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Sasha (DJ)

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Sasha
Musical artist

Alexander Coe (born September 4, 1969), better known as Sasha, is a Welsh DJ and record producer. Starting out in the late 1980s playing acid house, he rose as a central figure in the popularization of electronic dance music. He teamed up with fellow DJ John Digweed, touring internationally and producing a series of mix albums. Sasha and Digweed helped expand the popularity of progressive trance and house in the 1990s with their Northern Exposure albums and Global Underground series releases. Sasha has also produced charting singles and performed remixes for popular artists such as Madonna and The Chemical Brothers.

Sasha heavily influenced electronic dance music and how it is perceived. He directly influenced younger DJs and producers such as Brian Transeau and James Zabiela, who have made substantial contributions to modern dance music. By embracing modern audio mixing methods through his use of Ableton Live and the CDJ1000, Sasha helped popularize modern technological innovations among DJs who had previously relied only on records and turntables.

Early years

Sasha was born and raised in the small Welsh town of Hawarden. From a young age, he enjoyed literature and music. As a child, he was exposed to a great deal of music from Motown Records. Later, he listened to pop music such as The The and The Police. At the age of 17, after what he described as an "idyllic childhood", he passed the entrance exam for Epsom School. However, he did not enjoy his time there and left before his A-Levels. He then moved to Bangor to be with his father in Northern Wales. His stepmother forced him to take piano lessons, which he claims he hated at the time, but ultimately found beneficial to his career.

Early electronic music experience

Sasha was introduced to electronic music through the popular Manchester dance club The Haçienda in 1988. Drawn to both the acid house music and the attitude he found associated with it, he made weekly visits to Manchester and eventually moved to nearby Disley. He used the money earned from a telemarketing job to increase his collection of acid house records. Eventually, a local DJ announced he was looking for other DJs to tour with him. Sasha volunteered and made his debut in nearby Stockport. Sasha said of his debut: "I'd never even touched a Technics: I thought the pitch control was the volume, I didn't even know where to plug my headphones in! I'm sure I was absolutely horrendous."

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With DJ Jon DaSilva's assistance, Sasha got booked at The Haçienda. In addition to performances at The Haçienda, Sasha DJ-ed at illegal raves in Blackburn and Blackpool. He worked for a few years building up his record collection, though he found himself in debt because of both the number of records he bought and the low pay he received for performances. During his time at The Haçienda, he taught himself to beatmatch and learned key mixing from DaSilva. Though he enjoyed his time at The Haçienda, he left for Shelley's in Stoke-on-Trent in 1991. There, he established part of his signature sound by mixing euphoric trance music with hard techno and emotional a cappellas. Because of his increased popularity and visibility at Shelley's, Sasha became the first DJ featured on the cover of Mixmag with the headline "SASHA MANIA - THE FIRST DJ PINUP?". While continuing to DJ, Sasha began producing as well and subsequently released his first single "Appolonia" under the name "BM:Ex" (Barry Manilow Experience) on Union City Recordings with Tom Frederikse. After DJ-ing at Shelley's for several years, Sasha left his residency at Shelley's due to increased gang violence in and around the club. Because of his recently successful performances, Sasha was offered performing jobs in London and Australia. Instead, he accepted a consistent spot in the DJ rotation at Renaissance in 1993. That same year, he produced his first single, "Together", under the name "Sasha". "Together", which he produced with Danny Campbell for Pete Tong's FFRR, peaked on the UK Singles Chart at #57.

Digweed era

Renaissance - The Mix Collection, Sasha & Digweed's first mix album.
Main article: Sasha & John Digweed

In his last months at Renaissance leading up to his April 1994 departure, Sasha partnered with fellow resident DJ John Digweed, who had been DJ-ing for ten years before becoming a resident at Renaissance. Together, Sasha and John Digweed honed their DJ-ing skills, often performing in tandem while focusing on track selection and technical mixing abilities. Concurrently, Sasha had begun a series of productions for Deconstruction Records with his singles "Higher Ground" and "Magic" (for which Digweed performed a remix) as well as The Qat Collection with Frederikse and vocalist Sam Mollison.

Pleased with Sasha and Digweed's performances, Renaissance had the duo compiled the triple CD mix album Renaissance - The Mix Collection, which was released on the club's label, Renaissance Records. The mix featured popular dance tracks from artists such as Leftfield, Fluke, and 2 Bad Mice, as well as original productions and remixes from Sasha and Digweed. With his success at Renaissance, Sasha was again featured on Mixmag with the tag line "SON OF GOD?", which Sasha resented. After touring for two years, the duo became "true superstars" with the release of their double CD Northern Exposure on mega-label Ministry of Sound. This release was brought to the United States the next year in a single CD package on Ultra Records. Around this time, Sasha began his recurring mentorship and partnership with fellow producer BT on the album Ima. As well as providing guidance, Sasha produced a "euphoric" and "introspective" 42 minute rendition of the album for a second "bonus" disc. Sasha continued to advance his production work by pairing with vocalist Maria Nayler to produce the single "Be As One", which reached #17 on the UK singles chart.

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In 1997, Ministry of Sound released Northern Exposure 2, Sasha and Digweed's next double CD entry in their Northern Exposure series. In support of the album, Sasha and Digweed toured internationally, helping define the sound of trance music in the late '90s. After extensive touring, Digweed and Sasha took up residency at New York City's famous Twilo nightclub where they DJ-ed for up to nine hours per night. In 1998, Digweed and Sasha released separate mix albums on Boxed as part of the Global Underground series with Digweed's Global Underground 006: Sydney and Sasha's Global Underground 009: San Francisco release, which drew from Sasha's experience of touring on the West Coast of the United States. Around this time, both DJs formed their own record labels; Sasha created Excession Records and Digweed created Bedrock Records. Excession Records featured less than ten releases, the last of which was in 1998. Sasha also founded "Excession: The Agency LTD.", which is the booking agency for many popular DJs including Hybrid, Nick Warren, Steve Lawler, James Lavelle, and Desyn Masiello along with Sasha collaborators James Zabiela and Spooky. Sasha began to reach more mainstream audiences with his remixes of Madonna's "Ray of Light" and Gus Gus's "Purple" for their single releases. Additionally, he scored the music for the PlayStation video game Wipeout 3.

Sasha and Digweed released their third edition in the Northern Exposure series: Northern Exposure: Expeditions in 1999. In addition to DJ-ing, Sasha partnered with Charlie May of Spooky to produce Sasha's Xpander EP on Deconstruction, which many clubbers view as "one of the greatest trance tracks of all time". He used the title track as one of the centerpieces for Global Underground 013: Ibiza, his second Global Underground release. Sasha continued his collaborations with BT on the track "Ride", which was released as a single on Yoshitoshi Records and on BT's Movement in Still Life. Soon after, he worked with Underworld's Darren Emerson on the single "Scorchio", Sasha's first charting single in four years. In between DJ-ing and producing original material, Sasha and Digweed released the mix album Communicate in 2000, prompting them to temporarily leave their Twilo residency in order to promote the album with a United States tour. Communicate had mixed reviews including Spin, who stated that despite a "few stellar moments, is ultimately a let-down". LAUNCHcast described Communicate as "boring and lackluster" and that it "stalled in a monochrome world of dead beats".

During the mid to late 1990s, the increased popularity and visibility of "superstar DJs" had led to the creation of superclubs including Cream and Gatecrasher. However, by 2002-3, the popularity of electronic dance music languished. The Guardian's pop critic Alexis Petridis attributes the "terminal decline" of dance music to its commercialization by big-name DJs, such as Sasha, as well as their demand for increased fees for performances. Though dance music was declared "dead" by many figures in the dance industry, Sasha continued touring despite the closing of many superclubs, including his resident club Twilo in May 2001.

Delta Heavy Tour

Template:Sound sample box align right Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end Sasha and Digweed embarked with Jimmy Van M on their "Delta Heavy" tour across the United States in 2002. With veteran tour producer Kevin Lyman, Delta Heavy covered 31 cities and played to 85,000 people in total. Concerts of Delta Heavy, complete with laser shows and video production, were more akin to rock concerts than typical DJ events. This was new for the DJ-ing scene and compelled other DJs to host similar concerts. Three years later in 2006, a DVD of performance highlights, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage was released as Sasha & John Digweed present Delta Heavy by System Recordings. Ben Turner, creator of the DanceStar awards, described the Delta Heavy tour as "a landmark moment for electronic music". Though the duo of Sasha and Digweed never explicitly split up, demanding schedules and frequent independent touring prevented them from substantial collaborative efforts for a long period after Delta Heavy.

Post Digweed

In the later half of 2002, Sasha began collaborations with big beat artist Junkie XL, whose work he heavily influenced. Together, Sasha and Junkie XL wrote and produced the single "Breezer." Junkie XL, along with Charlie May, also assisted Sasha on Sasha's first artist album, Airdrawndagger. Airdrawndagger had been in the works for a long period of time, due to Sasha's desire for the album to be "as near to perfection as possible." This extended delay created high expectations among fans and critics. Upon its release, Airdrawndagger was "received with a lot of head scratching", as Sasha described it. He attributed this to the album not featuring the heavier "club sound" of his previous mix albums and instead sounding similar to ambient music. Sasha claims his primary inspiration for the album's unique atmosphere was a March 2001 traffic accident in which he suffered a perforated ear drum. The album generally garnered favorable reviews, though it did receive criticism for not being as solid and well put together as Sasha's DJ mixes. Sasha himself described it as "a selfish, slightly self-indulgent record", though he maintains that he is still "happy with it to this day." Some critics, however, called it "sleepy", including E!Online who described it as being "more in league with Yanni than Moby". Sasha held an amateur remix contest for the album's first single, "Wavy Gravy". Because of the success of the contest, Sasha released elements of all the tracks for Airdrawndagger on his website to be downloaded and remixed by fans. Around this time, he took James Zabiela "under his wing", introducing him to the CDJ1000 and signing Zabiela to his Excession agency. The two also toured the United States together, which extended Sasha's influence to already popular American DJs such as Kimball Collins.

Sasha on stage with Charlie May of Spooky.

Sasha's next studio album, Involver, was "a fusion of mix album and production record," which consisted mainly of Sasha's reworkings of tracks by other artists. For Involver, Sasha states that he "tried to take all the separate sounds to all the tracks , and it allowed me to mix the tracks together on a much deeper level." Originally, he had been signed with Global Underground to do another standard mix album, but he found the process of creating a normal mix album unrewarding. Instead, he decided to combine his production and DJ-ing talents for a mix compilation that resembled a "real" album – that is, one featuring original material. Like much of Sasha's other work at the time, it was sequenced using Ableton Live as well as Logic Pro.

In 2005, Sasha produced his album Fundacion NYC, which was based on his nights DJ-ing in New York. It was the first album to be mixed using Sasha's "Maven" controller, which he co-developed with Ableton. Fundacion NYC received positive reviews for its originality, though some critics found it "too complicated for the ear". Fundacion NYC is the first in a planned series of Fundacion mix albums for Sasha. The next year, Sasha released 10,000 copies of a June 2006 DJ set for sale using Instant Live, making him the first DJ to use Instant Live's licensing and publishing services. While continuing to regularly DJ, Sasha is working on material to produce another Involver mix and the next Fundacion mix. Though frequent performing has kept them apart, Sasha and Digweed announced that they will be reunited for an Australian tour in late 2006.

Sasha lives and runs a music studio in New York City, though he maintains a house in London. Sasha is married and brings his wife with him on his frequent touring. He finds constant touring to be physically tiring, though he feels that he thrives on it. While some fans may regard Sasha as a DJ "hero", he finds stardom uncomfortable at times as he considers himself "shy at heart" and is not prone to discussing his personal life. He has stated on numerous occasions that he is so busy with DJ-ing and production that he rarely has any free time. However, when Sasha does have free time, he enjoys watching football, cooking, and sampling the cuisine of the countries he visits.

Musical genres

Sasha performing July 8, 2006 in Bucharest, Romania, playing some electro-house.

In his early years as a DJ, influenced by the sound of The Haçienda, Sasha played mainly acid house records. As the 1990s began, he started to play more European house music. During his residency at Shelley's, he began to experiment more with American house and other music which he described as "happy". His tastes changed as he moved to Renaissance where he played popular house music such as that of Moby, Spooky, and Leftfield. In his second collaboration with John Digweed, Northern Exposure, Sasha's music was described as "epic house". Sasha's next few mix albums popularized progressive trance by artists such as Sven Väth, Matt Darey, Tilt, and Armin Van Buuren. Along with his Xpander EP, his mix albums of the late 1990s were distinguished by their progressive house nature. In Sasha's constant rotation around this time were records by artists such as Space Manoeuvres, BT, and Breeder, as well as Sander Kleinenberg's single "My Lexicon".

With Sasha and Digweed's Communicate album in 2000, their work moved towards a deeper house music sound with pieces by Morel, Mainline, and Jimmy Van M. These tracks centered on a hard bassline rather than the floaty keyboards of previous mix albums. After Communicate, Sasha's musically tendencies drastically shifted during production of Airdrawndagger where he was heavily influenced by ambient and trance music. These influences led to his use of strong melodies with minimal percussion and breakbeats on Airdrawndagger. Involver was primarily a fusion of breakbeats and progressive house characterized by UNKLE and Lostep. With 2005's Fundacion, Sasha's new genre was mostly progressive house and electro-house tracks with work by James Holden, Tiefschwarz, and Swayzak. Because of his large amount of success with progressive house, Sasha has commented that he feels people try to "pigeon-hole" him into playing the genre. Rather than calling it progressive house, Sasha considers his most recent material to be somewhere in the middle of house, trance, and breaks, though Sasha has stated that he prefers not to associate himself with a specific genre of music.

Techniques and technology

Sasha using Ableton Live during a July 15, 2006 performance at Panama, an Amsterdam nightclub.

Sasha attributes his success as a DJ to his technical skills and his ability to "connect with his dancers". During his performances, he tries to maintain a balance between new and experimental material while making sure "the party is still rockin'". Sasha states that when he begins creating a new mix album, he only has a vague idea of the tracklist for the album. Because of this, he says his albums never quite turn out the way he expects.

Sasha is famous for applying new music technologies to both his studio work and live DJ-ing. He and John Digweed used Pro Tools for mixing their compilation albums, unlike their live performances where they used turntables and records. For their remixes, however, they used an Atari ST (which was considered obsolete at the time) with Notator software. For recent albums such as Fundacion NYC, Sasha used Ableton Live for sequencing, partially on account of Pro Tools' higher price. In live performances up to the late 1990s, Sasha exclusively performed using records. Before he started using the CDJ1000, he had previously had all his digital music specially cut to acetate before each tour at great expense. Once he integrated CDs into his live act, Sasha operated CDJ1000s with Allen & Heath mixers and FireworX. While he is now known for heavily utilizing audio technologies, Sasha was ironically one of the last DJs to begin using CDs for live performances. Sasha began DJ-ing with Ableton Live in his live act as well, using it in tandem with turntables. After exploring its functionality, Sasha found he could perform entirely through Ableton Live. He then co-developed the "Maven" controller, which he uses as a physical interface to the Live software. During DJ sets, clubbers often believe he is playing new, unheard remixes; in fact, Sasha is often playing modifications of tracks he created in Ableton. Sasha most often uses the built-in Ableton plugins due to their superior stability and performance as opposed to third party plugins. For the first public performance of Involver material, Sasha used a PowerBook running Ableton, but has since shifted to a setup including an iMac G5 and Ableton Live. Despite Sasha's insistance that Ableton Live allows for greater creativity and spontaneity, "vinyl purists" have accused him of taking much of the challenge and mystique out of DJ-ing by using software in performances.

In addition to new DJ-ing technology, Sasha states that the internet has greatly affected the way he obtains music. Formerly, he used to hunt through record shops for new records; now, he regularly receives new tracks from producers and labels via the internet. These tracks, which number in the hundreds each week, Sasha and others edit for use in his live DJ sets.

Popularity and honors

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Sasha has been consistently popular among dance music fans. He has been voted as one of the top five DJs in the world by readers of DJMag every year since 1997, including finishing #1 in 2000 and #2 to partner John Digweed in 2001. At the annual Winter Music Conference, Sasha has won the "Best Techno/Trance 12"" award for the Xpander EP and "Best CD Compilation" awards for both Global Underground: Ibiza and Involver. He was also nominated for "Best European DJ" and "Best Remixer". At the 1999 Ericsson Muzik Awards, he received an award for "Outstanding Contributions to Dance Music". Sasha has been nominated as the top DJ in his genre every year since 2000 in the DJ Awards, but has yet to win.

In 2005, the Grammy committee debated whether Involver was eligible for nomination as Best Electronic/Dance Album. After deciding that it was eligible, it failed to receive a nomination from the full academy. However, Sasha did receive a Grammy nomination for his remix of "Watching Cars Go By" by Felix Da Housecat, which was featured on Involver.

Selected discography

Albums:

Singles/EPs:

DVD:

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Kidzworld interview". Kidzworld. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
  2. "Sasha profile". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 2006-08-12.
  3. ^ "Sasha speaks". BBC Wales. Retrieved 2006-07-11.
  4. ^ "SoundRevolt biography". SoundRevolt. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
  5. ^ Dresden, Dave. "Interview with Sasha". DJ Times. Retrieved 2006-09-08.
  6. "Sasha - Standing the Test of Time". Resident Advisor. 2004-10-18.
  7. ^ "Sasha biography". BBC. 2006-07-06.
  8. Prato, Greg. "John Digweed biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
  9. "Entry for Sasha". Discogs. Retrieved 2006-09-25.
  10. ^ Brewster, Bill (2000). Last Night a DJ Saved My Life. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3688-5.
  11. ^ Birchmeier, Jason. "Sasha + John Digweed biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2006-09-27. {{cite web}}: Text "+" ignored (help)
  12. Bidder, Sean (1999). The Rough Guide to House Music. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-432-5.
  13. ^ Prato, Greg. "Sasha biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
  14. "Excession LTD Website". Retrieved 2006-07-11.
  15. "Interview with [[Rockstar Games]] and [[Psygnosis]]". DJMixed.com. Retrieved 2006-07-11. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  16. Cooper, Sean. "Spooky biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2006-08-22.
  17. Snoman, Rick (2004). Dance Music Manual: Toys, Tools, and Techniques. Focus Press. ISBN 0240519159.
  18. "Review of Communicate". LAUNCHcast. 2000-12-07.
  19. Petridis, Alexis (2003-08-21). "Cynical, exploitative and banking on ecstasy to mask the rip-off". The Guardian.
  20. Gillan, Audrey (2003-08-21). "Super DJs forced off the dancefloor". The Guardian.
  21. ^ Turner, Ben (2006-02-07). "Sasha & John Digweed - Delta Heavy: A DVD Documentary". Progressive-Sounds.
  22. ^ Juarez, Vanessa (2006-02-03). "DJ Sasha on Dance Music's Glowstick Culture". Newsweek.
  23. ^ "Sasha interview". Progressive-Sounds. 2006. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  24. "Sasha interview". Gighit.com. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
  25. "Progressive-Sounds Interview with Junkie XL". Retrieved 2006-07-10.
  26. "Entry for Beauty Never Fades/Breezer". Discogs. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
  27. Swan, Glenn. "Airdrawndagger review". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
  28. Jones, Simon (2001). "BT interview". Progressive-Sounds. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  29. Jones, Simon (2002-07-03). "Review of Airdrawndagger". Progressive-Sounds.
  30. ^ McGeachin, Nick (2004-09-24). "Sasha: His Life, The Music & Neil Young?". Virgin Megamagazine.
  31. "Airdrawndagger Metacritic reviews page". Metacritic. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
  32. ^ Harrington, Richard (2006-03-31). "Master Manipulator Keeps It Spinning". Washington Post.
  33. "Review of Airdrawndagger". E!Online. Retrieved 2006-06-21.
  34. "WAVY GRAVY REMIX CONTEST WINNER ANNOUNCED". Djsasha.com. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
  35. "Sasha's Freedom of Airdrawndagger". Resident Advisor. 2003-02-24.
  36. "James Zabiela - Alive Review". About.com. Retrieved 2006-08-09.
  37. ^ Reeves, Mosi (2004-06-30). "Don't Speak". SF Weekly.
  38. ^ Romero, Dennis (2004-06-24). "Building a Better DJ". Los Angeles CityBeat.
  39. ^ Schaal, Tilmann. "DJ Sasha: Crossfade into the Digital Domain". Apple.com. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
  40. "Sasha Fundacionnyc Mix". DJMixed.com. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
  41. "Review of Fundacion". JIVE Magazine. 2006-06-22.
  42. McCarthy, Zel (2005-05-31). "One More Time: Interview with Sasha". Groovetickets.com.
  43. Paoletta, Michael (2006-05-24). "Sasha Plans Live DJ Mixes". Billboard.
  44. Woodcock, Clare. "Sasha Interview". 4clubbers.net. Retrieved 2006-08-15.
  45. Jones, Simon (2006-08-10). "John Digweed Interview". Progressive-Sounds.
  46. Skrufff, Jonty (2005-07-02). "Sasha's Secret of Superstar DJ Success". Trackitdown.net.
  47. ^ Schoenbohm, Kevin (2006-08-31). "DJFix Interview". Djfix.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  48. ^ Nathan Brackett, ed. (2004). Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th Edition ed.). Fireside. p. 718. ISBN 0743201698. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  49. Jones, Simon (2006-05-19). "Sasha - Fundacion: NYC". Progressive-Sounds.
  50. ^ Blue, Ben. "Sasha - Fundacion NYC Interview". ISBN 0872887405. Retrieved 2006-07-08.
  51. Gerrish, Bruce (2001). Remix: The Electronic Music Explosion. ArtistPro.
  52. "DJ Sasha talks Macs and Ableton". Macworld. Retrieved 2006-06-26.
  53. James, Colin. "Sasha: No rest for the world's last 'rock-star deejay'". Prefix Magazine. Retrieved 2006-09-25.
  54. "DJMag Website". DJMag. Retrieved 2006-08-22.
  55. "Winter Music Conference Website". Winter Music Conference. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
  56. "Sasha tops DJ poll". BBC News. 2000-11-20.
  57. Romero, Dennis (2005-02-17). "In a Grammy Groove". Los Angeles CityBeat.
  58. "Billboard Chart rankings". Billboard. Retrieved 2006-06-07.
  59. "UK Chart rankings". Chartstats.com. Retrieved 2006-06-07.

External links

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