The name Dave Seaman is a familiar one to Australian audiences. After touring the country extensively, he has sometimes suffered the accusation of visiting our shores a little too frequently. However, the simple fact of the matter is he wouldn’t tour if the audience’s weren’t chomping at the bit to see him. For the uninitiated, he is a DJ renowned for his technical brilliance and expert track selection, over his time in the scene having played to just about every crowd conceivable in almost every part of the world. As a producer he has achieved great success as one half of the Brothers in Rhythm duo (along with Steve Anderson), producing their own tracks (Such a Good Feeling) as well as tracks for other artists (Kylie Minogue, Take That) and remixes (Placebo, Pet Shop Boys, Garbage). As a figurehead of the dance scene he has worked as the editor of Mixmag, as well as more recently establishing and running his own label and management company, Therapy. About to embark on an Australian tour as part of the Two Tribes festival, ITM’s i_have_ADD spoke to Seaman about the unruly British press, his string of lucky breaks and his opinion of the antipodean dance scene.
One of the more interesting aspects of Seaman’s career was his role as editor of UK dance bible Mixmag in its early days. Because of this, I was particularly interested to hear his thoughts on the somewhat pessimistic slant many British dance magazines have been taking of late, loudly proclaiming the ‘death of dance music’, “That’s the British press for you really, they love to build things up and knock them down. But of course by doing that they kill themselves, which is the crazy thing. I think the press has always been negative in a way, and now that they’ve actually got something to be negative about they should really try to be a bit positive! The scene over here is dying a bit, it’s going through a bad time, and unfortunately I don’t think the British press knows how to be positive. They’ll kill themselves in the end, which is crazy!”
Dave Seaman is rather humble of his success, preferring to agree is part with some press reports that his achievements in the dance scene were due to a series of lucky breaks as opposed to drive and ability, “Yeah I was lucky, I got three big breaks, and it’s tuff to get a break these days! I was lucky getting the Mixmag job, I was lucky to meet Steve (Anderson) when I did, and I was lucky to be asked by Gary McLarnen to play at Shelleys, which all happened within the space of a year and half. So it was luck to get those breaks I suppose, but you do really have to make the most of it once it happens.” And as someone who has insight into a variety of roles within the music industry (from DJ to journalist to producer to label manager), I was also interested to hear Seaman’s thoughts on how dance music had progressed over time, “To start off with it was very underground, everybody wanted to be taken seriously, everybody wanted to get dance music on the radio. But of course once it happened everybody wanted it back the way it was before! Dance music has become a very big part of pop culture, and there is really only one way it can go once it’s gotten as big as it has over here. So it has slowed down a bit, moving with fashion cycles I guess. If you’re a 15-year-old kid your parents may have been listening to house music years ago!”
Probably most pertinent for Australian audiences is Seaman’s dedication to our local talent. On his Melbourne installment of the famed Global Underground mix series, he included locally produced tracks from Phil K, Kasey Taylor and Sean Quinn, Digby and Oliver, Infusion and Nubreed, and on his newly established Audio Therapy label half the artist roster is Australian. So to conclude our quick chat I asked him what is was about Australia that had him so interested, “I always have such a good time down there, and I come back every time even more enthusiastic.” Judging by the passion of the local crowds who flock to see him play, it’s not hard to see why.
Dave Seaman is touring nationally as part of Two Tribes, dates are as follows:
Sydney, March 1
Perth, March 2
Gold Coast, March 8
Melbourne, March 9
