By Mo Shah

During the past decade, Ali “Dubfire” Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi (aka Deep Dish) have morphed from popular Washington DC area DJs to flat-out rock royalty. They have become legends on international dance floors and Billboard charts alike, due to their sweeping mish-mash style of house, trance, dub, and pop-rock confections. So popular and unrivalled is the unequivocal Deep Dish sound, that a simple cruise through their packed tour schedule has the pair circumnavigating the globe three times in less than three weeks. They will probably not get more than two or three consecutive days to themselves this year. Their new album, enigmatically entitled “George is On” (a term pilots use when a jet is on auto-pilot), has stormed up the charts in Europe and the United States, and the lead single “Flashdance” has been hailed as one of Apple Itunes most downloaded songs - ever.

For such an accomplished duo, initially only pidgeon-holed as gifted house DJs, the trajectory from local nightclub residents with a passion for music, to Grammy Award winning celebrities has been more humble than one might imagine. They are surprisingly very well grounded for a couple of young musicians who have worked with the likes of Madonna, Dido, The Rolling Stones, Depeche Mode, The Pet Shop Boys, Janet Jackson, and even her tabloid-prone brother, Michael.

	Hear Deep Dish Music

Despite a steady arsenal of accolades under their respective belts, Ali and Sharam approach their music as an art form that they have much left to contribute to. They are cutting edge producers, which is why almost all popular musicians (just flip through MTV’s generic-as-potato chips Top 20 countdown) are tripping over themselves to have Deep Dish mix their songs. At the very core, Deep Dish are musicians and aural artists who place a paramount on an all-out ballsy (and believe me, there is no better word) approach to music. They go for the biggest, most unique and unbelievable sound possible, keeping everything underground, beautiful and hypnotic. They marry their creations with elements never heard before and infuse some very familiar, almost irresistible touches to the mix. The result is singular and inspiring. To hear their records is a treat, but to watch them play is elation. They switch from the darkest melodies with the sickest beats – resulting in a four-on-the-floor beat rocking tech extravaganza. Then, they flood dancehalls with purple lights and jam a Radiohead track in out of nowhere…and just before you get too comfortable, they revert to an all out mind-blowing mix of Flashdance with Dire Strait’s classic Money for Nothing guitar riff thundered in. Is that all? No, they’re just getting warmed up. This is not just music – it is an experience. Thousands of fans surrender completely to this music and dance from midnight to noon the next afternoon at countless shows.

On the heels of their massive world tour for George is On, I got to sit down with Deep Dish for further insight into the dynamic duo:

Congratulations on the success of George is on – How is the world tour going?
It’s been pretty crazy – just in the last four to five days…let’s see – Thursday we were in Ibiza, Friday in Belgium Saturday in Switzerland, Sunday in Torronto and last night in Montreal.

Wow. How does that make you feel? A decade ago you were a domestic outfit and now there’s no major market you’ve left untouched…
Pretty good…you know at the end of the day it’s hard to complain…we’re doing what we love and we’re getting paid for it. I think it’s anyone’s dream while growing up to have that kind of career.

Taking a step back, who exactly are Deep Dish? How did you guys get together? Does your Iranian decent play any role in your art, professional career, or trajectory to where you are now?
Well, we basically were Dj’ing separately in DC – we met while DJ’ing and found that we worked really well together. We’re both Persian – but our ancestory has nothing to do with our music…it does however play a role in keeping us grounded throughout the years with all our successes and failures.

Can you elaborate on that?
We have a good family base. We have good solid friendships that were forged early on in our development – and they are still part of our lives – a lot of our friends are not easily impressed with our success, so they help keep our egos in check. It’s really important to have that, and I think it’s the people who have that very foundation that end up being able to handle success and everything that goes along with it a lot better than others.

Well said – you know it’s rare to see two people –artists at that – stay together for so long – as the music gets more complex, is there something that each of you brings to the art form that you can specify? Is there something one of you provides that the other doesn’t? Or is the synergy just brilliant when you’re together, rather than working individually?
Well, yeah, the ideas just bounce off each other really well. As individuals we just couldn’t be more opposite…

Really? With regards to music?
Interestingly, on some levels, even musically we are sort of opposites. But you know, all those opposite points of views and personalities – things like that – serve to, I guess, create that magic element that’s known as Deep Dish. If we were exactly alike and liked the same things I don’t think we would have gotten this far. It’s that constant tug-of-war battle that we have between one another…and it’s very passionate and heated at times – that’s served us so well over the years.

Is there some music in particular that one of you is into while the other is not?
It tends to not be genres so much as it is tracks. For example, Sharam can be completely into one track that I just can’t get. But as far as musical genres go we’re very open, and into everything.

Has the way you define yourselves changed since you started out? Because not only are you guys musicians now…but you continue to be DJs, producers, and remixers. How do you define yourselves now, as opposed to decade ago…before this thing really blew up?
Well, we don’t really sit down and pontificate about this stuff –

Right, so not to be a purist – but generally – as you’ve grown in stature, a lot more falls under the Deep Dish umbrella –
Yeah definitely. You look at our successes over the years and literally every year we’ve gone up a notch. But we don’t sit around and pat ourselves on the back. We literally have so much on our plate and we have to get through it. That’s how we look at it. A lot of it is pure hard work and it leaves you with no time to reflect.

Now that you are so successful, have your priorities changed. In the beginning you were obligated to keep playing at various clubs to make a living and get your tracks out there – but now do you find yourselves becoming an album oriented outfit?
We’re trying to be. This is only our second artist album, and there was a seven year gap between the two. We’re trying not to lose track of that evolutionary cycle that artists go through when they release albums. We’re definitely going to continue down that road and dive right back in to making new tracks for our next album.

Right, and is that an ongoing phenomenon? For example, there is a huge disparity between your albums and your DJ sets. When you play at various clubs there is a dark sound with so much variation and creative zig-zagging - while the album gets a flavor of that - it’s still very different. It’s not just house music. How do you define it? Do you consider it to be a pop-electronic album?
Well, it’s eclectic. It’s us trying to bridge the gap between rock and electronic music. We’re taking all of our influences and being different and creating new ways of making music. It’s by no means perfect, or exactly the way we intended it to be…but it’s a step in the right direction of us trying to mature as producers.

But if you go to one of your sets in clubs – they are so experimental and singular. And it’s very hard to reconcile that sound with the sound of your album. While both mediums are excellent - do you find that with your albums you are pressured to create a sound that is a little more commercial?
Well, it’s not a question of being commercial – it’s a question of creating a song, with words. Having had all of our experiences - listening to all of the music we’ve heard – the songs that really stay with us tend to follow a certain formula: verse chorus verse. As artists we’re definitely still trying to find our groove. So the albums translate into more pure song oriented structures.

So what do you think is next on Deep Dish’s agenda? You’re already living your dream. What’s left for you to accomplish? How do you take it to the next level?
We really want to continue with artist albums. We want to make our definitive artist album. Like Radiohead doing OK Computer or Pink Floyd doing Dark Side of the Moon. To have that one album that’s magical from the first track to the last…that not only defines a particular group…but an era.

The two albums you’ve named are two of the most ballsy albums ever made.
And we’ve always been about being ballsy.

Do you have any definitive memories from the past decade that feel surreal now?
Yeah, working with Madonna and winning a Grammy. The P Diddy collaborations…or “Diddy” as he’s now known. The success of Flashdance. These have all been magical, surreal experiences.

What are your favorite places to play at?
I love Tokyo…I love Miami and New York. Eastern Europe. Too many places…it’s impossible to play just one. The crowd in Tokyo is just unbelievably up for the music…traveling all the way there and getting that reaction is a very special feeling. Like a homecoming.

Is the technology aspect of music getting out of hand? Do you stay on top of things or do you stick with traditional studio and DJ equipment?
I think we always have tried to be on the forefront of technology. If you’re sensible with it, it can definitely help achieve that translation of what’s in your head to something tangible others can listen to.

Is there anyone you’d like to work with?
It would be really interesting to work with Hope Sandaval.

Any message to anyone starting out or wanting to follow in your footsteps? You have influenced legions of people around the world
Well no matter what you do you have to strive to be different. It’s okay to take your influences and try to mimic them – but at the end of the day you need to stand out. That’s how you make it.

And there you have it. Above all else, Deep Dish prove time and again, that with passion, creativity and hard work, one can navigate through the norm of a medium and create something that is simple extraordinary. George is On is a fine representation of where Deep Dish are trying to take their music, and the success of the album only proves that more - much more - is yet to come. Here’s to a band that has gone well beyond simply making music, but taken an art form safely out of its known stratosphere.