WATCH THE BRAND NEW VIDEO FOR CARA LEE – THE SAX MAN
How was the concept of playing a saxophone in a nightclub born?
I was playing for years, freestyling with live bands at the local pubs around my home town in Blackpool and had many friends DJ-ing and putting their own nights on. One day, I took the sax down to the clubs to play with my mates and the rest is history.
How old were you when you first started playing?
I went to an open day where they were demo-ing the instruments that could be learnt at school. I was super bored until I heard and saw the sax. Wanted to start when I was 10 but the sax was almost as big as me! So instead I took up the clarinet, to learn the basis of playing a woodwind instrument, and then grew as quickly as I could so I could get my hands on a sax. At 12 I ditched the clarinet and moved on to the sax. Not really put it down since!
So do you freestyle new sax riffs on the spot or do you have some set combinations you use?
EVERYTHING I do is pure 100% freestyle. I never know what the DJ is going to play next and this has really helped develop my style over the years. I could play along to the same song at two separate events and play it totally differently each time. All depends on the atmosphere and crowd in each venue – this is what I bounce off and what creates my performing energy.
Hooking up with your good friend, Fish On Percussion, together you formed The Live Elements, where did the inspiration for that come from, and what’s it like playing together?
LOVE playing with Fish and due to the MANY gigs we’ve done side by side, we know how to raise a roof together and its always great fun! The Live Elements happened as a brain wave in between sets whilst we were working together in Huddersfield. The concept was to create the ultimate nightclub duo with the added value of being able to bring other artists into The Live Elements brand that we could put forward to the gigs we were unable to play at due to already being booked somewhere else along with studio and production values.
Fish has been your mate way before his recent feature on Britain’s Got Talent, can we look forward to any TV appearances from you in the near future?
Yeah myself and Fish have been good mates and working partners for a long time before he featured on BGT. There may be some exciting things happening in the future… watch this space… 
Your brand new music video by Cara Lee and Nine Planet Records is phenomenal, but it’s been a while in the making, what process did you go through for the track and the video?
I went down to my mate’s studio and we threw together some ideas, the song came from the sax riff as we warming up the mic and sax. Matt James who produced the track wrote and created the track around the riff and Nine Planet Records helped put everything else together. A really talented team and lots more exciting things to come. This is the 1st of many projects were working together on.
What was it like meeting Sir Richard Branson for the launch of his new Kensington club; The Rooftop Garden?
Meeting Sir Richard Branson was amazing! WHAT A GUY!!! We were there as his club won Best Live Music venue at the recent 2012 London Club Awards where myself and Fish opened the show with DJ Sam Young and Boy George! The Roof Gardens is an AMAZING venue! A must see if you’ve never been before.
Is Ibiza as crazy as they say it is? A year long beach party?
IBIZA is one of the most beautiful and magical islands on the planet! There is so much more to the place than the typical raving and partying. A seasonal place at full force from May to September that then becomes a bit of a ghost town for the rest of the year. I played Halloween at the super cool Bambuddha grove last year and it was a nice change to see the place only filled with the local’s! EVERYONE should go to IBIZA at least once in their life! I’ve recently featured as on of the artists on USHUIAI’s Ibiza Beach Music album. Great album and pleasure to be part of it! GET YOUR FLIGHTS BOOKED!
What major venues have you played at? and which is your favourite?
I’ve played at many cool venues around the world! From the open air Pacha in Egypt to the Underground PRIVE, Barcelona to Sven Vaths, Cocoon in Frankfurt to SPACE, Ibiza, to the Roof Gardens in South Kensington! Each venue is special and unique its in own way…. Its impossible to pick a “favourite”. For more info on where I perform though, check out my website: TheSaxMan.com
What can you tell us about your custom LED sax, that’s gotta be one-of-a-kind right?
I was with Fish in IBIZA a few years ago and he had found an LED guru to fix up his world famous flashing bongo’s. As we were there, I happened to have a spare sax in the car and told the LED man to let loose and do what he can and…. WOW did he deliver! I now have 3 custom LED sax’s and currently in the process of re-designing the 2013 models from deep within the sax cave!
Thanks for the interview man Ben, a pleasure as always!
No worries, thanks for helping me promote the new video!
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