I had the good fortune to catch up with DJ Sledge during a brief break in his busy schedule of promoting his latest album, Beat Monkey Vol.3, airing his daily online radio show and making waves online with his previous two releases.
Download his albums here (for free):
Smooth Mello Vol.1
Spring Rush Electro Vol.2
Beat Monkey Vol.3
Web: http://djsledge.tumblr.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/DJ-Sledge-Aka-Cassie-Van-Zyl/134700686573578
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DJSledgeSA
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Khoisan: Greetings DJ Sledge. Your second album, Spring Rush Electro Vol.2, is featured on the “Staff picks” section on Starfrosch.ch. Starfrosch features a lot of releases from around the world. To get featured as a Staff pick is quite an accomplishment. This specific album has also been downloaded more than 14,000 times and this only 2 months after its release. How does this achievement make you feel?
Sledge: I could not be happier about it. I don’t think there are any words to explain it in fact. All I can say is I think people love the flow of my style. It’s awesome and I have the fans to thank for that.
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Khoisan: Tell us a bit about your producer name, DJ Sledge. Why did you choose this specific name?
Sledge: DJ Sledge comes from the style of music I produce. The hard electro beats mixed with funky and trance gives you the feeling of a sledge hammer slamming down on the floor. So when you hear the word DJ Sledge you know your feet will be slamming the dance floor all night long with beats from another planet.
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Khoisan: When did you start making music? Did you have any formal training in music?
Sledge: I started playing around in the summer of 2000, producing my own tracks and it just kept on flowing. I had 2 or 3 training sessions on a few basic things at a DJ school, nothing more. The rest I taught myself with hours and hours of work.
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Khoisan: You have been quite prolific in releasing music since appearing on the scene 3 months ago. You have already released 3 albums, with a number of singles in between. What process do you follow in making your music and what inspires you to create more music?
Sledge: Well in fact since I joined Bushmen Records Netlabel things have just fallen in to place for me. Like I said producing your own music is hard work and takes up a lot of time. The process of making music is easy for me and it’s hours and hours of playing around, listening to tracks from my favourite DJs which gives me the inspiration to create something or a style never heard before. I need to keep the beats flowing.
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Khoisan: Which tools, hardware and software, do you use in producing your music?
Sledge: I use a few. The producing of my tracks are all digital, no hardware just software. Mixcraft, Virtual DJ, Mix Fusion, Ejay just to name a few and not to give away all my secrets. I guess if I had the hardware and tools not just the software I could produce even better tracks. lol
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Khoisan: What music and artists have influenced your own musical journey?
Sledge: When it comes to music and artists it is without a doubt the man himself, Tiesto. Lady Lea is also one that influenced a lot of my electro funky style. But trance music gives me passion to produce.
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Khoisan: Some people might consider your style of music, which is dance orientated, to be more on the “commercial” side of spectrum. The term commercial is often broadly used for a specific sound. What are you thoughts in terms of commercial or “popular” music and how would you classify your own music?
Sledge: Commercial, hmmm I would say any music that gets out to the public is commercial. In the dance scene commercial is something you hear on the radio everyday etc.. etc.. for me my music style is something different, something you will only find in clubs, big beach parties, those closed event parties. At the end of the day if you fill-up the dance floors I say keep it rolling.
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Khoisan: How has your experience in the netlabel scene been so far? The netlabel scene in South Africa is very small compared to Europe and America. Do you think this is a disadvantage to South Africa artists, or an opportunity for innovation and growth? Do you feel that South Africa has something unique to offer to the rest of the world in terms of netlabel artists?
Sledge: It has been awesome all thanks to Bushmen Records. I don’t think we have a disadvantage to the rest of the world, in fact I think we growing very fast. We as artist in South Africa have something unique, for example me, I have more fans across the world than in South Africa itself. So I think just give us a few years and we will be up there with the best of the best.
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Khoisan: What are your thoughts on the general music scene in South Africa?
Sledge: Currently the general music scene is growing by the day. We have a lot of artists making it big time overseas and I’m proud to be part of it.
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Khoisan: You recently started a daily online radio show from 15:00 – 17:00. How has this experience been and what tips can you give other aspiring online DJs? Do you play any live gigs?
Sledge: Yes I have and it has been great. People love listening to my show, the tips I can give people is if you want to start your own show make sure your fan base knows about it, promote it with your label and search the net for some tips on how to promote your show. Djing takes a lot of work and passion. So if you work hard you will succeed. Well when it comes to live gigs I have done a few when I stayed up in Pretoria but since moving down to Cape Town I have focused more on getting my albums out to the people online, this way its better to get live gigs.
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Khoisan: Finally, what goals, plans and dreams lie in wait for DJ Sledge in the future?
Sledge: Goals I would say getting my name out to the people. We all have dreams of making it big time in the music market and signing a record label. So the plans for now is creating more and more music, promoting it and who knows somebody out there will find it. So this will not be the last for me.
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Khoisan: To end I’d like to say that as a fellow member of Bushmen Records I am honoured to be on the same team as you and I’m sure your tracks will feature in many of my future mixes. Thank you for affording me a moment of your time for this interview. I’m sure you fans will appreciate finding out what makes DJ Sledge tick. Keep up the good work and continue turning the online world on its head, DJ Sledge style.
Sledge: Thanks and with out the fans it would not be possible. DJ Sledge Out
22/11/2010
Categories: Dance, Electro, Funky, House, Interview, Trance . . Author: Ghostwriter . Comments: Leave a Comment
