Who SHOUSE are
SHOUSE are a Melbourne duo, Jack Madin and Ed Service, who started working together in 2015. Their sound is house production built around big communal vocals, the sort of thing that sounds like a room full of people who all know each other.
Their track Love Tonight came out in 2017, recorded with a choir of friends, and then went global in 2021 after a run of remixes and a viral wave. It reached number 22 on the ARIA Singles Chart, number 3 on the ARIA Dance Chart, number 18 in the UK, and number 8 on the US Hot Dance charts. In Australia it is certified five times platinum.
APRA AMCOS gave Love Tonight a Billions Award when it passed one billion streams. In 2024 the duo won an ARIA for Most Performed Dance or Electronic Work with Jason Derulo on Never Let You Go, and their 2025 debut album Collective Ecstasy includes Call My Name and collaborations with Cub Sport and Vance Joy.
Why a saxophone belongs in their set
The original recording of Love Tonight already has saxophone on it. It is not a decoration bolted on for a live show, it is part of how the track breathes. On stage SHOUSE have played with singers, a choir and a saxophonist, and one of their stripped configurations is the two of them with two vocalists and a sax player.
That is the space I was brought into for the 2Day FM promo on Sydney Harbour on 29 October 2026. Live sax over their set, with charts prepared for three tracks: Call My Name, Won't Forget You and Love Tonight.
What the job actually involved
Nothing about playing over a household track is improvised on the day. The work happens before you get there. For this set that meant charting all three songs, marking where the sax enters, and giving Call My Name extra bars at the front so the entrance lands instead of colliding with the vocal.
Then the practical side: a wireless setup, self contained sound, and reading a room that is outdoors, near water, at an event where nobody is sitting down.
Why they had a saxophonist at all
Because a DJ set and a live set are different things. A duo playing their own hits can carry a room on energy and vocals alone. Adding a live horn gives the crowd something to watch as well as hear, and it gives the vocal a partner on the biggest lines.
Both Jack and Ed wrote to me afterwards to say thank you. That is not something that happens on every job, and it says more about how they run their shows than anything I could tell a client.
If you are putting live sax over a DJ set
Three things make it work: charts prepared in advance, a wireless setup so you can move, and an agreement with the DJ about who leads. When those three are right, the horn stops being an add on and becomes part of the arrangement.
If you are planning an event with a DJ, or a brand activation that needs live music that matches the room, get in touch and tell me what the night is meant to feel like.