Critically acclaimed in
his home country of Germany and worldwide, maestro
of minimal tech-house dance music Steve Bug’s
DJ career started in an after-hour bar in Ibiza, Spain
back in 1991. Blending an especially funky, groovy
blend of electro and techno, Steve Bug’s
minimal house grooves have thrilled music and dance lovers
since and become dance floor essentials. He has launched
three record labels – Poker Flat (minimal) and
Dessous (deep house) in 1999, with Audiomatique Recordings
(techno) in 2004. Or four, if we include Raw Elements,
the label he created in 1996 to release his first vinyl Volksworld,
but then put to sleep to set up the next two. Since its
inception, the Poker Flat has established itself as a
leading source for stripped down futuristic house music
and spawned several dance chart toppers.
Over
the course, Steve Bug has collaborated with several
world-class producers and DJ’s including
Richie Hawtin (Minus), Josh Wink (Ovum) and Mathias
Tanzman (Poker Flat). His most recent release, Collaboratory (Poker
Flat, 2009) is a full length artist album by Steve
Bug collaborating with Cle, Paris the Black Fu (one
half of the Detroit Grand Pubahs), Cassy, Virginia,
Simon Flower, Donnacha Costello and Gigi. An aural
treat, the album is a hip-shaking, smooth mix of electro-house
tracks infused with deep, pulsating bass, silky vocals,
sirens, bells and more… “Swallowed Too Much Bass” and “Month
of Sip” will make you want to turn it up a bit
(more)!
The crew from Madison
Music Review were fortunate to catch Steve Bug
for a brief interview at Hart Plaza, the permanent
grounds for Movement 2009 – Detroit’s Electronic
Music Festival. Here's what Steve had to say...
You play all over the world, primarily in Europe,
though not so much in the US. What do you think of Detroit?
Obviously, it’s kind of like a
dead city but in a way I kind of really like the vibe.
It’s really
nice. Every time I came to play, I liked it… always
enjoyed it. I think people really appreciate good music
(in Detroit) and it is great to play here.
Do you
also do Winter Music Conference? How would you
compare the Detroit scene to WMC?
Ya, I do. I mean,
WMC first of all is in Spring Break, so it’s
like a totally different thing… in Miami… I
mean we all know it’s a completely different
city so the vibe is kind of different. I, I don’t
know… Winter Music Conference is like a
lot of people trying to put out parties, label
parties all around and so a lot of things going
around. It’s not like one spot where
you can meet everyone. Like with this Festival
(Movement) where you have the festival area.
Of course,
you have more and more parties going on afterwards, every
year. But still, during
the daytime, there is nothing else happening so
everyone is coming down to the festival and that’s
what I really like about it. And also, I think it
kind of limits the lineup so it’s not like
every label. It’s a limited lineup… which
I prefer because you can check out more people. In
Miami, it is sometimes too much. You can’t
make it to all the events. It’s just too much
at times. Here you can just walk over to the other
stage. |
 |
On to your labels, you have Poker Flat and you
also have a deep house label. Do you want to tell us
more about that? Do you have new releases? How is it
working out?
Yes, Dessous and Poker Flat have been
running for 10 years now and Dessous is kind of having
a revival right now. I remember two years ago we were trying
to find people who were like doing great deep house music.
And there was almost no one doing it. And even people who
were doing deep house before, they all started doing whatever
minimal or kind of different music. And then right now
there is a big comeback of deep house I think and we got
a lot of good demos. And on the label, the releases are
better than ever before and I really appreciate all the
music that is coming out.
And with Poker Flat, we just celebrated
the first 10 years. This was the first label we founded.
It has been such a long time, but you really don’t feel it… time
is passing by so fast. It feels more like five years instead
of 10. But as I said, like for most labels, I think the
times are very good right now and I am really looking forward… we’ve
got a lot of new signings and there’s a lot of new
stuff coming up.
This is a question to you as
a producer to learn how the industry works. It’s
not as corporate (such as the R&B industry) - very
independent labels, individuals starting stuff up, grassroots
kind of stuff. When you hear a new track from someone
you have not heard as yet, say it’s a deep house
track that you are looking for your label, do you call
them up and say you gotta do something for us. How does
it work?
That’s a difficult thing. For
me, I always want to keep the label special and not sign
on anyone that does music anywhere else. But on the other
hand if there is music that I really like or an artist
I really like, I sometimes start to get in touch. But mostly
you are in touch anyways, as it is such a small scene in
a way. Your ways are gonna cross one day. And then you
start talking. And… I don’t know… if
you have something in common, it is always going to happen
that things come together.
For example, with Trentemøller it happened like
this. He pulled out this track on Naked Music and we played
together and I told him “man, I love this track,
it was pretty great. I would appreciate it if you ever
want to send (me tracks)”. Usually I just give people
the opportunity to do it, I don’t ask. I tell them
if you want, you can send it in. So he finally sent some
stuff, and it was obviously not for Naked Music. He said
it is totally different music. Now I expected it was deep
house and I was searching at this point for someone who
was doing great deep house music. But that was totally
like more Poker Flat-ish stuff and so we had to release
him on the other label. So it was kind of all right in
a way. So sometimes things like that happen, of course.
So you have a pretty regular
touring schedule, a playing schedule, a pretty packed
season. Especially in the summer I bet. And you do Ibiza
this year as well or have been in the past?
This year I only go
two or three times to Ibiza. I was doing way more, like
four years ago when I was doing Cicoroco Monday nights
and then Cocoon on Monday. I was there pretty much every
second week then. And after the summer, I was like, it
was too much. I kind of stripped it down to just a few
gigs because it takes too much energy.
Where in that schedule do you
get time for production work? To work on a new track
do you kind of free flow or set up a schedule?
Pretty much until I got here,
I was every day in the studio in Berlin. Usually when
I come back from the weekends (DJ’ing), Monday mornings I start doing some label
work. And then I go over to the studio around after lunch
and then I stay as long as … until dinner. Sometimes
I skip dinner. And then I do some more label work in the
evening.
What kind of label work?
I have a partner who is running the
office and we have people working there, of course. So
I am taking care of the artistic side, listen to demos,
e-mails, stuff like that.
So what do
you have planned for the rest of festival? Are you playing
other gigs?
I might play an unannounced gig
tonight and then it’s
pretty much it for here this year. And then I go to El
Paso, TX, play there on Friday. And then it’s Miami.
After next weekend, starting Thursday it’s Atlanta,
Washington and New York and then I am back home.
Well, this
has been awesome. I really appreciate your time. It has
been great talking to you. Thank you Steve
Bug.
You’re welcome.
Links of interest:
http://www.stevebug.com/
http://www.pokerflat-recordings.com/index2.html
http://www.dessous-recordings.com/index2.html
http://www.audiomatique.com/index2.html
Get Steve Bug music at:
https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/artist/detail/1782/Steve%20Bug
http://www.conzoom.com/user/index.php?page=show_album&id=925 ⟨=en
Pictures from Stev Bug's set at Movement 2009 Memorial
Day weekend (May 25, 2009):
As always, please feel free to e-mail us
with your comments, requests and photo enquiries. See you
at the next show - Ankur
