Serge Santiago - XLR8R Podcast - Nov 2008

Biography of Serge Santiago

aka Audioslave

As a true child of the 80's, Serge Santiago spent his formative years in front of the screen of his Atari 2600 while his guitarist father held band practice in the background. A self confessed computer games geek, it's not hard to see where the inspiration lies for Serge's music.

“I got my first computer at the age of 9, and I'd sit there all day playing games while my dad played records and practiced guitar riffs. He'd put on a record by Stanley Clarke or George Duke and he'd stand there for hours as though he was jamming with them! I suppose that's where I got my first taste for music.” • Serge.

A few years on, and he's still on the computer, though the games have been replaced with a range of compressed pops, claps and reverb (and maybe a bit of Championship Manager now and again!).

Serge's music career began as a pub DJ, progressing to Brighton's warehouse party scene and club nights, later becoming part of the Stompa Phunk crew where he's still a resident. Early explorations into music making began with a collaboration with fellow Stompa Phunker Ben Burns, with the track 'I like to Funk' (Serge's first remix). Following from that was his own track 'Push It'. As he explains “I can't listen to that now! My production then was, er, educational!”

Later came Serge's collaboration with Matt Edwards (then also a fellow Stompa Phunk resident) to form the remix duo Radio Slave. Together they churned out remixes for the likes of Fischerspooner, X-Press2, Benny Bennassi, Tiga, Britney, Justin Timberlake, FC Kahuna, Bob Sinclar, and the list goes on. The duo split last August, Matt taking the Radio Slave name.

More recently Serge has been working under his own name, Serge Santiago (yes, his real name!) beginning with last summer's huge track from Elton John 'Are You Ready For Love'. Following that he's remixed tracks by Aloud, Armand Van Helden, Syntax, Chikinki, Organic Audio, Mula, and Bent. Watch out for Serge's other mini project which has taken him onto a more Electro House tip, with Italo re-edits and some collaborations with other like minded producers to come soon.

Serge is fast becoming the producers' producer, with fans such as Ivan Smagghe, David Duriez, Ewan Pearson, Dan Ghenacia, Tiga, Jason Nevins, John Digweed and Lottie many of whom are eager to work with him.

Influences:
Daft Punk, Larry Levan, Barry White, Whitesnake, Def Leppard, Heat, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Chic, Chaka Khan, Cerrone, Commodores, Edwin Birdsong, Gino Soccio, Fleetwood Mac, Grace Jones, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Kool and the Gang, Prince, Shalamar, Stevie Wonder, Kate Bush, Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, DFA, The Neptunes, Dr. Dre, Leftfield, Metro Area, The Prodigy