Inspired by the sounds of American DJs like Armand Van Helden and DJ Sneak, George and Steven came together to produce and remix some of the bounciest and most high energy tracks of the past 10 years. They've waved their hands over the biggest names from Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross to Madonna and Britney Spears, adding their unique sound to pump up the energy on dancefloors across the world.
DJ Ron Slomowicz: So where did the Sharp name come from?
George: I was Christened George Sharp and my grandfather was George Sharp, so it's as simple as that. Back in '85 when we were looking for a name for the label, we were thinking of lots of ideas and Steven was thinking of Baby Dog Records and Those Strawberries but standing right in front of us was Sharp. It also started as a phrase where it suited the sound of the music that we were anticipating to make - American-influenced house like Armand Van Helden, DJ Sneak and lots of other things at the time. The sort of sound we were coming up with was actually quite fresh and quite sharp, so it actually suited the sound.
RS: Are you two brothers or are you two related somehow?
Steven: No, we're not. We've been friends for twelve years.
RS: Did you start as DJs or producers?
Steven: I met George in '91 and he was DJing at Heaven at the time. I'd always been obsessed with music all throughout my life. I started buying records when I was ten, seven-inch vinyl, and by the time I met him I had a collection of about three thousand twelve inch records. I had quite an obsession with The Pet Shop Boys in particular, being one of my favorite bands, but my tastes go through the range of music. I had done some weddings and that kind of stuff before I went to London in 1989 on console decks without pitch control. It was quite amazing that George actually showed me how to mix two records together which was such a fascination to somebody really into dance music. I'd never been able to try out a set of Technics Decks, which George had, and he taught me how to mix.
I started working at a record company called React Music and they were running a night at Heaven and George basically got me started doing thirty-minute sets in one of the top bars. Our first gig together as DJs was actually at Gay Pride at the Trade Tent in '96, and it made sense because we'd started to remix together. We were listed on the front of one of the remixes that we did for the Candy Girls in about '96. It said 'remixed by the Sharp Boys' on the front and it made sense, because we'd just started DJing together.
RS: So you started more as an industry person/producer and George was the DJ?
Steven: George was DJing originally and I started DJing. When I was working at React, I learned the mechanics of running a record label i.e. how you cut a record, do an order, license a record from a foreign territory, market a record, etc. React specialized in compilations and I started as an office boy. I worked really hard through the company doing a bit of everything, even getting some of our artists like Carl Cox on MTV. I learned a bit of everything from TV promotion to running the export department. Three years later, I left as head of PR because it just was getting to the stage where we were completely doing remixes and financially we were earning more remixing than in a whole year's salary. We then started Sharp Recordings and the first record came out in December 1994.
That was the first release and in March '95 we decided to go in the studio for the first time to see if we could put a couple of records out on Sharp. We worked in the studio together to see what the result would be and in three days we recorded our first production, Sharp Tools Volume 1. That was the third release on the label and it started getting hammered on the London club scene by the likes of Tony DeVit, and Danny Rampling was very supportive in the early days playing our stuff on the radio. Off the back of their support, we started getting asked to do remixes, and our first remix was Urban Discharge for MCA records called "Drop a House." We've now just come up to I think about two hundred and seventy-five remixes. So that was back in like '95, and really it just flowed and continued and never stopped.
RS: You just mentioned the Urban Discharge track and I was thinking how you have remixed some artists more than once, more than twice, like Geri Halliwell and Tamperer. I thought it was interesting how you remixed the Urban Discharge record back in the day, and then when the Tamperer use the same sample you remixed it again.
