Our latest Mix of the Week feature presents Belgium-born & bred DJ and producer Siege, whose techy take on house has graced labels from Toolroom records and Toolroom Trax to Yousef’s Circus and Big Beat in the US.
We loved your last release on Saved... what for you are the essential ingredients of a club record?
The most important is probably the kick and the bass I’d say. They have to be 100% right. I can listen to a good groove for hours. Apart from that I think the arrangement should be right for playing out in the club as well.
You've been working a lot with Toolroom recently, what makes them stand out as a label?
Yes I have. I think they have a really good reputation of putting out quality music. There’s also a great team behind it – it’s not just a couple of people running it from their bedroom. The A&R team is really great – Mark is superb at giving the right feedback and pointers on music too. They’ve been around for more than 15 years now so they know what they’re doing haha ;)
What are your top three records of the year so far?
I did a Bob Sinclar edit at the end of last year which is still doing the rounds and still goes of every time I play it. Shame we couldn’t get this out as an official remix.
There’s this record ‘Cocodrills - On the job’ which I’ve been playing a lot as well. It’s not super big but it sounds so good!! It has a great groove, a good bass line, an infectious synth line and a little vocal to finish things of.
Last but not least I’ve done a remix with the legend that is Cevin Fisher called Consciousness. It’s a straight up groover with a solid vocal hook from Cevin. I really like it and I’m not the only one: Carl Cox has been banging this one out in his sets too!
Tell us about the mix you've put together for us... any tracks in particular we should be looking out for?
Well to be honest I really love all tracks in there ;) For me Mark Broom EFB is one of those I can’t stop playing either – just so good! Then there’s quite a few bits from myself in there and a great remix that Honey Dijon did for Harry Romero’s classic Tania.
How does putting a mix like this together compare to your approach to playing live? Presumably a lot of the tracks would be the same, but does the way you mix differ massively?
I think when doing studio mixes you've got a bit more freedom to play whatever you want. You can almost tell a story for an hour and build your set. I always try and do this when playing live as well but sometimes you have to take a turn and switch it up a bit if you see it’s not connecting with the crowd.
We’re just announcing the latest EvermixBox4 with crowd capture features, do you think crowd reactions are an important part of really capuring the vibe of a live set?
Yes defo! I think it helps to give you that live feel and it’s good to have it on there for sure.
What else should we be keeping our eyes out for from you in the coming months?
There’s still some new music coming up this year! End of the month there’s a 4 track EP coming out on Alan Fitzpatrick’s We Are The Brave records. In November I’m finally releasing my remix for Green Velvet’s Bigger Than Prince on Circus recordings. Also in November I’m making my debut for Elrow in Belgium which is a HUGE one I can tick off my list ☺
*TRACKLIST: