I had a chance to speak with Steve Lawler, the Viva Music boss and the infamous UK DJ/Producer.  Steve has been DJing for 19 years.  Steve is well known for leading the tribal house movement in the early 2000’s and his compilations on Global Underground, Renaissance, and Thrive.  Today is Steve is best known for his sets at the world’s most popular club nights and festivals.  Not to mention is productions and success of his record and artist label, Viva Music.

Where are you now?

In England; at my country house in the midlands of Strafford, in Shakespeare country.  In my 270 year old manor house where I come to relax.  I have a proper recording studio in the basement.  Underneath the house was a huge wine cellar that I turned into a studio.  It’s an old Georgian property that I have to keep maintained since it’s a listed property.

What have you been up to lately? 

I had some time off, from November to March.  I had some health scares and 2009 was very busy in the studio and on tour.  I ended up in the hospital from pneumonia on us tour.  I checked myself out of hospital next day and flew to Ibiza for space closing since it was a very important gig.  As result I took a lot of time off and had to cancel a lot of gigs.  I just had to give some attention to my health.  The good thing was that I got a lot of studio time and got to work on some great tracks.

Steve Lawler at Harlot in San Francisco June 25, 2009 (Click here for full photo coverage)

What were some highlights of 2010 so far? 

We had a great conference in WMC; the main highlight was the Viva Music party at Space.  The conference is a beast with so much going on.  Even though I have been doing this for 18 years, I still get worried about the outcome.  I want the Viva Music show to be about the artists so they can represent themselves at a great show.  It was a great success and everyone was very happy.

Another highlight was the Lights Out WMC event at Bed in Miami Beach. We had problems as the Fire Marshall wouldn’t let people in since the club was so crowded.  A lot of people waited 4-5 hours outside to get in.  So I played an extra 4 hours just so I don’t disappoint them.  I played from 12-8:30am. They blacked out the club’s white walls and ceiling with black drapes to make it dark to give the Lights Out feeling.

What’s coming up next in your career?  What’s the next level for Lawler now? 

My artist album; it is such hard work.  I have been working on it for years.  I have 9 tracks finished.  I want to get it to 20-30 tracks and then choose the right ones from that selection.  None of them are really dance floor records. More on the electronica tip, ballads and rock influences.  It is a mixture of my musical inspirations, from rock, jazz, and ambient.  I want it to be musical and that puts a lot of pressure on me as I am used to making dance floor tracks.  I have been working on this project for years and but I haven’t been able to devote much time to it.  The less going on around me the more creative I can be.  I’m so in love with touring and DJing that it becomes hard to take a few months off to work on the album.  It’s hard to say no to gigs.  I go on holidays for 2-3 weeks and when I get back I just can’t wait to get back to performing and going on tour.  I am addicted to performing.

What’s coming up next for Viva?  Have you been working on any interesting collaborations?

I was touring in Australia and saw James Lavelle.  We went out to dinner and started talking.  James is coming up with recent UNKLE album.  He wants to get the whole album remixed by Viva artists and released on UNKLE.  It’s a great opportunity for Viva and a great collaboration.

Which artist would you love to get to produce a track on Viva? If there was one artist in the world, anyone if possible or not, who would it be?

One artist that I would personally love to do a Viva track would be Ricardo Villalobos. Ricardo’s dedication to music is inspiring.  I don’t know him personally so I won’t know how to ask him. 

What separates Viva from other UK record labels? 

For me it’s important for Viva music to be solely about music and building its family of Viva artists.  I want to give new talent a chance because they are writing great records.  We want to help them make it.  All the money the label has made we have put it back in the label.  It’s been very hard but we are focusing on being a big part of the artist’s career; publishing, management, gigs, agency, and events.  It makes me very happy to see how Viva is helping our artist’s careers grow.

Best club show you played at in 2010 so far? 

Panorama Bar in Berlin was one extreme of the spectrum, a smaller 500 room venue with great sound and trippy atmosphere.  The other extreme was the Space opening party in Ibiza which is packed with over 10,000 people.

Best festival you played in the last year?

Viva music arena in Sound Waves festival in Romania with AudioFly, Livio and Roby, Leon.

What is your favorite club in the world?

There isn’t one favorite club.  However The End meant a lot to me, RIP.  The End was our home in London for so many years; it was very special to us.  Space in Ibiza is currently one of my favorite clubs in the world.  Also any venue in Argentina has been a great experience for me.

What is your favorite sound system in the world?

Any room that has been tuned by the Function1 sound crew is incredible.  At Space last week for the opening party, inside sounded absolutely ridiculous.  The sound there is incredible.

Steve Lawler Tour Dates:
Vessel / San Francisco, CA, United States of America   Thursday, June 10, 2010
Hard Rock / San Diego, CA, United States of America Sunday, June 13, 2010
Opera Atlanta / Atlanta, GA, United States of America Tuesday, June 16, 2010
Club 101 / Texas, United States of America   Friday, June 25, 2010
Wonderland Opening Party at Eden / Ibiza, Spain   Sunday, July 11, 2010
We Love… Space at Space / Ibiza, Spain   Saturday, July 17, 2010
Extrema Outdoor 2010 15th Anniversary - Re:create The Age Of Re:invention at Aquabest / Eindhoven,        Netherlands   Sunday, Jul 25, 2010
We Love… Space at Space / Ibiza, Spain   Sunday, August 8, 2010
We Love… Space at Space / Ibiza, Spain   Sunday, August 22, 2010
We Love… RA at Space / Ibiza, Spain   Sunday, September 12, 2010
We Love… Space at Space / Ibiza, Spain   Sunday, September 19, 2010

About Steve Lawler:

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.

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...