Sideway AKA ‘Sidewinder’
Born into South London's concrete underbelly, Sideway learned survival before he learned to walk. Raised by a loose collective of vinyl hunters and petty thieves who occupied the abandoned Woolwich Arsenal, he sharpened his teeth mixing stolen records on cobbled-together turntables at illegal raves. The damp walls of their squatted warehouse became both canvas and classroom, where dust particles danced in the strobe lights as young Sideway mastered the art of moving crowds where he wanted through the medium of sound.
By sixteen he had a reputation in London's electronic scene for his unconventional mixing style – playing records literally sideways, manipulating the needle to create warped, dystopian soundscapes that reflected the industrial decay of his life. A fateful encounter with an AKAI MPC, liberated in a midnight raid on a music shop, transformed his artistic trajectory. The sampler became his weapon of choice, allowing him to dissect and reassemble the city's sonic waste into brutal, mechanical compositions that echoed the relentless rhythm of urban survival.