Brothers in Rhythm. MixMag. Stress Records... Dave Seaman's role in the evolution of modern dance music is as epic as one of the classic Brothers in Rhythm productions. With a catalog of over 20 mixed CD compilations, Dave also runs the credible independent dance label Audio Therapy. His latest Renaissance Masters Series set features intense tracks from Josh Gabriel, Wally Lopez, Sasha, and Underworld.
DJ Ron Slomowicz: What was the inspiration behind this new Renaissance CD?
Dave Seaman: What was the inspiration? They asked me to do it. I mean
it's my twenty-fourth mix CD, so this is just a regular thing, really.
What do you mean by inspiration?
RS: Well, what was in your head when you were choosing tracks for it?
Dave Seaman: Well, the same as always really – just throw the net out
as far and wide as possible, gather in as much new music as possible
and then sort the wheat out from the chaff. Gather together the best
music you have available to you at that time. Then go through the
process of trying to getting it all licensed. You're left with
whatever you've got after that, and that's when you actually start
trying to piece together the mix.
RS: What tracks on here are you most excited about?
Dave Seaman: I really like the "Exuma" by Sol & Grimm. I think the
Jamie Stevens "Keep Her Space" is a really great record as well. There
were two at the beginning, the Apparat and the Fairmont are a really
nice start to the mix. Then you've got things like Sasha and
Underworld, which are obviously great records as well.
RS: Where do you see the dance music world going right now, club scene-wise?
Dave Seaman: The dance music world, it's difficult to say "world" –
the territories are very, very different. I mean, at the moment
Argentina, Brazil, and South America are on the up and up. I mean,
with festivals of sixty thousand people you could do no wrong. Then
you'll get other territories that are not doing so well. Everybody's
in a different place in their cycle, really. So you know – it's
thousands and thousands of years people have been going out to
celebrate to a tribal drum, and it's still going to be going on long
after we've gone. So things go up and down, depending on the economics
of different countries, and fashion in different countries. You get to
a point where new generations come through and they don't want to
listen to the same music as their mother and father, so they rebel
against that. They might go back to guitars, and rock and roll-based
things, and keep away from the more electronic vibes. But then that'll
all come around again. Everybody's in different places, but there's
loads of great stuff going on. There always is, and you've just got to
go and find it.
RS: Talking about the new things coming up, how's Audio Therapy
going for you?
Dave Seaman: Audio Therapy is doing well, actually. We had a bit of a
sticky situation at the end of last year, as a lot of labels did,
because our distributor went broke. That was a bit of a dodgy time,
but it made us have a good look at what we were doing, and sort of
regroup. I'm very excited by what we've got. I think a lot of labels
went under because of the knock-on effect of the distributor going
into liquidation. It hasn't left as many labels around for people to
take their music to, so we seem to be getting inundated with new
stuff. So it's all very exciting.
