Interview with Sasha

so there was never time for me to sit down and take half a day to learn how a particular keyboard worked.
SASHA: That's basically what brought me to the decision two years ago that I wanted to stop doing remixes and buy my own studio and learn my trade. I felt like I didn't know enough about what I was doing and I wasn't getting a chance to experiment because we were constantly under the pressure of time and money to produce remixes for these these big record labels. I wasn't getting a chance to do what I wanted to do.

DJ TIMES: Who engineered and programmed your remixes/productions then?
SASHA: This guy called Tom Fredrikse. Me and him were kind of a partnership for about three years...

DJ TIMES: And then you fired him?
SASHA: No, I didn't fire him. Tom is a producer in his own right. This was more of like a collaborative thing. Tom's carried on producing lots and lots of stuff. He's a lot more on the commercial end, producing Peter Andre, Sarah Washington, and the two D:Ream albums. I just personally needed to learn what was going on, because the technology was moving ahead and records were coming out and I could hear these sounds that I had no idea of how it was being done. I was so desperate to find out that it was getting me down having to go into the studio and work to the same formula that we'd been working for three years -- putting things to tape, and not working off Macintoshes, stuff like that. I knew that the technology available could let me do so much more. It was a real tough decision for me to make because I had to turn my back on huge amounts of money for remixes and taking a year and half out of not really producing any music. I spent six months in my studio just trying to work out how to turn everything on -- Rich Dekkard showed me how a lot of the stuff worked, he was great at explaining the basics of how to get around in the studio.

DJ TIMES: That was about the same time as when you 'discovered' and nurtured B.T., correct?
SASHA: Exactly. Working with Brian has been a real treat. When we collaborate, we have so much fun. I've learned so much off him. Being in the studio with him is almost like going to school. I could just sit there and learn so much just being in the same room with him. There aren't many people like him out there -- he's a diamond! I'm so glad we were able to meet because anything I've done for him by getting him set up and playing his records he has helped me back tenfold by the amount of stuff he's taught me in the studio as well as in life. But besides him, there have been so many people I've collaborated with over the last several years that I've learned from.

DJ TIMES: Are you going to start producing more remixes now that you know how to use your own equipment?
SASHA: Yes, totally. But I have to finish my album first. The whole idea why I set my studio up was so that I could do an entire album at home at my own pace. I had to learn everything [italics], so that's what has taken so long. It's almost been like two years' preparation -- I basically have wiped the slate clean several times of everything I've done over the last 18 months. I just started working on the album in the last two months, and I think it will be ready by the end of the summer. I knew that when it came together that it would happen really quickly but I just had to learn my shit. When you spend two weeks on a record, by the time you're finished with it you never want to hear the thing again, but now I can turn things around in a couple of days, so I'm still excited by it by the time it gets pressed up.

DJ TIMES: Are you going to have any vocal collaborations on the new album like the Sasha and Maria track from last year?
SASHA: Yes. I'm talking to a couple of different vocalists. One of them is Caroline Navelle, who did an album with William Orbit, and Marcella Detroit, she's done a vocal track with me which I haven't mixed yet.