The World is His Mixing Board

By Fred Pollard, Freditorials.com

One would be hard pressed to find a better example of someone who has taken what life had to offer and fashioned their own world, leaving their own unique footprint, than international DJ Hifi Sean.

“To think that something that I have made has been played in places I have never been or heard by people I will never meet still intrigues me,” Sean recently told me. “Music is an emotion…an extension to your mindset at that time, and believe me, my mind has been traveling a lot over the years. I am just touched to think I might have left a tiny little bit of my own musical history in this world that will be there after I am dead and gone.”

Whether it has been his remix work, performing as a DJ, side projects, or his years as front man for the successful alternative rock band Soup Dragons, Sean Dickson has made expression through music his gift to those around him.

“I know for a fact it has taken me to many far flung places I would likely never have seen, and have had some amazing experiences, both as a DJ and when I played in the bands I was in. I have also met some amazing people…some famous and some not so famous. It all adds up to a pretty damn good world that I have revolved in.”

When he is not spinning records or signing autographs, Sean’s world is suddenly much smaller, content to spend time with his daughter or hang at home with his husband (Mike) and dogs (Fred and Barney)… although his music is still planted firmly in the back of his mind.

“For the holidays, we plan to just stay at home with some nice food and drink and just chill,” he said. “Catching up with good friends, too… everything Christmas should be about.

“The fact I am DJing at a big party on Christmas night might mean the drink consumption has to be watched, but there is always the day after Christmas for that.”

I have known Sean for several months now, and a journey through his life story reminds me just how precious that downtime with loved ones really is.

“I grew up just outside Glasgow, Scotland in a small town called Bellshill. I hung around other kids like me who were obsessed with music and making music. We all ended up in successful bands, and to this day we all still make music and are involved in it somehow.”

For Sean, that obsession manifested into what was to become his most well-known achievement.

Formed from a group of friends and musical acquaintances, the Soup Dragons for Sean were the epitome of “learn as you go.” Perhaps the best example of that mindset emerged from the fact that Sean hired the drummer because he liked the guy’s haircut, completely dismissing the fact that the guy didn’t play drums (“When you’re 17, a haircut is way more important than musical ability,” he laughs).

Despite those early stumbling blocks, the band actually grew and evolved into a tight and viable commodity. The alternative “pop punk” sound struck a chord with audiences, including here in the States, where 1992?s “Divine Thing” became a hit amidst the U.S. glut of left-of-center music during that era.

Another fan favorite on this side of the water was “I’m Free.”

Check it out (along with a very different looking Sean!) here!

I had to ask if he ever got so sick of their best-known tune that it makes him turn off the radio when he hears it.

“Good question,” he laughs. “I went through a long period of being sick of that track, but now I am the opposite. Really, how many tracks 23 years after being released still sound like they could have been made yesterday? I always thrived to make the perfect pop 7? single and I did with that one and with Divine Thing. They both still sound great on the radio, on TV, playing in the background…you name it.”

He pauses and reflects.

“Perfect pop records. Not many can say they have achieved that. So yep, I am proud.”

MTV. Screaming fans. Awards… And Sean walked away from it all a short time later, finding peace and nirvana (the state of mind, not the band) with his next band, High Fidelity.

“I love working with those guys,” he says. “That project just started with a little 7? single called ‘Addicted to a TV’ on a Japanese label which got major interest and the next thing I knew, I had an A&R man from Geffen Records fly out to my bedroom in Glasgow to listen to the other tracks I has written.”

(Ahem)… your bedroom?

“Yeah — it was bizarre, but as I had been through so much shit with the record industry with the Soups, I called the shots and said I am not sending you a CD of tracks to get leaked out. If you want to hear them, you’ve got to come to Glasgow and hear them in my studio…well, my bedroom (I didn’t tell him that bit till he got there).”

“Demonstration,” which Sean describes as “the lost album that people will discover after I am gone,” was recorded with a Bollywood orchestra in India.

“We recorded half the album at a studio in Bangalore, India with a 60 piece string section. I was (and still am) obsessed by the sound of Bollywood orchestras. It is so far removed from the staid and snobby world of classical strings that we associate with our own western world orchestras… all about the crescendo and the rush.”

It was also during his time with the High Fidelity that Sean’s look transformed from scrawny grunge rocker to burly, furry trucker.

The thing is, it perfectly paralleled what was going on in his personal life, as Sean was coming to terms with his own sexuality and first becoming acquainted with the bear community.

“I came out in 2001,” he said. “I thought I had bisexual tendencies, but I fell for a guy and he made me realize I was gay. I was married to a woman at the time that I loved dearly, and I had to destroy a lot of people’s lives around me for a while whilst I came out.

“It has taken many, many years to heal those wounds, but now I am married to the most amazing man anyone could wish for; he is a beautiful man inside and out. I was one of the lucky ones and I never take that for granted, believe me.”

Coming out also gave Sean more exposure to the DJ scene, and a new persona was born.

“I started running a club with a friend in Glasgow, which we called ‘Record Playerz.’ It kind of took off and we had to start doing posters and artwork. My business partner already had a DJ name but I didn’t, so I just used my email address at the time: ‘Hifi Sean.’”

Check out the “77 Strings” remix, which Sean considers one of the highlights of his career, here!

“I am currently working on a few tracks under the Hifi Sean moniker. I have recorded in Chicago with Celeda and in New York City with Fred Schneider of the B-52s… it is all very exciting and great sounding. I am just trying to get a catalogue of things together and then I will plan to release them all spring or summer 2014.”

Another side project is Up Yours, a collaboration with Horse Meat Disco DJ Severino.

So through it all, the MTV rocker turned indie artist turned gay DJ still boasts a dizzying schedule of remixes, family life, and sweat in the DJ booth. After finishing a mini-tour of the states this past fall, Sean says he is happy with where his journey has taken him, and has found a sense of peace and a sense of purpose…and is always looking for a new direction.

“(Unlike my days with the band) I suppose I do things at my own pace now,” he says thoughtfully. “Sometimes, that is quite slow, as I like to take my time and take my dogs a walk and then ponder on things and go back to them. I work in a very quick way; bang things down and then sit on them for a while and go back to them. It seems an artistic approach that works for me.

“I go through spurges like this and then maybe a week of nothing and then back into a crazed few days of spurging again. Is spurging actually a word? If not, I like to think of it as how I work-I spurge…I am a spurger.”

(In addition to being a spurger, he is also color blind… “I can’t even buy bananas! My good friend Miles is a ginger; he looks orange to me!”)

But in spite of the afflictions of word-invention and grocery-bungling, Sean has carved a niche in the world where he is loved.

“Time at home means being stupid with the husband and dogs, rolling about and chasing each other (all four of us). I also have a daughter from my first marriage and she is my world. I knew I had a lot to give someone and seeing a little part of me is such a beautiful feeling. In fact, my husband’s tag line to my daughter when she stays is, ‘Urgh… you are so like your father.’”

“Urgh”… did Sean just sneak another invented word into my piece?

(This article originally appeared in the December 2013 issue of HIM Magazine)