It's A Kinda Magic

Hazel Savage, a music encoder with Shazam the world's most popular mobile phone app for hunting down elusive song titles or artists has taken time out from encoding music (aka witchcraft) to chat to the Devil about the Shazam sessions, the music that brings her joy and her love of roller disco.

The Devil: If Shazam had been invented in the middle ages you'd have all been burned as witches. Tell me how the app works?

Hazel: Well there is a distinct rumour going around that it is actually magic, or that there are 1000s of us sat in a call centre recognising millions of songs in our heads, neither of these are true....it’s the miracle of super computers and algorithms....if I tell you anything else I’ll have to kill you.

The Devil: If the Shazam app was an animal which animal would it be?

Hazel: Hummm tough one, I’m gonna say Aardvark, nifty, resilient & tough and also they very first...in the dictionary, or in our case the music recognition arena!

The Devil: Tell me more about the Shazam sessions

Hazel: The Shazam sessions are stripped down acoustic session of the best and most exciting global artists. We want them to offer additional content to our customers and also give artists a new way to reach our 1 million daily users.

The Devil: What is your favourite Shazam session?

Hazel: That is like asking me to pick a favourite child! There are so many good ones, a few favourites would be Dinosaur Pile Up, Buck 65 & Men, especially MEN as I’m a huge JD Samson fan! But, if I could only pick one it would be Foxy Shazam, they blew me away with their talent; it was also the 1st session we ever did, if I was filming it again I’d do some things different....but I still love it.

The Devil: What would be your ultimate Shazam session? Which bands/artists would you love to feature on a Shazam session

Hazel: I’d love to get some of the greats in like Bruce Springsteen, Debbie Harry, Dave Grohl oh and Bon Jovi, I think I’d die, I’m a huge closet fan, don’t tell anyone! But I am also more than happy to hear all the new artists coming through.

The Devil: Which bands/artists on the current music scene makes your spine tingle with joy?

Hazel: My favourite bands, well currently I have Against Me! The Peacocks and Alkaline Trio on rotation, that’s right....I’m a rocker!

The Devil: What was the first artist/band you had a crush on?

Hazel: Humm I don’t really crush on the famous....my first musical idols were Abba though, me and my friend used to dress up as the two girls and perform the songs.

The Devil: What was the first record you bought?

Hazel: This is not good, I was really into roller disco at the time and I bought “Total Eclipse of the Heart” not even the original, the Nicki French version...for my next interview I’m going to make something cooler up.

The Devil: Favourite song?

Hazel: This depends what day you ask me...there is generally a top five, Older Than Punk by the Peacocks and Time to Waste by Alkaline Trio are battling for the top spot today!

The Devil: Favourite book?

Hazel: Nevil Shute ‘On The Beach’ possibly the finest work of post apocalyptic fiction ever

The Devil: Favourite Movie?

Hazel: Cube, love the whole trilogy!

The Devil: Favourite word?

Hazel: For my sins I say Awesome! A LOT

The Devil: Tell me something that you've never told anyone before.

Hazel: Impossible, I’m a real gobshite, I have kept no secrets sorry!

The Devil: What's next for Shazam?

Hazel: More social integration and the tagging of TV shows for additional content, it’s the future!

The Devil: If you were interviewing yourself what would your killer question be and how would you answer it?

Hazel: My killer question is to ask someone if they could’ve written one song from history what would they pick, dont steal my question! (the Devil can I borrow it then?) And the answer....well i’ll refer you back to my favourite song choice above!

The Devil: Is there anything else you'd like to tell the Devil Has The Best Tuna readers?

Hazel: Well since your readers seem to love music discovery and so do we, I’d like to advise them just to keep on keeping on!

Go Visit

Shazam Sessions - YouTube

Go View

Buck 65
Gee Whizz



Foxy Shazam
Oh Lord



Go Try

Here are a couple of tracks by bands that have featured on the Shazam Sessions.

Wanna-Be Angel by Foxy Shazam by divisionpromotions

SUMMER HIT SINGLE by DINOSAUR PILE-UP

MEN- Credit Card Babie$ by Anorak London