In the spotlight: Sasha

In the spotlight: Sasha

24 April, 2008 | 6.24PM

• Written by: Industry Boy
• Filed under: Music News: interview, sasha

Anyone who hangs out backstage with DJ Sasha before he’s about to spin better stay out of his way.

When he is pacing the room back and forth with a glazed look on his face, there is no room for small talk or random club chatter.

He’s in the middle of a pre-set DJ ritual and to anyone who doesn’t know him, he looks, well, pissed off.

“I’m not pissed off, I just get really really nervous before I play,” Sasha tells Industry Boy.

“All I’m thinking about is my set and I’m hoping that nothing goes wrong.”

“Take last night for instance [he spun with John Digweed in Vancouver], I went for dinner with Kazel before the club and we were in good spirits, but as soon as I got to the venue I was like ‘leave me alone, don’t talk to me’.”

“Even if my mum or my wife called me before my set, I’d tell them to leave me alone. I get that nervous.”

It’s a surprising revelation, especially for a man considered to be a legend amongst DJ superstars.

After all Sasha is renowned for his abilities to skillfully blend records and he’s been doing it for the best part of 20 years.

You’d think therefore that DJing would be second nature to him, a walk in the park, but no.

Why does he still get nervous after all these years of DJing at the top?

“It’s really strange, but I go though life gig by gig,” says Sasha.

“It doesn’t matter how good the last gig was, or the last year, it’s all about making tonight good and not messing up the set tonight.”

The power of dance music has always been the ‘now’.

That moment, that second on the dancefloor when it all clicks.

It is a specific time, a specific place, a specific beat; and in a way, Sasha’s anxiousness shows the pressure that top DJs are under to make ‘now’ the best moment of the crowd’s life.

It doesn’t matter if he played good last year or last night, it’s all about ‘now’.

“Plus with all these new gadgets I’m using there’s so much that can go wrong,” he says.

Five minutes before Sasha was due to go on stage in Miami at the start of this tour, his special MAVEN MIDI controller - which he uses to control Ableton Live - blew up.

His laptop too crashed on the very last record during the New York Webster Hall date.

The woes of the digital DJ is that he relies upon technology which is yet to be perfected.

And as a pioneer of digital DJing, Sasha is a kind of lab rat, testing equipment and technology that is still in working beta.

Things can and do go wrong. “Once I get through those first four or five mixes I relax,” Sasha says.

“Once I know all my equipment is working OK, and it’s sounding good I start to enjoy myself.”

And enjoy himself tonight, Sasha did.

For the first time during this tour, he volunteered to sign autographs.

“Man I have every one of your mixes and I’ve been following you for 10 years,” said an excited fan last night as he stripped off his tshirt for Sasha to sign.

Sasha signed three or four 12-inches for the fan and some CDs.

“You made my night, thanks so much Sasha!” he shouted, before running off into the damp Vancouver night.

Later Sasha revealed why he’s so reluctant to sign autographs generally.

“I’m not a diva or an ego monster. I just don’t think I should sign autographs unless I feel that I performed to the best of my abilities that night,” he said.

“Last night if some bloke had asked me for an autograph one hour into my set I’d have refused, but because I felt I played well by the end of the night, I thought I was worthy of signing autographs.”

Last night was also the first time during the tour that Sasha has opened up to Industry Boy and revealed some of his thoughts, a conversation which led to the creation of this post.

Doing interviews though is something Sasha doesn’t generally do.

“I hate doing press,” explains Sasha. “I can’t stand it. I don’t read my interviews because I always end up sounding like a cunt.

“Everyone sounds like a cunt in interviews.”

Is he the reluctant superstar?

“Yes, but it’s not like I have people taking photos of me in the street.

“People don’t recognise me when I walk down the road.

“I know how important it is to do press, but it’s not something I like doing.”

The Vancouver party continued long into the night (for the first time on the tour the crew let their hair down), with an excited Sasha dragging a few of us to an afterparty at a local’s house in the suburbs.

At the end of the night, Sasha could be seen dancing and enjoying himself, a far cry from those anxious moments just before he stepped on stage at the beginning of the night.

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