Simon Saunders (4)

At the age of just 16, Simon advertised in Record Mirror selling mix tapes from UK & European raves in the late 80’s and started his first successful mail order enterprise. One of his hobbies at the time was electronics; he built small FM transmitters, even a 2 deck DJ console made out of an old book shelf and 2 belt drive turntables bought at the local car boot stall! He made the circuit boards, built the electronics, the mixer, the case, everything, completely from scratch! Simon has written a popular guide book, ‘Learn how to mix like a pro DJ’, which sold in DJ Mag, Tower Records chain & Black Market, and produced, edited & directed a video for it, which sold all over the world. As a DJ, Simon has had numerous club residencies between the UK and Australia & guest-DJ’ed on various radio stations in Sydney. He also set-up DJ Schools in both countries and started Australia’s first online record shop, http://www.dj-world.com. He also started and runs a mastering company http://www.kickassmastering.com His debut single, ‘10,000 Screaming Goldfish’, received high praise from such characters as Nic Fanciulli, Dave Clarke, The Hacker, Rev Milo Speedwagon, Nico De Ceglia and Rocky (X-Press 2) Shortly after, Simon was drafted in on remix duties for Kish Mauve’s ‘Modern Love’ 12″, where his rework of their B-Side ‘I’m in Love With a German Film Star’ particularly caught the attention of Sunday Best head honcho, Rob da Bank. Rob then asked Simon to play at Bestival. Rob also signed ‘2 lesbians fucking’ to Sunday Best, but had to change the name to ‘Mind if my friend joins in’. Lewis Dene from DMC Update gave it 4 dancing men. Simon then became resident DJ on Passion FM on saturday nights 6-8pm. He then started his own label Exploding Chicken Records bringing you Smash & Grab & Fishwhacker. Simon is an AIM & BPI member and is on the AIM ‘EDIT’ Dance Committee, alongside musical greats such as Ben Watt. He is also an invited member of the BPI Indie/International Committee. Who has also recently been asked to speak on a Panel session at the BPI, giving his successful experiences of doing business in Japan & LA. 'Slam Dam' has gained worldwide radio support & play on 73 stations from Russia to japan within 10 days, with 10 out of 10 feedback scores and comments from such DJ's, such as Graham Gold, who said the track was 'Rocking!' Slam Dam also featured on the front cover cd of Music Week & in the feature in association with the UKTI & BPI for the LA Sync trade mission. As a result of the mission, Smash & Grab are in talks with a well known Extreme sport TV channel which is trying to secure rights for usage of some of their tracks in a one of their videos. After the visit to Japan in conjunction with the BPI & UKTI, Smash & Grab 1st album has been licensed to Rainbow Entertainment in Japan and will be released in late Summer 2011. Universal Publishing (Japan) also signed Smash & Grab for their latest album.