EXCLUSIVES

By Joshua Rotter

October 2004

In the Spring of 2002, legendary UK house DJ, Sasha, was at the apex of his musical career following the release of his first full-length original LP "Airdrawndagger", and in the midst of his large-scale, highly-visual "Delta Heavy Tour" that took Sasha, John Digweed, and Johnny Van M around the U.S., playing thirty-five gigs to crowds of 15,000 in arenas, warehouses, and theaters.

"It was somewhere where I achieved a lot of things," the 34-year-old techno-producer said from his New York City crash pad, shortly before getting "in the zone" before a show at Crobar that night with some friends, loud music, and drinks. "With 'Airdrawndagger', which I had been working on for five years to my rock-level production DJ's Delta Tour with John Digweed, I achieved a lot of things that I thought were impossible. But when you do all those things, you feel empty afterwards, and lost. So I did a bit of soul searching. Dance went through it as well, and in the latter half of the year, I discovered that technology had made a huge leap forward with computers, making me really focused on music again."

His new sense of innovation is apparent on his recent release "Involver," produced on a G5 Mac® for Global Underground Records, where the Sasha has written, remixed, re-produced and / or re-edited each of the ten tracks, making songs by top electronic artists, such as Spooky's "Belong", UNKLE's "What Are You To Me?", and Felix Da Housecat's "Watching Cars Go By" his very own.

Blending vocal and guitar-heavy tracks with the rhythmic splendor of progressive house, epic break-beats, and ambient atmospherics, Sasha has created a new masterpiece that takes music-mixing to a new level of creative expression.

For the album, Sasha, who has made a name for himself making other artist's records sound better and everything he plays into his own, procured all the separate parts to his favorite artists' mixes and reconstructed them to create his own, unique sound.

"When I first came up with the idea, it started off with me calling my friends, like Felix and Charlie May from Spooky to get tracks," he said. "Basically, I was given separate parts like the drum beats, bassline, and vocals, and once I had everything, I mixed each individual part and mixed them into each other, instead of mixing two pieces of vinyl, so it was like mixing on a molecular level, with sound beats mixed from track to track, till each one was featured in several tracks."

The man who would be emperor of the UK house scene was born Alexander Coe in Wales, but was already known affectionately to his mother as Sasha.

"Sasha is short for Alexander-the Russian diminutive of it," he said."In Russia, they don't call it Alex, they say 'Sasha,' and I guess my mom watched 'Doctor Zhivago' one too many times."

As a teenager in the mid-1980's, Sasha listened to the chart-topping pop and rock music of his day, bands like Talk Talk, The Cure, and The The.

But one night at the Hacienda at the age of 18 would change all that, when the pony-tailed Sasha first visited Manchester's famed House venue in the late 1980's, impacting his move from Wales to Manchester.

"It was amazing-everything came together in Manchester, from guitar bands to acid house from Chicago. And it was crazy in Manchester with the energy and music and club culture movement started at the Hacienda," he said. "I am still buzzing when I think that I was there to experience and be a part of it."

Desperate to take part in this nascent movement, Sasha took a DJing gig at a local pub, without any prior experience, just winging his earliest sets.

But after perfecting his craft, Sasha's first break came when he was offered a residency at Stokes legendary club Shelly's, and built a following with his uniquely uplifting mix of piano-driven Italian House whilst playing a capella tracks over the top, alongside club anthems. It was here that he also forged his first UK DJ mix album and met John Digweed, creating the partnership known as "Northern Exposure".

They continued playing together around the world, mixing three "Northern Exposure" albums that sold one million copies, leading to a spot at New York's famed club "Twilo," which cemented their superstar status in the U.S.

"John's an amazing ambassador for dance music," he said. "He's hardworking, focused, and professional, and really inspiring to listen to, dance to, and work with, aside from being a good mate."

Sasha next collaborated with the former Underworld mainstay, DJ Darren Emerson on 'Scorchio', before releasing his own long-awaited, debut LP, "Airdrawndagger", which combined a dance floor beat with a heartstring strumming melody to create an enthralling 69-minute symphony.

"It was purely original music, so it was a lot of work," Sasha said of the album."It was a long process, nine months in Amsterdam, working with the best musicians. And I learned like in a university, things about sound design and mixing records-things like techniques and programs," the fruits of which would later appear on "Involver".

"With 'Airdrawndagger', I used the Mac® a lot, but also used ProTools®," he said. "With 'Involver,' I bought a G5® and used the core audio already on the Mac®, with no external Mac® hardware, so it came along in such an amazing way, with improved sound quality and stability. There are a lot of new programs like Logic® audio, optimized for OS X, and the sound quality is fantastic on the G5®."

Sasha will release two more volumes as part of a Global Underground compilation series, highlighting Sasha remixes and re-edits, as well as original Sasha productions.

"'Involver' was such a satisfying record, and I'm already thinking about the next one in the pipeline," he said. "I want the project to be a calling card for film production work, an interest I've developed through DJing and remixing albums for other artists. I'm definitely focusing on it now. My dream assignment would be a David Finch sci-fi movie."
But until his film-scoring career takes off, Sasha will continue DJing, but plans to trade his two turntables and mixer in for a Mac®. "In a month's time, I'm going to switch to Ableton Live® on the Mac®," he said. "It's going to change everything in terms of what computers allow us to do from a DJ's point of view, by allowing us to be more creative in a live environment."

And following a revitalizing move from the UK to New York, a town the DJ called "the best city ever, with its life, culture, and people" in September, some "Delta Heavy" shows with John Digweed in the fall, and a tour of Asia and Australia in the winter, Sasha will begin work on his next studio album in January, which thanks to his newly-gained Mac® capabilities, will be still more revolutionary than his last, according to the DJ.

"I think we've had fifteen years of DJ culture since the explosion of 1988, and we've gone through an evolution, and we're going through one right now," he said. "Where we were once restricted to tech effects and a mixer, we're now leaping ahead to allow the DJ to interact with music never been done before from a creative perspective. DJing is about to reinvent itself. Two technic stacks and a mixer is tired now, and computers allow a DJ to re-invent and re-edit what he's playing, creating an exciting revolution."

To keep tabs on Sasha's musical revolution, check out his website at www.djsasha.com