Sultan + Shepard

Sultan and Shepard (stylized as Sultan + Shepard) are a Canadian electronic music duo who frequently collaborate in record production, songwriting, and remixing.

Sultan was born Ossama Al Sarraf. After living in Kuwait, Cyprus, and Egypt, he moved to Montreal in 1996 to pursue Mechanical Engineering and Business at McGill University.

While in university, he became immersed in Montreal nightlife and the house scene. A series of gigs DJing led to the release of his first track, “Primal Instinct”. Sultan was signed to Chug Records in 2001. In 2004, Sultan starred in a documentary Being Osama which detailed his Christian Palestinian roots.

In 2002, after seeing Sultan, Ned Shepard, also a student at McGill DJing in Montreal, Shepard gave him a demo CD of music he had been working on. Sultan called Shepard the following morning and expressed an interest in producing together.

Shepard cites Brian Eno, Underworld, The Chemical Brothers, Faithless, and Sasha & John Digweed among his major inspirations. Sultan cites the same artists as well as Daft Punk and Deep Dish.

In 2008, they formed Harem Records to release their music.