No one could accuse Steve Hill of sitting back and taking the easy way out. An established name on the UK hard house scene, Hill moved to London around 8 years ago and built a name for himself as a producer, remixer, and DJ who could be relied on for top-quality hard dance. Having released music across a range of esteemed labels, including Y2K, Tripli Trax, Nukleuz and Tidy Trax, Hill made the recent decision to give the UK scene up and move a little bit closer to home, the Kiwi settling in Sydney late last year. That doesn’t mean he’s got any intention of slowing down, it’s just the weather’s a little bit more agreeable out here. ITM’s i_have_ADD investigates. Having moved to the UK to make his name in the dance scene, it’s interesting that Hill would eventually move back to the Southern Hemisphere. But, as he explains, it was necessary for him to work to build his profile in UK before he was able to relocate down under, “Everything is so much easier here [in Sydney]. Going back to Europe is only 20 hours on a plane, which sounds like a lot if you don’t fly often, but it’s not too difficult. Getting to Japan and South Africa from here takes exactly the same amount of time as if you’re traveling from the UK, so I’m not actually missing out on a lot. I mean, I see a lot more of my fellow producers and DJs here than I ever did in London. Over there you end up in your own little world, whereas here I find my eyes are a lot wider open. To me it’s just an easier lifestyle, better weather, nicer people, and logistically it’s not that far away!” And of course, the question on everyone’s lips is – why Sydney? “Because I’d lived for 20 or so years in New Zealand I wanted to make a move and be a little bit closer to home, so I made the decision at the end of last year. I’m still doing the same job I was doing in the UK, but I can live and base myself out of Australia. I had to wait until my profile was big enough to be able to make the move successfully.” To date, Steve Hill has sold over 200,000 copies of his singles and over 1 million copies of his previous mix CDs. No small achievement, but for his latest undertaking he’s decided to take it just that little bit further, combining the popular Tracid and Tidy Trax labels for a double mix album. Steve is representing for decisive UK hard house label, while Tracid’s Hennes & Cold take care of the hard trance side, “I’m a big fan of the German stuff that Tracid and Overdose make, and I think that having a CD that encompasses two different styles of hard music is quite good. If you look at the tracklisting it’s got all the biggest tracks from the two sides of hard dance. I record for Tidy Trax, I’ve got 4 singles coming out with them in the next year, and we also work closely with Hennes & Cold, and we decided that the CD would be the perfect opportunity to marry the two labels together.” Proving to be one of the most popular independent labels in the world, Steve is able to give an insight into why Tidy Trax has experienced such phenomenal success, “I think they recognise that what makes the label is not just the producers and DJs, but the people who listen to them. They don’t just release records, they also put on parties and spend a lot of money on their website. There’s a Tidy community now, organically grown, and it’s snowballed. They’ll do a Tidy Weekender and get 3,000 people there for the entire weekend. They’re not just a record company now, they’re also a promoter, a publisher, a management agency, they do it all.” It’s hard not to feel tired just by listening to Steve’s hectic touring and release schedule, with a number of trips to the UK, Japan, South Africa, and of course New Zealand, all planned for 2004, “I go to back to the UK 4 times a year, and then to Japan and South Africa once each, and there’ll be other tours on top of that, like to New Zealand 7 or 8 times. I’ve got 14 unreleased singles coming up on labels like Tidy Trax and Nukleuz, and also on my own label Masif. I’ll just continue to do what I love in a city that’s always warm!” ‘Tracid vs Tidy’, mixed by Steve Hill and Hennes & Cold is out now through Bang On!/Central Station. To read ITM’s review click HERE.
