ZD: Yes. What do you use to produce tracks or what are some of your favorite pieces of studio gear?
Sharaz: I have an Access Virus B, which I think I've used on anything in the last three or four years. Secondly, a lot of people are using Reason, I use it primarily for drums because it's so versatile, it's just such a flexible program, that I really don't use the drum machine anymore.
I rarely use a hardware drum machine and I don't use the hardware sampler anymore. So I would tell you, like one or two pieces of outboard hardware and the rest of it's software.
ZD: I guess your albums have sound-scanned or however it's been charted, over two hundred thousand independent units, which is almost unheard of for breaks artists…
Sharaz: Well, that's unheard of for a few, but, with house that's like Jason Nevins.
ZD: Yes.
Sharaz: I can't remember how many of those Run DMC remixes he sold, I think was something like two million. Our numbers have been built up over a period of six years and thirty-five releases and if you figure in the remix releases that are on major labels and everything, it's comes out to about around two hundred thousand vinyl records over a period of time. But its not all Soundscanned, because a lot of that, no one keeps any records on.
ZD: How did the Afrika Bambaataa gig come about, how is to work with him, and was he as you imagined he'd be?
Sharaz: I did some work with Tommy Boy. I did a remix of Fierce Ruling Diva, "You Gotta Believe," which actually went to number 1 on Billboard. What happened after that was that they thought it would be a good pairing for me to work with him on his anniversary album for Planet Rock. But the funny thing was that we had contact before that back around about three years prior when Bam licensed couple of our tracks for his United DJs of America CD compilation. So, I started sending some promotional vinyl, so we knew each other from that project. Our relationship wasn't a personal one at first, but then Tommy Boy thought it was a good idea to get us together and I said, yes. I've been sending this guy vinyl for years and I've never met him. So they flew him down and he came to the house and he spent a day there with us, and he was just a really terrific guy. He was into every kind of breaks, there was nothing that the guy doesn't like, he's really an inspiration and I think a lot of people could use him as a role model.
ZD: And especially for Florida breaks..
Sharaz: For any kind of breaks. He was so open to everything, and he'd seen everything.
ZD: Speaking of being open to everything, what tracks are you record bag at the moment?
Sharaz: I've got a lot of my own stuff in my record bag now. I've got a lot of Finger Lickin' records in my bag now. I also use Final Scratch so I've got hundreds and hundreds of songs, I mean some stuff that goes way back and every once in a while I'll pop out a classic or something like that. This sort of eliminates my need to have to carry a lot of records around, but I do carry actual vinyl and a lot of it is either my stuff or the things that I like, more of the real funky kind of old school breaks, sometimes a lot of rhythm guitar and the funky songs that…
ZD: That we all grew up on?
Sharaz: Yes.
ZD: You could say you sound like nu school, funky breaks or like Sharaz breaks?
Sharaz: It depends, it just depends If you're from Florida, you're considered Florida breaks, it really doesn't matter what you make. So I don't know, I've done some other stuff too. I've done downtempo, I've done some two-step and some garage as well. There's house, I like to do house on the side, my stuff can be anything depending on where I am at a given time.
ZD: Do you like vocal house then?
Sharaz: I like all kinds of house. Whereas I particularly at times I like hard Trance and there are times when I especially like disco house but it depends on the crowd, again, I like everything, it just depends on my crowd.
ZD: Excellent. Changing it up a little bit, you say you didn't start DJ until '97, but before that your entrepreneur and owner of a successful business, how does that factor into what you're doing now?
Sharaz: Well, I think it gives me a little more experience of the business end. I had a business for the ten years before I sold it and there are a lot of things that are real similar as far as with the record label. Of course financial management is one of those things and being able to pinch your pennies when we're more in a down period like we are now, there is some discipline that I picked up from having another business. Another thing is the management of human resources which we had about two hundred and seventy employees when I sold the place, so I've got a lot of experience with human resources as well but there are some major differences. Most of the music business is very loosely organized.
