“Superstar DJ” is perhaps the most maligned and over-used phrase in dance music history. Recently utilised by some who don’t have a clue about dance music in order to appear hip, those giving the utterance the most currency probably never realised its origins – a Mixmag cover story and additional press coverage in 1991 which referred to a young DJ Sasha who was incredibly in touch with the dancefloor as a Superstar. Arguably the world’s most adored DJ, Sasha has never been comfortable with the hype attached to him – he is a shy, yet fiercely artistic and passionate person.
For those who are unfamiliar with Sasha, he is basically the most famous DJ on the planet; he staked his fame on legendary Uk club appearances at The Hacienda, Shelley’s and perhaps most famously Renaissance. He is also the party-boy half of the most well-known duo in dance music, Sasha & Digweed, whose Renaissance and Northern Exposure mix CDs are some of the most religious objects in dance music’s catacombs. The duo successful conquered America in the late 90s through a Twilo residency and their recent Delta Heavy tour set new standards for DJ touring. With the release of his debut artist album, ‘Airdrawndagger’, Sasha is walking on air. Nowadays, he is so revered that he has the ability to singlehandedly make a record popular, both from play and from the battalion of DJs who regularly trawl his charts and playlists for inspiration.
He still remembers where he started though: a DJ in a local pub announced he was putting on a tour and needed other DJs to help him. Sasha owned 20 records and blagged his way to a debut gig in Stockport, England, where he “didn’t even know where to plug my headphones in. I thought the pitch control was the volume!” he states laughing. However Sasha had the heart of the dancefloor with him – he was in Manchester during the critical acid house explosion of 1988 and knew instinctively how to move a dancefloor sonically. This ability soon led to endless queues outside clubs where Sasha played, and as his mixing ability improved, he became the stuff of legend at clubs such as Shelley’s, where his orgiastic sets of Italian piano house, acapellas and the then unheard of progressive house were what people lived for.
When interviewed, Sasha is the modicum of politeness and shyness, but still excited about being worshipped globally. “That’s very nice… to be able to travel around the world and have people go crazy over your music and welcome you… it’s amazing, really amazing,” he remarks. “I don’t get people screaming at airports waiting for me to land though. Outside of the club world I’m just kind of Mr. Anonymous.” One gets the feeling Sasha enjoys this duality: it gives him focus, time and concentration to do what he loves best: play records and make music.
And what damn good records and music he makes.From early outings and collaborations as BM: Ex (standing for Barry Manilow Experience) through to one of the most seminal pieces of progressive house music: the ‘Xpander’ EP and current single ‘Wavy Gravy’, Sasha’s productions hold a special place for many clubbers. His remix discography is also extensive: Madonna, Chemical Brothers, Pet Shop Boys, Orbital and D:Ream are just some of the many artists who have experienced the Sasha touch. Perhaps also legendary are Sasha’s after party antics and the “Sasha treatments” many hotel rooms have suffered in the 90s; these days however he likes spending quality time with his girlfriend and a nice cup of tea.
Consistently topping DJ rankings and garnering a deity-like worship amongst his legion of devoted fans, it’s undeniable that Sasha is a hero to many. Whilst his achievement offers a somewhat plausible explanation, this only scratches the surface: Sasha brings with him a mystique and appeal to the human experience that are unparalleled, and these intangible qualities ultimately set him apart from the rest. Even a self-confessed ardent Sasha fan such as myself finds it difficult to describe or perhaps articulate the Sasha mystique coherently. It’s a feeling of pure joy, of that perfect synthesis of sustain,breakdown, build-up and subsequent tension release; it’s also a feeling of excitement tempered by a melancholy wistfulness which drills into the spiritual core of some; others just dig the continual boundary-pushing forward-thinking attitude embodied in Sasha’s music and the reward at the end of a magical Sasha DJ journey.
Sasha himself, like many great artists, finds it difficult to articulate exactly how he inspires such emotions – he could only comment that everything else disappears when he is DJing, and that “you just let the music kinda take over you. I don’t really know how to describe it – it’s just a case of pure concentration really. You always try and push yourself forward – it’s very difficult for me to personally be objective about it.” In this Sasha seems almost embarrassed to talk abut some subjects, especially his personal attachment to DJing and his music. It is this personal involvement and level of passion, over a decade on into his career, which is simply amazing.
Noting that dance music has perhaps turned a corner in 2002, Sasha has been eagerly hunting down new records for his Australian tour. “It’s tough out there at the moment,” he observes of the current crop. “I’ve just been looking for records for the tour and things are a little slow out there right now but I’ve got some amazing stuff in my box that’s still way ahead of release – a lot of stuff that Junkie XL’s been working on. I’ve had six weeks straight in America playing pretty much every day so I’ve got to know my records inside out which is great.”
Being the world’s best, Sasha is inundated with music each week, having to employ help simply to get through the sheer volume of material, although “literally 95% of it is rubbish,” he explains. “The problem is as well, with technology now, with the software that you can buy, and even download off the Internet for free, you can make great sounding records in your bedroom and this is half the problem, when I’m actually going through these records I get sent: even the shit records now, they sound well produced. Whereas ten years ago, a crap record sounded crap, right now, you put a record on, and you say “oh this sounds all right” and you give it that four or five minutes to listen to it before you realise there’s absolutely no musical idea in it and it’s a load of rubbish and then that goes on the pile whereas before you put the needle on it for a few seconds and realise it was just a really badly produced record and you’d fuck it off. Everything sounds so good because it’s easy to get that kinda quality. It is quite frustrating.”
According to Sasha, there’s no cause for alarm as the meiosis is not dance music-specific. “I think the world in general is going through not just a recession but a change in priorities,” he comments. “I think restaurant attendances are down in London and theatre-land is in trouble. I think clubland, especially in this country, has been going through this massive boom… and I guess the bubble has not burst, but I guess it was bursting at the seams, because it got to saturation point. If you look at how many bloody festivals there were last Summer, just in England, and everyone was wondering why the attendances for each one were down. It’s just too much – there’s too many compilations, too many record labels, there’s too much music being put out there. I think that it’s going to be a timely correction and I think that the strong will survive. The labels and the club nights and the DJs that have integrity and stuff will survive. I get sent so many terrible records so I think it’s about time some of these labels went bust.”
Sasha’s quest to produce his first album has taken five years since it was initially first scheduled for release, and took the shock of a perforated eardrum caused by a car accident in 2001 to jolt him into action. ‘Airdrawndagger’ took shape initially with four tracks written in ten days, then the odyssey began at co-conspirator Junkie XL’s studio in Holland, where Sasha worked alongside long-term collaborator Charlie May, Junkie Xl himself, as well as James Holden and Australian Andy Page. “It’s as personal as it could be without songs,” says Sasha of the album. “I think it’s an emotive album and I think there’s a lot of the melody in there. It is quite an introspective album even though there aren’t any real songs on there, which is bizarre.”
Subjected to critical commentary from both ends of the spectrum, ‘Airdrawndagger’ is definitely an album intended both for repeated and uninterrupted listening. As with Sasha’s DJing, the magic is in the progression of the journey and the reward at the end: standout track ‘Wavy Gravy’, perhaps the perfect encapsulation of Sasha’s musical ideology. It’s a piece of dreamy and melancholic bliss: electronica’s answer to a gorgeous Beethoven ‘cello sonata. “That was the first track we did, we did it in one night as well,” mentions Sasha. “It just sat on the shelf for about two years because I didn’t know what to do with it. We suddenly pulled it out and I was like ‘Oh my god!’. It was just one of those nights where Charlie (May) and I were jamming in the studio.” However after producing one of the most anticipated albums ever, Sasha is weary. “I wouldn’t tackle that kind of animal again for a while. I think that possibly the next time I’ll go into the studio (January) will be to tackle remixes or something like that.” The possibility of more Sasha remixes (the first since 1998) is extremely exciting. “I haven’t done remixes for a long time so I’m actually really excited about just going into the studio and working on someone else’s piece of music.” Currently ready to drop is a Sasha and Junkie XL collaboration entitled ‘Beauty Never Fades’, sure to devastate on his impending tour.
Australian fans will be happy to note Sasha tours the country after a week’s holiday, and it will be his first vacation for some time. He also lists his first ever gig in Australia, in Perth, as one of his top 5 all time gigs. “It was one of the first gigs where the whole crowd were going mental and chanting my name and I was on the other side of the world and it was all quite overwhelming,” he mentions.
For his lot, Sasha has always found it difficult balancing the commercial and media pressures and commitments of being one of the world’s most in-demand DJs – he loves his music and simply wants to keep it at that. “It has been so hard because so much of my down time and my personal time has been taken up with promotion; it’s not the reason I got into this and it’s definitely made my Summer a bit harder because my schedule has been so intense with the DJing. They’ve had me doing record singing in shops… a lot of stuff I haven’t really been comfortable with doing. But like anyone I understand it’s there to sell the record so I guess it is important.” As always, Sasha remains a larger than life enigma.
Sasha takes control at venues around the country on the ‘Airdrawndagger’ tour.
Tour Dates:
Thu 28.11 – Adelaide – Heaven – Chemistry
Fri 29.11 – Brisbane – Arena – Advent*jah Festival
Sat 30.11 – Canberra – Twisted – ANU
Sat 30.11 – Sydney – Charles Moses Stadium
Tue 03.12 – Byron Bay – C-Moog Byron Nights
Thu 05.12 – Christchurch – Ministry
Fri 06.12 – Auckland – St James
Sat 07.12 – Melbourne – QBH Agent MAD presents Sasha
Sun 08.12 – Perth – Claremont Showgrounds Science Fiction Festival
