Interview: Marking a 20 year milestone of playing live with Saytek
Before another year is out, we are delighted to share a dynamite body of work from long term live act, and ASW family member - SAYTEK. A third album on the label as the English artist proves himself as innovative as ever. “Twenty” marks a milestone moment for Saytek as he commemorates 20 whole years of playing live… some achievement.
Saytek LIve in action
His multi-decade career has seen him land on a host of established labels including R&S, TRAX, Cubism and Superfreq. His genre melding techno sound has taken him all over the world. A global name, but humble character and it is because of people like Saytek, we do what we do. Follow on for some hot topics when we recently caught up with him…
Welcome back to ASW, thanks for chatting with us today. How has 2023 been for you so far?
It's been truly amazing for live gigs! I have been busy touring and some of the highlights include Rave The Planet in Berlin which is like the new Love Parade 400k ravers attended and our float alone was followed by 50 thousand ravers. I also went back to Fabric in London and Sisyphos in Berlin which was amazing and played some great clubs and boutique festivals across europe. One of my favourite things as well is I did quite a few grass roots intimate headline shows across the UK, this really felt like returning to my roots. On the release front it's been great as well. The highlight for me was releasing on my all time favourite record label R&S.
20 years in the game, how does it feel to have reached this milestone?
Amazing, it's crazy to think I first made the decision to perform live in 2003 and have stuck with it ever since. It really felt the world didn't really understand back then but nowadays it's very different.
To commemorate the occasion, you’re releasing a 20 Years of Saytek album with us in December 2023? Tell our audience a bit about the album, how did it come together…
Yes it's amazing to be releasing my 3rd album on ASW. My second album was made in the middle of lockdown so I could go a little deeper and introspective. This album was made in the middle of a busy touring schedule so it's tougher and aimed squarely at the dance floor. These tracks are chopped directly out of a live jam with no real post production. It's like Carl Cox said “what you see is what you get”. These are the live jams that I perform live in front of crowds, all music created and performed live by me!
Your sound has always been fresh and inspiring for us, what would you say is the key to keeping your music, and output original and pushing it to the limits?
I am primarily an electronic music fan. I love lots of different electronic music from ambient and experimental stuff through to classic house and techno right through to some of the latest stuff coming out. For me there is such a wide range of sounds I love I never feel like I am done exploring what I am capable of.
How is your current live set up looking? We are always curious at what our family members are working with…
Current live set-up:
My current live setup looks like this: Novation Peak, Roland MC707, Roland S1 Tweak Synth, Pioneer V10, Korg Nano Key Studio, Korg KP3+ , Macbook Pro, Ableton, Focusrite audio interface , Pioneer RMX1000.
After experiencing two decades in the industry, what would you say has changed for the better, and for the worse?
A lot has changed for the better and the worse. Personally I find it very hard to understand the music a lot of people call techno nowadays. It sounds a lot more like EDM, Trance, Pop, and Gabber. I think it's become very commercial. But the underground still exists and there is still so much creativity bubbling under the surface. I think everything has gotten more professional which has its good and bad sides. Also social media which a lot of people hate has actually been very good for me, sharing my live jams on facebook I racked up 10’s of millions of views and I think that has helped me a lot and nowadays keeping a constant flow of jams on fb & insta keeps my fan base growing.
If you could say to Saytek of the noughties something that you now know, what would it be?
I am a recovering addict so I would say take it easy on the drugs, I wouldn't have listened though!
Can you leave us with one track which made you fall in love with techno all those years ago?
Jeff Mills - Berlin
Crunchy, bleepy, dirty acid techno when I first heard it I was like WTF is this and my mind was blown. I love this; it's the complete antithesis of modern overproduced super clean techno! For example…
▶ TWENTY LP by Saytek is out December 15th. Check it out here.