Thump interview

Sasha talks to Vice.com’s Thump site about the state of the dance music scene:

I really love playing in the UK at the moment. I think there was really a reaction against the big commercial sound, and people really enjoy going out and listening to underground music again. I think between the UK and Germany, that’s where a lot of the sounds are broken, and that keeps their scenes moving forward so well. No one is afraid of breaking the rules, because that’s the only way to innovate a sound.

EDM has taken over:

I think ten years ago, you would go to a main stage and expect to hear a house set, a techno set, all mixed up together, whereas the sonic relentlessness of EDM, there’s nothing that can work alongside it. It really is about the biggest breakdowns, the biggest drops and the biggest buildups … You know I grew up in the Hacienda where they mixed up De La Soul, hip-hop records, Italian house with piano breaks; it was one big, glorious mishmash. That’s how I learned to DJ.

While he no longer features on festival main stages there are plenty of options:

I think ten years ago, you would go to a main stage and expect to hear a house set, a techno set, all mixed up together, whereas the sonic relentlessness of EDM, there’s nothing that can work alongside it. It really is about the biggest breakdowns, the biggest drops and the biggest buildups. I just don’t fit in there anymore … the commercial end of it has gone beyond what anyone ever expected. You know, it did its thing in England and kind of died out, then America got a hold of it and went ballistic, but there are always those parties and those people making this scene unique. And those are the ones I focus on.