Dave Seaman has been
at the pinnacle of dance music since the acid house explosion back in the
eighties, creating pop music magic with Kylie Minogue, Take That and the Pet
Shop Boys as well as a djing
resume that includes playing in 70 differing countries and reverence around the
global dance music scene. As one part of seminal act Brothers in Rhythm he was
behind some of the defining underground moments, notably Such a Good Feeling which gatecrashed the UK top twenty.
He also spent three
years as editor of Mixmag, steering the magazine away from an industry magazine
for working DJs towards the essential clubbing home that it became. Is was at
Mixmag where he pioneered the commercial mix compilation with the release of Mixmag presents Carl Cox in 1991,
himself becoming one of the most vaunted curators of the format with both Global Underground and Renaissance. The latter has recently
returned back into the club-land domain after a brief hiatus, choosing Dave to
mix the latest Masters Series
compilation of theirs. Jimmy Coultas caught up with Dave for a quick Q&A
about the album, the return of Renaissance and the parallels between clubland’s
rise and fall and that of the football club Seaman supports, Leeds United.
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, TV
and print. Since then the internet has come along; just from an information
stance how has what we know about music changed?
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.
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?
No. The combination of
diminishing expectations and lack of any quality control has turned into a 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.
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