Sharaz: But, I mean I've been to places, I've seen a lot of guys get in trouble. I've seen the rooms clear out, you've really got to watch that sort of thing.
ZD: So do you tour internationally, have you done international dates?
Sharaz: No, I haven't done anything internationally, outside of Canada, but just domestically alone I'm doing between fifty and seventy thousand miles just here in the States.
So, I like to have three days a month, three nights a month for booking, and I'm fine for the rest of the time. That gives me an opportunity to turn some stuff down. But if it's interesting I'll go but, for the most part, I don't need more than maybe three bookings a month.
ZD: What would you name as top favorite DJs?
Sharaz: I don't want to give obvious answers to that question. My favorites are usually locals guys from different places that I play. It’s amazing when I go out of town sometimes and I see the talent that is holding down their local market. In some cases, they are even better that the headliner. Those are usually my favorites because those are the guys that are down in the trenches, week after week, the ones that build the crowds for the headliners. I give a lot of credit to these guys in some of these markets, they have the hard jobs as far as I'm concerned, definitely support your local DJ.
ZD: Do you see yourself abandoning the physical aspect of DJing at any point, and trading in your stuff for a laptop? Using a laptop only instead of Turntables.
Sharaz: No, I can't see that, I mean I really can't see that. As great as computers are, they're not a hundred percent reliable, even though Final Scratch runs on Linux. You just never know. Of course I'm fortunate enough to have support directly from Stanton being one of the touring artists, but with any kind of technology it's not a hundred percent fool proof, so I can't see ever abandoning that. The great thing about Final Scratch is that it's essentially vinyl and you want to really keep that tactile response. As a DJ. I went through a period of time when I was really criticized for playing CDs. As a producer I wasn't going to send every single production out on a $50 acetate and also acetates are almost twice as heavy as real vinyl, so I didn't want to carry a bunch of acetates around with me. So I did what a lot of the producers that I knew at the time did, I would put the stuff on a 25cent CD, and play it. But I got a lot of criticism from kids who were real purists because they wanted to see vinyl, they wanted to see something spinning around. When Final Scratch came out, it was a great way to integrate everything. In addition, I think mp3s are changing the landscape and I think they have definitely had an effect on a lot of independent labels. If you are not going to adapt to it, then you won't exist. A lot of that is having some kind of discipline not to give your tracks to everybody, I mean those songs are going to end up being traded on-line. So that requires a little more discipline. There was a time when we would hand out promo to just about anyone we thought would put it to use. But, nowadays, we have to be careful about who we're giving stuff to. Some people wonder how their unreleased music got online, well you can just turn around and ask yourself well, “who did you give it to?” Maybe it’s someone's who shouldn't be receiving them.
ZD: Last but not least, there was over thirty-five releases, two hundred thousand records sold, numerous remixes, and compilation CDs, where do you see 941 electro, yourself and breaks in general in the next five to ten years?
Sharaz: Well, I try to keep a two to three year outlook on everything. This business changes really fast, as you and most DJs know. A three month old track is old, it's something that only happens in this particular style of music. I try to keep a two to three year outlook on everything and abandoning the CD format is one thing for example. Not totally abandoning it but moving forward to DVD. So, I think a lot of labels live and die off the CD sales and thats why you see a lot of these bigger labels in a lot of trouble. They were relying on CD sales for so long, they didn't really have any in house touring artists. So a lot of these labels are living and dying off of their CD sales. When the CD format took a dive and a lot of these bigger music stores went out of business, these guys got into trouble. So, spreading everything out amongst releases in my case, which a lot of labels don't benefit from, touring, and then getting away from the CDs and going to DVDs or a combination of both, I feel that that's really going to be the future. You've got to be pretty diverse, and I don't think that's going to change, it's going to be more pronounced from now over the next couple of years. And as far as where breaks are going, there are so many different styles out there now, I really can't tell you where it is going to go.
