Sharam

Born as Sharam Tayebi, this DJ, producer, and label owner who makes up one half of the landmark house duo Deep Dish first reached mainstream audiences alongside his partner Ali "Dubfire" Shirazinia through the 1998 album Junk Science. Over nearly twenty years the pair built Deep Dish into a prominent force in electronic music by shaping hypnotic house and techno that anticipated the EDM explosion of the following decade.

They launched their own Deep Dish imprint and created remixes for global pop stars such as Madonna, Dido, and the Rolling Stones. Sharam scored a major solo breakthrough in 2006 with his version of the Eddie Murphy staple "Party All the Time," a track that dominated dance floors throughout the Ibiza season that year and sparked intense bidding among major labels for international release rights. His trophy case grew with a Grammy awarded in 2002 for Dido's "Thank You" and the Ibiza DJ award in 2004.

On the business side he kept Deep Dish running while jointly overseeing Yoshitoshi Recordings and Shinichi Recordings with Dubfire. The duo's second album, George Is On, raised their profile even higher in the electronic hierarchy and delivered the hit singles "Flashdance" and "Say Hello," both featuring Iranian-American singer/songwriter Anousheh Khalili.

Aside from a lone Essential Mix in 2008, Deep Dish went on hiatus between 2006 and 2014 while the members concentrated on separate careers. Sharam supplied his own Essential Mix for BBC One in 2009, which was chosen as the year's best, and released his debut album Get Wild that same year with guest appearances by Kid Cudi, Daniel Bedingfield, Tommy Lee, Rick James, and Khalili. Deep Dish resurfaced in 2014 with another Essential Mix and the introduction of their single "Quincy." The next year Sharam issued his second LP, Retroactive (Yoshitoshi), a deep-house collection that reunited him with Daniel Bedingfield and Khalili while adding Alex Neri, Giorgio Moroder, Chance Caspian, and a reinterpretation of Eurythmics' "Here Comes the Rain Again."