When Shaquille received a message on Instagram asking if he would be interested in writing songs for popular K-pop groups he thought it was an elaborate joke. Still only 25, music has always been his passion - revealed by the countless videos he shares of himself writing, producing and performing his own original music.
Success has been hard to come by for Shaquille however, who is well known in the Manchester music scene. Until he got a break in Asia, the furthest he had got was an appearance on Britain's Got Talent as part of a duo with his older brother.
"I got this message on Instagram and it was from a guy saying 'do you wanna work with me to compose tracks for K-Pop artists?'
"As a musician you get a lot of DMs like that, but my mum always taught me to never say no to an opportunity, so I went along with it. It was a bit dodgy at first because he was quite shy and we only spoke via video and his English wasn't strong."
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What is K-Pop?
K-Pop is short for Korean pop. A billion dollar industry, K-Pop has seen a rise in popularity in recent years - not just South Korea, but the whole world, thanks to the success of acts like EXO, BLACKPINK and BTS.
There's a set path to becoming a K-Pop star. In South Korea, before somebody is crowned as a K-Pop idol, they are signed by an agency or record label - from as young as 10-years-old - as a trainee.
Once signed, they are sent to a special school where they take singing, dancing and acting lessons. Once the training is done, they graduate to the role of a K-Pop idol and are assigned to join different groups, tv shows or movies by their labels.
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Shaquille believes he was discovered when a song he submitted for a competition was shared by a popular US based A&R. Now as a K-Pop songwriter, Shaquille works with a team to compose and record the English version of a song before it is pitched to record labels who buy the record and adapt it to their K-Pop audience.
In just over a year, Shaquille has written for acts including the legendary K-Pop group, EXO; Monsta X; NCP and Astro. The venture has worked well for Shaquille.
While the money isn't enough for him to quit his day job as a restaurant supervisor, he says it has been enough to "change the trajectory" of his life by allowing him to move out of his mum's.
He told the MEN: "In Manchester I feel like I'm just working in a restaurant, but in Korea I feel like a big, hot-shot producer which is a bit humbling.
"It's definitely allowed me to change the trajectory of my life. It's not enough to make up my salary, but I got a decent amount of money.
"To put it in to perspective, I wrote a song which was the least popular song for a band. Because the band was so big, the song was big and that got me like £8K from the first six months the song was out.
"It's all relative and royalty based. It depends on how well the song does, how many people are buying it and how much merch is sold off it.
"It's progression and developing so I'm grateful, at the very least I'm doing things off my own back and my family aren't stressed about me. I'm learning about the global the market, not just Manchester, I love the togetherness of Manchester, but it can be quite cliquey.
"Whereas in Korea I've realised that there's whole countries and cities that would buy someone's music that Manchester wouldn't really warm to."
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