunnyy
