Steve Lawler is a definitive DJ and producer; a tastemaker whose sets combine quality house music with the power to move dance floors around the world. In the last few years, he's wowed crowds in such far flung places as Zouk in Singapore, Groovejet in Miami, Twilo in New York and the mighty Space in Ibiza. Courtesy of home, he provided the most groundbreaking sets of the season for many of those lucky enough to hear him. After two months he had been crowned 'King Of Space' by the locals - a rare and well deserved honour.

You can find Steve behind the decks every Friday at Deep South @ home, where his 5 hour sets of twisted house are bringing a new lease of life to one of London's biggest clubs. As well as guest spots at every pioneering club in the UK from Renaissance to Bedrock.

If one person had to be singled out for Deep South's success it would be none other than top-class resident Steve Lawler. Whose mammoth five-hour sets of chunky house and intoxicating tribal progressive sounds have dragged him into the realms of the superstar DJ, and the club into one of the clubbing success stories of the year. But modest as ever, Steve puts it down to a combination of factors:

"I wouldn't accept that it's all down to me," understates Lawler. "There are a lot of people involved in making that night good. I just do what I do."

Steve Lawler hails from the Midlands, yet there is something distinctly non-territorial in his work. Although loving the atmosphere in the big Saturday nightclubs (he's an ex-resident at Cream), Lawler also refuses to pander to any punter wherever he's spinning, especially at home. Think DJ communism, with equal treatment for all the masses.

" It's rewarding for me to know that so many people are going off to underground music every Friday night across the country. Clubs like home and Renaissance have the best soundsystems and crowds in the UK, and the feeling you get from playing those nights is amazing".

Tuning into electronic music from an early age, Steve used to buy Depeche Mode records when he was young, so he obviously loved electronic sounds without even realising it. But it was acid house that really turned Steve on. Tuning avidly in to local pirate PCRL radio station gave Steve a taste for house music, and it wasn't long before his mates were luring him off to warehouse parties.

"I was totally blown away by the whole experience: the dark room, the strobes and the atmosphere. The whole thing just blew me away and inspired me to do my own parties."

Which is exactly what he did, putting on a series of illegal parties in a disused tunnel under the M42 between 1990-1994. "The last one was just amazing. We had Tony de Vit playing, and it had just grown from this small party to this huge thing - basically a rave. It was all about town the day before, people running around Birmingham going 'The tunnel's on, the tunnel's on.'"

But it was in Ibiza that Lawler got his first true break. Having earned his Ibiza stripes - he's been every year since 1990 through to 1997 it was finally Steve's chance to prove himself as an accomplished DJ. He was a resident at Café Mambo, spinning his legendary 8 hour sets there every day, as well as playing three times a week at Pacha. It was then he was spotted by Darren Hughes, then of Cream, who recognised his talent and ambition to succeed. Signing him up to Cream's DJing agency, he began a residency at the eponymous Liverpool institution. At only his second date at the club he had to follow Paul Oakenfold at their NYE party. Not an easy feat, but one which Lawler coped with admirably. The rest, as they say, is history…

It's not all about DJing though. Lawler's accomplished production, under the monikers of Novocane, Chameleon and, naturally, Steve Lawler, are currently causing mayhem amongst the likes of Tenaglia, Tong, Sasha, Digweed, Deep Dish, and Pete Heller. 'Rise In', his latest single, is a self-assured cut of heavy dancefloor pressure, which, as with all the best things, has simplicity as its key. Watch it drop on any dancefloor in the world and you realise that Lawler, in his production as much as his DJing, understands how to work a crowd. 'Rise In' is set for a September release, and if you've been near any of the coolest dance floors on the planet, you'll have realised just how special the track is. The buzz around the tune has superceded any of this summer's releases, and the Top 20 beckons. Who'd have thought proper house music would once again reach such heights? But then, as most of you know, Lawler is something very special.

"First and foremost I am a DJ," explains Steve. "I am not making records for a career or the money, it's just that I want to make my own version of sounds that would go down well in a club. When I make music I sit there and close my eyes and imagine being on a dancefloor, with the lights and the soundsytem. It's hard to get right all the time, but I'm going to keep banging away at it until I do".

Which is pretty much Steve Lawler for you. A hardworking Midlands lad who has never taken the easy path to success. From his mammoth sets at Space in Ibiza, or his tendency to re-edit half the tracks in his box, Steve certainly knows the meaning of graft:

"I do a lot of my own re-edits, because I get sent so many records where its all good and then some horrible break kicks in. So I just cut that bit out, get it on to CD and then go and get a slate cut. It's the way forward. It means that a lot of records that people might have, I have my own versions of them. It makes it unique, which you have to do these days. There's 1001 DJs out there. It's probably one of the reasons why I have actually got somewhere… I do make the effort."

Steve's spun at every club in Ibiza, and every decent club in the world, and has stunned all detractors of the progressive sound. He was described in The Face as, "The UK's Tenaglia", and in Jockey Slut as "one of the best dj's in the world".

Steve Lawler: the pioneer of twisted house who loves a bit of hard work. If you were waiting for a change of musical tack, then follow Lawler's lead. Don't be left behind…

 

Interview By Kelley (a.k.a. Cracker)
April 2003 - Steve Lawler really needs no introduction. A veteran of the dance music scene, this renowned DJ and producer has moved dancefloors the world over with his unique brand of throbbing, tribal, sexy house music. No music fan’s CD collection could be considered complete without at least one of his compilations (GU ‘Lights Out’, ‘Dark Drums’ vols. 1 & 2, and GU Nubreed), and chances are that you’ll find a Steve Lawler remix (such as BT’s ‘Never Gonna Come Back Down’, Dub Pistols ‘Chemical Generation’, or Cevin Fisher’s ‘Love You Some More’ or original track (‘Rise In’ or ‘Andante’) in any DJ’s box. Steve’s busy touring schedule sadly hasn’t brought him to New York in recent months, making a face-to-face interview impossible, but when we approached Steve he eagerly agreed to answer a few questions via email…and here’s what we found out:



Where in the world do you feel most comfortable and creative as a DJ?

For me the best places to play, where I feel most comfortable, are: Space in Miami, Arc in New York, The Womb in Japan, and Shindig in Newcastle. The reason is that they all have state-of-the-art sound systems and DJ booths, and that is so important because when I’m provided with the best tools then I can do my job to the best of my ability.



Have you ever played to a club or audience that didn’t seem to understand your style of music? If so when and where? And how did audience(s) in those places react?

Actually I haven’t played a club where the crowd doesn’t understand my music for a long time, and that’s really nice for me, because it’s not just an overnight thing to get the whole world to know and understand what you’re about as a DJ, and what you want to accomplish on a dancefloor. I think that at this point in my career most people who come to see me play know what sort of night to expect.



How would you compare club-goers in America to club-goers in other countries?

People in different parts of the world are unique because they live in different environments, but when you get them all inside a club and on the dancefloor and into the music and into the atmosphere, everybody is the same, no matter where they’re from, and that’s house music!



How does the energy level of your audience affect your live performance? How do you deal with playing to a ‘dead’ crowd?

What a crowd gives back to you is so important…if the crowd is with you every step, and into the music, you can have an amazing night. Maybe I’m lucky, but I haven’t had a dead crowd for as long as I can remember. I choose my gigs wisely, and most of the time I go back to clubs that I love, or if I play somewhere that haven’t been before there is usually a lot of promotion and anticipation, and the crowd ends up being really up for it. I just finished a gig last night in Peru, as I’m at the end of my South American tour, and I’d never been there before, but it was amazing. There were 2000 people, most of whom I hadn’t played to before, and the energy was special. Because of this I will definitely go back.

Do you find the process of playing a live gig to be physically and/or mentally exhausting? Do you have a particular time limit to your live performances after which you are not as accurate as a DJ? Can a lively crowd give you more energy and enable you to play for a longer duration?

My longest set in a club has been between 10 and 12 hours and that’s long enough for me, because it is usually so physically demanding. I’m completely healthy, it’s just that playing long sets can be quite tiring. If I was to play one gig a week and not party then I could probably play for about 20 hours every time, but when you have 3 gigs in a weekend, and I sometimes like to get ‘involved’ in the party myself, then it’s hard to play long sets on all those gigs. It’s just too physically demanding.

On the same subject, do you have a minimum duration that you want your sets to be? I read once that you won’t play a set shorter then 4 hours…why is that? And does that hold true for festivals and similar events as well? Do you find it challenging to hold the attention of a festival-sized crowd for that length of time?

Yeah, 4 hours is about minimum, I think that you need that time to create something as opposed to just playing records. Sometimes there isn’t enough time and I only have 3 hours, but you make the best of what you’ve got. But for me to be at my most creative, I think 5, 6 or 7 hours is where I really come into my own. That way I can go through different feelings and moods of music, change it, move it, drop it, bring it up, and basically whip everyone into a bit of a frenzy. As far as festivals go, they aren’t about a vibe or one DJ in particular, they are more a kind of celebration of house and dance music, so you just go there and bang it out for a couple of hours and have a party in a different way to what you would in a club.

The use of drugs in the dance music scene has been an ongoing issue for a long time. Without asking you to condone the use of illegal substances, how do you feel, generally speaking, about the use of drugs in clubs?

This is a very easy answer. Everything is okay in moderation, there are a lot of untrue statistics surrounding the use of drugs. But it’s simple really, you have to take care of yourself, and that doesn’t mean that you can’t party, people have been using drugs for recreational use for centuries, its part of social culture. You just have to be aware of the risks involved.



Regarding Harlem Records, why did you decide to call the label that? Is there any significance to this, or was it just a whim?

My roots are house music, and when I was growing up and buying records a lot of the music came from the US, mainly Chicago and New York, and over time a lot of my favorite US labels have come out of New York. So that’s why I called it after Harlem, because New York has been a big influence on me over the years.



What do you see as the future for Harlem Records, and what was the motivation behind founding the label?

The future, I have no idea. It’s not really a money-spinner for me, I had to put a lot of my own money into this label, just to get different producer’s music out there. I was getting so many CDs from people and simply thought maybe I could put this out and try to support it. I haven’t really used any big known producers on the label, and that’s because the label is about finding new talent. I know that I will be personally proud when Peter Bailey starts to do well, and also Cutlab, and these are guys that I want to support and believe in.



Do you have any formal background or training in music history, theory or production? What’s your opinion on the necessity or non-necessity of such education for a DJ/Producer?

I have absolutely none, just the love of house music, and if you love something enough you will find a way.



What’s your opinion on the role of the Internet and dance music? Do you feel it has damaged the industry, or that it plays a valuable role in the spreading of information and music?

Both. It’s good for information and very useful for communication, but it also has damaged the sales of records. People should support the artists they enjoy and buy the product, not copy it, because ultimately the industry has suffered massively from this and we, this industry, need to keep growing so that there are more opportunities for the next generations. But at the same time there are fewer labels, magazines, etc. then what there was 3 years ago, and this doesn’t hold much prospect for the next generation either. It (the Internet) is also good for some countries that are in terrible recession, where to buy a CD would cost them a third of their weeks wages, or even more, in this case its good that they can have it for free.



What do you think makes a good DJ?

Music selection is the most important, programming secondly, and thirdly mixing skills. And also I think being as technical as you can. Of course mixing is very important, that you don’t make it sound noisy and it has to flow, but mixing is the easiest part of it, anyone can mix after some practice, but it takes dedication, passion and experience to get the others right.



Are there any plans for additional installments to the “Lights Out” series, and if so would it/they be compiled by you or other DJs? And what is the theme that you hope to be maintained through additional releases?

I’m doing another one some time in May, so it will come out around October. It will only ever be me (for now, anyway) as it’s just my own little series. For this one expect some real dirtiness, and ‘viva la house’! Remember, Lights Out doesn’t mean dark music, it means a dark room where anything can happen!



Do you have any upcoming gigs scheduled in New York?

Not at the moment, although I will be doing a small exclusive boat party for only 200 people. I’ll be playing for about 10 hours and it will be something really special, I just haven’t confirmed the details yet.



Why do you do what you do?

Simply because I love it, and I live, eat, sleep and breathe house music.