Sheppard's music career started in the
punk and
alternative rock scenes, working with and remixing music for such artists as
Skinny Puppy,
Ministry,
Jesus Jones,
The Cult,
The Clash and
New Order. Starting in the 1980s, he worked as a DJ and host of several warehouse parties and
raves in the
Toronto area. By the mid-1980s he was deejaying at Toronto dance clubs such as The Edge, The Domino Club and The Copa, eventually becoming a featured DJ at
RPM. In 1985, while working at The Copa,
CFNY program director
David Marsden heard Sheppard's work and hired him as the host of a Saturday night alternative dance music show called
Club 102. The following year, Sheppard resigned from CFNY during the station's restructuring and subsequently deejayed for
Greater Toronto Area dance music stations
Energy 108 and
Z103.5. His dance music radio program,
Pirate Radio, later renamed
Groove Station, went into
syndication and was broadcast from stations across
Canada. During this time, Sheppard released several
compilation albums of dance music via his own record label, Pirate Records & Music. His compilation album series included
Pirate Radio Sessions,
Destination Dance Floor,
Groove Station and
Club Cutz. In the 1990s he would at times perform at clubs under the name DJ Dogwhistle and released two compilation albums as Dogwhistle Soundsystem. He adopted the Dogwhistle alias due to a contractual conflict. Sheppard formed the
techno group
BKS whose first album was released in 1992. The group's single "Astroplane (City of Love Mix)" won the 1997
Juno Award for Best Dance Recording and the video for the single won them the 1996
MuchMusic award for Best Dance Video. Sheppard formed
Love Inc. in 1997, along with vocalist
Simone Denny and fellow producer/remixer Brad Daymond. Love Inc. won the
Juno Award for Best Dance Recording for "Broken Bones" and in 2001 for "Into the Night". Sheppard stopped releasing music in the 2000s and his last reported public appearance was on a 2014 episode of the
Humble & Fred podcast. ==Discography==