Interview: DJ Sasha
Posted: 3/31/2008

Sasha is well known as a DJ and a producer and he spends his time switching hats between the two. After starting up his own record label, emFire records, last year he has been busy gearing up for a new album. He has been looked up to by many DJs in Detroit and has been an inspiration for many to pick up a pair of headphones and try to replicate his sound. His track “Xpander” is widely toted as being one of the most revolutionary and pivotal tracks in electronic music. The album, titled Involver 2, is set to drop in June just in time for it to become a summer favorite. Right before he makes the journey to Detroit he was able to take a little time for the Detroit Fashion Pages to answer questions about his personal musical style and what it is like on the road again.

DFP: Do you find that using Ableton to DJ with offers any unique advantages or set backs?

Sasha: I think they all have their own kind of unique foibles that make them great they also have their drawbacks as well for me I just found a way of interpreting what I was doing when I played vinyl and when I played CDs, I found things that I could do with Abeleton that you can't really do with those mediums. I'm not here saying that it is the only way or that it’s the future, I just found a way for myself and I really enjoy DJing with Abeleton now.

DFP: You have been performing with Digweed for quite some time, has the dynamic changed at all between the two of you or is it still pretty reminiscent of what it was in the 90s?

Sasha: Yeah I mean of course it has evolved, our friendship has evolved and our sound has evolved. You know, over the past five years we have done maybe 10 or 15 shows a year so the fact that we are now doing this tour together and we are doing a lot of gigs together over the summer and in Europe it just makes it special. When we are in the booth together now we just bring out the best in each others sounds.

DFP: You just held a “Mongoose’ Remix contest, is this something you plan on doing more of in the future?

Sasha: Well the response to that “Mongoose” competition was overwhelming, we had 600 remixes. Which, when we worked it out, if each mix was ten minutes long so we had four days of “Mongoose” remixes if you played them back to back. So it was quite overwhelming so maybe it is something that we will think of in the future the amount of people who put so much time and effort into this was really breathtaking.

DFP: When is the release of Involver 2?

Sasha: Yeah we just put the final touches to it just before I got down to Miami so I’ll be playing all the tracks down in Miami and on the tour and the record is going to drop in June.

DFP: Is there a particular genre or way you think that it can be classified?

Sasha: We have tracks from Telefon Tel Aviv, Thom York, M83, it is a very electronic sounding album it is very different from the last one. The last one had more organic sounds to it and this record is a very pure electronic sounding album.

Sasha is performing live alongside John Digweed on April 10^th at Clutch Cargos in Pontaic. Tickets can be purchased online at a discounted rate or are available at the door for $35.00, this is an opportunity for fans to get a preview of what will be on Involver 2 before it hits the record shops!

See you there!

-Ashley Star
Ashley@detroitfashionpages.com

 

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