The pan with the plan

>> Deep Dish's Ali Shirazinia on music, money and "Mother"

by KRISTA

In the five years since they set out to build their "Deep Dish," Ali Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi (aka Deep Dish) have released one full-length album of original work, over two dozen remixes and original 12"s and several compilations. The latter includes one mix CD for the U.K.'s Renaissance series, the series that launched the careers of Sasha and John Digweed. So just how much are they trying to put in that dish anyway?



Mirror: There's a big buzz around you guys now--what's with the big promo push?

Ali Shirazinia: (laughing) Yeah well, promotion is something you just gotta do or you risk falling by the wayside. We're very ambitious. We intended from the very beginning to build something. We even have a 10-year plan, and everything we do now is for that 10-year plan.

M: You two have seriously thought about what you want to do "when you grow up" to the point of marriage, kids and retirement funds?

AS: Of course. We both have girlfriends and kids are definitely in the 10-year plan. We want to be settled and chilling by the time we're 40. Tra-velling has its moments for sure, but it's hard to be constantly moving around from place to place. We want to make the money now so that we can enjoy it later. This is fun but it's hard work too. We've sacrificed a lot to build this.

M: I've been following you guys since the beginning of your career and things have really snowballed in the last year or so. Deep Dish is pretty much synonymous with names like Sasha and Digweed or Tenaglia. How do you feel about that?

AS: It's funny you should mention Danny [Tenaglia] because people refer to him as our Mother. We do too. And he kind of was/is a mother to us. Our sound was influenced in a big way by what he and the Masters at Work were doing back when we started.

M: That's another thing that's really changed in the past year. You guys have really moved toward the trance sound and away from the housey thing.

AS: Well, our music has always been a marriage of techno, house and trance elements--dark and deep. It just sounds more progressive and trance-like now. We don't do it consciously, we've always just gone with our gut, with what works.

M: So what's on the horizon for Deep Dish?

AS: We want to take things to a really strong financial level with the store and the label and the Web site so that we can do what we really want to do, like veg out and watch TV. The more popular you get, the harder it is to enjoy the things that "normal" people take for granted. But right now we're working on Yoshiesque Vol. 2, which will be out in February, and we're putting together our new album as well. After all, we can only do this while we're young. The older we get, the harder it's gonna get.

M: You are refreshingly up-front about the fact that you're in this for money.

AS: Don't get me wrong. We're lucky because we love what we do. But there's no sense in making like we don't care about coming out on top. At the end of the day it's a business just like any other. Everybody wants to make money and anyone who tries to hide the fact that they enjoy that aspect is either a liar or trying to hide something.

At freaky w/John Digweed and more, Jarry Park on Saturday, Oct. 28. 10pm, $45-60