Intervista » Sinden

“Mega Mega Mega”, oltre ad essere stato il titolo dell´album d´esordio di The Count and Sinden, era sembrato una specie di manifesto programmatico della loro musica. Una produzione grossa, grassa ed espansiva aveva contraddistinto le canzoni in esso incluse, quasi tutti i grooves viaggiavano euforici sui 140 bpm in un orgia di citazioni dall´era Rave, dall´Hip-Hop e dalla Jungle. A questo il duo aveva aggiunto una buona dose di trucchetti Pop che rendevano il disco irresistibile. Good times music! Per profonditá di significati ed esperimentazione prego rivolgersi presso il negozio accanto. Ora Sinden si sta facendo un nome per conto proprio, l´abbiamo notato ed abbiamo pensato di intervistarlo per voi:

1) We used to know you in connection with The Count, for your album Mega Mega Mega and the single After Dark for example. Now we get to hear more more about you from your solo releases. Would you tell us something about it?
That’s right, last year I started to roll out some of my solo work that i’ve been working on for a while. I felt the time was right to release it, since i’ve been collaborating mostly. The first of these was the release for Diplo’s Mad Decent label, called ‘G Like Me’ which is surprisingly not a dance record. I’m a big rap fan, especially of Southern rap too. A good friend of mine linked me up with rappers G-Side from Huntsville, Alabama. I sent them the beat and a few weeks later they returned the acapella. Eventually we decided to wrap a video in G-Side’s hometown of Huntsville, Alabama. The follow up to that was a record with singer Jesse Boykins III, called High Demand, which is a vocal record reminiscent of some of the things I did at the beginning of my career with Switch when we were doing music together as A.Brucker & Sinden. Its a double time modern soul release, all drum machine hits and synths. The track forthcoming, Wheel Up takes it back to the house / club dancefloor. Featuring Natalie Storm from Jamaica, I feel this release ties up everything that i’ve done over the years – jacking house drums, basslines, dancehall samples, horn stabs. For me its a return to the house music that I fell in love with.

2)Would you tell us about your beginnings as DJ and producer?
I started off DJing in bars and small clubs playing all kinds of music, making mixtapes and putting on midweek parties in London clubs. It was more a hobby at that stage because DJing was something I enjoyed as a sideline thing, collecting vinyl ever since I had pocket money. I was handing out some flyers for my club night outside Gilles Peterson’s monday club THAT around 2004 when I met Jesse Rose, who was doing the same thing.
Through him I met Switch who taught me the production side of things. I would source samples from my extensive record collection and we’d spend evenings ripping them off vinyl and making rap and dancehall productions. The bookings just seemed to get greater with the more productions I had coming out. Also a fortuitous meet up with Basement Jaxx’s Felix Buxton helped me secure a residency with them for around 18 months. It really helped me breakthrough.

3)Would you tell us more about it your collaboration with Jesse Boykins III, one of our favourite new vocalists?
Jesse and I have been talking about collaborating on tracks last year. High Demand is the result of some back and forth internet collaboration from London to New York. I’ve always had a soft spot for these double time soul records like Andre 3000’s & John Legends ‘Green Light or taking it back to something Joe Jackson’s Steppin Out, which is one of my all time favourite records. I guess with this beat I wanted to emulate something quite 80’s sounding but bringing it right up to date with the drum machines. Jesse got inspired straight away and returned the vocal. We’ve got some other tracks in the bag that we’re eager to get out but only when we’re happy enough them. We set a benchmark with High Demand, everything has to sound as good as it.

4) Would you tell us something about Grizzly, the label you are involved with?
It’s a record label I set up in 2010 to release my own productions and also sign up new artists. I get sent a lot of music and I would tip off friends about it. Instead of doing that each time, I decided to build my own roster. Musically, its pretty diverse. Its directional and risk taking but it still has the dancefloor as the main focus, its fun but not novelty, serious but doesn’t take itself to seriously, its colourful.

5) Is there any italian DJ/producer that you know and appreciate?
There are many modern producers but 2 of the biggest Italian inspirations to me are Giorgio Moroder and Ennio Morricone. They’re responsible for scoring my favourite films. I’ve even sampled the Cat People soundtrack in something!

6) What have you got planned for the future?
More solo releases with Grizzly and Mad Decent, more tracks with Jesse Boykins III, more collaborations with Switch and a lot more productions for rappers and singers which i’m sure you’ll hear about.