Hailing from the greater Frankfurt Area Sascha Dive has made quite some impression on the international house and techno circus over the last years. Although the deephouse traveller looks back to an amazing amount of pristine releases with the first official vinyl pressed back in 2007 one can still call him a young gun. Especially if you look around in the deeper fields of house music these days this gifted producer and DJ seems to be a great exception. And this isn’t a disadvantage at all: With all the energy in his mind and hands Sascha Dive proves with every gig and every production that he easily plays on one level as many of his legends, if not even higher.
Strongly influenced by the godfathers of deephouse like Moodyman, Chez Damier or Ron Trent and following the first waves of top-notch German house labels like Playhouse, Sascha Dive progressed to a serious floor fighter since his first official appearance in 2007. With a musical taste reaching from his Deep House background and Soulful Minimal sounds to kicking and mind-blowing Techno, he played almost every leading club and festival over the last years.
However, Sascha Dive is not only taking his sound and vision to the world’s finest floors, he still manages to release more and more music. Dive released a vast amount of productions and remixes on high-class labels such as Bondage, Cocoon Recordings, Tsuba, 8bit, Cécille or Stir15.
Sascha Dive is a forward thinking producer and DJ who still waves the flag of the real vinyl sound and ever will. More young men like him and house music will live on forever!
To celebrate his latest release ‘Deep Inside’ on Bondage Music, Sascha recorded a new exclusive mix for our Select Cuts series. Enjoy!
WWD: Hello Sascha, How was 2023 for you and how did you spend the turn of the year?
2023 continued to be a another difficult year for an underground artist such as myself. One is still very much aware of the feeling of „change“ in the music industry which is, in my opinion, going in the wrong direction. Nonetheless I was pleased to be able to play some very nice gigs in Frankfurt, Lisbon, Nürnberg and Geneva, the latter being at Lake Parade in front of 5000 people – a very plaesing experience – and then in one of my favourites clubs in the world at Weetamix.
New Years Eve turned out to be a non-event as a Corona infection confined me to my home and ruled out any chance of a public performance!
WWD: When you’re producing, does the winter season affect your mood in the studio, the sounds you make?
Possibly true in so far that I have more time in the winter to maybe „overthink“ a new composition! I actually produce more tracks during the summer months but maybe because, at that time of the year, I enjoy being outdoors, swimming or bike riding for example, the compositions are a bit more spontaneous although I would not say that the overall music sounds are markedly different.
WWD: What is the story behind your new release “Deep Inside” on Bondage Music? How did that happen? Why will the release only be available as vinyl only?
I have a long relationship with Sven from Bondage Music with whom I released my third album “Back 2 Life” – which pleasingly was very successful! Prior to that I had released on Bondage a number of 12 inch EP’s. If I remember correctly it was around Spring 2023 that I sent him 5 unreleased tracks, which I had recorded during the wintertime and his rapid response that he wished to release four of them on the “Deep Inside“ EP made my day!
I have always been a big fan of the vinyl format and for me right now it makes the most sense to release my tracks on vinyl, simply because playing vinyl is so different to just playing cdj´s, controller, traktor or serato. The sound of a vinyl record is so much warmer and unique which I believe is the reason why more and more people are buying vinyl once again.
WWD: Can you tell us something about your production process in the studio?
During the winter of 2023 I „rebuilt“ my studio. The idea behind it was that I wanted to have the gear that I regularly utilise physically close to hand. As one can hear I use a lot of analog instruments and I predominantly commence my tracks with a simple kick drum, sometimes searching for a sencod one. Following that I will seek out a good, grooving bassline – again mostly from the various analog machines – and thereafter search out such items as hats, snare, claps etc. to compile a basic beat which has my unique groove. For Chords, Stabs, synths and the like I am generally using my „synthesizer park“ concluding the session by adding some percussion elements to build up the vibe.
WWD: How long have you been working with Bondage Music and how did the collaboration come about?
I have been working with Bondage since 2017 which is when they asked me do to a remix for one of the tracks on Mihai Popoviciu’s album. (He is incidentally one whom I consider to be one of the top producers at the present!) Subsequently I released my first track “Bounce To That“ (Movement Remix) on the infamous “Bondage Games Compilation” following up with an EP titled “Detroit Sunrise”. So that is almost 7 years of working together but my first contact with Sven from Bondage was some years earlier at a party in Magdeburg, but I must connfess that I cannot remember exactly in which club or party it was!
WWD: When and where was your first gig?
I played my first gig aged 16/17 at a small club outisde of Frankfurt „Club Keller“ in Bad Camberg.
My first gigs outside of Germany were in Brussels and London when I was 18/19 years of age. If I remember correctly, in London I played for my long time friend Greg Sonata at the T-Bar, which was a sort of pre-party club before everybody went on to the Fabric. The club T-Bar was run by a good friend Derren who sadly passed a number of years ago.
WWD: How has your sound evolved over the years?
If we are talking about my „groove“ not a great deal has changed. However I do think that the quality of the recordings of my tracks has improved considerably. It is fair to say that my productions have high acclaim and I continually strive long and hard to attain the right mix-down and e-quing on every single channel.
WWD: What else have you got coming up?
A new vinyl release is immenent on Tenampa from Mexico who, to date, have only released on digital so I will be the first one to release an EP on vinyl which will be distributed by Word-and-Sound. I have two further releases prepared on vinyl for FLMB from Portugal and Sofia Musik from Los Angeles in addition to one track for the “Deep Value” Compilation digital on Bondage Music.
Three remixes are also in the pipeline for Lolah from Barcelona on Neverdogs label Bamboleo, Deepment on Brise Records and one for Maurizio G on Envelope Mountain.
WWD: What are your plans for the future? Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations that you can share with us?
At present I am working on my fourth album. Included will be interesting collaborations with Mr. V, Roland Clark, Vusa Mhkaya and the one and only Mr.Robert Owens. The flip side includes some recently completed tracks in collaboration with Pornbugs. So stay tuned!
WWD: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Be True to your School, believe in your Dreams and Love will always win.
Sascha Dive: Facebook // SoundCloud
Bondage Music: Facebook // SoundCloud