{"id":17338,"date":"2015-05-08T14:01:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T12:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deephouselondon.com\/?p=7630"},"modified":"2015-05-18T14:28:56","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T12:28:56","slug":"exclusive-interview-steve-bug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/exclusive-interview-steve-bug\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview: Steve Bug"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Steve Bug is a bit of a legend. He&#8217;s been around for a long while now, establishing his label Poker Flat as a home for high quality club music, while also building his own reputation as a skilled selector and a great producer, too. The label celebrated 15 years in the business last year and he&#8217;s soon to drop a new solo EP, so we caught up with him for a chinwag&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>So, to begin, can you tell us a little bit about your label\u2019s recent anniversary and what you did to celebrate?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe\u2019ve been celebrating 15 years with label showcases in major cities in Europe like London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Z\u00fcrich and so on. We also did a compilation where the idea was to ask artists that we respect to remix one of our classics, or for them to produce a totally new, exclusive track for this special occasion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In all the years of running a label, what\u2019s been the most difficult problem to overcome?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt doesn\u2019t feel like we\u2019ve ever had to overcome any major difficulties, to be honest it\u2019s been quite a smooth ride until now. I&#8217;m sure we have had some problems in all those years, but I can\u2019t really think of anything major right now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What would say is the most satisfying aspect of running a label?<\/strong><br \/>\nBeing able to release great music, and to discover and help build careers of young artists like Tim Engelhardt, who is going to release an amazing EP this June.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Over the years the \u2018scene\u2019 has progressed and evolved, how has Poker Flat adapted to these changes?<\/strong><br \/>\nOur main focus was, and still is, to release music that we like, no matter what other people think about it. We have our own vision of what is worth releasing. Even though people might say that we have a &#8216;signature sound&#8217;, we are open to new influences and styles. It is terrible to see what some people do to become, or stay, hip these days. Music shouldn\u2019t be about fashion, it should be about passion.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"750\" height=\"450\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F103169443&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxwidth=750&#038;maxheight=1000&#038;dnt=1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s the most important lesson you\u2019ve learned over the past 15 years?<\/strong><br \/>\nNothing is predictable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you ever have any low moments where you regretted starting the label?<\/strong><br \/>\nNo, never. It\u2019s like my child and, like Dessous and Audiomatique (my other two labels), I am very happy to have them in my life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Which track would you say defined Poker Flat in its early years? And which track defines Poker Flat in the year 2015?<\/strong><br \/>\nMy track &#8216;Loverboy&#8217; is the definition of the beginning I\u2019d say. Although in general I don\u2019t want a single track to define the whole label, as I feel that would be very narrow-minded if we only released just one particular sound at a certain time. But over the years there had been many great tracks and they are all different I think. Like John Tejada\u2019s \u2018Sweat\u2019, Martin landsky\u2019s \u20181000 miles\u2019, Guido Schneider\u2019s \u2018Removed\u2019. Alex Niggemann\u2019s\u2019 Materium\u2019, Mihai Popoviciu\u2019s \u2018Time\u2019, the list goes on! And of course, the Trentem\u00f8ller album \u2018The Last Resort\u2019&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does the future hold for the label?<\/strong><br \/>\nI don\u2019t know. Hopefully a bright future. We have signed so many great EPs for the coming months, there is a new EP coming from me in mid-May, an EP by an exciting young talent named Tim Engelhardt, who I mentioned just now, and a new Martin Landsky release. Plus a debut on Poker Flat by Andre Hommen, a new Daniel Dexter and so on\u2026 I am really happy about all the new additions to the catalogue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s happening with you, on a solo level?<\/strong><br \/>\nA lot of touring and studio work. As I said, I have new EP (\u2018Coconut Paradise\u2019) upcoming, which will be released in May on Poker Flat, plus a few remixes and of course more stuff that I can\u2019t quite talk about yet.<\/p>\n<p>[youtube id=&#8221;jv0wPNGVyYA&#8221; width=&#8221;620&#8243; height=&#8221;360&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>We see you\u2019ve revived Traffic Signs, what made you decide to bring the alias back?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt was more to do with the vibe that the track had, for me it wasn\u2019t a Steve Bug track, it had more of a Traffic Signs feel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Will we be seeing more from that name in the future then?<\/strong><br \/>\nDepends on what\u2019s happening in the studio, but yes I do have a plan for another one. Let\u2019s see if I can finish it!<\/p>\n<p><strong>As a label owner and touring DJ, you have to keep on top of new talent and labels so we wanted to ask you to recommend some new artists and labels that you\u2019re really feeling right now\u2026<\/strong><br \/>\nHmmm, in general I am leaning towards music that is released on vinyl only these days. It is just that raw vibe that I am feeling right now. It feels like coming home after a long exciting tour. That\u2019s why we are pushing out a Poker Flat &#8216;wax only&#8217; series, starting with Kindimmer after the summer. It will be a home for basic house and techno grooves for DJs who concentrate more on their craft, than raising their hands and doing fist pumps all the time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Finish the sentence, \u2018Without house and techno I would\u2026\u2019<\/strong><br \/>\nNot be myself.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"il\">Steve<\/span> <span class=\"il\">Bug<\/span> \u2018Coconut Paradise\u2019 EP is out on Poker Flat Recordings 18th May.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"button small\" style=\"background:#E40045;\"><a style=\"color:#FFFFFF;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Steve-Bug\/8517364710\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Artist Page<\/a><\/span><span class=\"button small\" style=\"background:#E40045;\"><a style=\"color:#FFFFFF;\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/stevebug\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Soundcloud<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steve Bug is a bit of a legend. He&#8217;s been around for a long while now, establishing his label Poker Flat as a home for high quality club music, while also building his own reputation as a skilled selector and a great producer, too. The label celebrated 15 years in the business last year and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":18644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3971],"tags":[5377,5378],"class_list":["post-17338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","category-interviews-london","tag-poker-flat-london","tag-steve-bug-london","post_format-post-format-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}