Dave Seaman - The Renaissance Man is back

Much like the marathon sessions that have set dance floors on fire across the globe for the best part of dance music’s history, UK pioneer Dave Seaman’s life is in a state of transition. While he remains as busy as ever, for the last six years or so Dave has had a whole lot more on his plate than just house and techno, with two young children taking priority over the rigors of the dance music industry. It wasn’t long before something had to give and in April this year, Dave decided to wind up one of the ventures closest to his heart – record label Audio Therapy – with the release of Fady Ferraye’s epic If You Don’t Come To Democracy. A sad day for fans of forward-thinking dance music far and wide, the closure ended an 11-year chapter that began with the sampler My Idea Of House in 2000 featuring Ashland, Infusion, Digby & Oliver and Hip Service.

But as the saying goes, with every ending comes a new beginning. Not long after he decided to call it quits, legendary house imprint Renaissance came knocking with a very special request – mix the latest instalment of Renaissance Masters series, the first release from the label since their well-publicised change of hands in 2010.

Catching up with Pulse Radio on the eve of his Renaissance Masters Australian tour [find full Dave Seaman Australian tour dates here], Dave says he’s thrilled that Renaissance is back in the business and honoured to mix their re-entry to the market – especially the series that he helped give birth way back in the year 2000 with Renaissance Masters Part 1: Awakening. “I’m really pleased that they are back in the game, especially after the troubles recently,” he says.
“It’s the 20th anniversary and they are back in time for their celebrations. I’m honoured to be the next person to kick start the story again. I mixed the first of the Masters series and I’ve done 12 in total for Renaissance now.”

Dave says the decision to shut Audio Therapy was not an easy one – but says the realities of today’s flagging music market, more family commitments and a new house were the three main factors that forced his hand. “There were a lot of things that forced me to close down Audio Therapy,” he explains.
“I’ve got a family now, with two little boys and we’ve been moving house. We just bought our own place again and it’s in a bit of a state. When you spend six months a year on a project like that and DJing on the weekend, I’ve got very little time.

Being a DJ these days is time consuming, you’ve got to spend time going through all the promos and emails and keeping in touch with the social networking, which is a big part of it all these days. As far as running the label is concerned, something had to go. I had so much on; I couldn’t do anything to its full potential. I never got into running a label to make money, that would be stupid. But I didn’t get into it to lose money either and it got to a stage where it was really hard to make ends meet. The record industry is really tough at the moment. I might well go into something new in the future, but for the moment, something had to give.”

Dave says the contraction that is occurring at all levels in the dance industry is having an effect where it counts the most: the music. “It definitely has an effect, although I don’t know about if it harms it,” he ponders.
“It’s very different times from what it was 15 years ago. All you can do is adapt. It used to be that you made records to make albums, then you’d go on tour to promote those albums. The tour was the promotional tool. These days when you release music it’s more of a promotional platform to get the gigs, so in that sense, it’s all reversed. A lot of producers back then didn’t have to go out and DJ to make money. I know a lot of producers that weren’t DJs and had to give it up because they can’t make a living anymore. Now those people have gone to 9-5 jobs. But at the same time, there are a lot of people making music as a hobby, too.” 

Productions & Remixes by Dave Seaman

He does think, however, that the sheer volume of music on the market these days – made possible by the digital revolution – does make it hard to turn a profit, especially from the point of view of running an independent label. “I think there are a lot of people throwing too much music out there,” he says.
“People can do it on their own without big studios these days and it’s kinda turned into its own nightmare. There is no quality control and the internet is clogged up with average or sub-par tracks. Because of this, what little money there is is spread even thinner, which makes it very tough to run a label.”

That’s why Dave believes labels like Renaissance are so important – it’s the level of care they devote to anything they do, whether it’s their countless mix and compilation albums, to their lavish club and festival productions. He says he tried to apply this same level of care to his latest instalment in the Masters series. “It’s a long, drawn-out process. You can’t just gather together a bunch of tracks and mix it together one afternoon,” he says.

DJ Mixes by Dave Seaman

“It takes 3 months to put together and more like six months in terms of the whole cycle, from putting it together, to its release and all the interviews and media that go with it. Working two or three months ahead can also make it very difficult to keep current as well, music is so fast moving these days. I had literally thousands of submissions and that takes time to wade through, you can only do 40 or 50 minutes in one chunk before I can’t work out what’s good and what’s not anymore.

Then you have to go through licensing, piece together a mix and then you still realise you haven’t got a certain thing. It’s like having a piece of a jigsaw with four sides and only three fit perfectly… It’s like a big collage, you have to spend lots of time doing layers and layers and edits to make it so like a coherent piece, not just tracks mixed one into the other. I gave this one a lot of care and attention and I hope that’s why it stands out.” The same goes for Renaissance parties, which Dave has attended “since day one”.

“I was working for them from the beginning in Mansfield,” he says. “I knew Geoff and Joe from the start and was a monthly guest there from the beginning. They’ve been through thick and thin, so it’s really good they are back in the game for their 20th anniversary. They pay attention to detail. There is a certain quality control to Renaissance parties and they still stick to their underground guns. They always have that extra bit of something that only comes through care and love for what they do. It’s not just thrown together, there is a lot of thought that goes into it.”

Dave says his venture down to Oz this week will be the longest trip away from home in a long time, citing his two sons – aged five and six – as the main reason for the change in pace. “Now I have a family, I’ve not toured very much,” he explains.

“This is the third of fourth time in the last six years I’ve been away for more than one weekend at a time. Usually when coming down to Australia you have to make it more than one weekend, otherwise you spend more time on a flight than on the ground. Last time I was down for New Years I didn’t; I arrived on New Year’s Eve and went back on January 2. Before I had a family it was three, four or five weeks at a time.”

Dave says it might be a while until we see the next generation of the Seaman family hitting the decks – but says both his boys are starting to catch on exactly what their daddy spends his time doing on the weekend. “They are five and six now, so I think they are kinda getting the hang of it,” he chuckles.
“I took them to Glastonbury, so I think they now think I’m DJing Glastonbury every weekend, when it’s not quite like that (laughs). They are already showing signs that they want to know what this DJing thing is all about. They are always asking questions and I think the older one wants to be a DJ someday. We’ll see.” 

Listen to Dave Seaman on Pulse