Simon Langford

Simon’s interest in music started early in life and during his school years he learned to play keyboards and would often spend any free time he had trying to recreate well known songs of the time using his Atari computer and sequencing software. A few years later he decided that he wanted to learn bass guitar as well so began to play along to his keyboard work. When he turned 16 he joined a local school band and began his music “career” by playing a few gigs in local Community halls. The songs were pretty much your typical “school band” mix of 60’s and 70’s classics and it got him over that initial fear of getting up on stage and performing.

During this time he met up with a singer from another local band who wanted to get together a Doors (Jim Morrison) “tribute band”. Although Simon was actually playing bass in the band he was in at the time, rather than keyboards, but he agreed to join “The Manzarek Doors” and, a few months later, he was playing his first gig with the band at the legendary (and now sadly missed) “Marquee Club” in London. The band was a huge hit with the crowd and a few months later they played another legendary London venue, ”The Astoria”. The next few years were a blur of gigs up and down the UK and all over Europe. During that time they played in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands and Sweden.

However, as if this was not enough, he also met a guitarist who wanted to put together a Led Zeppelin “tribute band”. So in addition to his duties with “The Manzarek Doors”, Simon also found himself taking bass playing (and occasional keyboard) duties in “Physical Graffiti”. With this hectic gigging schedule he didn’t have too much time to make his own music, but he did whenever he could, keeping up to date with the rapidly changing technology and developing skills which would be put to great use just a few years later.

In 2000, after 6 years of playing with the two tribute bands, Simon decided that he wanted to spend more time working on his own music so he decided to end (for now at least) his “live” music career and concentrate on working in his home studio. Shortly before this he had been introduced to Paul Castle through a mutual friend. Paul had been successful in his own right before but, when they decided to try working together, it wasn’t long before their two quite different paths in the music business combined to create something special. Towards the end of 2000 they wrote a song which later became Dreamcatcher – “I Don’t Wanna Lose My Way”. The track received great reviews and radio play and was soon picked up by legendary dance label Positiva. It was released at the very beginning of 2002 and the guys actually performed on Top Of The Pops. Of course, Simon was now getting to meet a lot of people and it wasn’t long before he met his two future collaborators, but

they could not have been further apart; literally and metaphorically.

In 2003 Simon got introduced to Alex Sowyrda. It was a strange introduction as Alex had actually been trying to get hold of Simon without knowing that they had a mutual friend. They finally got in touch one sunny afternoon and spent a while chatting on the phone. There wasn’t really much choice in that...because Alex lived in Canada! It seemed an unlikely partnership but as both were (and still are!) self-confessed tech-heads, they soon found a way to collaborate “online”. In fact, in the 6 years that they have been working together they have only actually worked together in the same studio at the same time on 2 or 3 occasions! And yet in that time they have managed to do a number of acclaimed remixes for artists such as INXS, Simply Red, Erasure and Yazoo and have had tracks of their own in the US Billboard Dance Top 20. They are currently working on their artist album which will be a diverse journey through many of their influences. It will also feature some collaborations

with people that you might not expect!

In late 2004 Simon started working with Julian Napolitano. Julian had also been signed to Positiva and had a similar success story with one of his previous tracks. They had worked together before 2004 on the odd occasion, but this was to be the beginning of the mighty “Soul Seekerz”. Neither of them had any idea at the beginning what would grow from this partnership but now, 4½ years later, they have completed over 200 remixes including some of the greatest names in pop music (Rihanna, Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Soulja Boy and many others) and have had their own success with their 2005 hit with Dannii Minogue entitled “Perfection” which went to number 11 in the UK National Charts. They have gained a reputation as one of the hardest working and most respected remix teams in the UK today and in 2010 they signed their latest single to Robbins Entertainment, the home of the hugely successful and multiple million selling act “Cascada”..

Since then he has started working on yet more projects including a new remixing and production project under the name of “Nu Addiction” as well as getting involved in working with the legendary (and Grammy nominated) “Moto Blanco” on their remixing and song writing projects. In fact, while many have suffered over the past few years owing to the decline in record sales, Simon has never been busier with 2010 seeing him work on over 50 remixes in just one year.

On top of all this Simon has been able to indulge his love of writing after being commissioned by leading UK music technology magazine “Sound On Sound” to write a series of articles for them on the “World Of The Remixer”. In fact, they liked them so much that he was asked to interview the legendary “Freemasons” and has since become a regular contributor to the magazine. And now, with the completion of “The Remix Manual”, yet another chapter has opened in his life. But the story remains the same. All through his life he has wanted to be a story teller. While playing in bands it was telling the story through song. While remixing and producing his own material, that aspect of his journey continued. And now with the magazine articles and now the book, there is another way for him to continue doing what he loves to do. Whether it is communicating an emotion through song, or technical information through writing, one thing is for sure: this journey will definitely continue.