M&A #04: Saskia

Saskia has demonstrated her formidable talent behind the decks at Playtime, Avant Gardening, ARCSOC and even the Varsity Trip. While she may have looked out from the Fez DJ booth more times than she's had hot meals, her selections still keep dancers on their toes. She's been known to drop punk, gritty techno and Ipswich Town FC anthems into her sets, taking the audience's enjoyment more seriously than giving them a musical education. This mix, however, takes a more relaxed tone as it ebbs and flows through melodic synths and vocals. Sit back, turn your headphones up, and distract the next person in the library with Saskia's mix. 

How did you record the mix?

I used an AMAX Professional mini controller and recorded through Serato. I also didn’t have any speakers, so I had to listen only through my headphones so I couldn’t correct anything if it went wrong.

That’s interesting, it’s a bit different from what people might normally use. How does it work?

The controller is like a box where everything is controlled with buttons and knobs, it almost looks like an FX board. It’s very compact, doesn’t have any jog wheels but can still do everything CDJs or a normal controller can do. I’d recommend it if you were buying equipment for the first time. It’s a good size, a bit cheaper than your average controller and really good if you need to just chuck it in a bag and go.

What ideas did you approach the mix with?

I was in revision mode, so I’m not listening to a lot of new music at the moment. I chose most of the tracks from my revision playlist as I was going into it thinking that people are probably going to be in exam term revision mode, so I’m not going to do a massive banging techno set. It gave me a chance to play some songs I don’t normally get to play in a club, because you don’t want everything on 122 bpm the whole night but when I’m listening to music that’s what I tend to listen to. The vibe ended up sounding very much like Ibiza house music. So, on any given club night in Ibiza it’ll tend to be quite easy going. Nothing’s ever super heavy but the energy is always really high regardless.

I thought the mix had a very well communicated feeling throughout, and a good arc to it as well. You achieve this despite going through a number of genres. How would you describe your style as a DJ?

On any given night, if they said play what you want, I’d play tech house and techno. I’m really bad with genre names, artists, producers so that’s quite vague but the way I listen to music is just mixes and radio, so I’m bad at keeping up with all the names. My style will sometimes depend on my mood, if I’m in a good mood it’ll be ethereal and kind of ‘beautiful’ music, whereas if I’m a bit stressed it’ll be harder techno. I tend to go towards melodic stuff, like I’m not averse to a cringy vocal. One of my favourite DJs is Sasha, who once did this collaboration where Sasha did the melody, then sent it to someone else to do the beats. It ended up as two different takes by two different people, but it was contained in one track, so yeah there can be such a distinction between the melody and the beat.

The music you have put in varies from the house pioneers like Frankie Knuckles, to stuff that’s a bit more well-known like Disclosure. How did that come about?

That Disclosure song specifically, I don’t think it really fits in the mix but I was like I’m gonna put this in anyway. My diss deadline was at the end of last term and – I shit you not – for 2 straight weeks I listened to only that song, literally about 100 times a day. Then when I was starting to do the mix, I was like ‘this is all revision music how can I not do a little hark back to that time when I listened to this one song for 20 hours.’

I think people might have an aversion to playing something that was popular in 2013 but I still like Disclosure!

Based on the range of songs in the mix, you clearly have a wide music taste. How did you develop an interest in dance music and DJing?

So basically, my dad DJs as a hobby and he just really likes house music. About 10 years ago he started to buy music equipment and do it himself, and so it was super easy for me to get into it. Every 6 months or so I’ll come home, and he’ll be like ‘Darling! I just bought a new thing off gumtree!’. I was very lucky in that everything was at home already, I didn’t have to download anything or watch how to do things online, I would literally just spend the afternoons with him and so that’s how I learnt to DJ. With finding music, every few months I can ask him what new stuff he’s been listening to and he’ll just give me a memory stick of a load of the best, high audio quality music. He’s always been into house music, so it’s been the only genre playing in the house. I didn’t have to discover it in sixth form when I started going clubbing, it was just always there. Me and my sister actually really hated it when we were younger, he would put on a Mixmag CD in the car and we’d literally be screaming at him to turn it off and now I play those CDs.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

Actually, a guilty pleasure that I’ve never ever told anyone is You Got It by Roy Orbison. I think its the most romantic song in the world. Theres other stuff where other people would say that’s my guilty pleasure, but I just feel no guilt. Like cheesy, cheesy Russian rap, and I’m also into literally every pop diva.

What was the last song you listened to?

Go on Do It (radio version) - Victor from the Jamie Jones vs Seth Troxler 2010 Mixmag CD. The lyrics are a little bit problematic on that one actually…

Who is your favourite producer/performer at the moment?

Buttechno and a lot of his stuff on Rassvet records. I really enjoy his music, I don’t know if I’d call it techno but it’s definitely not house, electronic basically. In house, probably Blond:ish. They’ve actually split up so it’s now just Vivie-Ann but she’s making the same kind of music. They performed at King’s Affair 2 years ago, when it was 2 girls, and I thought they were students. I was losing my mind like ‘these guys are so good why aren’t they playing at ARCSOC.’ I wanted to show my dad, I was telling him about it a few weeks later and I said there are these two student DJs that are amazing and I’ll look up the programme and see who they are online, and they turned out to be Blond:ish. Some stuff that’s really good from Russia is Gost zvuk records. They’re a collective and everything they put out is great, really good study music as well. It’s quite varied but the main style is maybe minimal techno. I went to Moscow on my year abroad and the only thing I know I want to do after I graduate is go back there. It’s a really cool city and the music scene is really good as well.

What is your go to tune to bring a party up/banger?

Once at Playtime it was a song by Peaches called Fuck The Pain Away. It’s not house music, it’s punk, but I think everyone was like ‘what the fuck is this’. It has great lyrics, so that was probably the best really changing-a-vibe moment I’ve had. House music wise I’d say Bassline ’12 by Joe Goddard.

What was the best party you’ve played?

I would probably say the Moorfields Eye Hospital Christmas Party. It wasn’t house music, but it was the staff Christmas party and I put on Whitney Houston I Will Always Love You. There was this elderly couple who hadn’t danced the entire night, then when I put that on they got up and started slow dancing together and I just burst into tears. That was real love.

In Cambridge, probably the Avant Gardening x Playtime night. I think Avant Gardening and Playtime are some of the more casual student nights that I prefer. You can still get a ticket on the night and it feels like less of a who’s who, which I prefer.

What have you got coming up?

I’ve got a few May balls at the end of term and I’m running the Homerton Modern Music Group radio show every Thursday at 8pm. The last few terms I’d do b2b with a different DJ, but that’s quite a lot to organise so it’ll likely be just me playing this term. I’d really like to hear more student producers and people actually making their own music. I take my hat off to anyone who makes their own stuff and is brave enough to put it out there. Laksh’s stuff is really good, I liked how George put his own song in his mix. Maybe that’s something this blog could be a platform for.

Saskia’s Track List

[min] Title - Artist

[00] No Habla (A-Rock’s Summer Fling Mix) - Wolf + Lamb, John Camp

[06] Luvmaschine (Original Mix) - Luvless

[10] You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine (Kenny Summit, Frankie Knuckles & Eric Kupper Remix) - Lou Rawls

[15] Zikomo - Bloem

[19] Anthology (Original Mix) - Pezzner

[23] Studies in Dance Theory - Adriatique

[28] Try to Be (Catz ’n Dogz Club Edit) - Blue Hawaii

[33] Intro - Nina Kraviz (from Mixmag November 2013 CD)

[35] Help Me Lose My Mind - Disclosure feat. London Grammar

[38] What to Do (Original Mix) - Guy Gerber

[42] Afterglow - Silat Beksi, Durrrred

[49] Le Code - Myth Syzer feat. Bonnie Banane, Ichon

[53] Letting Go (Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts Remix) - Ernesto Ferreyra

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