“Golden Donna’s music is beautiful, blending ethereal soundscapes with boogie basslines—and it sounds just as good live.” Andrew Ryce, Resident Advisor

“Shanahan’s music always moves—forcefully, and with grace.” Phillip Sherburne, Bandcamp

Hailing from Portland, Oregon by way of Wisconsin, Golden Donna mastermind Joel Shanahan has been walking a wire between unhinged dance euphoria and lucid emotional content for well over a decade. Shanahan pulls shards of influence from a wide array of sonic influences and jams them through a singular lens, always experimenting, attempting to make every movement jump off the page in some way.

Over the years, Shanahan has released music with esteemed underground labels like 100% Silk, Mighty Force, CGI Records, Silva Electronics, Digitalis, and several others. He has also toured in 12 countries and performed for respected festivals like Drop Bass Network’s Even Furthur [yes, that’s the spelling], MUTEK’s Nexus Effect, and Musique Electronique at Fête de Marquette in Madison, Wisconsin.

As of 2022, Shanahan has been building up a completely new live set, which interlocks the moody, psychedelic atmosphere of his prior works and entangles it with gritty electro, unhinged acid pulses, and industrial wasteland textures—attempting to achieve dystopian catharsis.

photo credit: Victoria Renard