Sasha was born in Bangor, Wales, on 4 September 1969. His early musical taste was primarily Top 40 pop music like The The and The Police. After what he described as an “idyllic childhood”, Sasha passed the entrance exam for Hatfield College at age 17. However, he did not like Epsom and left before completing his A-Level examinations.
Instead of continuing his schooling, Sasha moved to Bangor to live with his father and stepmother. Sasha’s stepmother forced him to take piano lessons which, although he disliked them at the time, he ultimately found to be beneficial to his music career.
Sasha became aware of electronic dance music in 1988 at The Haçienda, a Manchester dance venue. Drawn to the rough sound of acid house music and the rebellious attitude he associated with it, he visited Manchester weekly and soon moved to nearby Disley. Sasha purchased records and began to teach himself how to mix.
A local DJ at a club Sasha frequented announced that he was looking for other DJs to travel with him on a regional tour; Sasha volunteered and made his first live appearance in nearby Stockport. He recalled of his debut, “I’d never even touched a Technics: I thought the pitch control was the volume, I didn’t even know where to plug my headphones in! I’m sure I was absolutely horrendous