Deep house has never been more popular than it is right now, but much of the stuff called deep is not at all.
Someone who has been making proper deep house, that is atmospheric, involving, emotive, is Sascha Dive. He is a German from Frankfurt—a place that is best known for techno clubs like Cocoon and The Omen and has now been active for ten years. In that time he ha made a name for himself as a serious selector who has played all over the world. He also runs his own label, Deep Vibes, and has put out a range of great music from carefully A&Red artists, as well as two of his own full lengths and countless EPs. He also releases on myriad other labels form Cocoon to Rumors.
Here, we catch up with him to ask about how he likes the sun, ask about what exactly is deep hose and to talk about some of his studio gear.
“In the night time I make more deeper and darker tracks…”
How are you? Are you someone who enjoys summer? Does sunshine make you play different music?
I`m fine thank you. Yes, I really love the summertime, finally you can go out enjoy the sun and put some meat on the grill.;) Yes, I play a little bit different when I play outside. The tracks I play have some more synths or chords in thej. Not so dark, bassline, groovin tracks when I play in a really sweaty and dusty night club.
Are you inspired by your surroundings? Does your music sound different when and wear you make it or does it always roughly come out the same?
I get inspired everywhere, from people, landscapes and, of course. music. Actually, I’m always making music in my studio I don`t like when I have all my analog equipment around me. In the night time I make more deeper and darker tracks and the daytime there are more melodic elements in them. When I`m in the studio with Christian Burkhardt also the sound can change a little bit. But I think I my own style and you can hear in every production.
Are you a hardware or software man, and what are some of your favourite tools in the studio?
I really like to use analog equipment, but there are also some good plugins I use. For hardware I like the Dave Smith & Waldorf and for software I like the plugins from SPL and Native Instruments.
Hailing from Frankfurt, was/is there a good knee there? Is it healthy, are there lots of young people coming through?
We still have a good scene here, a lot of my friends like Christian Burkhardt, Markus Fix, Arno (e Einzelkind), Chris Wood and Carsten (meat) live here. But there are also some young guys coming up like Martyne, Bodin & Jacob, the guys from Hardworksoftdrink and Manuel Schatz, who will open a new record store called “Gosu” in Frankfurt.
Do DJing and making music inform one another for you or are the two separate? Are you imagining the dance floor when in the studio?
I try to produce music for the dancefloor, music that I would play in my DJ sets. Sometimes I make also some other kind of music, like hip hop instrumental stuff or breaks or ambient music.
