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On the Road with…Sasha & Digweed?
Dance music's royal tandem of Sasha and John
Digweed embarks on an ambitious tour across
the U.S.
They're coming to your town, rolling rock-star
style in two tour buses and crisscrossing the
nation. A synapse-numbing sound system, an
elaborate Tim Burton-esque stage, and three
giant video screens get broken down and rebuilt
for the show on a daily basis. Thousands turn
out nightly to see this sonic spectacle where
you'll pay $40 for your seat, but you'll only need
the edge. No, folks, it's not the Ozzfest or Family
Values or the Rolling Stones. We're on the road,
coast-to-coast, with…Sasha and John
Digweed?
That's right, superstar DJs Sasha and Digweed.
These two progressive house icons have set
out (along with cohort Jimmy Van M) to take their
renowned dark and stormy DJ sets -- once the
pride of New York's now-defunct megaclub
Twilo -- out to the American masses. Are they
staring out the bus windows, soaking in the
countryside, and singing "Tiny Dancer"?
Probably not. They are, however, supporting an
innovative dance-music experience -- the Delta
Heavy tour -- never before seen in any part of the
world, let alone hamlets like Albany, New York
or Columbus, Ohio. It's a happening, a huge
production that's designed for 800-person
nightspots, huge arenas (like the one in Miami
where the tour kicked off in late-March), and
everything in between.
For the DJs, the bus tour provides an escape
from the chaos of airports and sleepless weeks
and lost records: after each gig, they hop on the
bus, pop in a DVD, and wake up in the next city.
When they show up at the venue the next day,
the production crew has their records arranged
just as they left them the night before. CDNOW
caught up with Sasha in Rochester, New York,
to find out about his nationwide trek.
CDNOW: Did you ever imagine years ago that
you'd be doing this rock-star tour of America?
Sasha: There's no way I ever imagined that I'd
be on a tour bus touring America [laughs]. We
started putting the idea together about a year
and a half ago, and we just thought that
[traveling with a bus] would be the way to do
things now.
Why do a tour of this magnitude right now? Both
you and John have projects coming later this
year, but nothing current.
I guess we just felt it was time to do it, time to
get out there. I'd been out of the loop for the past
year because I'd been in the studio and stuff,
and we were all just chomping at the bit to get
out there and do it. No, it doesn't coordinate with
a CD release or anything like that, but we felt it
was the right time to do things in terms of our
profile, and because we thought America was
ready for it. Next time we do it, we'll probably
have a CD to put out at the same time.
"I'd been out of the loop for the past year
because I'd been in the studio and stuff, and we
were all just chomping at the bit to get out there
and do it."
Is the tour, in any way, designed specifically for
the American audience?
I think just in terms of the production we're
bringing along. We've built a stage set-up and
we have visuals done by Imaginary Forces from
L.A. [a company that did the opening credits for
the film Seven], and we're just presenting
ourselves in a more visual and theatrical way
than we've done before. It's something I think I'd
like to take back to Europe and the U.K. and the
rest of the world. A lot of friends at the [2002
Winter] Music Conference [in Miami] from South
America and Asia who saw the show said,
"You've got to bring it out to us." We started it in
the States, and it was tailored to touring
America, but I think it's something that will
translate to the rest of the world as well.
Walking into the show in Miami at the Arena was
indeed a spectacle, and a trip for anyone who'd
sowed their oats in the regular clubs. Is it
strange at all for you to be in focus so much on
this huge stage?
We've designed it in such a way that John and I
are not lit up like Christmas trees. In fact, the
one criticism of the show in Miami that we've
now addressed was the fact that the DJ booth
wasn't lit up at all, and no one could actually see
us at all. We've got some lighting happening
around the DJ booth now so people can see our
faces. I think the way we've designed the visual
impact with the visuals from Imaginary Forces
does make the stage the focus, but it's not
about me and John being up on stage and
performing. I think it's much more about us
presenting a visual identity for what we're doing,
but we're not there with our arms in the air, lit up
like we're pop stars or anything.
Has it been cool to tone it down a little bit by
hitting some of these smaller venues in smaller
cities after the huge launch in Miami?
Yeah. The Miami show was probably the
biggest show we're doing on the whole tour.
Most of the places we're doing are around 2,000
people. We hit Albany the other night, which was
about 800 people, which was great. It had a low
ceiling, so we didn't get to put up the
projections, but we had the sound system, we
had the stage set up, so it was great. The
atmosphere was fantastic. I think putting that
production into smaller venues has quite a lot of
impact as well.
Have you been able to gauge the crowds at all
and the impact you're having in some of these
places like an Albany where you've never been
before?
Albany was great. We'd never played Philly
before, and we did the Electric Factory on
Saturday, and that was amazing. I think the fact
that we're bringing our own production is
helping us break through and get our music
across to those crowds. I think if we were
turning up and just playing on the house
systems without visuals and stuff, I think it
would be harder. By bringing our own
production, it means we're getting our point
across a lot easier. At a lot of these places that
we haven't been to before, at the start of the
night it takes awhile for the kids to get
accustomed to what they're hearing and what
they're seeing, but at all the shows, about two or
three hours into the set, the kids are going
mental. It's great.
It definitely has to be a thrill for fans of dance
music to have you bringing this experience into
their hometown venues. Now, can you give us a
little info about your upcoming artist album and
what to expect?
Well, I just finished it a few days before I came
out on tour, and I'm very, very happy with it. It's an
instrumental album, but I'm waiting for some
vocal ideas to come back. It's going to be
dropped in September, and I'll probably be
touring again in the fall to promote that. I'm very
happy with it.
How about some of the collaborators on the
record?
I did most of the album with Charlie May, who I
did Xpander with. The production side of the
album was handled by Tom [Holkenberg] from
Junkie XL, and I did one track with James
Holden. There have been some great producers
I've been working with.
Do you plan on heading back into the studio at
all after the tour to revisit some of your album
tracks based on the responses they've been
getting on the road?
Yeah. There are a couple of things I've already
noticed where I need to extend breakdowns or
put breakdowns in, and it's been interesting to
drop stuff out and see the reactions. I'll definitely
be going back in for a couple of days when I get
back for some tweaks.
But so far you've been pretty happy with the
response your new stuff has been getting?
It's been great. I've been really surprised with
the response from people.
You've taken a prolonged break from the chaos,
especially from the insanity of the mid-'90s.
What does it feel like now to be back in the
limelight?
It feels great. The last year and a half I've been
really focusing on my record and taking a back
seat from DJing. It feels really, really good to be
back on the road again, especially having this
record under my belt.
"With my album, I've made something that's very
true to myself."
With your record coming out later this year, and
other new studio records coming out from Paul
Oakenfold, Tall Paul, Carl Cox, and others, do
you think that DJs are beginning to turn the
corner, perhaps building on the success of
mixes like Global Underground and Northern
Exposure and moving into a new era?
I think it's a good thing. It's something that's
been in the cards for a while now. I do feel that
some of the people who are taking this route
are taking a much more manufactured, pop
route. With my album, I've made something
that's very true to myself. I do feel that I've got to
establish my sound as an artist before I start
doing loads of high-profile collaborations, but
each to his own, really. I think it's really healthy,
from the more commercial things to the
underground things, for DJs to be establishing
themselves as artists and not just DJs. This
year could definitely be the turning point for that
sort of thing.
Is there any stuff you've been playing out recently
that you're really excited about?
I just got loads of new stuff from Silver Planet
which I'm really into: Yunus [Güvenen] and
James Holden. They're doing some amazing
stuff. I've been playing a lot of new stuff off of my
record, and loads of Junkie XL stuff that he's
working on for his record, so there's a lot of
exclusive stuff there that people won't be able to
get a hold of until September.
