Interviews

A transcript (& link) of my recent interview with DJ Mag

by Dave on November 14, 2011

You’ve had a long-term association with Renaissance – why do you think it has endured for so long as a respected club brand?

“Renaissance has always stood for quality and they haven’t been fickle followers of fashion by jumping on every new trend that comes along. They do what they do and they’re the best at it. More people should concentrate on their own thing and just play to their strengths rather than worrying about what everybody else is doing.”

Why do you think you have endured so long as an international DJ?

“See above! Ha ha ha. I’ve followed a similar ideology. Of course you progress and evolve as the scene changes around you but I like to think I keep the same principles and not forget where I came from and as I’m still here 25 years later, I must be doing something right!”

How did you approach this latest Renaissance Masters mix?

“I don’t worry so much about every track being a brand new and exclusive these days. It’s all about the quality. Within a few months it will all be old anyway! I find some people’s unquenchable desire for new stuff all the time quite sad really. The minute something becomes available, they discard it. However brilliant it may be. But there are some exclusives on there, yes, and pretty much all the stuff that is out already has been edited or enhanced in some way to make it unique to the album.”

In Dom Phillips’ book Superstar DJs, you talked a bit about some of your demons. Where’s your head at now?

“Yeah, I had some pretty dark periods around the turn of the Millennium, largely down to living a life of excess and not having much of an anchor. But I got married in 2005 and now have two young boys, so my perspective has changed dramatically. I remember reading somewhere that adults might make babies but really it’s babies that make adults, and I can really relate to that.

“Now I take the last plane out on a Friday and the first flight back on a Sunday morning, even if it’s Asia or South America I’m playing, just so I can get back to spend time with the family. I even went to Australia for the weekend at the beginning of the year, although that was stretching it a bit.”

Have you ever wanted to do something as obviously commercial as your early ‘90s Brothers In Rhythm stuff?

“I would love to do some more pop stuff again but it’s all a question of time. As I just said, I want to spend as much time with my family as possible and just keeping up with the demands of being a DJ these days is so time-consuming with the amount of music being released and the advent of social media. It doesn’t leave much time for the studio, but it is on my ‘to do’ list and I will get round to it sooner or later.”

http://www.djmag.com/news/detail/3079

My Weekend Weapons for Beatportal.com

by Dave on November 8, 2011

Beatportal logo Here’s a link to some of my biggest tunes at the moment put together for Beatportal.com

http://www.beatportal.com/feed/item/weekend-weapons-dave-seaman/

My interview with DJ Download

by Dave on November 3, 2011

DJ Download logo What have been up to lately and what can we expect from you over the next couple of months?I’ve just finished my latest mix compilation for Renaissance. It’s my 28th mix comp so I like to think I’ve got the hang of it now. So I’m going to be touring here there and everywhere to promote that right through to early 2012. In between that, we’ve just moved house. The third time in 2 years! But this time it’s for good I swear. It could fall down around me and I’ll be going nowhere!

What do you think about dj mag’s top100 poll? I think it turned into a load of old commercial lowest common denominator codswallop. This opinion coincidentally started to form around the very same time that I no longer found myself in it! hahaha

What’s the first record you bought? I bought Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ with ‘We Will Rock You’ on the other side for 79p from Woolworths.

Are you afraid of piracy? Only if they made me walk the plank

Define yourself in 3 words- Taurus, Virgo rising

Are you obsessed about anything? I’m a little bit excessive when it comes to the Japanese clothing & lifestyle brand A Bathing Ape. I’ve been collecting their stuff for over 10 years now and have everything from the bathmat to the underwear. It they’d made a kitchen sink, I’d have it in every colour!

What’s the most ridiculous promotional thing you’ve done? Top Of The Pops is up there. I did it with Heaven 17 when our Brothers In Rhythm mix of ‘Temptation’ went Top Ten. Standing there in the background miming along badly to a bassline for 3 minutes was pretty ridiculous in hindsight although at the time, it seemed like the pinnacle of chart success.

What are the current top five most listened to tracks/songs on your iPod? Lana Del Rey ‘Video Games’, Bombay Bicycle Club ‘Shuffle’, Massive Attack Vs. Burial ‘ Four Walls’ , Chilly Gonzales ‘Crying’, Everything Everything ‘Final Form’

What is your favourite TV show? Breaking Bad

What would your super hero super power be? Oh to fly definitely. I’d save a fortune getting to gigs!

If you ever walk around the house in pants and slippers and what do you listen to? Usually BBC6 Music. It was a revelation when I finally got round to buying a DAB radio and I discovered 6 Music. I love Shawn Keaveney in a morning and Mark Radcliffe & Stuart Maconie’s show is the best on the airwaves. I couldn’t produce a finer radio station if I did it myself!

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Australia without doubt. They’ve just got everything right as far he pace and quality of life but yet it’s still a hotbed of creativity and for an Englishman, full of home comforts. It’s just so far away for me to travel around the world DJing every weekend otherwise I’d be there in a shot.

What was your last thought? God , these questions are random. I like random

http://www.djdownload.com/earworm/2011/11/02/a-little-randomness-with-dave-seaman/

My recent interview with Data Transmission

by Dave on November 2, 2011

Data Trasmission logo Q. 20 years ago you were working as a journalist for Mixmag, at a time when the only way to receive that kind of information really was through radio, V and print. Since then the internet has come along; just from information stance how has how much we know about music changed?

A. I don’t think we’ve truly grasped yet just how much the internet has changed everything. Not just music. And I think we’re still only at the early stages of the digital revolution. Back when I was in charge of Mixmag, we didn’t even put the magazine together on a computer. I used to cut and paste with a scalpel and glue to make up the template from which the printer then made the magazine. Imagine that! Nowadays, there’s no air of mystique to music anymore. Everybody has access to the same information literally at their fingertips. It’s made for an instant gratification culture. And I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing.

Q. And whilst we’re on the matter, the music itself? There’s definitely more of it available, and the barriers of entry are lower. But is this a good thing?

A. No. The combination of diminishing expectations and lack of any quality control has turned into real burden for the scene. Everything is so disposable now. We drowning in a sea of so much stuff lacking in either imagination or technical ability or even worse, both! There is still good music out there of course but you have to be an excavation expert with immeasurable patience to find it!

Q. Where do you see the format of mix compilation going? As someone who has been at the forefront of the glory years of its previous days, both with Renaissance and Global underground, where does the modern compilation sit now?

A. For me it doesn’t change, a compilation should still be much more than just a bunch of tracks segued together. It should be an audio collage. A piece of art that will last for years. I spend weeks crafting my albums and although nothing like the glory years of the nineties, still do good numbers. How long the physical format of the CD will last remains to be seen but I’d still approach it the same way if it were to go digital only.

Q. Tell us about your new Masters compilation. How pleased are you to be working with renaissance again and can you describe what you’ve tried to achieve with the release?

A. It’s so good to have them back. For a while there was a big Renaissance sized hole in clubland. And it’s fitting that they’re back up and running in time to celebrate their 20th anniversary next year. As for the album, like I just said, there was a lot of care and attention to detail went into making it. It had to be something that which captured where I’m at in 2011 but will stand the test of time and which is befitting of the Renaissance brand. I hope all that has been realised.

Q. And you’re playing a launch party in Shoreditch for the album at the Village Underground. What can we expect from the gig and your set?

A. I shall be attempting to seamlessly segue from one track to the next without the aid of a safety net whilst simultaneously creating a atmosphere of enlightened rapture on the dance floor

Q. Henry Saiz is playing alongside you. Are you a fan of his music?

A. A big fan yes. I thought his Balance compilation was fantastic and we played together with great success earlier this year in Buenos Aires. He’s one of the most exciting new DJ/Producers out there.

Q. Speaking of fans, we’ve also heard you’re a follower of Leeds United, a shared curse! How has their topsy-turvy trajectory dovetailed with your DJing career?

A. I’d never really thought about it but I suppose you could draw some parallels between what was going on in clubland at the turn of the millennium and Leeds United’s own trajectory. A period of success that turned into excess that culminated in a spectacular fall from grace. Just like Leeds though, we’re rebuilding for the future and things are looking up!

Q. And finally, dream situation time. You can go back to any period in clubland history, and play at any club. Who would you have playing alongside you and what record would you drop that would define the evening? Or have you been lucky enough to have had this moment properly?

A. It would have to be at the Hacienda in 1988 but with Fabric’s current sound system playing alongside Graeme Park & Sasha and I’d drop ‘I Feel Love’ by Donna Summer for the very first time ever in a club having had a Back To The Future moment and gone back and stolen it from 1977!! Orgasmic

http://www.datatransmission.co.uk/Features/974/3/

My recent interview for DMC World…

by Dave on October 24, 2011

DMC World interview screen shot It’s incredible to think Renaissance are Twenty years old next year. Back in 1992 – did you think that you would still be here today, still at the forefront of this global takeover otherwise known as dance music. Back when you began your career, we all jumped around when we heard a Unique 3 or FPI Project on daytime radio!

It is incredible isn’t it. I don’t think any of us that were involved in the acid house explosion of the late eighties ever in our wildest dreams thought we’d still be going strong over 20 years later. Most youth cultures that the UK had produced that had evolved from a music scene such as mods & rockers, punk, new romanticism, etc had all lasted only a few years before dying as off with the clothes they’d fashioned. But acid house transcended all that. The clothes & style may have changed but the music just continued to gather pace. A huge snowballing juggernaut that, like you say, just spread across the world like wildfire. Not even rock n roll had managed to cross borders and language barriers like acid house. And looking at it right now, i can’t see it ever it going away. It’s here to stay, to be passed down from generation to generation. I feel very privileged to have lived through it’s first two decades.

However, it was plain to see, Renaissance was different from the rest. It oozed quality and there was never any cutting corners, it must have driven Geoff Oakes’s bank manager crazy. What have been your favourite 3 moments at Renaissance over the past 2 decades…?

Oh God, there’s so many to choose from. We had a couple of Asian/Australian tours in the mid/late nineties that will always remain dear to my heart. It was really when dance music was at the height of it’s powers and we had the likes of Bono & Helena Christensen dropping by our gigs. Also, playing alongside Kylie at Privilige in Ibiza was another special Renaissance night. And I don’t think anyone could forget the 2nd birthday party at the Que Club where the production really must have given Geoff’s bank manager a heart attack. That was the moment that I realised dance music had well and truly gone big time. The last night at the Cross in London was a special night too.

What are your all time 10 Renaissance classics?

M People ‘How Can I Love You More’ (Sasha Mix)

Bedrock ‘For What You Dream Of’

Shawn Christopher ‘Another Sleepless Night’ (Morales Mix)

Sounds Of Blackness ‘The Pressure Part 1′

Leftfield ‘Release The Pressure’

Pete Lazonby ‘Scared Cycles’

Way Out west ‘Mind Circus’

Luzon ‘That Baguio Track’

Blast ‘Crazy Man’ (Fathers Of Sound mix)

Hysterix ‘Talk To Me’ (Sasha mix)

Why do you think Renaissance has stood the test of time?

I think that care and attention to detail has always been their strength. They’ve always put quality of product & experience before the bottom line which has been very much to their detriment on occasion. But they’ve always stuck to their guns. Never sold out or followed the latest trend. They just do what they do and they’re the best at it.

This is your ninth Renaissance mix CD – how has your style changed over the years?

I supposed like most DJs it has evolved with the times and with the advancement of technology. Things have definitely gotten slower recently though. House music is groovier again which is probably a back lash against the bang, crash, wallop aggressively mid range music that has dominated the last couple of years. But It’s getting more difficult to describe what I play. Music is harder to pigeonhole and besides, people have such different ideas of what the genres represent these days, it can be more misleading than helpful a lot of the time.

You were the first Editor of Mixmag when it became available to the general public after being on subscription only for years. You once said in an interview when asked if you thought there was space for actual music magazines today in light of the hundreds of on line magazines…

“There is room for maybe one, probably DJ, but I think Mixmag will go. I don’t read it anymore. There is nothing to read in there anymore. It is the same stories repeated over and over again. They are cornering themselves into a very niche market with the music they cover – that trancey stuff. They’re going towards a bad end for me.” – How did that make you feel knowing it was your precious baby once in your life?

It wasn’t very nice to see Mixmag go to the dogs at that time. It just turned into a rag. Nothing but tits and pills. It lost it’s spine both literally and metaphorically. But I’m happy to say that it’s now back in the hands of a publisher that knows what to do with it and it’s a much better magazine than when I said what I said. I do still read it from time to time.

You left a very good job in advertising up in Leeds to follow your dream down south – what did your mum and dad think of your new career choice?

They weren’t very impressed when I told them I was going to give up my highly paid and promising career in Advertising to go and be tea boy at some fledgling DJ organisation. There were some heated exchanges shall we say. But they’ve since admitted they were wrong about my decision and are now very happy that I chose the path I did. I think like any parents, they were just worried about me. I try not to remind them about it too often! hahaha

Are you looking forward to the huge Renaissance 20 birthday plans…?

Of course, I’m so pleased they’re back in the game just in time for the 20th anniversary celebrations. There’s gonna be some big shows all around the world and some very special accompanying releases. I’ve been chatting with Geoff & Jo about it and I think it’s only just now sinking in what they’ve accomplished over the last two decades. 2012 is gonna be big

What are the big 10 tunes you are smashing out right now?

1. Butch ‘Big Futt’

2. Oliver Huntemann ‘In Times Of Trouble’

3. Henry Saiz ‘La Marea’

4. Trentemoller ‘Moan’ (Radio Slave remix)

5. Egbert ‘Vrijheid’

6. Sian ‘Sacred Geography’ (Guy J mix)

7. Boys Noize ‘Adonis’

8. Slam ‘Black Arts’

9. Dapayk Solo ‘Nneka’

10. 2000 & One ‘Tropical Melons’ (Kaiserdisco mix)

In today’s modern times, fans know everything about their heroes thanks to Twitter and Facebook – doesn’t this frighten you knowing people know your every move? We knew last week for instance that you were on the A380 driving home from the airport and at 5am you were “relocating goldfish”. Do you think things have gone too far in this obsessive world?

Hahaha. I wasn’t driving on the A380 (wherever that is!?). I was coming home on an Airbus 380. The huge double decker plane that Emirates use between London & Dubai. Hahaha. So much can get lost in translation. I take the position that if people want to know what I’m up to then I don’t mind sharing some information. But I only pass on the stuff I want them to know. I still keep a lot of my private life private. I don’t think people need to know every little detail.

You were once the boss of the mighty Stress Records where the likes of Sasha, Danny Tenaglia and John Digweed released dancefloor monsters. What was the biggest song you signed to Stress?

Probably Bedrock’s ‘For What You Dream Of’. It was Digweed & Muir’s first release and when we re-released it after it went on the Trainspotting soundtrack, it went Top 40.

So we come back to yours after a club (we sit in the garden so as not to wake the kids!) – what are the (quiet) 10 Back To Mine tunes you spin us…?

Lana Del Rey ‘Video Games’

Jamie Woon ‘Spirits’

Sara Bareilles ‘Gravity’

Flowers & The Sea ‘A.M’

Everything Everything ‘Final Form’

Bon Iver ‘Perth’

James Blake ‘Limit To Your Love’

Clare Maguire ‘Ain’t Nobody’ (Breakage mix)

Gonzales ‘Crying’

Bat For Lashes ‘Moon And Moon’

It may not be very good for my image, but I really like…

A Saturday night off at home in front of the telly. Harry Hill’s TV Burp, X Factor, Match Of The Day with a curry and a couple of cans. Boom! Get in!

So Dave, a family man now. It’s fair to say that the style of music you play took a dip in the UK a few years back with the emergence of trance and the harder beats, whilst the demand for your decksterity abroad just got bigger and bigger. It just shows foreign shores have better tastes in music. How though has the incredible air miles accumulation had an affect on married life – is it not impossible sometimes to get onto yet another plane?

It is a bit of a juggling act trying to be an international DJ and a good father and husband but it’s something I like to think I manage quite well. I very rarely go away for more than a weekend, always take the last flight out and the first flight back and try to not work after I’ve picked the kids up from school during the week. My job has also had lots of benefits for them too though. They’ve all been round the world several times on my air miles. It’s already played a big part in shaping their characters.

You also once lived in Ibiza. What are your thoughts on the wicked white isle these days?

I still love it although it’s a very different island for me nowadays. I took the family there in August and we had an amazing time. We did loads of things that in all the years of going there I’d never got around to doing. Taking the ferry to Formentera. Visiting the church at the top of Dalt Villa. Swimming at Es Cavellet. I only went out once to Ushuaia & Pacha and even then I was home in bed by 2am!

What one record would you never sell?

Everything has it’s price

Not a lot of people know this, but Dave Seaman is very good at…

I can sit on a unicycle juggling 3 dwarves whilst playing the theme from Thomas The Tank Engine on the piano with my left foot! True story :-/

An increasing amount of DJs today are only playing their own bootlegs of people’s tunes throughout their sets – thoughts on this?

I’m all for it although I don’t think you should just exclusively play your own edits or bootlegs. Some tracks are perfect in their original format and don’t need messing with. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But bootlegs & mash ups are a great way to make your sets unique when music is so easily accessible these days. It let’s a DJ really stamp his own identity on a set.

What is the weirdest request you have ever had from a fan whilst DJing?

‘Have you got anything we can dance to?!”

What is your guilty pleasure song?

Oh God, there’s loads… In the last year though I would say Nicola Roberts ‘Beat Of My Drum’ & Rhianna ‘Only Girl In The World’. A good pop song is just a good pop song. Period.

It’s your birthday, what 3 DJs do you ask to come and spin…

Larry Levan

John Peel

Sasha

Alas, it might fall on Sasha to do the whole night as the other two are sadly no longer with us.

And finally – what have you in the pipeline for us all in 2012?

I’ll be touring my new Renaissance Masters album right through to spring 2012 and am planning to get back into the studio soon too. I’m going to do a new track with Funkagenda and also another with Andy Chatterley. I’m also going to start doing some pop songwriting again too if time permits. There just never seems to be enough hours in the day. No change there then!

http://www.dmcworld.net/features/entry/features/dave-seaman

The recent interview with www.skruff.com about my best & worst travel experiences

by Dave on October 15, 2011

The Best

: what’s the most opulent, luxury/ decadent travel trip you’ve experienced?

That’s an easy one. My honeymoon in the Maldives. We travelled first class from Heathrow, took a sea plane from Male to the Soneva Fushi resort in the Baa atoll and spent a week there before going on to Cocoa Island for another week. It was an absolute picture paradise. It wasn’t opulent or decadent in a bling way. It was much more understated than that. But pretty much the perfect getaway. And cost a small fortune!

: and the best hotel?

Well, Soneva Fushi takes some beating but I love The Mercer in New York, The Hacienda in Ibiza, The Four Seasons in Bali, The Establishment in Sydney, The W in Hollywood, The Como in Melbourne. I could go on and on.

: what do you need to make a trip perfect?

An upgrade to first class!

: What do you always travel with (teabags? torch? lucky charm?

Spectacles, testicles, wallet & watch. Oh, and my laptop!

: what are your top three travel tips?

1. Travel light so you never have to check in luggage and don’t bother to take your liquids out of your bag at security. Waste of time. 99 times out of a hundred they don’t stop you.

2. If you’re staying in a hotel for any length of time, go to a supermarket and take out all the hotels mini bar items and use the fridge for your own stuff. At the end of your trip simply put all their stuff back in. You’ll save a fortune. And don’t let them give you the skinflint look. They shouldn’t be such robbing bastards!

3. Don’t get stressed out, go with the flow, enjoy the journey.

: The worst

: what’s been your worst travel nightmare?

One time I got out of a cab at New York’s JFK airport, got my luggage out if the boot and went into the terminal only to realize I’d left my hand luggage in the back of the taxi. It had everything in it. My passport, wallet, flight ticket, money, phone. Everything! I was stranded without and money, form of ID, and any means of calling anybody. Luckily, this was pre 9/11 so I was able to speak with the Virgin staff who eventually got me to their Lounge and helped me get home via the British Embassy. I had to spend 36 hours there in the Lounge but to be honest, I’ve slept in a lot worse places!

: what’s the worst hotel you’ve stayed in? where? why?

Oh God, I’ve stayed some shockers. But there’s one establishment in Aberdeen during a cold winter in the 90s that particularly springs to mind. An inoperative radiator wasn’t a good start. The flowery wallpaper hanging from the walls where damp had taken hold didn’t brighten the mood. And the pubes in the bed didn’t help either. To make matters worse, there was a sour faced receptionist who muttered “soft southern bastard” under his breath when I asked about the lack of heating. An altogether brutal affair. Made Fawlty Towers look like The Ritz!

: What’s the worst experience you’ve had at customs/ Immigration (ever been strip searched/ detained/ deported?)

I went to Puerto Rico once and due to my own ignorance, I didn’t realize it was part of the United States. I just presumed as they have their own team at the Olympics that they must be an independent country. Once I was on the flight and they gave out US immigration forms I realized I didn’t have the passport with me that had my US visa in it (I have two passports). No problem I thought, I’ll just explain my mistake at the border, right? Wrong! They carted my off for interrogation, had my finger prints & photo taken. I spent 14 hours in what was little more than a prison cell. It was like next stop Guantanamo. The club’s lawyer eventually got me out just in time for the show. All this was just after 9/11 so US Border Control was both paranoid & angry.

: what do you love about travelling?

It’s “me” time. When i’m on a plane nobody can get hold of me on the phone or via email so I get to do exactly what I want to do. Which is a rare treat these days. I’m very lucky to be able to travel business class most of the time so eating, drinking, watching movies, reading, listening to music in a comfortable seat is my little oasis away from the world. Most of the time the flights are not long enough!

: What’s been the most frightening experience you’ve had on your DJ trips; ever been robbed/ followed/ threatened?

I woke up in the middle of the night once to find someone stood at the foot of my bed. I was with my wife in Thailand. That was scary. I jumped out of bed and he went off in to the bathroom. When I asked what he was doing he said he was the cleaner. At 3am in the morning?! Turned out that he was prowling the hotel, high on drugs and told the police that he was looking for sex. I laughed until they then added that he was gay!

http://skrufff.com/2011/10/dave-seaman/

Australian interviews

by Dave on October 5, 2011

Whilst I’m happy to say that I don’t ever have to deal with anything approaching a media circus, I have got something of a sideshow going on with all the press commitments for the release of my upcoming Renaissance Masters compilation. Here’s links to two interviews I’ve just done for Pulse Radio and Beat magazine in Melbourne. And believe me, there’s plenty more where these came from. You’ll know everything but my inside leg measurement by the time this campaign is finished!

http://www.beat.com.au/content/dave-seaman

http://pulseradio.net/articles/2011/10/dave-seaman-the-renaissance

My interview about getting started in the industry for skruff.com

by Dave on September 3, 2011

What was your big career break: what happened?

Believe it or not I won my first job in the music industry in a raffle! Well, kind of… I attended the 1987 DMC DJ convention and entered a grand prize draw for which the first prize was an all expenses paid trip to the New Music Seminar in New York City which at the time was the equivalent of the Miami Winter Music Conference today. To my utter disbelief, I came out of the hat first! I thought it was a wind up for a few weeks but it turned out to be true and I spent a week in NYC in the company of most of the UK record industry’s movers & shakers. It was the trip of a lifetime. But I must have made an impression because two weeks after i got back, I got a telephone call offering me a job at DMC who at the time owned MixMag and were at the forefront of the DJ & remixing revolution that was just starting. I left my promising position at an Advertising Agency in Leeds to go and be the tea boy at DMC. My parents were not impressed. But my timing was impeccable. It was 1987. M/A/R/R/S, S Xpress, Bomb The Bass & Coldcut had all just had No1 records and suddenly DJs were taking over. Within 6 months I was the Editor of MixMag and Acid House had swept the country. As the old saying goes, I was very much in the right place at the right time.

How aware were you at the time of how significant the event would become?

I don’t think any of us that were involved in the scene at the time could have hoped in our wildest dreams that we’d still be here nearly 25 years later. The UK had always been a world leader in youth culture and had produced Mods & Rockers, Punk, Skinheads, New Romantics, etc so I think we all just thought this was another movement that had 5 years – tops. But as the whole thing grew, we began to realise this wasn’t just a passing fad, that it really had legs and was infect like the electronic version of rock n roll. Here to stay. Something that will be passed on from generation to generation, continually morphing, reinventing and repackaging itself forever. I was just very lucky to be in the eye of the storm.

How much had you been actively working towards transforming your position? If so, had you had any/ many false dawns? Did you experiences any crisis of confidence beforehand? What was the closest you came to quitting?

Like I said, I became Editor of Mixmag very early on in my career. I was really dropped in the deep end and there were times I thought I was going to sink. It was hard work back then to be taken seriously by the music establishment. Nobody thought dance music would sell in big numbers. A lot of it was faceless. And just getting airplay on the radio was a huge battle. But, the monster had been created and it was only a matter of time. A never really seriously thought about quitting. If I did it was only fleeting. And once the magazine started to get a foothold, my DJing and production careers had started to take off so it was a very natural progression into what I do now.

What advice would you have for someone starting out as a DJ/ producer/ today?

It’s such a different world now form the one I started off in. But there are still two key elements that will always remain. There isn’t a substitute for hard work. You have to put the time in. To learn your craft. DJing and production are two very different skills and being good at both takes a lot of practice, dedication & patience. Secondly, and I think this is more important than ever now, is social skills. You’ll need an awful lot of luck to get anywhere in life if you can’t get on with people. Making & developing relationships with the right people is an artform in itself and one that’s essential to making your mark.

http://skrufff.com/2011/08/my-big-break-dave-seaman/

Dave’s interview for The Taipei Times

by Dave on May 21, 2011

Here’s the transcript of a recent interview Dave did for The Vinyl Word column in the Times newspaper in Taipei…

I saw that you were talking about “Record Store Day” on your Twitter, what’s it all about? Are you still playing records these days?
Its about supporting independent record stores in the UK which have dwindled in numbers from around 900 a few years ago to nearly 300 today. It’s so sad to see because the local record shop means so much more than just a place to buy music. It’s a social meeting place to exchange ideas and discover new things. You just can’t get the same kind of interaction online. It has been positive to see that since the Record Store Day was launched there has been an increase in the umber of shops and the amount of limited edition releases that artists create especially is growing all the time. I think the backlash against the digital era has already started for a lot of people. I don’t but vinyl myself anymore but I do buy a hell of a lot of CD albums and as for reading books on an iPad/kindle. No thanks.

Having played in more than 70 countries you must have had more than your fair share of unusual or interesting deejaying experiences. Could you describe one?
I’ve played from the Arctic Circle in Russia to the deserts of Jordan, been to all four corners of the Globe so to speak. I never in a million years imagined DJing would take me to such incredible places. Yes, you’re right, I’ve had lots of memorable experiences but I’m not going to reveal any here, I’m saving them for my memoir

Having been a producer for so many years, do u have a standard creative process for making music? If so, what is it? Where do you look for inspiration?
I don’t think you can approach making music in the same formulaic way that you’d make a car or build a house. It can be different every time. In music, the roof might come before the foundations! And inspiration could come from the most unexpected places. I saw a documentary on television the other day about the life and times of one of Britain’s most beloved sports commentators, David Coleman. He was so good at what he did, so celebrated & so dedicated. It made me feel so positive that I just wanted to get in the studio and make music.

Please tell us something that you like to do when you’re deejaying, and something you hate people do (to you) when you’re deejaying
I like to enjoy myself and like to see everyone else enjoying themselves too. Essentially, that’s what it’s all about for me. It’s about having a good time. Letting go of the everyday, forgetting all your problems and getting lost in rhythm. I hate to see people over intellectualising music on a night out and to see people that are more interested in their phones or in critiquing the night in some shape or form. Stay at home if you’re not coming to join in and be a part of the night

What are some of your essential tracks/upcoming projects?
I’ve just done a remix for Solee called ‘Reflect’ which is forthcoming on his Parquet label early in July. I’ve also got a track coming out with Andy Chatterley entitled ‘Battery Powered’ out on Silence Through Music at the end of June. On top of that, I’m due in the studio next month with Funkagenda to make a follow up to our Mighty MIng track and am working on doing a compilation with Toolroom too hopefully to be released later this year.