PLAYED IN SCREEN
29.12.2001
28.12.2002

BIOGRAPHY
DISCOGRAPHY
INTERVIEW

PHOTOS
(29) 29.12.2001
(26) 28.12.2002

FLYER
29.12.2001
28.12.2002

VIDEO
29.12.2001
28.12.2002

INTERVIEW BY
Tomoya Yamamoto

Tomo: How do feel about the set in Screen?
Steve: I'm really happy, I really enjoyed it. The set was great, the soundsystem was great, and most of all the crowd was wicked so I really enjoyed myself.

What do you think are the reasons for you going up on the DJ-list so fast, from 16 to 9 last year?
I just have worked really hard this past year. I've done a lot of gigs all over the world, concentrating on doing longer sets in the clubs, 5 - 6 hours sets and just giving out more what I got and playing more to the people, I guess.

Some people say that "Rise in" had some influence on that also...
Yea, I think the "Rise in", the single, the Nu Breed-Album, the darkdrum-series, I think everything helps. I incorporate a lot of making music in to my DJ-sets, I do a lot of re-edits, which I'm sure most people have heard me play and know that I do that.

The re-edits you make, how it happens? Do you just take parts away from song or add a new bassline, drums or highs?
It depends, it can be anything. Just taking out some break in a record and putting the pieces back together and adding extra-drums, different bassline, vocals. In some edits I just add a kick- drum if it's some really old record. Sometimes I complitely change the record, like the last track on Screen set, the Mobys "Go!" is a re-edit that I did using the original and the bootleg which was flying above and just put them together and made my own version.

How do you define the difference between re-edits and normal remixes? Are re-edits for your own personal use and remixes for the people?
Yes, it's a bit selfish really, but the re-edits are literally for myself and sometimes I might pass them out to other DJ's like Tenaglia or Sasha, but they do the same. Sometimes we give each others an exlusive re-edit, so there's only couple of people who have those, but sometimes I'm really selfish and keep it only to myself.

How often do you find a record you don't have to re-edit?
For instance in Screen I played close to four hours set. I would say probably ten of those were re-edits so the majority weren't actually re-edits, but just upfront remixes or tracks I love to play. I've done many more edits I didn't play at Screen, I just didn't feel the right time to play them. In couple of occasions I felt like I played records in wrong place. Because of four hours set is a long set, but I'm kind of used to build myself up for a five, six hours set and each moment has it's own build kind of thing. Sometimes the less you play eliminates certain records you want to play.

One funny thing was that you wanted to play in dark and start from total black-out, what's the story about that?
Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I think in a darker room you can create more of an atmosphere a lot easier. My effort is to go further away from reality. When I first started to listen to house-music years ago, the whole concept was an experience rather than just going to hear music so it's really important that everything is right including the lights. That's why I like things to be bit dark, a bit more intence. You know "we're together in this room" and "this is it"-kind of feeling.

So you get the mood right with the ligths also?
Absolutely. The mood is very, very important.

During the set you kept the bpm's on a decent level, making the music harder or deeper with sound, not by raising tempo. Is it difficult?
It is actually more difficult to play lower bpm. I mean my roots are in house-music and I've always said that when I deejay, do mix- albums, the bpm's are really important to me because if it's based around 127-130 bpm's, you keep the funk alive and keep the rhytm going. The rhytm is the most important thing in music and if you play too fast, you lose the rhytm and the funk of it. So it's important to me to keep the house-tempo. And when people ask me what I play, it's difficult question, 'cause I play right across the board, but the one thing that stays the same is the elements of the music itself, the funkyness and the bassdrive and the rhytm of the tracks. You can play a prog- ressive track or techno record, but if you pitch it down and play it on house tempo it changes the whole concept of the record, so it's really important to me; BPM.

You've got the name "King of Space" in Ibiza. Do you like that name?
No. (Laugh) It was some silly thing. I was walking trough an airport about two years ago and some local person who was working on the airport called me over and ask me to sign something for him. Then he shouted trough airport: "You're the king of Space!!!". It kind of stuck from there and before you know it was in all the magazines and press jumped on it. It's just a silly joke of some guy shouting on airport and everyone was looking over. And the people on the airport actually thought there was a king in there or something. It's ridicilous and I'm certainly no king of Space and if there was, it's definitely the crowd. They are the kings and queens of Space.

You hold many residencies around the world, also in Ibiza. How do you like the Ibiza crowd and whole Ibiza thing? How it's different from other places in the world?
Ibiza will always be different because it's a holiday-resort literally build around a clubbing-scene. People go out there to have two weeks of fun and you got a really easy job when you're deejaying, because people are so up for it, so that's the difference about Ibiza. It is really a good place to play and also good place to get involved yourself and have a party.

Even the best place?
It's one of the best places, but I can't rate anything as a best place, because different things have different results. I love playing in New York for the sleezyness of it and I love playing in Ibiza for the madness of it.

You were described as a UK's Tenaglia. Do you find your styles similar, and do you feel yourself being UK's Tenaglia or is it otherway; Tenaglia is US Steve Lawler?
Well, me and Danny have laughed to it, because Danny has actually said before "I'm the US Steve Lawler" and we have joked about it. We both play wide range of music. We don't just play progressive house, garage, deephouse or techno, we play all of above and that's the similarity between me and Danny. Tenaglia has inspired me so much over the last five years and it was Danny that inspired me to start building myself around long sets. Because I knew after hearing Danny for seven or eight hours what it meant and how much more you can get out of it. It's a great compliment to be called the UK Tenaglia. We're both different DJ's in many ways, but we have similarities.

Who or what got you into deejaying in a first place? Danny Tenaglia?
When I started deejaying, I didn't even know of Danny Tenaglia. When I bought my first house-records, I was still at school, I was a kid and I didn't know any names. I just knew there's this kind of music that I really liked, so I bought as much of it as possible. And back then it was also hard to find them. It was just a hobby that turned into a madness in my brain and I had to do it. My first DJ inspiration were many others like Sasha, but I think the inspiration for me comes more from the places than DJ's.

You've been also remixing and producing. Which do you find more interesting?
Making my own record is better, but also more difficult. When I did my last single, I had Bedrock knockin' on my door and shouting where's the next single. The thing is for me that I'm a DJ not a producer. I don't think I'm that great in making records, I think that I'm learning still. For me to make a record, it's about having an idea in my head so much that I have to go to the studio to get the idea out of my head. And if the idea is not there, then forget it, I'm not going to make a record. Because I can't. Remixing is lot easier than making your own music. I used to do so much re-edits of the songs that I'm kind of used to remixing tracks. I don't really see myself as a producer, there's so many good producers out there, I don't even scratch the surface. I get really worried when I'm making a record. I close my eyes and try to make a record as close as to what I think and what I would want to hear when I'm complitely off my mind, stuck in the speakers on the dancefloor. That's what I do, but I still don't get it right. I bang my head against the wall sometimes, because I'm afraid it's not going be as good as I want it to be. It's really difficult for me, making records.

I think you get some good feelings about the single "Rise In". Was it a surprise to you, it went so popular, top on the charts?
Yea, it was a massive surprise to me. And the funny thing was that the record has that acapella that I used to use years and years ago. I used to play it just over a drumtrack. So the idea for using that vocal was always there, and it just come to me in one point thinking right; I'm gonna put a drumtrack over the vocals, add some bass, couple of sounds and that's how "Rise In" turned out with the big bassline and stab noises. And it was just for me to play. People heard it and were interested in it. John Digweed said that I'd like to take it for Bedrock. It was a big surprise and once I took it and it sold, it was such a shock for me 'cause I didn't make it to be a single, I made it to be able to stop doing the mix of it behind the decks, that I could stop playing the acapella over different drumtracks. It turned out to be a big single, so I was very happy with that.

Where that acapella originally came from?
It came from one of Roger Sanchez's old record- labels Narcotic and it was a record by Prince Quick. And it was sang by guy called Tavi(?). He sings for rockband in New York. Since the single came out he has contacted me and he gave me lots of acapellas and he really wants me to do a another record with him, but as I said before, it's not about just going and making a record. The idea has to be there. That way "Rise In" came out, the idea was there because I had been playing the acapella for years. I'm not a producer and "Rise In" was a stroke of luck.

You describe your style as a wide range of different styles. What are you favourite styles and where do you get your influences from?
I love the rhytm in tracks and the easiest way to build a rhytm is to make it with drums. I do play a hell of a lot of drums and obviously the "Dark Drum Series" was build aroud drumtracks. I think that people think if it has drums then it's tribal which is probably the case, but I don't see myself as any particular kind of DJ. I just like the elements which I like in records and I guess it is quite tribal and it has its progressive overturns and it does have its minimal moments. There are times when I go very housy, very vocaly which I didn't do last night. As I said before in the longer sets you can do more. I kind of missed that part in Screen. There are tracks which I play just to build the set to a certain key-point. That will then destroy the crowd in seconds. That's the reason I deejay, it's not just hands-in-the-air constantly allnite, it's more about picking your moments and dropping the crowd in certain places. And controlling them and giving them what they want for 15 minutes and let them explode and take them back down. It's just playing with their minds as much as you can, trying to be as creative as you can with playing other peoples records.

I've got the impression that you don't like breaks. How about some breakbeat in progressive house-sets?
I have got to be honest, I've never been a big fan of breaks in my DJ-sets. I do like the music and have many breakbeat records. One DJ that inspired me to play some breakbeat tracks within my sets was James Zabiela. I heard him playing breaks trough this tribal drum music. All of a sudden they didn't sound like breakbeat music at all, they sounded like weird tribal to me. That make me open my eyes and made me realise I've been a bit sort of unfocused. So I do play some breaks, I think I played few breaktracks in Screen, other was kind of electrosounding track. People wouldn't propably even hear that 'cause it's build around that kind of set and that's what James Zabiela taught me, respect to him.

You saved some breaks to the end. The Moby track, which was your own re-edit?
That's right, it's a edit that I did of a bootleg and the original. The bootleg had some nice elements in it but on the whole it was a bit cheesy. So I took the parts from both which I liked and made my own little version which no-one else has. And I'm going to keep that to myself. (Laugh)

Tell me about the finnish crowd?
The crowd was fantastic and I'd like to thank everyone who was in Screen. They were so up for it. They made a really special night for me. I didn't really expect to have the kind of night which I had last night, being just two days before new years eve. It was great and I want to thank everyone who came out and made it such a great party.

So you are maybe coming back soon?
There's no maybe, it's more of definite I'm coming back.