After an eight-year hiatus, Sasha returns to Hong Kong and tells Mary Agnew about technology and what really happened to our party scene.

He’s done everything from acid house to progressive trance, and is regularly voted among the top DJs in the world. But influential Welsh DJ Sasha is far from hanging up his turntables, having just headlined at the Big Day Out music festival in Australia and New Zealand.

How have things gone so far in the Big Day Out tour?
I feel really good about it. The show in Auckland was great but the production was quite scaled back and I had brought a bunch of visual stuff that I have been working on with artists from Canada. We didn’t really have the tools to make the show look the way I wanted. I mean it sounded good but we didn’t get to make the big visual impact. In Brisbane we had huge screens; we had all the lasers and everything.

How do the visuals affect a show?
Well, as part of the tour I really had quite a short show; only playing for an hour and a quarter. I re-edited all the songs to make them quite punchy. There aren’t really any lulls in the set. We have 50 to 60 per cent of the set completely synchronised with the visuals.

Is that becoming more important?
For the artists that do festivals or shorter sets, I think it is a really key part to it. Not so much with the club sets, which can go on for four or five hours. At the festivals you want to get your music across and really get into people’s heads.

Are you looking forward to bringing that to Hong Kong?
The promoters [in Hong Kong] are really great and I am sure the production will be great. I will definitely be bringing some element of my visuals with me. I haven’t played in Hong Kong in so long. It used to be one of my favourite places to play. It’s been too long.

Why so long?
Well the [dance music] scene there seemed to have imploded on itself. We went from doing these huge parties that were packed, to having nowhere to play. There was a clampdown on venues and some of the promoters weren’t getting on with each other. There was some tit-for-tat stuff going on. It was a real shame because there were some amazing events with great production, which just kind of went away. Most of the top DJs tour Asia every year and Hong Kong has been missing off my schedule for many, many years.

So it will be a happy return this month?
Yeah, definitely. I am really looking forward to it. Hong Kong is great. There is such a nice mix of Chinese and expats. From what I remember the crowds there seem to be really up for it.

What are you working on yourself at the moment, apart from touring?
I have a load of remixes on the go at the moment but everything is up in the air. I don’t really have my next big record mapped out yet. I am not sure what form it is going to take yet.

How much of your time do you devote to that when you are touring so much?
With broadband internet picking up everything from everywhere from around the world, I am actually able to work on the road. My engineer is in New York but I am able to be in contact with him all the time. I did most of my remixes from last year that way.

How is technology changing the way you work?
There is a huge amount of people DJing out there and a lot of people with access to the same music and information, so it really comes down to performance. How you actually play your records is very, very important. Brands like Pioneer, Cerrado and Ableton are all intelligently thinking about how to help DJs develop their performance.

You have had some high-profile partnerships in DJing. Who is really influencing you nowadays?
My favourite DJs at the moment are Lee Burridge and DJ Three from New York. I just like that wonky sound that they play. They always surprise me when they play and they always have records that I don’t have. They both have amazing ears and the ability to take you somewhere different. Then [John] Digweed and I go back such a long way and our sounds are so intertwined. It’s like any long relationship. It has its ups and downs and it goes through patches where it’s tricky, and then there are other times when we are absolutely in synch.

How have you two coped with the notoriety over the years?
There is always someone right behind you waiting to take your place. In terms of superstar DJs, Dave Guetta and Tiësto have had such phenomenal years and relatively myself and John might have had quieter years. I mean, I have been at this for long enough and been through peaks and troughs before. As long as you stay energetic and excited about things you are doing and you’re pushing yourself forward musically things will always come around.

Do you plan  to keep going? Or do you see yourself stepping back at all?
I can’t see it happening. I mean, I don’t know what else I would do. DJing has been my life so I don’t really see how I could give it up.

Where do you get energy from?
If you walk into a room with 10,000 people, the energy is there already.

Sasha plays Star Hall, Hitec, on Sat 6. Early Bird $580; Door $680; VIP $888; hkticketing.com; 3128 8288.