Sasha On the Climb to the Top of the DJ Charts, His Fans, and the Future of the Winter Music Conference

Starting long before the days of You Tube and mp3's, Alexander Coe aka Sasha began his career performing at underground raves in the U.K., always after the next sound and morphing his unique tastes and talents to become one of the biggest DJs and producers in the world. FM caught up with Sasha at Mynt Lounge during the 2008 Winter Music Conference:

This is another winter music conference here in Miami, where do you see the genre going, we're seeing a lot of sampling from hip hop, P Diddy 's getting involved, where do you see electronic going in the next decade?

The next decade? Are you mental? (laughs) I don't know where it's going in the next three months, that's the beautiful thing about electronic music, its always sampling itself, evolving, eating itself, and spitting out a new genre. I mean back in 1990, who would have predicted that drum and bass would have happened? You know?

And that's the amazing thing about electronic music, is that it always eats itself, eats other genres, and then spews out something new and wonderful, and to try and predict what's going to happen next month is impossible, and that's the exciting thing about it. If I could predict what was going to happen in 10 years, this would be a very boring scene, you know?

Obviously you know you've been on DJ Mag's top 10 list for about 11 years, since '97, what an accomplishment that is. How does it feel to have such a fan base, going from your background, where you were in the 80's to now, to be such a phenomenon?

I mean the fact that everyone votes every year for myself and John, keeping us high in the charts, it means a lot, you know, because we're not the most commercial DJs out there, we don't play the most commercial sound, the fact that every year we get really strong votes, and that comes from underground really, it means a lot you know. And a lot of DJs go out there and actively canvas for votes, and John and I don't really do that, we all send out a little email saying 'don't forget to vote' to the people that subscribe to our websites, but beyond that we don't really canvas, and a lot of other people do that. The fact that we're always up there, its just, it means a hell of a lot you know.

Every year I open that magazine thinking ok, this is the year that I drop out to like number 37, and we stay up there, so, it means a lot, it just means we've got a lot of loyal fans, and a lot of fans that are also just prepared to vote for us, it's exciting, it makes our job, when we go out there, a lot easier I think, to know you've got that kind of loyalty behind you. And it also means that when you do decide to change your sound a little bit and go off in a new direction, people will follow you, they're not just going to dismiss you. Some people are always going to dismiss you, because I didn't play Expand, or I didn't play this record or that record, or because I play that record too many times, the fact that I've got fans that follow the changes and turns that I take with my sound, and still back me up, it means a hell of a lot. That was a long answer wasn't it? (laughs)

Ah. Those are the best because its coming from the heart, I can tell. A lot of critics say they find it hard to generalize what kind of music, or genre you're in. What would you say you're niche is, I know its constantly evolving.

I've never been a purist really, I've never been somebody to play a certain sound and stick to it, I've always just thought that whatever records come through the post, or what I get sent that month, or whatever I buy that month, my favorite records, I'll try and play out and make them into a cohesive set. If it means that I'm playing techno one month or I'm playing some breaks the next month, I just got this amazing drum and base record which I'm going to finish the boat party on Friday, I haven't played a drum and bass record for years, but this record is just so mind blowing I have to play it, you know?

It's about embracing what's great out there, because every genre spits out maybe five, ten percent great records and the rest of it is boring, and no good. I like to embrace the good stuff; I like to skim the cream off the top (laughs). I'm just not somebody to stick to a sound just for the sake of it, you know, if something starts to get boring, then you have to leave it behind, and I think that's when people labeled what John and I do as progressive, I think it was about the time of the Renaissance album, if you listen to the album its got breaks, trance, vocals, I mean its just all over the place, musically its all over the place, and that's what we were always about.

What actually got labeled as progressive house was a specific sound, and we did play that for awhile, but then as soon as it kind of got labeled that, we got bored with it already, before it had even gotten in the magazines we got bored with it and moved on, so, yeah, its about embracing the great electronic music that's out there at that time, and trying to make it into something, a set that is actually cohesive.

Any artists in the future you'd like to work that you have your eye on, to get into something completely knew?

I'm really blown away by Prince, different people like that, people are making such beautiful records; I don't know, I always get bombarded with so much music, everyone always asks me that question, I can never remember my favorite records.

Where do you see the future of winter music? Do you think it's here to stay, do you think its going to move to the next hotspot?

No I think its here to stay, its here to stay, it really is, I mean unless the local government here decides it's a bad thing, you know it's been here for so long, and its had some real peaks, and its also had some troughs, I got a feeling from coming to Miami this year that it's really picked up energy again, I mean there are a lot of British and Europeans here this year, and it hasn't been like that for the last few years.

The thing that made the music conference so great ten years ago when it really first started to gain momentum was the fact that there were a lot of foreigners here, a lot of Europeans; that dropped off about three or four years ago, and this year, just walking up and down the streets, I've heard a lot of English voices, it seems to me, I mean maybe its got a lot to do with the weakened dollar, people are going, I can go to Miami, and even though the hotels are $300, that's only 150 quid, and they're going fuck it, I can have a week in Miami. I feel like this year it's really picked up, and also musically this year its picked up, there's a real resurgence of many different genres, I'm getting great music from everywhere.

I don't think its ever going to go away, I mean it goes through slides and peaks, but I feel like music conference is a very important part of dance music, a very important factor for dance music, it's the beginning of the year, people get their records ready for Miami, I've been bombarded with 200 tracks from people just in the last 3 or four days, it's a really important thing to finish the tracks for Miami, to have that record that's played throughout Miami, it's a big thing, and I think that's still important, its still very relevant.

It's a well known fact that you got a lot of inspiration from Hacienda, would you say you've gotten any inspiration from any American artist that maybe you could say is influential to some degree, that maybe you could see mixing in with your style?

That's a difficult question, I mean America produces great things, I mean, I always thought seeing the way the dance music scene exploded in England; it gave birth to Massive Attack, left field, underworld, the chemical brothers, there's no country in the world that makes things bigger, brighter, and more massive than America, and I assumed that when dance music hit America, we would have this breed of artists that would take electronic music and make it even bigger than what we did in England, and it just didn't really happen.

I mean you've got Crystal Method, LCD sounds system, Rabbit in the Moon, they're all amazing artists, but there hasn't really been anyone from the states who's taken the idea of the Chemical Brothers or Prodigy and done it in an American way, and I'm really surprised by that, that It never happened, I was waiting for it to happen, there are definitely some influential artists and DJs, but its much more on the underground.

I was kind of disappointed, I was waiting for that explosion of big electronic bands from the states, and it just didn't really happen, and its weird because America knows how to make things bigger and better and wider, and it just didn't really happen.

What advice would you give to the young up and coming dj's who are in the grind, and they look to you for inspiration, and they see what a phenomenal success you've been, and if you could relate to back in the beginning of your career, what advice would you give?

That's a difficult question, every time I get asked that I have a different opinion, I guess I go back to how I started. If you start local, and build your name up locally, and you really get a strong hold locally, that message usually spreads.

I think maybe a lot of the DJs that are starting off, they send their cd's out all over the world, maybe just starting a night, and maybe getting their core fan base around them, even if its two hundred people or five hundred people, then that will grow to a thousand people, then they get booked in the next city.

It has to come organically. I think if you set your sites too high in the beginning, you're going to end up with being disappointed really. And also just staying true to the music, finding your own sound, its really important, be inspired by the dj's you love, but don't copy them.