Dance music icon Sasha returns to matter on Saturday 6th March, when he’ll debut his brand new A/V DJ set with accompanying visuals from Piknic Electronik and matter’s in house team The Pixel Addicts, and support from Charlie May (live), DJ Three, Paul Woolford, Aeroplane and Friendly Fires (DJ set). Returning to the venue for the first time since late-2008, we caught up with him to find out what he’s got in store for the show, and what his touring and recording plans are for this year.
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Where are you at the moment, and what are your touring plans for the rest of the year?
I’m in Hong Kong for a gig tomorrow night – I’ve just finished headlining touring the Big Day Out festival in Australia, which was absolutely amazing.
In terms of the rest of the year, after this gig tonight my next one is at matter so I’ve got a month off to take a long awaited holiday – I haven’t had a break in a long time. After matter I’ve got some really cool things lined up at the music conference in Miami, and I’m just in the process of planning out the summer. I’m really trying to lock down Glastonbury, I really want to do that this year.
Really my focus has got back into DJing over the last couple of months. The Big Day Out tour was the first time in a while that I’ve toured with a visual aspect. I’m working with some visual artists from Montreal called Piknic Electronik that do a lot of stuff with Cirque du Soleil – they gave me a load of content and came out and DJed on the tour too. That was the first stage of it – the second incarnation is going to be taken a step further by The Pixel Addicts for the matter show, so I’m really looking forward to it. The matter set’s gonna be three hours long, my first club set with a visual element completely synched to it – I’m really excited.
Working with Piknic Electronik and the Pixel Addicts, were there any specific ideas or elements you wanted to bring to it that would raise it above what you’ve done before?
Yeah, I worked with the guys on storyboards and developing an identity to it, and I looked at what other people were doing and the things I really liked. I was inspired by things like Etienne De Crecy’s cube, and the Nine Inch Nails guys: the visual aspect to their shows has always been really powerful. For some reason a lot of the people involved in the visual arts are either French or French-Canadian: a lot of really cool people work out of Montreal. Piknic Electronik and the guys that work with Nine Inch Nails are out of Montreal, they’re quite a tight knit group.
I ended up working with Piknic Electronik because I went to Montreal to do a show a couple of years ago. I walked into this huge exhibition centre and the visuals they’d done for it were just out of this world, they were absolutely amazing. So I toured with them – we did a very low-budget tour in the states, just a very simple set-up, and they made it look fantastic. And then for the Big Day Out tour we had a bit more budget and they developed specific content for that. It’s just about developing that and taking it further – it’s in its infancy at the moment really.
So you think that as technology becomes more involved in people’s DJ sets, there’s going to be potential for it to go even further?
Absolutely, I think this is just the first incarnation of it and I think it’s just going to develop. The exciting thing that the Pixel Addict guys do is develop custom-built structures to use for their visuals. It’s a combination of visual mapping and LED stuff. That technology’s come down in price, but it’s all about content: it’s about what you’re mapping onto the visuals and how well it synchronises with the music. I’ve seen great visuals in a club before but if it’s not synchronised with what’s going on with the music it just doesn’t have that powerful effect. But when you see something like a UVA installation that they do for the Chemical Brothers or Massive Attack or Radiohead, and you see it all completely synched to the music, it just becomes something else completely.
Audiences are a bit more sophisticated with the visual side of things now – they respond more to the stuff that has that extra thought put into them…
I just think putting on a show is really important. It’s really exciting from my point of view, I’ve always just gone to festivals and DJed and relied on the production that’s there, but by bringing something that makes your show different to everyone else’s, it’s about getting inside people’s head and putting on a show. I think that’s really important these days.
The Etienne De Crecy show took a simple idea and showed how far you could take it – now the challenge is to take it that step further…
Yeah and to do something different – no-one wants to be derivative. I think the simple ideas are usually the most powerful. It’s about finding a simple idea but then delivering it in a really exciting and new way. With Etienne De Crecy, it’s the way that the cube was completely synched with his music that made it so powerful.
How about recording and production at the moment – you’ve done some remixes for Kasabian, Little Boots and Damian Lazarus recently – are there any others on the horizon or acts you’d like to remix?
I’ve got a few things on the go at the moment, but they’re more like re-edits I did for my Big Day Out show. I’m just working on a lot of mash-up re-edits for my live sets at the moment, but a couple of them are actually developing into full-on remixes. I know this sounds crazy but I did a Tiesto re-edit! He’s done this record with Jonsi from Sigur Ros, which is just a beautiful record so I’ve been working on that. There’s a couple of XX tracks I’ve got that I’m playing around with – a few things I’m messing around with but nothing’s an official remix at the moment.
Is that kind of carrying on the Involver concept?
Yeah, but I’m not really doing fully-fledged mixes – I’m just getting the stems of the parts from the producers and re-arranging stuff, putting some of my own sounds in. They’re just stuff I’m designing for my set. By the time I get to matter I want most of the set to be original re-edits and stuff, that’s kind of how I see my DJ sets developing this year: as it being a lot of unique mixes. I was doing that with Ableton but now I’ve gone back to CDs for a while – I’m actually getting everything prepared ahead of time. I’m not doing it on the fly, I’m actually thinking about it at home and using Ableton to do those mixes, but then I’m actually DJing with CDs.
Are there any plans for these edits in terms of a new album?
Yeah, I’ve got an idea that these edits I’m doing are actually going to develop into something, I’m just not quite sure what it is yet. The Big Day Out set is very banging, very in your face – a lot of the records are edited down: some of my 8 minutes records are down to 5 minutes just because of the pace of that set. It was a rock event really, everyone’s there to see the bands: I was on between Calvin Harris and Groove Armada’s live shows and only had an hour to play, so it really had to be to the point. I don’t know if that would see the light of day as a release – I don’t know whether that’s a relevant release… maybe as a bonus. But I think some of the other mixes I’m doing are much more relevant – they will develop into something, I’m just not sure what it is yet.
So in the long term do you think you’ll ever return for a more traditionally-defined ‘artist’ album, or is the re-interpretation of other artists more fulfilling for you creatively?
I know I’ve got another record in me somewhere I just don’t know how that’s gonna come together, what direction that’s gonna take. I’m gonna go in the studio in April and may and see where it takes me.
Going back to the 6th March show, can you tell us a bit about DJ Three, who’ll be on that bill?
He’s a very close friend of mine from New York – he used to be based out of Tampa, Florida. Tampa and Orlando had this healthy rivalry back in the day – John Digweed and I used to play in Orlando a lot and there were these huge parties there. Tampa was kind of the cooler side of things, spearheaded by Chris (DJ Three) and the whole Rabbit In The Moon posse. He’s just an amazing DJ – one of my favourites to play with and to listen to. He’s one of those DJs that always surprises me, his musical taste is phenomenal. He always takes people on beautiful journeys – he’s the perfect DJ to play into the early hours of the morning, because he’s very good at playing that wonky sound that belongs in club after 6am.
And Charlie May will be celebrating his new solo album release on the night – can you tell us a bit about why you and him have worked so well together in the past?
Before I worked with him I was a massive fan of Spooky: I used to listen to Spooky records over and over, they were very influential to me. When I started to work with him there was just an emotion to his music that was so powerful. We really see things the same way when it comes to melody and things like that. Whenever he sits at the keyboard magic happens – he’s amazing. Every time we get in the studio results happen and we have a fantastic time. We have a very close connection musically.
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Sasha headlines matter on Saturday 6th March, with support from Charlie May (live), DJ Three, Aeroplane, Friendly Fires (DJ set) and Paul Woolford. Tickets are £15 advance.
–
Where are you at the moment, and what are your touring plans for the rest of the year?
I’m in Hong Kong for a gig tomorrow night – I’ve just finished headlining touring the Big Day Out festival in Australia, which was absolutely amazing.
In terms of the rest of the year, after this gig tonight my next one is at matter so I’ve got a month off to take a long awaited holiday – I haven’t had a break in a long time. After matter I’ve got some really cool things lined up at the music conference in Miami, and I’m just in the process of planning out the summer. I’m really trying to lock down Glastonbury, I really want to do that this year.
Really my focus has got back into DJing over the last couple of months. The Big Day Out tour was the first time in a while that I’ve toured with a visual aspect. I’m working with some visual artists from Montreal called Piknic Electronik that do a lot of stuff with Cirque du Soleil – they gave me a load of content and came out and DJed on the tour too. That was the first stage of it – the second incarnation is going to be taken a step further by The Pixel Addicts for the matter show, so I’m really looking forward to it. The matter set’s gonna be three hours long, my first club set with a visual element completely synched to it – I’m really excited.
Working with Piknic Electronik and the Pixel Addicts, were there any specific ideas or elements you wanted to bring to it that would raise it above what you’ve done before?
Yeah, I worked with the guys on storyboards and developing an identity to it, and I looked at what other people were doing and the things I really liked. I was inspired by things like Etienne De Crecy’s cube, and the Nine Inch Nails guys: the visual aspect to their shows has always been really powerful. For some reason a lot of the people involved in the visual arts are either French or French-Canadian: a lot of really cool people work out of Montreal. Piknic Electronik and the guys that work with Nine Inch Nails are out of Montreal, they’re quite a tight knit group.
I ended up working with Piknic Electronik because I went to Montreal to do a show a couple of years ago. I walked into this huge exhibition centre and the visuals they’d done for it were just out of this world, they were absolutely amazing. So I toured with them – we did a very low-budget tour in the states, just a very simple set-up, and they made it look fantastic. And then for the Big Day Out tour we had a bit more budget and they developed specific content for that. It’s just about developing that and taking it further – it’s in its infancy at the moment really.
So you think that as technology becomes more involved in people’s DJ sets, there’s going to be potential for it to go even further?
Absolutely, I think this is just the first incarnation of it and I think it’s just going to develop. The exciting thing that the Pixel Addict guys do is develop custom-built structures to use for their visuals. It’s a combination of visual mapping and LED stuff. That technology’s come down in price, but it’s all about content: it’s about what you’re mapping onto the visuals and how well it synchronises with the music. I’ve seen great visuals in a club before but if it’s not synchronised with what’s going on with the music it just doesn’t have that powerful effect. But when you see something like a UVA installation that they do for the Chemical Brothers or Massive Attack or Radiohead, and you see it all completely synched to the music, it just becomes something else completely.
Audiences are a bit more sophisticated with the visual side of things now – they respond more to the stuff that has that extra thought put into them…
I just think putting on a show is really important. It’s really exciting from my point of view, I’ve always just gone to festivals and DJed and relied on the production that’s there, but by bringing something that makes your show different to everyone else’s, it’s about getting inside people’s head and putting on a show. I think that’s really important these days.
The Etienne De Crecy show took a simple idea and showed how far you could take it – now the challenge is to take it that step further…
Yeah and to do something different – no-one wants to be derivative. I think the simple ideas are usually the most powerful. It’s about finding a simple idea but then delivering it in a really exciting and new way. With Etienne De Crecy, it’s the way that the cube was completely synched with his music that made it so powerful.
How about recording and production at the moment – you’ve done some remixes for Kasabian, Little Boots and Damian Lazarus recently – are there any others on the horizon or acts you’d like to remix?
I’ve got a few things on the go at the moment, but they’re more like re-edits I did for my Big Day Out show. I’m just working on a lot of mash-up re-edits for my live sets at the moment, but a couple of them are actually developing into full-on remixes. I know this sounds crazy but I did a Tiesto re-edit! He’s done this record with Jonsi from Sigur Ros, which is just a beautiful record so I’ve been working on that. There’s a couple of XX tracks I’ve got that I’m playing around with – a few things I’m messing around with but nothing’s an official remix at the moment.
Is that kind of carrying on the Involver concept?
Yeah, but I’m not really doing fully-fledged mixes – I’m just getting the stems of the parts from the producers and re-arranging stuff, putting some of my own sounds in. They’re just stuff I’m designing for my set. By the time I get to matter I want most of the set to be original re-edits and stuff, that’s kind of how I see my DJ sets developing this year: as it being a lot of unique mixes. I was doing that with Ableton but now I’ve gone back to CDs for a while – I’m actually getting everything prepared ahead of time. I’m not doing it on the fly, I’m actually thinking about it at home and using Ableton to do those mixes, but then I’m actually DJing with CDs.
Are there any plans for these edits in terms of a new album?
Yeah, I’ve got an idea that these edits I’m doing are actually going to develop into something, I’m just not quite sure what it is yet. The Big Day Out set is very banging, very in your face – a lot of the records are edited down: some of my 8 minutes records are down to 5 minutes just because of the pace of that set. It was a rock event really, everyone’s there to see the bands: I was on between Calvin Harris and Groove Armada’s live shows and only had an hour to play, so it really had to be to the point. I don’t know if that would see the light of day as a release – I don’t know whether that’s a relevant release… maybe as a bonus. But I think some of the other mixes I’m doing are much more relevant – they will develop into something, I’m just not sure what it is yet.
So in the long term do you think you’ll ever return for a more traditionally-defined ‘artist’ album, or is the re-interpretation of other artists more fulfilling for you creatively?
I know I’ve got another record in me somewhere I just don’t know how that’s gonna come together, what direction that’s gonna take. I’m gonna go in the studio in April and may and see where it takes me.
Going back to the 6th March show, can you tell us a bit about DJ Three, who’ll be on that bill?
He’s a very close friend of mine from New York – he used to be based out of Tampa, Florida. Tampa and Orlando had this healthy rivalry back in the day – John Digweed and I used to play in Orlando a lot and there were these huge parties there. Tampa was kind of the cooler side of things, spearheaded by Chris (DJ Three) and the whole Rabbit In The Moon posse. He’s just an amazing DJ – one of my favourites to play with and to listen to. He’s one of those DJs that always surprises me, his musical taste is phenomenal. He always takes people on beautiful journeys – he’s the perfect DJ to play into the early hours of the morning, because he’s very good at playing that wonky sound that belongs in club after 6am.
And Charlie May will be celebrating his new solo album release on the night – can you tell us a bit about why you and him have worked so well together in the past?
Before I worked with him I was a massive fan of Spooky: I used to listen to Spooky records over and over, they were very influential to me. When I started to work with him there was just an emotion to his music that was so powerful. We really see things the same way when it comes to melody and things like that. Whenever he sits at the keyboard magic happens – he’s amazing. Every time we get in the studio results happen and we have a fantastic time. We have a very close connection musically.
–
Sasha headlines matter on Saturday 6th March, with support from Charlie May (live), DJ Three, Aeroplane, Friendly Fires (DJ set) and Paul Woolford. Tickets are £15 advance.
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