Sasha

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Alexander Paul Coe (born 4 September 1969), also known as Sasha, is a Welsh DJ and record producer. He is best known for his live shows and experimental music as a solo artist, as well as his British DJ John Digweed's Sasha & John Digweed collaborations. In a poll conducted by DJ Magazine, he was named World No. 1 DJ in 2000. He is a four-time winner of the International Dance Music Awards, a four-time DJ Awards winner, and a Grammy Award nominee.

In the late 1980s, Sasha began his career playing acid house music. He collaborated with John Digweed in 1993, touring internationally and releasing a collection of mixed albums (compilations of other artists' works performed in a continuous fashion).

Sasha has remixed hits for artists like D-Ream, Madonna, Moby, The Chemical Brothers, and Hot Chip. Sasha's remixing and production often mix experimental music genres, making it difficult for critics to determine his musical style. Sasha has released three albums of original works, including remixes and compilation albums: The Qat Collection in 1994, Airdrawnagger in 2002, and Scene Delete in 2016.

Sasha began as a producer and DJ, working with younger DJs and producers such as BT and James Zabiela. His live audio engineering equipment helped popularize technological advancements among DJs who previously relied on cassettes and turntables. He formed emFire, a record label with Renaissance Records, in 2007, which is the sole outlet for his new music.

Early years

Sasha was born in Bangor, Wales, on September 4, 1969. His early musical tastes included mainly Top 40 pop hits, such as The The and The Cops. Sasha passed the entrance exam for Hatfield College at age 17. He characterized it as a "idyllic childhood." However, he did not like Epsom and left before completing his A-Level examinations. Sasha moved to Bangor to live with his father and stepmother rather than continuing his education. Sasha's stepfather coerced him to take piano lessons, which, although he feared them at the time, later discovered to be extremely useful to his music career.

In 1988, Sasha first heard of electronic dance music at The Haçienda, a Manchester dance venue. He travelled to Disley often due to the rough sound of acid house music and the neoliberal attitude he had adopted with it. Sasha began to mix by purchasing records and teaching himself how to mix. Sasha, a local DJ at a club Sasha frequented, revealed that he was looking for other DJs to travel with him on a regional tour; Sasha volunteered and made his first live appearance in nearby Stockport. "I'd never even touched a Technics" on his debut, he said. "I'm sure I was completely horrendous."

Sasha soon found himself in debt due to low-paying shows and the numerous albums he bought. He appeared in illegal warehouse raves in the Blackburn and Blackpool areas to raise his money for his record. Sasha obtained work at The Haçienda, where he learned key mixing (matching melodic keys) from DaSilva and refined his ability to beatmatch (to synchronize the beats of two live performances). Despite his fascination with The Haçienda, Sasha played in 1990 for Shelley's Laserdrome in Stoke-on-Trent. There, he created a part of his signature sound by combining euphoric acid house music with Italian piano house and emotional a cappellas. Mixmag featured Sasha on its first cover, under the heading "SASHA MANIA – THE FIRST DJ PINUP" due to his increased fame and exposure at Shelley's. Sasha began to record several of his own dance tracks while continuing to DJ. He later found that this was contrary to many other successful DJs' careers, for whom it was more normal to start out as producers. He also built an entire recording studio at the start, which resulted in a "painful learning curve" at the start. He debuted "Appolonia," his first single under the name BM:Ex (the title refers to Sasha's love of the piano). He co-produced Union City Recordings' producer Tom Frederikse. Sasha left Shelley's for many years due to increasing gang violence in and out the club. Sasha was given work in numerous London and Australian clubs as a result of his growing fame. He accepted a spot in Renaissance's DJ rotation, rather than Geoff Oakes' Club Night at Venue 44 in Mansfield, England.

Sasha performed "Together," his first single under the name Sasha in 1993, while Danny Campbell, collaborating with Pete Tong's FFRR, released "Together" later in the year. On the UK Singles Chart, "Together" reached its highest position at #57. With this success, Sasha began a line of Deconstruction Records with singles "Higher Ground" and "Magic" (for which Digweed produced a remix) and Sam Mollison's Qat Collection.

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Career

Sasha first worked with fellow Renaissance DJ John Digweed in early 1993. Sasha and Digweed honed their DJing abilities, often appearing in tandem and focusing on track selection and technical mixing skills. Renaissance was delighted with their shows and had the duo compile Renaissance: The Mix Collection, releasing it on the club's own Renaissance Records label. The collection featured tracks from Leftfield, Fluke, and 2 Bad Mice, as well as original and remixes of Sasha and Digweed. Shortly after Sasha's departure from Renaissance in April 1994, the Mix Collection was announced. Sasha was also featured on Mixmag with the tagline "SON OF GOD" following his success at Renaissance. "Since he resented the award, he regrets it." With the unveiling of their double CD Northern Exposure on mega-label Ministry of Sound, the pair became "true stars" after touring together for two years. Sasha began a regular mentorship and collaboration with fellow producer BT with the album Ima around this time. Sasha released a "euphoric" and "introspective" 42-minute version of the album, as well as giving advice to BT. He continued to develop his own production by teaming up with vocalist Maria Nayler to produce the single "Be as One," which debuted at #17 on the UK singles chart.

Ministry of Sound's Northern Exposure 2, Sasha and Digweed's second double-CD entry in their Northern Exposure series, was released in 1997. The pair toured around the world to support the album, and in the process, they helped to define the sound of trance music in the late 1990s. Digweed and Sasha also performed at the famous Twilo nightclub in New York City, where they will DJ for the entire night after extensive touring. As part of the Global Underground line, Digweed's Global Underground 006: Sydney and Sasha's Global Underground 009: San Francisco, which drew from his years on the West Coast of the United States, the two bands were released separately on the Boxed label in 1998. Both DJs formed their own record labels this year: Excession Records was founded by Sasha and Digweed started Bedrock Records. Excession saw fewer than ten albums, the first in 1998; however, Sasha's journey led to the establishment of Excession: The Agency LTD. Excession is a booking agent for many DJs, including Hybrid, Nick Warren and Steve Lawler.

With his remixes of Madonna's "Ray of Light" and GusGus' "Purple" for those artists' single debuts, Sasha attracted a more mainstream audience. His success in pop music led him to him to produce the music for Wipeout 3 and Gran Turismo. Sasha and Digweed reunited in the studio in 1999 to record their third version of the Northern Exposure series, Northern Exposure: Expeditions. Sasha performed with Charlie May of Spooky to produce the Xpander EP, which some clubbers also regard as "one of the best trance tracks of all time." For his second Global Underground release, he used the title track as a nexus for the introduction of Global Underground 013: Ibiza. Sasha's relationship with BT continued on the track "Ride," which was released as a single on Yoshitoshi Records and the Movement in Still Life. He appeared on "Scorchio," Underworld's first charting single in four years. Sasha and Digweed released the mix album Communicate in 2000, causing them to temporarily leave Twilo for a promotional tour of the United States. Spin said that despite "few spectacular moments, [Communicate] is ultimately a let-down." Communicate, according to LAUNCHcast, "boring and lackluster... dead in a monochrome world of dead beats."

The rise in fame and acclaim of "superstar DJs" in the late 1990s resulted in the establishment of "superclubs" in Liverpool, England, and Sheffield's Gatecrasher. However, electronic dance music clubs slowed by 2003. Alexis Petridis, the Guardian's pop critic, attributed the "terminal demise" of dance music to its over-commercialization by major DJs like Sasha, as well as increased fees for shows. Despite the closing of several superclubs, including his resident club Twilo in May 2001, dance music had been deemed "dead" by many in the dance industry.

Sasha and Digweed, who were at the end of Twilo, Sasha, and Digweed's demise in 2002, began a new Delta Heavy Tour of the United States. The tour featured veteran tour producer Kevin Lyman and opening act Jimmy Van Mutton, who performed in 31 towns and played to 85,000 people. The performances, which included laser shows and video recording, were more akin to rock concerts than to traditional DJ performances. This was the first step in the DJing industry, and other DJs were forbidden to stage similar concerts. As Sasha & John Digweed introduced Delta Heavy by System Recordings, a DVD of performance highlights, interviews, and a behind-the-scenes film was released. The Delta Heavy tour, according to Ben Turner, the promoter of the DanceStar awards, was a "historic moment for experimental music." Despite the fact that the two Sasha and Digweed sisters never explicitly broke down, demanding schedules and frequent independent touring prevented any meaningful collaboration for a long time after Delta Heavy.

Sasha performed on the single "Breezer" in the second half of 2002, when she collaborated with big beat artist Junkie XL. Junkie XL, as well as Charlie May, helped Sasha with his second album of original material, Airdrawndagger. Due to Sasha's insistence that the album be "as near to perfect as possible," Airdrawnagger took many years to produce. Sasha's march had a punctured eardrum, delaying the album's production. Despite the fact that the injury delayed his hearing for a brief period, he took inspiration for the album from his ordeal. To much acclaim, the airdrawnagger was finally unleashed in August 2002. However, the album was "abducted with a lot of head scratching," Sasha said, owing to its unexpected mix of genres. The album did not have the heavier "club sound" of Sasha's previous mix albums, with a more resemblence to ambient music. Overall, Airdrawnaggers received positive feedback, but critics noted that it wasn't as consistent and well produced as his DJ mixes. Sasha's own characterized it as "a selfish, marginally self-indulgent record," although Sasha continues to say he is "good with it to this day." Some commentators, on the other hand, referred to it as "more in league with Yanni than Moby," according to E!Online; it was more in league with Yanni than Moby." Sasha hosted an amateur remix competition for the album's single, "Wavy Gravy" in order to spark listeners' interest. Sasha released all the tracks from Airdrawnagger on his website, so that people could download and create their own versions as a result of the competition's success.

Sasha brought young DJ James Zabiela "under his wings" after his debut of Airdrawndagger. Zabiela was the first to play on the CDJ1000 and was enlisted by the Excession talent firm to recruit Zabiela. Both the two toured the country together, extending Sasha's fame to now-popular American DJs such as Kimball Collins.

Sasha released another mix album in 2004. However, he found the process of making a standard mix album disappointing and decided to devote his production and DJing abilities to a mix compilation that featured original content. Involver, Sasha's forthcoming studio album, was "a mash-up of mix album and production record" featuring sasha's entire collection of tracks. "I tried to take all the sounds [and recombine them]" he later explained, "and it helped me to mix the songs together on a much deeper level." He did this by arranging the album using Ableton Live and Logic Pro. Sasha's Ableton Live is a music loop-based software suite, although Logic Pro was more used for pre-recorded edits to audio tracks.

Sasha's next mix album, Fundacion NYC, was based on his nights DJing at the Crobar Club in New York. Fundacion NYC received praise for its originality, but JIVE Magazine found it "too complicated for the ear." Sasha is happy with the album, and she hopes to produce a line of Fundacion albums. Sasha also sold 10,000 copies of a June 2006 DJ set for sale on Instant Live, making him the first DJ to use Instant Live's licensing and publishing services. Sasha's record label, Emfire, was announced in August 2007, and it would be the sole home for his new material in both vinyl and digital formats. Its first appearance was "COMA," a collaborative project of a group of the same name, which stars Sasha, Barry Jamieson, Charlie May, and Duncan Forbes. Sasha began working on a new Involver mix and the upcoming Fundacion mix, which was continuing to be a DJ. Invol2ver of Sasha was launched in September 2008, and Invol3r was released in March 2013.

Although regular performers kept them apart for many years, Sasha and Digweed have announced that they would reunite for a few Australian performances. The pair appeared at many venues, including Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne, as well as numerous tour dates throughout 2007. With a appearance at the Winter Music Conference in 2008, Sasha and Digweed launched an American tour. The pair appeared in mainly larger venues on the weekends and smaller (750–1000 people) on weekdays. With "a little throwback to Twilo sounds," Sasha's music was described as "driving and dark."

Sasha is a singer who works in New York City and has a London home. On his frequent travels, he takes his wife with him. Sasha finds the constant travel to be exhausting, but he also enjoys it. Although fans may regard Sasha as a "hero," he is uneasy with fame; Sasha is more concerned with his personal life and is reluctant to discuss his personal life. He has stated on several occasions that he is so occupied with DJing and production that he barely has any free time. However, he loves watching football, baking, and sampling the cuisine of the countries he visits. At the X-Dance Film Festival, the film "New Emissions of Light & Sound" received the Best Original Score. The score was made up of a collection of tracks that had not been released or previously unreleased.

In recent years, Sasha and Digweed have reunited. On March 24, 2016, the legendary pair of Sasha & John Digweed performed a Back to Back set at the Ministry of Sound in London. The pair revealed a list of tour dates for September 2016 just a few weeks after, and they're back to basics for a string of gigs and performing Back to Back.

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