Sinden has gained an enviable reputation over the past few years, thanks in part to his stunning remix work. He’s put his inimitable touch to a huge list of artists, including Lady Sovereign, Plan B, Basement Jaxx, Mary J Blige, Bugz In The Attic, Bonde Do Role and Mekon. A resident of Fabric in London, Sinden runs the bi-monthly Friday night Get Familiar with Switch (aka Dave Taylor), and also has his own show on Kiss FM where he plays a mash-up of styles, including funk carioca, Baltimore club, kuduru, juke house, southern hip hop, dancehall, house, electro and more. In July he’ll be touring Australia for the very first time. Get your dancing shoes ready, you won’t want to miss this one!

The last year has really taken of for you… A weekly radio Show on Kiss FM in London, releases on Basement Jaxx’s Atlantic Jaxx label, you set up your own label with Switch, and you now program the Get Familiar night in Room One at Fabric. How have you been coping with it all?

It’s been mad I’m still getting my head around it. I’m enjoying it so much, apart from the hectic deadlines. A career in music has been a dream, and now I’m remixing and meeting some of my favourite artists.

Institubes, the French label who are spearheading the new wave of French techno or the ‘French Sound’ along with Ed Banger Record have included three of your productions on a recent mix CD. You must be pleased with that?

Institubes are a label I respect, I love what Teki and them are doing. Switch and myself recently did a party with Institubes – I mixed the official CD for it. Diplo and Low Budget represented the US and Surkin and Tacteel repped for France. With the France guys, although, the sound is different – we cross over. I love the way they mix up the crunk, the Euro pop, techno.

You’re part of, what seems like, a new movement with players like Switch, Jesse Rose and Herve at the forefront. On a global level, we’re seeing a new breed of artists emerging like Diplo, Spank Rock, Bonde Do Role and Buraka Som Sistema, who are adopting an almost ‘no rules’ approach club music. If any at all, what sort of affinity to these artists do you feel?

A large affinity, they’re all good friends of mine who are all pioneers in what they do. The reference points and influences are there, but they’ve all taken these sounds to other levels and are fusing genres really successfully. Diplo’s a great tastemaker who has the knack of finding the new sound. The other acts like Buraka and Bonde Do Role are the new sound of international world club music that’s crossing over to young audiences. It’s healthy right now.

Any ideas on the reason for the sudden boom in genre’s like baile funk, Baltimore club and dancehall?

It’s crazy as nobody used to care about these genres – they didn’t start yesterday – but now there’s a new found interest to a new generation of people and the rise in ‘blog house’. The internet has had a lot of influence with the blog and forum culture. With people able to trade ideas and information, the knowledge grows and you get a better understanding of these sounds, then kids outside Baltimore and Rio start making a similar kind of thing but with their spin on it to make it unique.

This movement seems to be somewhat of a grass roots thing, with underground players from countries such as Brazil, Portugal, Jamiaca and other countries mixing more ‘unkown’ styles of music, such as funk carioca and baile funk with garage, techno and crunk. Where does crunk – aka ‘Dirty South Hip Hop’ – fit into it all..?

To me, Southern music has a similar ‘no rules’ attitude. It’s full of energy and seems more risk taking than most hip hop. The tempo suits DJs too, as you can play with the half time and double thing. You can mix it up with other raw music, like funk and juke house.

With people like DJ A-Trak and Chicago’s Flostradamus mixing crunk with electro and dance, recent collaborations with Dizzee Rascal featuring US rappers UGK, and Radio Clit’s collaboration with David Banner and Twista… Is it fair to say that there is a new movement happening?

Maybe, A-Trak dropped the Dirty South dance CD which mixed up the two styles really well. He’s doin the same thing with a few indie things too. There are a clutch of DJs, such as Floss, myself and others, that’ll do our own re-edits to spice up our sets – dropping rap vocals over Mylo and Justice, for example. I hope more people officially collab with southern rappers like Diz.

As far as the production side of things go, we’ve all heard about your meeting with Dave ‘Switch’ Taylor… How did this meeting come about?

We linked up when I was doing in house PR for Jesse Rose’s record labels. He was recording under Solid Groove before he and Trevor Loveys started Switch. We got on instantly and shared a musical common ground. It was always easy to promote his releases as they were the ones that were most interesting. We got into the studio and he taught me how to use the programs as well as some insight into how he makes his shit sound so fresh.

You’ve since done a remix of Bonde Do Role on Diplo’s Mad Decent label. How did this come about?

After meeting Diplo he asked me to do a remix for this group he’d just signed. He reached out to all his friends to do download only remixes. It was really clever on his part – there seemed to be a new one every week on his site. It was my first solo remix.

You’ve done lots of productions and remixes, including Lady Sovereign and Basement Jaxx, but you also quite handy as a DJ… You are a resident at Basement Jaxx ‘Inside Out’ club nights. How did the hook up come about?

It was Felix I met first. I was working in an independent fashion brand in a shop and Felix used to be a good customer. We’d chat about music I was playing on the shops iPod. After we became good friends I got this call out the blue from Felix asking me to DJ at his new monthly. I didn’t hesitate at all. A month later I got asked back and became a permanent resident for one and half years. They were ridiculous nights – some of the best I’ve ever been involved with.

How long have you been DJing for, and what where the original sounds you were spinning?

For around 8 years, but I’d say seriously only about 3. Originally I was into hip hop, dancehall, 2 step garage and a lot of music Bugz In The Attic was making – broken beat.

You and Dave ‘Switch’ Taylor have been running the Get Familiar nights at Fabric since January in room one. When where you approached and how daunting was it, programming and promoting a night in the biggest room at one the most influential club’s in the world?

We got approached mid last year and agreed on a bi-monthly party. The first was in January. I wasn’t too nervous, you don’t realise how big the space is when the lights dip. I was real surprised at the end when I saw the balcony, the stage and everything. Good job it wasn’t until the end. We don’t promote the night, just programme it – and with that we don’t stress it too much. Our policy is to bring in artists that we’re feeling, sometimes they can be obscure.

You’ve set up the Counterfeet record label with Dave Taylor – one release in particular, with newcomers Radio Clit, features diverse artists such as French new school hip hop dudes TTC, London grime MC’s Tytchie Stryder, Scepta, and US artists Twista and David Banner. Are you finding that there is a new scene is growing?

Yeah definitely, there are labels like A Trak and Catchdubs’ Fools Gold, and Diplo’s Mad Decent, that will come with something different with every release. It’s too standard to be just a house label or just a hip hop label, or too this and that. That’s the reason why we started it. It was originally gonna be a booty label for DJ edits and house releases, but grew into something with more ambition. We wanna nurture acts, not sign one off tracks, then go on to produce up and coming singers and rappers.

Do you think people becoming more open minded and if so why?

I think people are generally getting more and more open minded in life. Times are changing and the old guard are dying out. Technology is a factor too. iPods and mp3 players with shuffling serve up so much music, more than the back in the days CD player. You hear things in different orders – it makes you realise that good music is good music. More clubnights mix it up too with their music policy. You’re more likely to go out now and rave to different music it seems.

So being from London, how much did the sounds of early rave and hardcore, jungle, drum & bass and garage influence you?

Massively! I got into jungle around ‘95 and it changed my life. I went to Blue Note when Metalheadz were there. That’s when Old St was a shit hole. Garage was another turning point – Twice As Nice was a big 2 step night. We used to rave there and wait for the DJs to play all the wookie dubs at the end of the night. I suppose with the Carnival too, and our big West Indian community, there’s a real sound system culture in the UK. Dubsided and Counterfeet are maintaining that tradition!

Sinden tours Australia this July. If you want to get a taste of his DJing style check out THIS MIX in ITM-FM.

Jul 6 – Electric Circus, Adelaide
Jul 7 – Onelove, Melbourne
Jul 13 – Monastery, Brisbane
Jul 14 – Killer, Sydney