When Santé and Sidney Charles landed at the top of Ibiza Spotlight's interview pack ahead of their busy, multi-residency Ibiza season, I was buzzing for a blether with the dashing, dexterous duo. Before the German groove governors arrive for a first dash of White Isle damage at Pacha on Friday 24 June, they've been brandishing their Castellano vocabullary across social media during their touring occupation of Argentina.
They were tackled separately on Skype, but the leading question on both occasions had to be regarding their recent Essential Mix submission on BBC Radio 1 (see below). Their house and techno drenched debut adds to a large bank that's inclusive of veterans and heavyweights, including Frankie Knuckles, Danny Rampling, Sasha, Ben Klock, Richie Hawtin, Âme, Dixon, Steve Lawler, Kerri Chandler and Carl Cox, among many, many others. To be added to its legendary list of powerhouse names, especially in the case of Charles who began producing just five years ago, it was a mega milestone moment. Their responses naturally read much the same, with Santé reflecting that it was like “a little dream come true,” and Charles chipping in to echo Santé's sentiment of the broadcast opportunity being an honour.
“You have to get introduced to someone and like their music. Then you might click in the studio or might say let's try something together. And if it clicks, that's how collaborating works these days.” - Santé
Their Essential Mix takeover heard them pushing a small selection of their own distinctive studio efforts, with one of these being a track Charles released on Santé's imprint, Avotre. The Berlin-based label, which is going from strength to strength, is currently a hot topic for Santé and the wider underground scene. While the pair are currently touring its sound across Argentina - a nation famous for its euphoric crowds, who love electronic music as if it were football – another fervid, warm-blooded populace, some 11,000 miles across the Atlantic, has been a recent source of inspiration. The string of releases under Avotre Presents Italian Heat brings focus to the Italian Peninsula in reverie of the country's thriving underground base, with artists such as Matteo Gatti and Raffa FL plugging their sound. For Santé, playing across Italy's clubs and festivals is “awesome” because it's a nation of energetic, music savvy clubbers who've graduated in dance music education. “When you've been there once, you know why I'm picking a particular focus on Italy,” he enthused, before giving Tenax and Cocorico a special mention and honing in on the latter as being “absolutely amazing.”
Elsewhere on Avotre, he's sharing the spotlight with contemporary beat breeders via his compilation album, House Lessons. Due for release in October, wAFF, Armin van Helden, Dennis Ferrer, Josh Butler, Depeche Mode and Who Made Who are all confirmed to be collaborating on what is penned to be “peak-time, banging club music.” That list of illustrious artists is made of those he considers friends, which is at the basis of how he works. “You have to get introduced to someone and like their music. Then you might click in the studio or might say let's try something together. And if it clicks, that's how collaborating works these days.” We're largely digital creatures, especially in the case of producers whose time is torn between hectic touring schedules and studio stints, which makes it impossible to get together in the same area code. “You've got a million projects going back and forth. Someone is adding something, another adds more and someone else finishes it - this is how a modern collaboration works nowadays.”
Like with many of Santé's tempo tempering peers, his responsibilities are spread across fulfilling his responsibilities as a DJ, producer and label owner. The solution is simply finding time for everything, but music is of course given priority. Again, like with other artists these days, the creative space for him isn't confined to brick-walled studios, as he's switched to a mobile studio setup. “Most of the ideas are happening on the plane when I'm not being disturbed by internet or phone calls.” Spilling sonic sauce while on the road is keeping his creative clock ticking and his ideas are captured from gigs, which are then developed on the plane to “recreate the vibe when you played someone else's tune” with the intention of “creating the same kind of feeling.”
Charles has also been digging deep into studio sessions and keeping the production wheel spinning, with a forthcoming EP on Intec and a remixes spinner on Avotre, which has Stacey Pullen and Barem on duty. Remixing is a craft that's readily associated with Charles and a fresh addition to his catalogue of reworks meets our ears in the form of Moby's 'Natural Blues'.
Chosen as his favourite from the selection of classics offered by Moby's management, he's preserved much of the mournful, ethereal feeling of the record, but weaved in a sample of his energetic, signature groove. It's been given a rinsing at various gigs and has been slapped with a solid stamp of approval from the crowd – proof of his production intuition. When probed on the task of giving a track a spin through the Charles remix motor, he commented, “if you're an artist and you have your sound in mind, I think it's natural that you do the remix that sounds like your sound.” To his mind, the original always contains the catalyst for inspiration, and the challenge lies in deconstructing it in a way that retains its inceptive vibe while being entwined in a new sound.
“It's good to experience other club nights because Ibiza, in my eyes, is so diverse and for an artist it's amazing to experience different venues.” - Sidney Charles
Hectic tour schedules and studio cuts aside, Ibiza was of course the biggest reason we got these guys on speed dial. One year on from a monumental season with their first residency at Vista Club, they're back dipping and diving between hosts and venues which gave us plenty to talk about. From the previously mentioned Pacha date for Hot Since 82's takeover of Insane, to Elrow at Space and Steve Lawler's Warriors residency at Sankeys, their B2B sprees will reach thousands of gung-ho clubbers. Santé's Ibiza ambition is fuelled after last year's impactful season marked a huge step in his career and he's hopeful that with a bigger fanbase, it's ramped up expectations from music fiends arriving for dance-fuelled sessions. They're both excited to have control of not just one, but three booths, with Charles commenting that “it's good to experience other club nights because Ibiza, in my eyes, is so diverse and for an artist it's amazing to experience different venues.” Having only been to Pacha as a clubber at Solomun's + 1 residency, Charles is looking forward to getting in and bolstering one of its few underground nights. They're also jumping into the inflatable-loaded madness that is elrow, but it's at Sankeys that they'll be able to run free with the decks and fire into what they love and do best – B2B head-spinning sessions all night long. In for Steve Lawler's Warriors residency, The Lab will be theirs on four dates and as expected, they're united in their belief of why longer set times are just so damn enjoyable. For Charles it boils down to having “freedom to do what you really want to build your own night” and for Santé, it's all about being able to “get much deeper, especially at the end of the night when you can play some special records.”
Space's final 27th year are the buzz words in rotation on the island this summer, and having footed the bill in past seasons, they were guaranteed to have accumulated some defining moments that will leave them a little emotional for its closure. Santé reminisced about a huge sit down that lowered the bum cheeks to a hovering standstill during one of their sets last year, and Charles eagerly told me that Space makes the cut as one of his favourite clubs in the world for its incredible sound and the unique way people show their love for music. Like the rest of us dance floor demons, they'll be sad to see it enter the 27 Club, but what a privilege it is to be included in a year that will go down in clubbing history. No doubt you can expect them to be squeezing in a sentimental session or two on the other side of the booth before the bittersweet bells signal for the doors to close one last time.
If a B2B with the Deutsch dicers is in your beat-binge hitlist, take it from two guys who've cut their teeth in Berlin's clubbing haunts - where mobile phones are strictly a no-go - and put the digital barriers down. "The vibe is much better and I think the people are concentrating more on their bodies and how to dance and not other people," Charles stated. Consider this: your touchscreen gadgets don't yet have souls, but you fine people do, and it's music that feeds those souls.
WORDS | Aimee Lawrence