Steve Bug, much-hailed pioneer of minimal house music, has played more gigs and released more singles than you can Poker (Flat) a stick at! Setting his controls for the heart of the fun, Steve started DJing and producing in 1991 and went straight to the top, releasing his first record on then-massive and now legendary label Superstition, which was also home to many of trance king Oliver Lieb’s productions. Poker Flat was the second label he started himself, the first being Raw Elements, and it has been so immensely successful that he has based his career as a DJ, producer and label manager almost entirely on Poker Flat alone. All through this time Steve has travelled the world as a producer and a DJ, spreading what began as his trademark minimal sound, which has been oft imitated since the rise of “minimal” over recent couple of years.
A few years ago Steve began to branch out from the specific and very curated Poker Flat sound and started two new labels: Dessous came first, and has been his outlet both as a producer and proponent for more house-based productions. More recently he started his third active label, Audiomatique, to cover techno and upfront sounds. He has mixed several compilations for Cocoon, Poker Flat and more, worked with Richie Hawtin, and released the highly collectible ‘Traffic Signs’ series. Yep, you can say that he’s been around a bit by now. This bug knows what to bite.
So we gave him a chance to chew our ear off here at ITM and found that he is a minimal man through and through – few words but big ideas and a massive drive to work. He’s obviously a great parallel processor and most likely a workaholic with three labels to run plus the rest, but he knows it. “I try to do everything at the same time, which is a kind of a problem, but what can I do? DJing, especially travelling to gigs, takes a lot of time, so I only have a few days in Berlin every month where I can focus on productions and labels. Luckily I have wonderful people surrounding me who help me out with a lot of things: label work, booking, etc. In the past month I haven’t been able to work in the studio at all, since I moved apartments and I tried to find a new studio place also. Only in the last four weeks I’ve been able to work on stuff. But for next year it will be more quiet, so during the week I can spend more time in the studio… I hope. I get a lot of remix requests, but at the moment I don’t even have the time to work on my own stuff, so I don’t take any remixes.”
Throughout his career Steve has been known for developing this stripped-back minimal sound, but these days – like many other producers and DJs – he’s been making noises in interviews about sounds like acid house, Chicago and even techno. It would be a misjudgement to assume that he has carefully cultivated one sound, as he’s pretty open musically. “I don’t really care about styles. I honestly buy what I like, if it’s deep house, minimal or Detroit, like techy or whatever. But I get bored about hypes pretty fast, so I always try to find something new and special… The best labels don’t stay with one style only, they stay open for just good music!
And the labels are evolving along with his personal taste, with the boundaries of each, and between each label, widening considerably. Especially when you take into account the fact that many artists on one label – for an obvious example Trentemoller – make more than one style which fit across the three labels from time to time. In fact, as is very 2006, he even mentions the “R” word in relation to his labels (ie Rave). “Poker Flat is more for modern electronic with soul, Dessous used to be for deep house, now it’s more for all types of house, while Audiomatique is for functional dancefloor tunes with a touch of a rave feeling. But sometimes the tracks we get could be released on either one or the other labels… the artist’s profile decides why.”
All of this comes into play when you go to see Steve Bug DJ. The man has many dancefloor weapons up his sleeve and taste from Chicago, Detroit, rave to house, and everything in between. Touring with this breadth of taste might mean a few extra hours a day in the gym preparing the pecs for the DJ-bag workout, not to mention the saga of lost luggage. Which are good reasons, but certainly not the whole story as to why Steve has switched mostly to DJing with electronic files rather than vinyl. An irony for a label owner, or is it? “I hate CDs but I play with Final Scratch since almost four years and I really love it! At the moment I still see the whole download thing as an additional business, since we are still selling lots of vinyl, but we will see what’s going to happen in the next years. The sound quality of vinyl is still the best – in my opinion tracks need to be pressed on vinyl! From there you can record them and play them as files, it will still sound way better than a track directly burned to a CD.”
Many labels are having problems staying afloat but Steve is confident about the future of his labels. “As I said, we are still doing great!” Confident of what his musical selections have to offer and comfortable not playing to a pigeonhole, Steve hopes that his audiences can keep an open mind and not just expect a certain sound – a Poker Flat sound or a Dessous sound or even a “Steve Bug” sound. “I want the people to stay open minded, not to expect a certain sound and let the music move them. I will try to catch the mood and finally blow the roof off, but you never know.”
And of course, he’s coming to play in the Australian spring. Has he planned a holiday? Does Steve want to do a Survivor and plan a trip to the bush while he’s here? And what’s more, why does he keep coming back? “I just love the Aussies! The last times I was there the scene was still young and fresh, people were open minded – I really liked that. People are very friendly and I have some real friends there. Unfortunately I never made it to see more of the countryside. It won’t happen this time either, there is no real free time, but maybe when I retire from DJing I will come to spend some weeks over to finally make an outback tour.”
Come and see Steve Bug stroke those decks like a baby koala’s silky fur when he tours Australia this month:
Sat Nov 18 – Melbourne, Honkytonks
Sun Nov 19 – Gold Coast, Berlin
Thu Nov 23 – Adelaide, Electric Circus
Fri Nov 24 – Brisbane, Empire
Sat Nov 25 – Sydney, Chinese Laundry
