Post by Bill on Apr 26, 2009 22:14:10 GMT -5
The song is called "She Came Along" on a new album from Sharam, one half of the dance duo "Deep Dish." The following article is from the El Paso Times. The track can be heard, and downloaded, here.
Bill
Bill
Sharam: DJ Mixes Wild West Into Dance Music
By Doug Pullen / El Paso Times
Posted: 04/25/2009 08:02:19 PM MDT
EL PASO -- Who would think of sampling Patsy Cline's melancholic "She Came Along," set it to dance beats, and have rapper du jour Kid Cudi rhyme along? Who could make it work?
How about Sharam, one half of the Grammy-winning American dance production duo Deep Dish, which has remixed hits for everyone from the Rolling Stones to Madonna. Deep Dish won a Grammy for its reworking of Dido's "Thank You."
The turntablist is lighting out on his own with a new album, "Get Wild," and a 28-city tour in which he shares time with an 11-piece band. He'll perform Sunday at El Paso's Club News (the show was moved from the now-defunct Studio 69).
Buoyed by "She Came Along," the "Get Wild" album comes in two versions, a single disc and a two-CD deluxe edition. Its spaghetti Western visual theme is expanded upon on stage.
We couldn't hook up a telephone interview, so we e-mailed the Washington, D.C., native about the new disc and the tour. Here's what he had to say.
Q What made you decide to do a solo album?
A Doing random singles -- especially covering a wide spectrum in dance music -- didn't make sense anymore. I wanted to put them all under one roof and bring some purpose and cohesiveness to it. There are 22 songs on the double album and it's mixed like a compilation, but all original material. No one has ever done that. I always like to push myself and push the boundaries of music and music industry.
Q What inspired the Western theme of "Get Wild"?
A I felt like doing something different and fun. One of my favorite movies of all time is Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West." I sent one of the posters from that movie to my designer and told him to toy around with it for the cover of my single at the time, called "Get Wild." I thought the title had a wild Western connotation to it, and I could do something with that.
I really liked the mock up, so we decided it would be really cool and interesting if it were me on the poster instead of Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson's pictures. So we decided to do a photo shoot inspired by the whole classic spaghetti Western thing. That went really well, and then I did couple of parties around the concept in Ibiza (a Mediterranean island off Spain).ÊOne thing led to another, and it evolved into a video and visual production. I ended up doing the whole album concept around it and called the album "Get Wild."
I now have a full-on live show that encompasses all of the video and visual elements we created around the album. I thought the whole DJ on the cover of an album with a typical DJ pose, like hands in the air, or sunset or ocean behind them, was getting a bit stale. So this is really like a wild party concept, except it's the Wild West!
Q How did you ever come up with the idea of blending a Patsy Cline song with a Kid Cudi rap? Brilliant!
A If you guys in the South didn't think so, then I would be in trouble! I laid down the concept about three years ago and was just waiting for someone with the ability to complement the song nicely. Kid Cudi turned out to be the perfect match.
I always thought it would be amazing to have Patsy Cline's voice on a track -- a dance track, no less. It was a concept I had my eyes on for years -- just like "Flashdance," which was a childhood favorite of mine. I'm a big country music fan, and the catalyst for that was probably Patsy Cline, which I got exposed to via a movie called "Sweet Dreams," with Jessica Lange, in 1986.
Q How would you contrast your full-band performances with your DJ sets? (You're doing a DJ set in El Paso.)
A Well, I'm in album/tour mode right now; so musically speaking they are not that far off. I am playing 80-90 percent of my own material from the album, and then I throw in some dirty and crazy stuff in the middle for good measure.
It's really been interesting because I never stuck to one set in all the years I DJed. I never played the same set or the same sequence twice. And now I am constrained by the 22 songs of the album. It's more like a band, which is cool.
The visual element that I bring with me is the key factor that ties it all up nicely. But I do have the ability to switch gears at any time and throw in whatever I feel the crowd likes -- for that 20 percent.
Q What's next for Deep Dish?
A We're in solo mode right now, and I am pushing an album for at least a year. I actually have enough new material and ideas down for another album. So we'll see how things progress.
Doug Pullen may be reached at dpullen@elpasotimes.com; 546-6397. Read Pullen My Blog at www.elpasotimes.com/blogs.