RS: How is it you find the new talent for Audio Therapy?
Dave Seaman: I obviously get lots of music sent to me and I just wade
through it. Anything that I receive that I think is worthy of
signing, then I'll sign it. Most things come to me on my computer
desktop. I don't really trawl the internet looking for things, I don't
have time to. I don't go out and seek things. It's basically music
that's sent to me, via iChat or via eMail, and I just have to wade
through it the best I can.
RS: What's the last thing that you were sent that really blew you away?
Dave Seaman: Gosh, I don't know off the top of my head… I think it
was probably the new Eric Prydz record "Piano." It's very, very simple
and very, very old school, but it is absolutely massive, and it just
made me realize that whilst everybody can get a bit carried away with
the technology side of things and being super cool, trying to be very
clever – actually, dance music is, in essence, meant to be very, very
simple and meant to move you both physically and emotionally. That
record does it. It's just a happy hands in the air record, and it's
going to be one of the big hits of the year.
RS: Talking about piano, any chance of a Brothers in Rhythm reunion?
Dave Seaman: No, I doubt it very much. We actually did try to do it
last year. Steve (Anderson) decided that he'd like to come back and do
something, and then I think when he actually got into the thick of it
he thought, this is all too much hard work. It's very difficult to get
all of us together because we've all got different careers now, and we
all live in different places, so finding time where our diaries match
is a challenge. We did find a day, and then it was like a month before
we could get another day, and it just wasn't working. But never say
never because the inclination is there to get together, but it just
isn't happening at the moment.
RS: You were one of the first editors of MixMag. Where do you see
the state of dance music journalism right now?
Dave Seaman: Well, it's been democratized, hasn't it really, with the
internet? Everybody can have their two penny's worth, and report on
anything or be a critic. Everybody's a critic these days. I think it's
quite healthy, actually, because anything that's democratized in any
industry, it gives people a chance who might not get one. It also
makes the people that are sort of resting on their laurels, and
they're quite comfortable in what they're doing, and have their little
niche – it keeps them on their toes a little bit. It's very easy to
get lazy, and think you know where things should be, and ask the same
old questions and dah, dah, dah, dah. It's very easy to get your feet
under the table and become comfortable there, and not push yourself.
That goes for everything, really, and I think journalism has been like
that in the last few years, until the internet came along, and kicked
people up the ass a little bit.
RS: What do you read as a source of information right now?
Dave Seaman: I still get all the magazines, really. I buy MixMag, I
buy DJ, I buy M8, I buy I DJ, all the UK magazines over here. I don't
really do a lot of trawling around the internet. I don't physically
have the time to do it. I don't really have to go and find
information, because all the music's being sent to me, at a rate that
I can't actually keep up with it. It's almost a twenty-four/seven job,
just clearing my desktop all the time. I will obviously check things,
and once a week or when I'm on the plane, I'll have a quick look
through a magazine and maybe look at some charts and stuff, and make
sure that I'm up, and other people haven't got things that I haven't
got. But generally, I am all on, just to keep up with what I'm being
sent, so I don't feel the need to go and find more.
