Dave Sinner has worked exceptionally hard to earn support from some of the from the stalwarts of the scene. Here he shares some advice that all serious producers needs to follow.

Hi Dave, tell us about you

Dave Sinner: I live in Barcelona and started Djing around 12 years ago, in a whole different scene, happy hardcore and hard trance were a popular thing in Catalonia when I was a kid and I grew up with it, so I started playing that kind of stuff in Dj contests and parties, even though when I started playing that music wasn’t considered cool anymore. I started producing a bit later, around 8 years ago, I always thought music production required expensive gear and so, but when I found out you could do it with just a computer I got into it.

What made you get in to dance music?

Dave Sinner: Electronic music was already popular in Barcelona in the late 90s, so as a kid I started to listen to it. It grew up on me and as everyone else, I started going out to clubs and parties and found out how much I loved it.

Talk to us about your latest release and the inspiration behind it.

Dave Sinner: Gargantua on Funk’N Deep is a very personal EP. Listening to it I’d say most influence really comes from the hard trancey stuff I was doing before getting into techno. I wanted to try and bring on those vibes and the more melodic side of that music.

Mike @ Funk N’Deep is quite a character. What’s it really like working with him behind the scenes?

Dave Sinner: He really cares about the music and the artists he’s working with and tries to help you in every possible way. That isn’t something that a lot of labels do nowadays, so it’s not only that Funk & Deep is a cool platform to showcase your music, but it definitely adds something else to the mix too.

How would you describe the Dave Sinner sound and philosophy towards techno for those who haven’t heard your stuff before?

Dave Sinner: Well, I have to say I’m currently struggling to get my sound to a different place, and also stepping it up if you will. Techno as a genre was meant to be dancing music, so keeping a solid, tight groove to dance to is a must for me. Other than that, for me techno is all about freedom, so that means you can go in any direction you want, and the huge variety of techno music styles nowadays is proof of that. Over the last year or so, I have been getting really trancey, taking a lot of influences of what I did before because I felt like that, but now I want to do something different than that, less focused on melodies and more about creating an atmosphere, a more abstract vibe which is probably closer to the roots of the genre, but trying to do so with new sounds.

What other labels have you released on previously?

Dave Sinner: My first techno release was on Gabriel D’Or & Bordoy’s Selected Records. I am a huge fan of them and it was really special that they got me into the label as my starting point. After that I also released on The Yellowheads’ Reload Black, Devotion by Lucas Freire and Fernanda Martins. Later, I started to release with the Italian LooseClub family, with a couple EPs on Loose Records and a track on Unrilis featured in their VA series The Blokk. Then I also released a couple of collaborations with 2 good friends that I made thanks to music, with SAMA on Kraftek and alongside Andres Campo on Suara. So far I’m happy about the labels I’ve been working with.

As someone that’s still a relative newcomer, how difficult was it to get people to take you seriously? What strategies did you use?

Dave Sinner: Well, I think that in order to achieve that the most important thing is that you take yourself seriously.

There’s a lot of labels that will release just anything, and that’s not good at all, either for the artists or the scene – so if you sign music to them, the more serious ones are not going to even consider you.

If you want to be taken seriously, you have to be patient, persistent, consistent and don’t give up until you get to a point when your music has a minimum quality to fit the labels you want to be in. I got a lot of ‘noes’ before signing my first EP, and still getting a lot of them from labels that I already released on.

Good labels expect quality music and don’t settle for anything you send, so you gotta get used to that and try to rise up your standards as much as they do.

What’s the music scene like where you live and how often are you playing?

Dave Sinner: Well, Barcelona is a very active city, also in terms of nightlife, but it’s packed with artists, djs, producers and promoters, not only locals but from other cities and countries, so it’s not easy to get good chances to play out. Still it is very inspiring because you can see big artists every week, but not so often interesting new talents. Right now I’m playing around 3 gigs a month, not a lot, but I’m really enjoying them.

Tell us about your DJ setup

Dave Sinner: I started with vinyl, then moved to Cdjs, then when Traktor and Midi controllers came up I was totally into that. All those possibilities about looping, jumping back and forward through a track, having 4 decks and finding new ways of mixing was really exciting, but something was still missing. So when this new generation of CD players with all their features appeared, I decided to go back to that, so now I’m playing with 3 CDJs whenever I can. I’m not that big to be demanding specific gear to the clubs, so I can’t always do that. At some point I would also like to work on a Live or Hybrid Dj-Live set, but that’s for the future.

What’s the goal from all this?

Dave Sinner: For me there’s nothing funnier or more exciting than playing music and sharing the vibe with the people on the dance floor, specially when it’s your own music, so it’s all about that. I also love the studio time, but the feeling of sharing and connecting that you get in the Dj booth is incomparable to anything else. The goal is to do that as much as I can, in as many places as I can for the longer I can do it.

What can we expect from you soon

Dave Sinner: As I said before, I’m currently working on finding a new direction for my music, so not sending demos or anything right now, but I have an EP on Unrilis coming out early 2018. Shows wise, I’m really looking forward to play at Techno Tuesday Amsterdam next week. Dexon and Linda are doing a great job with their night and I’m really excited to be part of it for one night – also, I can’t say no to spending some time in Amsterdam, even if it is only for an evening!