After nearly 20 years in the dance music spotlight, DJ/Producer Sasha is still on top of his game. As I sit on hold waiting for his publicist to connect us so our conversation can begin, I am reminded of how Sasha has been a pioneer of the electronic music scene since way back when I was just a kid.

From his early UK residencies and the forward thinking Northern Exposure CD's that he did with his long time DJ friend John Digweed to his genre defining mixes for Global Underground, Sasha in the 90's was a force not to be reckoned with. Global touring and headlining gigs at the biggest clubs and festivals on the planet launched him into the global spotlight and there he stayed year after year. As the 90's gave way to a new decade and many of the heroes of that era of DJing began to fade into the shadows, Sasha went about redefining himself, not only as a dj but as an artist and producer.

Today, Sasha sits in a league of his own as not only a top jock but also one of the most notable producers and remixers on the scene. His new album "Invol2ver" follows the same mixed/remixed format as the original Involver CD and is receiving acclaim all over the globe. At the moment, he is knee deep in a world wide tour that hits America in mid October for 12 stops (see the full US tour dates at the bottom of this interview) and he has been kind enough to set aside some time to rap with me about the new album and the state of Dance Music in America and around the globe.

The publicist comes back online... "Erik, you there?, I have Sasha on the line"...

Metrowize: Hey Sasha, thanks for joining us. Can you tell me a little bit about the new "Invol2ver" album and what listeners can expect from it?
Sasha: Well, it's pretty much in the same vein as the last record in the sense that the process of making it was the same. We took a lot of music from other artists and put it into a mixed CD but we actually remixed all of the tracks to make everything kind of fit together perfectly. We really are just taking the whole mix cd another step further by getting not just the songs, but also the parts of other artists records so we can mix it up and make it flow on that really deep level to get that perfect build and the perfect drops and the perfect 74 minute mix.

MW: Would you say Invol2ver is more of a club type mix or one that people are going to groove out to in their headphones and get into on a deep musical level?
S: I hope both actually! If you listen to it loudly, there is a lot of bass in the record and it really flows as a club mix but a lot of the work that we put in to it is in the intricate sounds and a lot of the stuff that isn't right in your face. There's a lot of the stuff that sort of swirls around in your headphones.

MW: How do you go about working on the remix process? How do you know when a song is "done"?
S: Well for this album, I tested out a lot of the mixes live at these parties we did in New York at a club called Love with my friend Dj 3. The club holds about 300 people and probably has one of the best sound systems in New York and we would do these last minute advertised parties on Sundays where we would play from 2 in the afternoon til 2 in the morning and we would basically test out a lot of the mixes we'd be working on to see how they would sound in that environment. It's important because you sit in the studio and say "how's this goin' to sound out" but during the process of making the record I'd have these nights where i would take these demo mixes out to the club to see how they sound and i could tell right off, "oh this is missing some bass" or something like that. We had pretty much finished the record when i went on tour in North America this spring with John Digweed and I would play stuff out on that tour and be calling up the studio and telling them what was missing. They were literally adjusting things as the tour went on and sending me the new version each time for more testing. Little changes in the studio would sometimes create massive changes when the song got played out so it's a very important part of the process.

MW: In your opinion, what are some of the better clubs out there around the world right now?
S: Well, there's a club over in Belgium right now in Antwerp called Knoxx which is a brand new club that has been built by one of the big companies out there that is absolutely amazing and I think that Space and Amnesia in Ibiza are 2 of the best clubs in the world hands down in terms of atmosphere, crowd, production and everything and I am really looking forward to getting back out to Asia and Australia and playing at Womb in Toyko which is one of my favorites as well. I am also due to play Beta club in Denver this tour which I am really excited about because I have heard lots of great things about that as well.

MW: How healthy do you feel the club scene in North America is in comparison to the rest of the world?
S: I think it is very strong... At the end of the day, a good night is a good night and a bad night is a bad night so it all boils down to the people who are going out and coming to the shows. From this tour that I just did with John, I think we saw that it is really healthy out there. We hit a lot of out of the way places on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the crowd was very strong in places like Columbus, Ohio and a lot of these way out of the way places. They were great and the main cities were really strong as well. The gig we played at Webster Hall in New York for example was probably one of the best gigs I have played in New York in years so you know I think everything is pretty healthy. People say "oh, it's not what it used to be" but I really think this year has just been one of the most amazing years for electronic music. It's very hard to put a negative angle on it at the moment with so much good music coming out all around the world.

MW: What's your take on the emergence of, and influence of, bands like Justice, Boys Noize, Cassius, etc., that are very electronic based but bring in a more hybrid sound?
S: The whole French movement really brings in a sort of rock n roll edge to electronic music and is heavily influenced by the eighties and so many other things. You know, the truth is that whether I like it or not, it really doesn't matter, it's just that electronic music has really just pushed off into another direction with a new hybrid sound which is always a good thing.

Buy the new Invol2ver Album now
djsasha.com
Beatport
Amazon

Catch Sasha on Tour
23 Oct Beta, Denver
24 Oct Ruby Skye, San Francisco
25 Oct Vanguard, Los Angeles
30 Oct The Forum, Charlotte
31 Oct Opera, Atlanta
1 Nov Lizard Lounge, Dallas
6 Nov Tribe, Montreal
7 Nov Webster Hall, New York
8 Nov Guvernment, Toronto
9 Nov Set, Miami