For the Jamaican former deejay, see Sasha (Jamaican musician).

Sasha

Sasha performing in August 2006

Background information

Birth name Alexander Paul Coe[a]

 DJ Sasha[b]
Also known as
 The Man Like

Born 4 September 1969 (age 50)

Bangor, Wales, United Kingdom

 Origin Sandycroft, Flintshire, North Wales, United

Kingdom

Genres  Electronic

 house[3]

 progressive house

 trance

Occupation(s) DJ

 record producer

Years active 1989–present

Labels  Global Underground

 Deconstruction

 Boxed

 Ministry of Sound

 emFire

 Last Night on Earth

 Sasha & John Digweed

Associated acts

 John Digweed

 BT

Website djsasha.com

Alexander Paul Coe (born 4 September 1969), known mononymously as Sasha,[a] is

a Welsh DJ and record producer. He is best known for his live events and electronic music as a solo
artist, as well as his collaborations with British DJ John Digweed as Sasha & John Digweed. He was
voted World No.⁠ ⁠1 DJ in 2000 in a poll conducted by DJ Magazine.[4]He is a four-time International
Dance Music Awards winner, four-time DJ Awards winner and Grammy Awardnominee.[5]
Sasha began his career playing acid house dance music in the late 1980s. He partnered with John
Digweed in 1993, touring internationally and producing a series of mix albums (compilations of other
artists' work played in a continuous fashion).[6]
Sasha has remixed tracks for artists such as Madonna, The Chemical Brothers and Hot Chip.
Sasha's remixing and production often combine electronic music genres, making it difficult for critics
to pinpoint his musical style.[7][8] As well as remixes and compilation albums, Sasha has produced
three albums of original works: The Qat Collection in 1994, Airdrawndagger in 2002, and Scene
Delete in 2016.
After achieving success as a producer and DJ, Sasha worked with younger DJs and producers such
as BT and James Zabiela. His use of live audio engineering equipment helped popularise
technological innovations among DJs who formerly relied on records and turntables.[9] In 2007, he
formed a record label with Renaissance Records called emFire, which is the exclusive outlet for his
new music.
 Contents

 1Early years
 2Career
o 2.1Digweed era
o 2.2Post-Digweed
o 2.3Reuniting with Digweed
 3Musical genres
 4Techniques and technology
 5Awards and nominations
 6Discography
 7Notes
 8References
 9External links

Early years[edit]
Sasha was born in Bangor, Wales on 4 September 1969.[10] His early musical taste was primarily Top
40 pop music like The The and The Police.[11] After what he described as an "idyllic childhood",
Sasha passed the entrance exam for Hatfield College at age 17.[11] However, he did not like Epsom
and left before completing his A-Level examinations. Instead of continuing his schooling, Sasha
moved to Bangor to live with his father and stepmother. Sasha's stepmother forced him to take piano
lessons which, although he disliked them at the time, he ultimately found to be beneficial to his
music career.[12]
Sasha became aware of electronic dance music in 1988 at The Haçienda, a Manchester dance
venue.[13] Drawn to the rough sound of acid house music and the rebellious attitude he associated
with it, he visited Manchester weekly and soon moved to nearby Disley.[14] Sasha purchased many
jazz records and began to teach himself how to mix. A local DJ at a club Sasha frequented
announced that he was looking for other DJs to travel with him on a regional tour; Sasha volunteered
and made his first live appearance in nearby Stockport. He recalled of his debut, "I'd never even
touched a Technics: I thought the pitch control was the volume, I didn't even know where to plug my
headphones in! I'm sure I was absolutely horrendous."[12]
Sasha soon found himself in debt due to low-paying performances and the many records he
bought.[13] To finance his record collection, he performed at illegal warehouse raves in
the Blackburn and Blackpool areas. With the assistance of another local DJ, Jon DaSilva, Sasha
secured work at The Haçienda, where he learned key mixing (matching melodic keys) from DaSilva
and refined his ability to beatmatch (to synchronize the beats of two simultaneously playing records).
Though he enjoyed playing at The Haçienda, in 1990 Sasha left for a club called Shelley's
Laserdrome in Stoke-on-Trent.[13] There, he established part of his signature sound by mixing
euphoric acid house music with Italian piano house and emotional a cappellas.[12] Because of his
increased popularity and visibility at Shelley's and the fact the promoter worked for the
magazine,[citation needed] Mixmag featured Sasha on its first cover, under the headline "SASHA MANIA –
THE FIRST DJ PINUP?".[14] While continuing to DJ, Sasha began to produce several of his own
dance tracks. This, he later noted, was contrary to the career paths of many successful DJs, for
whom it was more common to start out as producers.[15] Upon signing a recording contract, he also
set up an entire recording studio at the same time, which led to a "painful learning curve" at the
outset.[15] Sasha's first production/remix credits were two singles for Evolution: 1990's "Came Outa
Nowhere (Take Me Higher Mix)" [16][unreliable source?] and 1991's "Metropolis", for which he produced and
remixed both sides of the classic house track;[17][unreliable source?] the record is most notable for the "Can't
Stand The Feeling Mix", where Sasha replicated his signature mixing style of putting an a cappella
vocal over the top of the main track, namely the vocal from The Jason Load Experience's single
"Mainline '90", which was released in 1989.[18][unreliable source?] He released his first single, "Appolonia",
under the name BM:Ex (the name is short for The Barry Manilow Experience, a joke in reference to
Sasha's love of the piano), with producer Tom Frederikse on Union City Recordings. After DJing at
Shelley's for several years, Sasha left his position because of increasing gang violence in and
around the club. As a result of his growing reputation, Sasha was offered work in
several London and Australian clubs.[13] He accepted, instead, a spot in the DJ rotation
at Renaissance, a club night started by Geoff Oakes at Venue 44 in Mansfield, England.
Later in 1993, Sasha, collaborating with Danny Campbell for Pete Tong's FFRR, produced
"Together", his first single under the name Sasha. "Together" peaked on the UK Singles Chart at
#57. With this success, Sasha began a series of records for Deconstruction Records with the singles
"Higher Ground" and "Magic" (for which Digweed produced a remix) and The Qat Collection with
Frederikse and vocalist Sam Mollison.[19]

Career[edit]
Digweed era[edit]
Main article: Sasha & John Digweed

Sasha & John Digweed performing at Twilo

In early 1993, Sasha partnered with fellow Renaissance DJ John Digweed.[6] Sasha and Digweed
honed their DJing skills, often performing in tandem and focusing on track selection and technical
mixing abilities. Renaissance was pleased with their performances, and had the duo compile the
triple-CD mix album Renaissance: The Mix Collection, releasing it on the club's own Renaissance
Records label.[13] The album featured tracks from such artists as Leftfield, Fluke, and 2 Bad Mice,
and original productions and remixes from Sasha and Digweed. The Mix Collection was released
soon after Sasha's departure from Renaissance in April 1994. Following his success at
Renaissance, Sasha was again featured on Mixmagwith the tagline "SON OF GOD?", though he
resented the accolade.[20] After touring together for two years, the duo became "true
superstars"[6] with the release of their double CD Northern Exposure on mega-label Ministry of
Sound. Around this time, Sasha began a recurring mentorship and partnership with fellow
producer BT with the album Ima.[13] As well as providing guidance for BT, Sasha produced a
"euphoric" and "introspective" 42-minute rendition of the album which formed the centrepiece of the
UK release and appeared as a "bonus" second disc on the US release.[21] He continued to advance
his own production work by pairing with vocalist Maria Nayler to produce the single "Be as One",
which reached #17 on the UK singles chart.[22]
In 1997, Ministry of Sound released Northern Exposure 2, Sasha and Digweed's next double-CD
entry in their Northern Exposure series. To support the album, the duo toured internationally, and in
the process helped to define the sound of trance music in the late 1990s.[6] After extensive touring,
Digweed and Sasha took up residency at New York City's famous Twilo nightclub, where they would
DJ for the entire night.[23] In 1998, the two released separate mix albums on the Boxed label, as part
of the Global Underground series: Digweed's Global Underground 006: Sydney, and Sasha's Global
Underground 009: San Francisco, which drew from his experience touring on the West Coast of the
United States. Both DJs formed their own record labels that year: Sasha created Excession Records
and Digweed started Bedrock Records. Excession released fewer than ten records, the last in 1998;
the experience, however, led Sasha to found the management agency Excession: The Agency LTD.
Excession remains a booking agency for many DJs, including Hybrid, Nick Warren, and Steve
Lawler.[24]
Sasha reached a more mainstream audience with his remixes of Madonna's "Ray of Light"
and GusGus's "Purple" for those artists' single releases. His success in pop music led him
to score the music for the PlayStation video games Wipeout 3 and Gran Turismo.[25] In 1999, Sasha
and Digweed reunited in the studio to record their third edition in the Northern Exposure
series, Northern Exposure: Expeditions.[6] In addition to mixing and DJing, Sasha joined Charlie
May of Spooky to produce the Xpander EP,[26] the title track of which many clubbers still view as "one
of the greatest trance tracks of all time".[27] He used the title track as a centerpiece for Global
Underground 013: Ibiza, his second Global Underground release. Sasha continued his
collaborations with BT on the track "Ride", which was released as a single on Yoshitoshi
Records and on BT's Movement in Still Life. Soon after, he worked with Underworld's Darren
Emerson on the single "Scorchio", Sasha's first charting single in four years. In between touring and
producing original material, Sasha and Digweed released the mix album Communicate in 2000,
prompting them to temporarily leave their Twilo residency for a promotional tour of the United
States. Communicate had mixed reviews: Spin stated that despite a "few stellar moments,
[Communicate] is ultimately a let-down". LAUNCHcast, too, described Communicate as "boring and
lackluster...stalled in a monochrome world of dead beats".[28]
During the late 1990s, the increased popularity and visibility of "superstar DJs" led to the creation
of superclubs such as Liverpool's Cream and Sheffield's Gatecrasher. By 2003, however, electronic
dance music clubs languished. The Guardian's pop critic, Alexis Petridis, attributed the "terminal
decline" of dance music to its over-commercialisation by big-name DJs, such as Sasha, and to their
demands for increased fees for performances.[29] Though dance music had been declared "dead" by
many in the dance industry, Sasha continued to tour—despite the closing of many superclubs,
including his resident club Twilo in May 2001.[30]
After the closing of Twilo, Sasha and Digweed embarked on their ambitious Delta Heavy Tour of the
United States in 2002. Featuring veteran tour producer Kevin Lyman and opening act Jimmy Van
M,[31] the tour covered 31 cities and played to 85,000 people.[32] The appearances, complete
with laser shows and video production, were more akin to rock concerts than to typical DJ
events.[31] This development was new to the DJing scene, and compelled other DJs to host similar
concerts.[33] A DVD of performance highlights, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage was
released as Sasha & John Digweed present Delta Heavy by System Recordings.[31] Ben Turner,
creator of the DanceStar awards, retrospectively described the Delta Heavy tour as "a landmark
moment for electronic music".[31] Though the duo of Sasha and Digweed never explicitly split up,
demanding schedules and frequent independent touring prevented any substantial collaboration for
a long period after Delta Heavy.[6]

Post-Digweed[edit]
Sasha at a performance with Lee Burridge on 27 April 2006
During the latter half of 2002, Sasha collaborated with big beat artist Junkie XL on the single
"Breezer".[34][35] Junkie XL, along with Charlie May, also assisted Sasha on his second album of
original material, Airdrawndagger.[36] Airdrawndaggertook several years to produce due to Sasha's
desire for the album to be "as near to perfection as possible."[37] That March, Sasha suffered
a perforated eardrum in a traffic accident, further delaying the album's production. Though the
accident temporarily impaired his hearing, he drew inspiration for the album from his
ordeal. Airdrawndagger was finally released, in August 2002, to much fanfare. However, the album
was "received with a lot of head scratching", according to Sasha, which he attributed to its
unexpected mix of genres. The album did not feature the heavier "club sound" of Sasha's previous
mix albums, bearing a closer resemblance to ambient music.[38] Airdrawndagger generally received
favorable reviews,[39] though critics noted that it was not as consistent and well produced as his DJ
mixes. Sasha himself described it as "a selfish, slightly self-indulgent record", though he maintains
that he is "happy with it to this day".[40] Some critics, however, called it "sleepy"; E!Online described it
as being "more in league with Yanni than Moby".[41] To encourage listeners' interest, Sasha held an
amateur remix contest for the album's single, "Wavy Gravy".[42] Due to the contest's success, Sasha
released all the tracks from Airdrawndagger on his website, so that fans could download and create
their own versions.[43]
After the release of Airdrawndagger, Sasha took the young DJ James Zabiela "under his wing". He
introduced Zabiela to the CDJ1000 turntable, and signed Zabiela to the Excession talent
agency.[44] The two toured the United States together, which extended Sasha's influence to already-
popular American DJs such as Kimball Collins.[20]
Sasha (left) on stage with Duncan Forbes (center) and Charlie May (right) of Spooky.
In 2004, Sasha signed with Global Underground to produce another mix album. However, he found
the process of creating a standard mix album unrewarding,[45] and decided to apply his production
and DJing skills to a mix compilation that resembled a "real" album—that is, one featuring original
material.[11] Sasha's next studio album, Involver, was "a fusion of mix album and production record",
consisting entirely of Sasha's reworkings of tracks by other artists.[22] "I tried to take all the separate
sounds to all the tracks [and recombine them]", he later explained, "and it allowed me to mix the
tracks together on a much deeper level."[46] He accomplished this by sequencing the album
using Ableton Live[47] and Logic Pro.[45] Ableton Live is a music loop-based software package that
Sasha uses to engineer tracks in real-time, whereas he used Logic Pro primarily for premeditated
edits to audio tracks.
In 2005, Sasha produced his next mix album, Fundacion NYC, based on his nights DJing in New
York at the Crobar club. Fundacion NYC received positive reviews for its originality, though JIVE
Magazine found it "too complicated for the ear".[48]Sasha is pleased with the album, and plans to
make a series of Fundacion albums.[49] The next year, Sasha released 10,000 copies of a June 2006
DJ set for sale using Instant Live, making him the first DJ to use Instant Live's licensing and
publishing services.[50] In August 2007, Sasha announced the formation of his record label, Emfire,
which will be the exclusive outlet for his new material in both vinyl and digital formats.[51] Its first
release was "COMA", a collaborative track by a group of the same name, which features Sasha,
Barry Jamieson, Charlie May, and Duncan Forbes.[51] While continuing to regularly DJ, Sasha began
work on another Involver mix and the next Fundacion mix.[52] Sasha's Invol2ver was released in
September 2008,[53] and Invol<3r was released in March 2013.

Reuniting with Digweed[edit]

Though frequent performing kept them apart for several years, Sasha and Digweed announced that
they would reunite for a few Australian performances.[54] In November 2006, the duo performed at
several venues, including Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne as well as numerous tour dates
throughout 2007.[55] In 2008, Sasha and Digweed kicked off an American tour with a performance at
the Winter Music Conference.[56] The duo played at mainly larger venues on the weekends and
smaller (750–1000 people) shows on weekdays.[56] Sasha described their music as "driving and dark"
with "a little throwback of Twilo sounds".[56]
Sasha runs a music studio and lives in New York City, and maintains a house in London.[38] He
brings his wife with him on his frequent tours.[32] Sasha finds the constant touring to be physically
tiring, though he also feels that he thrives on it.[57] While fans may regard Sasha to be a DJ "hero", he
is uneasy with fame; Sasha considers himself "shy at heart" and is typically uncomfortable
discussing his personal life.[46] He has mentioned on numerous occasions that he is so busy with
DJing and production that he rarely has any free time. However, he enjoys watching football,
cooking, and sampling the cuisine of the countries he visits.[58] The movie "New Emissions of Light &
Sound" won the Best Original Score at the X-Dance Film Festival. The score was made up of new
and previously unreleased tracks.[59]
Sasha and Digweed have re-united again in recent years. The iconic duo Sasha & John Digweed
performed a Back to Back set at the Ministry of Sound in London on 24 March 2016. Shortly
thereafter, the duo announced a list of tour dates for September 2016 to re-launch themselves in a
series of gigs and performing Back to Back.[60]

Musical genres[edit]
Sasha performing 8 July 2006 in Bucharest, Romania, playing electro house.
Influenced by the early sound of The Haçienda, Sasha began his career playing records of the
rough, danceable genre of acid house. By the early 1990s, he had moved towards a more dark
European house music style, though by the time of his Shelley's residency he had begun to
experiment more with American house. His tastes further developed as he moved to Renaissance,
and he began to incorporate the pop-based sounds of Moby, Spooky, and Leftfield. Sasha's second
Digweed collaboration, 1997's Northern Exposure, was described as "epic house",[13] and
subsequent releases featured the spacey and atmospheric trance house sound of artists such
as Sven Väth, Matt Darey, Tilt, and Armin Van Buuren. A rhythmic and bassy progressive
house influence distinguished his Xpander EP and the mix albums of the late 1990s.[61] At the time,
Sasha's music rotation included records by artists such as Space Manoeuvres, BT, and Breeder,
and Sander Kleinenberg's single "My Lexicon".
With the 2000 album Communicate, the duo's work moved towards a deeper and darker house
music sound. The album featured tracks by Morel, Mainline, and Jimmy Van M. The focus shifted
from the melodic themes of previous releases in favour of a stronger emphasis on the
bassline.[61] The Delta Heavy Tour and Airdrawndagger marked a dramatic shift in style, and reflected
the influences of relaxed ambient and breakbeat music on Sasha's work. These influences inspired
the album's strong melodies, occasional breakbeat loops, and limited use of
percussion. Involver was primarily a fusion of the musical style of house and ambient breakbeat
music characterised by UNKLE and Lostep. With 2005's Fundacion, Sasha's style was mostly
progressive house and electro house music, with work by James Holden, Tiefschwarz,
and Swayzak.[7] With his success in progressive house, Sasha has commented that he feels people
try to "pigeon-hole" him into playing that genre. Rather than calling it progressive house, Sasha
considers his most recent material to be between house, trance, and breaks,[62] though he has stated
that he prefers not to associate himself with a specific genre of music.