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DAVE SEAMAN |
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PLAYED
AT SCREEN RESIDENCIES |
35 years old, Taurean with Virgo rising, international DJ, songwriter, obsessive, pragmatic, stubborn, bald, sulky, opinionated, perfectionist, Yorkshire breakdancer, son of a Spiritualist minister, former Mixmag editor, member of Brothers in Rhythm - the award winning producers and remixers to the pop cognoscenti (Pet Shop Boys, Kylie, Garbage, Pulp and Placebo) and the progressive mafia (Sasha, BT and Way Out West) travel whore, trainer bore, film buff, nothing’s ever enough “If something’s worth doing it’s worth doing to excess”). Leed’s United devotee, neighbour of Mel B, Billy Corgan look-a-like, Stella McCartney’s birthday DJ, Robbie Williams kebab eating partner, with £1/2 million ear insurance, co-founder of Stress Records, sometimes lives in New York’s East Village, other times in a church next door to a pub. There are many DJs who have enjoyed many column inches for shaping the phenomenon that is modern club culture. For some of these individuals, it was a question of right time, right place. Talented yes; opportunistic, definitely - and just a little bit lucky. Dave too, as he’d be first to admit, has had his fair share of lucky breaks. Yes, he effectively blagged the editorship of the fledging members’ magazine Mixmag simply by being their youngest, hippest employee. But it was Dave who made the company fully aware of the impact of acid house and railroaded them into launching the magazine fully to the public. The rest, as they say, is history…. Yes, he was equally lucky to bump into budding production genius Steve Anderson at DMC’s recording studios. But it was the pair’s respective talents gelling that led the turbo fuelled hit ‘Such A Good Feeling’, followed up by a string of successive mixes leading to them becoming the U.K’s first superstar remixers to the likes of Michael Jackson and Sting, to writing and producing for the likes of Kylie Minogue The Pet Shop Boys and Take That. More recently they have lent their unmistakable sound to bands such as Garbage, Pulp, Placebo and Blur as well as consistently songwriting for various projects. Yes, he was fortunate that DMC was happy to back his and partner Nick Gordon Brown’s Stress record label. But it takes talent to spot the likes of Sasha, John Digweed, Full Intention and Andy from Groove Armada, all of whom had early breaks on the label. And yes it was a lucky twist when Mixmag photographer Gary McLarnen invited Dave to bring his DJ skills to a new night he was launching at the unlikely Shelleys venue in Stoke on Trent. It just happened to become one of the UK’s best ever house clubs. The fact that Dave’s DJing star is still in the ascendant some 10 years later says it all. For years Dave has kept at it, feverishly yet successfully juggling more plates than most of us could imagine. Most recently he has focused on his first love, DJing. It has earned him a first class ticket round the world as the demand for his deck skills continues to rise. He’s probably travelled more than any of his peers covering every continent several times over, whilst in the UK, he has graced every superclub you care to mention, including Cream, Gatecrasher and Renaissance. 2000 saw Dave and his team of trusted, like minded individuals mould their company, Therapy, into a highly respected home for DJ’s and artists including Timo Maas, Anthony Pappa, Slacker, Evolution and The Light. He continued to enjoy a fortnightly residency for Renaissance at their flagship venue Media whilst still managing a hectic international schedule and a summer season in Ibiza where he enjoyed events at Renaissance alongside such luminaries as All Saints, Moby, Kylie and Moloko. Somehow he also managed to find time to compile another two perfectly crafted compilations in the guise of Renaissance Awakenings and his second outing for the highly revered Global Underground series, remix Placebo, Naimee Coleman and Human Movement under his Brothers in Rhythm Moniker, be photocopied in a life sized Zerox for a Levi’s advert in Japan and present a BBC TV documentary on clubbing in Australia……..phewwww!!!! Fast Forward to 2001 and there’s no respite. Dave has already ventured out on his first tour of the year taking in such exotic locations as Costa Rica (he’s still recovering from the hydraulic chair!), Punta del Este, Peru and has gained the accolade of being the first ever international DJ to perform in Columbia, by all accounts an experience not to be missed. Recently has also seen the launch of the Audio Therapy record label with its first two releases having strong links with BIR (the new outing for Brothers Love Dubs and a remix of Polaroid “So Damn Beautiful”). And finally, work has begun on the long overdue BIR collaborations album whilst a leap into film soundtracks seems on the cards as a result of his critically acclaimed “Back To Mine” CD. He should be so lucky. |
