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Sandra Collins
tourdates
offical Web site
articles/contests
"I bring only what I will play and will read the crowd sometimes and play different stuff out of my box, but I never bring a record that I don't believe in and play it just for the crowd. I can't pretend; it's too tiring to pretend, it's just draining."
"I remember the day I decided to go buy decks — the moment on that dance floor and what I was listening to — I was so excited that I got tears in my eyes."
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10.29.04
Livin' the DJ Life with Trance Goddess Sandra Collins
by Skandar Rassas
Flying under the wing of the best, in any field, typically leads to success. For Sandra Collins, simply following in the footsteps of icons Frankie Bones and Paul Oakenfold was not enough. Continually blessed by some of the best mentors in electronic dance music, Collins has used her understudies to promote a distinct vision of greatness rather than just a reflection of someone else's success. Collins has been heavy into the EDM scene ever since coming up in the late-'80s industrial techno scene of Phoenix, Arizona. Her natural talent came to the forefront quickly, and she soon moved on to play Frankie Bones' historic Storm raves in Brooklyn. As the club scene emerged in the early '90s, Collins developed her unique sound and established a residency at Los Angeles clubs Sketchpad and Metropolis, the latter with Doc Martin.
Throughout the early- and mid-90's, Sandra Collins deviated from the house music norm by embracing a more emotional trance style. Since the release of her first mix CD, 1997's Lost In Time, the accolades have come in droves: "Best Trance DJ" in 1998's Global DJ Awards, Urb magazine's 1999 "Best Female Artist" alongside Lauryn Hill, and 2003's "DJ of the Year" at the DanceStar Awards, one of the DJ world's most prestigious honors. She has spun with nearly all of the globe's top DJs and at the top clubs, followed Moby with a six-hour set in front of 80,000 people on opening night of Woodstock '99, and has been featured in magazine after magazine. Her CD releases include Tranceport 3 (part of the genre-defining series) and a best-selling mix called Cream that was inspired by the legendary London superclub of the same name. One of only a handful of artists signed to Oakenfold's Perfecto label and one of the only to share a double-bill with the most influential EDM DJ of all time, Sandra Collins has earned the title "Trance Goddess." Perpetually busy, Collins released her fourth mix CD, Perfecto Presents, earlier this year and continues to tour as relentlessly as ever. Musictoday caught up with Sandra before her (late starting) set at Buzzlife's Cübik in Washington, D.C., a place she has loyally returned to year after year.
Musictoday: What held you up from getting to the venue until now?
Sandra Collins: Today, I came without any of my stuff. I had to borrow makeup and take the first flight from Los Angeles. It was a photo shoot for a ten-year anniversary for SoCal's Dance Music culture.
Mt: Are you still supposed to start on time?
SC: Well I like to play, like, five hours, and so I would love to play as long as possible. When's the last time I was here? Yeah, Halloween.
Mt: How do you feel about your Perfecto mix compared to past mixes?
SC: I think it's amazing, and I think that with every album you learn something from the last, and you try and take different directions with the technology and what is available today. It makes some parts a lot easier. There was a lot of production and a lot of edits; we re-edited most of the tracks. If you buy them in the store, they're not the same. It was a lot of work but I like it. They just handed me the next one, and I'm like, "Let me just finish the tour." I wanted to say that I was gonna do less production on the next one, because there was so much production in that it just took forever. But I didn't expect to get this next project so early, so I'll probably do a lot of production on it again.
Mt: I haven't heard a lot about you doing your own production. Do you ever think about doing your own full production album?
SC: Yeah, definitely. Right now, I'm in the works of separating my tours instead of touring all the time. I want to either support an album or have it be for a cause. Whatever cause it would be, I wanted to take some money and donate it to that cause, put it in my Web site that I'm creating. That means that I could have some time off to start doing more production. It's the only way I'm going to be able to do it, because having four or five days off at a time makes it really hard. So, once I start that, I would definitely be into an album.
Mt: How do you balance being on the road so much with having a normal life?
SC: There is no balance. It's just the road life: I come home and for two days I'm excited to be there, and I'm like, Ikea and cooking, and then the next three days I prepare for the road again and I'm stressing out. And you know what? It's all bad, except for the playing part. I get paid for all the rest of it. But I'm here and it's fine. Everything in between is not easy.
Mt: Do they have special leases for DJ's?
SC: You know what? I don't have a roommate, and sometimes I have a boyfriend that can pay all these bills that accumulate when I'm not there. And sometimes there's nothing used for a long time, and the water company's like, "What the hell's going on?" There's no water and then all this water. I wish they had special leases. Maybe I should just move out and live on the road.
Mt: So how many homes do you keep?
SC: Well, actually, I'm in an apartment right now, which is hard because I was in Orlando in a three-story house…I moved all my stuff here and it's all in this apartment. In February, I'm going to finally buy something. I'm thinking Topanga Canyon, which is right in Los Angeles.
Mt: Do you think Oakie will ever stop spinning?
SC: He loves what he does, he really does. He's so motivated. If anything, he'll start to bring up other artists because he does see talent in other people and brings them along. He's written about 30 songs that I don't think anybody's heard, and they're awesome. He really has a lot of passion towards this, as well as a great business sense. It's really hard to have both; you're either really artistic and don't know anything about business…you spend all your money…but he's got both. He'll probably stop spinning, but right now he's having fun doing it. And if he's being hired, I don't think he should step down. He's got a lot of energy, he's just really happy. I just finished this bus tour with him for about eight days, and he's just really amped all the time.
Mt: What's your favorite show on the tour?
SC: Actually, because we have a great sound tech — and I have a really hard time with soundmen — I think they were all amazing. Minnesota was awesome, Chicago was awesome. We played a big theater, and it was great because [Oakenfold] hires the best teams. Nick, the sound tech…I know a lot of promoters were like, "Oh, this guy is overwhelming." But I'm like, "be overwhelming, because the standards of sound need to step up." You should have a license to own a system, and they should randomly check it once a month at random times to see if it's not done right. I've got a whole concept down and I'm gonna pitch it. If it was my system, I'd want it to sound amazing, I would want to represent the best club I could have. Do your thing, Nick — piss promoters off, but come on.
Mt: What are your thoughts on digital spinning — both CD's and FinalScratch?
SC: I'm going to move along with the times. A lot of people look at me — I play about 85% CDs — and people are like, "Play some vinyl." I take the CD and I'm like, "Put this on vinyl for me, because it doesn't exist on vinyl." If I was to do that at, like, $60 a plate, it takes a long time for the turnaround. I can barely get on the road again and do my laundry. I hope with the technology that it sounds warmer, because records sound bigger. Of course, analog will always sound bigger, so that's my only thing there.
Mt: I know you'd rather be known as just a great DJ, rather than a great female DJ, but what do you think about entrepreneurs like DJ Rap and what she's doing to represent herself in all areas as a female?
SC: I think, as much as you can do, as long as you can go out there and do it, that's great. I grew up in a show business family, and I have the opportunity to do a lot of things. I've done the things that I've wanted to do, and now I'm just starting to try and separate my tours, do production and tours. Two film things have come my way, and we're not one-dimensional. If you're good at what you do, and you can do it, more power to you.
Mt: If you had one choice for a bill, who would you spin with and where would it be?
SC: I like spinning with Paul. You know what? We're playing in a cave in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and it's going to be amazing. I love Brad Copeland; I bring him on the road a lot as an opener. He plays as an opener, and I'm like, "Just play what you want." He's very respectful as an opening DJ, but he's an amazing DJ; he's awesome to bring on the road. He helps me with sound, and Paul says he's got a great team, and it's like we're a family. It's just very easy, so we have a good time.
Mt: Do you throw private parties at your house?
SC: I don't have parties at my house. A few people at the most. I'll say, let's just go somewhere else. There's a space in LA where I've had friends there for, like, the last 15 years, and we do have parties there, but I don't host it. I'll have dinner parties at my house, but I'm too nervous for there just to be random people there. I can count on both hands how many people know where I live.
Mt: Do you ever spin at private parties?
SC: Once in a while, I'll be like, "I really want to hear this," and so I flip it on, but I don't like to. I used to. Back in the day, I used to play for hours, but not any more, because if I keep playing those records at home, then it takes away one less play on the road. Once I get so tired of a song, I just don't feel it any more. You probably like playing at your own parties. For nine years, I was like, "I gotta play, I gotta play," but now I just want to hear other peoples' stuff; I want to hear other music. When you're talking, or when you're doing that, you're not learning, you're just doing what you already know. I like to hear what other people have out there.
Mt: What first got you into EDM?
SC: It was, like, when it first got started — '86-'87-'88, it went from, like, New Wave into Industrial into New Beat into Techno into Acid House. I think it was Chris Fuller…I was in Arizona…it was so small. Parties were, like, you break into a warehouse and bring three hundred people. It wasn't about the money; it was that basically this whole thing grew around me, so I wouldn't even know what to say to somebody jumping in today, because I was in it and it jumped in around me. I guess it made sense — the timeline of my music — it just made sense. I've always loved the melodic, certain sounds you can only hear in bits and pieces of songs; even if it was just like a Pete's Dragon movie, I would rewind the same part. Then, all of a sudden, this music came out, and it was all of that, that was what it was based on. I was with Frankie Bones and all them, and they were all playing techno, and I started listening to the really pretty trance-y stuff back in '92-'93. Then I moved to the West Coast and it was all house. So I'm like, "I don't care what this music is, this is what I like." So, for a long time, I didn't fit in, but I eventually found my niche. That's why I say, "If you like something and it's not popular, just stick to it." Because I did that, and I think progressive house and trance, that's the most successful music out there. So I was the weird one, [but] it happened to be right.
Mt: When did you know you found your niche?
SC: I still don't know if I have my niche. I know what I like, and it's always in all the types of music — like, I'll play breaks, I'll play whatever, but it all has that same kind of feeling. You do find where you're more level, because at first I think you're all over the place. I did level off, probably '98 or '99.
Mt: Do you ever sacrifice what you like to what you think people really want to hear?
SC: I really like what I play, and maybe it's a part of being empathic, but it's worked for me. I bring only what I will play and will read the crowd sometimes and play different stuff out of my box, but I never bring a record that I don't believe in and play it just for the crowd. I can't pretend; it's too tiring to pretend, it's just draining. It's worked so far, hopefully it continues to or I'm out of a job. Maybe I'll go into acting, maybe a hooker.
Mt: Do you have any idea what kind of set you're going to play tonight? Any hits?
SC: Well, I've been playing six-hour sets, and I start off kind of house-ier — not soulful kind of house, but a little more progressive — and then I go into some breaks, and then I play a little bit of that tech-y kind of electro, then I go into some trance. Wait 'til you hear this heavy metal breaks thing; it is like an Adam Freeland beat with heavy metal. This is amazing, and then I have a Beastie Boys bootleg.
Mt: What songs and/or albums have changed your life?
SC: I think music in moments — like on the dance floor — has changed my life. It wasn't really an album; it was a moment that I felt lots of peoples' energies. That really enhances the feeling you get off of peoples' reactions. I remember the day I decided to go buy decks — the moment on that dance floor, and what I was listening to — I was so excited that I got tears in my eyes. I was like, "I gotta buy decks tomorrow. This is who I am." This was in, like, '89. I'd started spinning before that, but just messing around. It just dawned on me. Chris Fuller was playing, and it was just good, just happy. Back in the day, the actual props and the actual decorations, and the way they used to do the room up, it was just like I walked into a wonderland. It was all good for a while. It's still good, it's just become corporate, and we forgot. You don't want to put any extra money into building giant mushrooms and props, the visual stuff. The new Pioneer VJ, that will be cool to see.
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