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INTERVIEW: Rachel Rixham Catches up with SHARAM

“There’s a presence about Sharam that comes through in his music as well as his shows. Like any great relationship, you leave his show feeling as if you’re a better person… the Sharam experience.” – PLAYBACK:stl

One of only few dance acts who can effortlessly navigate between the nocturnal world of dance music with underground gems like “Crazi”, “Texi” and “Don’t Say A Word” while scoring Top 20 Hits internationally with “PATT (Party All The Time)”, “The One” feat. Daniel Bedingfield, and “She Came Along” with Kid Cudi. His desire to not ever be confined and pigeon holed into one genre of music has enabled him to constantly evolve and surprise people with his productions.

www.sharam.com

INTRODUCTION

Rachel Rixham: It’s a real pleasure to grab this interview with you today Sharam, can we start with a brief artist introduction. Who is Sharam?

Sharam: You’ll have to wait for the movie, The curious case of Bassdrum Sharam, coming soon to a theater near you.

Rachel: How did you first become involved with music, and what does ‘The Music’ truly mean to you?

Sharam: I had a big crush on music and spent years chasing it. When I finally got through and got involved with it, I knew I had to keep it and spend the rest of my life with it. So I work daily on making sure it gets a lot of love and attention from me.

Rachel: You’ve been known to not only entertain the masses with your shows and productions, but also educate your fans , how important do you feel it is to take time as an artist to educate people about music?

Sharam: For me its an important part of the process. If DJs keep playing cookie cutter tracks and hit after hit, you get to a point where everyone sounds the same and the crowd can not tell one dj apart from another — this is actually happening right now in the music industry. That complacency is usually followed with being irrelevant for the DJ and people moving on to the next thing. For me giving people something different is a very important part of the process. And just as important is not losing sight of the entertainment part. There needs to be a balance. When you combine the music that people know me for and expect me to play, with the new stuff I’m playing and testing, you get a balanced night where people can have fun and still be exposed to new music.

Rachel: Many artists find themselves pigeon holed to one genre throughout their careers, simply because their fan base refuse to accept anything else, this can sometimes push our artists in to a corner thus stunt future growth. How important do you feel it is for an artist to stand their ground, evolve and play around with as many genres as they can?

Sharam: I am constantly educating myself and getting inspired by new music. The fun part is transferring that inspiration to my music in the studio and the crowds on the dance floor. That relationship is very important as it enables me to evolve as a producer and a DJ. I’ve never been a fan of being a one trick pony. There is too much music out there by too many great producers from many genres. Why confined yourself to one genre of music? It goes against everything that us as humans stand for. Its sort of like racism, where people have an adverse reaction towards another race, and it usually stems from insecurity and being close minded. If everyone acted that way, there would be no advancement in anything. The fusion is how you advance not being boxed up and one track minded. Fanaticism is not good in anything.

RELEASES & STUDIO 

Rachel: Sharam is known globally for tracks such as “Crazi”, “Texi”, and “Don’t Say A Word” not to mention scoring top 20 hits for “PATT (Party All The Time)”, “The One” feat. Daniel Bedingfield, and “She Came Along” with Kid Cudi. How does it feel to have so many tracks globally recognised and supported by the world? And do you feel a huge pressure to keep raising the bar when producing new tracks?

Sharam: I’ve always drawn inspiration from Hollywood as a parallel world to what I do. The great actors like Robert De Niro, go from role to role transforming themselves and creating different characters seamlessly. Great film directors like Martin Scorsese, they go from project to project creating different worlds that you can get lost in. They all tell great stories using their acting and directing chops and each time it’s a different story, different movie, different character. They are also the ones that have lasted the longest where so many others have come and gone as flavor of the month. The iconic ones are the ones that have tried different things and made them work – or not.

There is a lot you can learn from having a project fail. But the key is not to repeat yourself. Music for me is the same way. I try not to repeat myself. It would be easy to do that and cash in when you have something that hits big, but that is not interesting to me. I like to challenge myself and push the boundaries and see what I can come up with next. Some work and people praise me for it, and some go over people’s head and they give me the raised eyebrow. And I have learned to love both reactions. What would worry me is if I got no reaction – good or bad.

Rachel: In addition, tell us, where do you find the inspiration to produce such tracks? Do you have a special technique to get you in to that mused productive state perhaps?

Sharam: It’s about allowing yourself to 1. Get inspired and 2. Let that inspiration flow through your creative process. You have to let go of your past and your previous achievements and start from scratch and see where it leads you. Then you polish it to ensure that it works on the dance floor. On some records that are not intended for dance floor you just let the music tell its own story.

Rachel: Tell us about your amazing 10 hour stint at Warung Beach Club in Brazil, which sold out to a crowd of 4500 clubbers. That is some achievement, how did you prepare yourself for such an event?

Sharam: I am always preparing myself by listening to a lot of music and categorizing them in my inbox. At any moment I can turn a 2 hour set into a 10 hour one – provided the environment is right. Meaning the club, the crowd and the vibe is there — for the ride. Once you know you have full rein to play a long set then it’s a matter of programing the night and I usually do that organically on the spot.

WARUNG BEACH CLUB COMPILATION
BUY NOW | TRACKLISTING | OUR REVIEW

Rachel: Upon listening to the new compilation, I quickly picked up on the atmospheric changes delivered by the tracklisting, you started the compilation with a vibrant selection of club bangers and finished on a very hypnotic note. In your own words, can you describe the vibe for CD1 and CD2.

Sharam: It’s a live recording, so you are listening to progression. I’m telling a story and the story has lots of ebbs and flows. CD 2 is the continuation of CD1 really. I told an epic story, sort of like Star Wars at the club. The entire saga was 10 hours and I picked about 3 hours (due to time limitation on CDs) and featured it on 2 CDs.

Rachel: A massive 26 tracks come with this release, which includes a great selection of white labels, unreleased material and topped with many dance floor bangers. How long did it take before you were completely satisfied with the final result, did you make any changes? furthermore did you face any tough challenges?

Sharam: The key was that I was prepared and knew my records and I just let things flow. I would have liked to keep all 10 hours of the live show but had to pick 3 hours that best represented me, the club and the vibe of that night. And sometimes you get tracks that you can not clear which on a compilation like this can be catastrophic because you have to cut out an entire song from your live story. Fortunately i was able to clear 95% of the tracks.

WHAT’S UP NEXT FOR SHARAM?

Rachel Rixham: With the compilation now in the hands and ears of many millions around the world, what can we expect next from the prestigious Sharam in 2012?

Sharam: I have just released my new single called “Our Love”, which is the follow up to Fun with the same vocalist. I am polishing a remix package for it – with a brand new remix that I did myself along with some other cool and amazing artists.

After that I have a new single called “Radio G” that’s coming out. I am shooting to have a bunch of other projects that I’ve been working on wrapped up to be released on a new artist album sometimes this summer.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/DJSharam
Follow on twitter: http://twitter.com/djsharam
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/sharam