Shawn Fornight, also know as John Soulcox and SasA is a boundary-pushing music producer and sound engineer with over 20 years of experience, known for his genre-blending approach that spans hip-hop, UK garage, funk, and more. Collaborating with over 500 artists across Europe and the U.S.
Shawn Fornight didn't come from a musical family, and they didn’t even have a cassette player at home. At the age of 12, he discovered the music composition software ModPlug Tracker, which kickstarted his music career. As he delved deeper into the world of music, Shawn expanded his toolkit by acquiring turntables and beginning to crate dig old records, incorporating these elements into his compositions. This newfound passion also led him to explore DJing, scratching, and other aspects of turntablism, further enriching his musical expertise.
In the second half of the 90s, he became interested in alternative hip hop, a genre few people in the Czech Republic knew about at the time. He experimented with genres like jungle, drum and bass, and UK garage. By 2000, Shawn had released his first instrumental album and began collaborating with artists under his former stage name SasA, marking the beginning of a new chapter in his evolving musical journey.
In 2001, he founded his first hip hop band, ZPS, and between 2001 and 2004, he produced six albums with various artists. In 2005, he released his first producer album, which featured guest artists from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Russia.
The album was distributed as an insert with BBarak magazine, the largest hip hop media outlet in the Czech Republic at the time. Unfortunately, part of the album was confiscated when the studio was sealed, and the remaining copies sold out.
To these events was added the fact that the rap group Supercroo, which was also recording in the same studio, left the studio with stolen recordings of their new album and, after the arrest of Patrick, began publicly stating that he deserved the arrest and the like. This angered Shawn Fornight so much that he recorded the single "Superprujem" along with a music video, which became a hit on the then-emerging YouTube. The video also led to a physical altercation between Shawn Fornight and Supercroo, resulting in a beef between these artists that lasted many years.
A year later, he was captivated by funk and founded the band Symtom FONK, for which he began composing music. In 2006, he won the Czech TicTac HipHop Talents competition, which allowed him to establish his first studio. He also began directing music videos.
From 2007 to 2011, he composed music for artists from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, England, and Russia in genres such as hip hop, RnB, funk, and UK garage. In 2012, he started collaborating with another renowned Czech grime producer.
After the birth of his daughter in 2013, he began building a new studio outside of his home, which he named Artstar, focusing on sound engineering. Between 2013 and 2018, over 200 clients passed through his studio, including pop artists, actors, and voice-over artists. In 2018, an improvised recording session at his studio produced a hit that launched the careers of all the artists involved.
In 2019, he built the Artstar audiovisual complex, which included a large recording studio and audiovisual studios. Due to the pandemic in 2020, it was impossible to operate the studio, so he created the concept "Spittin Studio Session"—a series of UK drill tracks featuring international guests. Thanks to this series, he became the most sought-after UK drill producer and sound engineer in the Czech Republic.
In 2022, he moved to South Florida and opened a new studio, Midnightlion, where he continues to collaborate with artists from around the world and expanded his music portfolio to include dancehall and reggaeton. To date, he has worked with more than 500 artists, composed over 3,000 tracks, and garnered tens of millions of streams. He continues to move between Europe and the USA and remains a key figure in music production.
