Tell us something about yourself. How long have you been making music ?

My name is Sheldon Southworth, I’m in my late twenties and knock out tunes to an unsuspecting public from my bedroom studio. I’ve been making tracks on and off for about eight years and go under the monicker of ‘Diffusion’. Diffusion was originally a duo (my erstwhile colleague being Richard Burns, hello Rick). Over the years we changed our name as regularly as we changed our socks, we started off as Fusion, then became The Fusion, followed by Strange Fusion and finally settled for Diffusion which sounds a bit cheesy but its kinda stuck.

Sheldon relaxing at home.

How would you describe the music that you produce

Varied. Diffusion literally means spread over a wide area. I cover ambient, techno, big beat, all sorts. Every tune I make is different in style to my last otherwise I get stuck in a rut. Besides, people are always too keen to categorise dance music. People only call pop ‘pop music’ and rock ‘rock music’ so why do we have to file every dance tune in a specific category ?

I mainly use Cubase VST, Rebirth, a Yamaha SY55 keyboard, E-Mu Orbit, Digitech S100 effects unit and a few other bits and bobs to make my tunes.

Who are your biggest musical influences ?

I’m an oldie so I guess it was the tracks from electro and rap scene of the mid Eighties. It was people like Afrika Bambaata, Grandmaster Flash, Mantronix and Man Parrish which really inspired me to do what I’m doing now. Some of it now sounds a bit cheesy and hasn’t dated well but the classics are still classics. Oh and Kraftwerk, too, huge respect is due.

Who do you think produces the best electronic/dance music at the moment ?

Difficult to say, maybe Fat Boy Slim he knows what he's doing and no mistake. Dreadzone are a class act and good live too! Everything sounds a bit jaded at the moment, do we really need any more updated disco tunes, I reckon it's pre-millenium tension. Maybe Kraftwerk should get off their backsides and finally release a new album and start it all off again.

Where can you see the dance/electronic scene going.

Who knows, the infrastructure is now there for everyone with a PC to make a dance track. The software is out there and its getting cheaper. If you don’t like what is in the top ten, you’ve now got the power to do something about it.

Contact Details

Email Sheldon @ diffusionuk@hotmail.com website: The Official Diffusion Homepage