{"id":24965,"date":"2015-11-23T16:42:02","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T15:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/?p=24965"},"modified":"2015-11-23T16:43:57","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T15:43:57","slug":"interview-steve-lawler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/interview-steve-lawler\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Steve Lawler"},"content":{"rendered":"

A child of the acid house generation, Steve Lawler has been busy with the beats long before genres were but a twinkle in clubland\u2019s eye.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You would be hard pushed to \ufb01nd a more in-form, in-demand, exceptionally talented artist, regarded as highly by his industry peers as he is by his huge global base of musically educated fans. An electronic artist who de\ufb01es generic boundaries, ever since his days organising the infamous motor way raves back in the early 90\u02bbs underneath the M42 motor way, in the UK. <\/p>\n

With that, Today Steve and his team have announced the release of a new documentary, \u2018The Art of the DJ\u2019<\/strong>, documenting Steve\u2019s rise to the forefront of UK underground dance music in a career which has spanned over two decades in the music industry. With help from peers such as Carl Cox, Darren Hughes, Danny Whittle, James Todd<\/strong> and Ben Turner<\/strong>, and through Steve\u2019s friends and family, we discover the path leading to Steve Lawler\u2019s status as one of the most truly influential DJs of our time.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Art of the DJ\u2019 is a brutally candid expose of Steve Lawler\u2019s life which sees Steve opens up completely on his experiences of drugs and his self-proclaimed destruction of his reputation. With nostalgic footage of the Space Terrace<\/strong> and Cream<\/strong> and exclusive interviews from some of the UK\u2019s leading figures in dance music, \u2018The Art of the DJ\u2019 has been two years in the making. As Steve\u2019s Viva Music<\/strong> imprint celebrates in tenth year, \u2018The Art of the DJ\u2019 is a first-hand account of the ups and downs of Steve Lawler\u2019s life. An extensive in-depth account of Steve Lawler\u2019s twenty-three year career at the top of UK underground music, \u2018The Art of the DJ\u2019 explores Steve Lawler\u2019s legacy to a now legendary period of dance music history. <\/p>\n

Steve Lawler presents ‘The Art of the DJ’ is available to download<\/a> now<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

” We’ve been doing this long enough and it\u2019s about time we tell it like it really is. “<\/span><\/h3>\n

How were you first approached with the idea to make a documentary on your life and career?
\n<\/strong>Around 7 or 8 years ago I did a bus tour across the United States for six weeks. There, it was brought to our attention that no one in the electronic sector had done a long bus tour like this before. It was always rock or pop bands. My manager at the time had the idea to film the whole thing and do a documentary. We did that, but we couldn’t find a director to then make the movie out of the 6
\nTB of footage we had shot. I think we went about it the wrong way since we didn’t know about making films.<\/p>\n

When this faded away, the idea stuck with me and it was literally by chance that an old colleague, Director Piers Sanderson, did a Facebook post about a film he just made. I didn’t even know he made films! So I contacted him and the film was incredible. His work is very touching!<\/p>\n

From there, I told him how we had this idea some years ago. We met up and started talking about it. He said to me straight away, “Look, I\u2019ve watched a lot of DJ documentaries. I would never make a film like that. They are too fluffy.” He said that his one condition to making this film would be that he would want it to be raw he wanted to know the grit of what it’s like to really be a DJ; he wanted to know if it is all champagne and such. This unfolded my own story, asking me why I wanted to get into this in the first place. <\/p>\n

Obviously the visual aspect of a film makes storytelling using that medium a bit different from storytelling as a DJ. With that in mind, what were the conversations like between you and Piers regarding the visual aspect of the film?
\n<\/strong>I didn’t really have any say in it, to be honest. Once Piers and me met up and discussed the idea, the next meeting was my interview which would become the narrative of the film, He went off and sourced loads all the interviews of me on TV. Since he is a documentary filmmaker, he just knows where to go to get this kind of material. He Contacted family and friends and built up a collection of material to use. I had no say in what he went and got and what he put in the film. When I watched the first edit of the film, I was both excited and petrified.<\/p>\n

The way we went about and did the film, especially with its raw elements, meant that we shot my interview in this warehouse space. It was a raw space to reflect who I am musically, and I left the rest to him. I was literally in there for hours telling my story and Piers did the rest. When you see the film all put together it had quite an impact on me. Since I stumbled upon electronic music, the film explains, quite well, how hard I have worked at it to get where I am now. <\/p>\n

There is an interview with your parents in the film. Did you always know you would include your parents in there?
\n<\/strong>After I told the story of how I was badly beaten, Piers stuck to the fact about how that incident affected my parents. Imagine them: their 17-year-old coming home near beaten to death. It scared them quite a bit. As soon as I said that, Piers said he wanted to see my parents. To my surprise they were open to talk about it. I think this movie will shock a lot of people, to be honest. It will certainly shock some people who know me, including my family, who know so much about me but don’t know to the extent. Like I said, I am petrified and excited. <\/p>\n

As the film will be out today, what plans to you have to get it out to the widest audience you can?
\n<\/strong>There is a whole team behind all that. My only involvement was to check the edits and make sure I was happy with it, really. I know the first release is rental only via my Facebook. Facebook has gotten behind it and they have an app where people can pay a rental fee and they have around a month to watch it. Then, I believe it will be released physically and digitally, and then distributed to a handful of channels. It has also been to music festivals. The producer took it around for a bit, but I am not sure where exactly. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Outside of this film, do you have some favourite music documentaries?
\n<\/strong>I am a huge fan of documentary films and watch a lot of music documentaries. I echo the sentiments of the Director when it comes to electronic music based documentary. We did our research and watched a lot of them, and it was a lot of the same thing: flashing lights and the discotheque. When we watched any documentaries about rock music, like on Oasis or Happy Mondays or Jimi Hendrix, these are films that really get into the grit of what makes the person the artist they are. I felt that a lot of dance music documentaries didn’t cover any of this grit. Either that artist doesn’t have grit in their life or they don’t want to talk about it. One of the first things Piers edited into the movie was me saying that we’ve been doing this long enough and it\u2019s about time we tell it like it really is. <\/p>\n

Music is very closely connected to emotion so the things that happen to you drive your art. They are part of what makes you the artist you are. I don’t think our genre has ever really covered that. <\/p>\n

I totally agree. If it’s not something specific to a product, like the recent ‘808<\/a>‘ film,\u00a0electronic music documentaries tend to not be too substantive…
\n<\/strong>…there was a film<\/a> about the the Neve mixing board, where many bands like Nirvana worked on at a studio in Los Angeles that was very good. But even that was more about an item and a place rather than the people behind it despite having some interesting stories in it.<\/p>\n

2014\/15 has actually been a bit of a renaissance of the music documentaries. For example, there have been some great ones on Kurt Cobain, Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, and Sharon Jones. Again, though, no electronic music figures…<\/strong><\/p>\n

One final question, not too specific to the film, but it is mentioned quite prominently, is how much of an influence the underground nightlife scene of New York City has influenced your music. As I am here from NYC, I wonder if you can give us an idea as to the very first time(s) you traveled to NYC as a professional?
\n<\/strong>I saw Junior Vasquez in the early 90’s at Sound Factory and I saw Danny Tenaglia toward the late 90s. What I saw in these two artists were things I had never seen before. I grew up me and my friends were going to Acid House parties. I wasn’t aware a lot of the music I was listening too was American, German, Dutch, or Belgian. This made me look at American import records. Then I stumbled across a darker sound and that was what New York was to me. It was either New York or Chicago and Chicago had a slightly more, almost, poppy sound with pianos and vocals. But anything coming out of New York was a lot more dubby and dark. It had a lot of gay influence in the music. I was instantly drawn to this sound, which is how I came across Junior Vasquez and Danny Tenaglia. There sound just blew me away. I like all genres of music, but this was my vision. I could see the music. Before I would listen to music, but when I heard this stuff I could see the atmosphere. I could see where it belonged. This is where my style was born so New York has probably had the biggest influence on me of any place in my whole career. That’s why I started to play long sets. I think I was the first British DJ to play 12-hour sets at my residency\u2019s, and it’s because of what I learned from people like Tenaglia and Vasquez. The music demanded it. It’s what you did. You can’t just go out and play a 2-hour set; it can’t tell its story. You need 5 or 6 hours minimum for the true nature of the music to come out.<\/p>\n

How do you see the New York scene these days? It’s a big split between the glitzy Manhattan side and the rawer Brooklyn side.<\/strong>
\nI have played both and try and do as much as I can. I’ve done everything in New York really. I even did the Dekalb Market in Brooklyn..<\/p>\n

…that was actually the last time I saw you play…
\n<\/strong>I did a project called “Life”, which was 12 parties in 12 major cities around the world and in venues that were not licensed disco clubs. We did a few but never saw the project finished because it became too difficult.<\/p>\n

We were actually on our way to the Brooklyn date when the driver got a call and said the police had raided the space. I had to stand there and watch the promoters get put in the back of a riot van. It was really upsetting to me and I realized I couldn’t do that anymore. I did illegal raves back in the early parts of my career so I am well versed in these kinds of events, but you can’t get away with it anymore.<\/p>\n

I’ll be honest, it’s been a real shame to see what has happened to New York. When Twilo closed down it was the end of an era. Anyone who was there and still goes out will know exactly what I’m talking about. There was this whole community of dedicated music lovers, party people, and freaks. It was beautiful. New York really did have one of the best scenes in the world. It meant a lot to me, so to watch it turn into table service clubs, people standing around, is disheartening. I tried to go out and do as much as I could in Brooklyn, but then there you would have all these trendies that didn’t give a fuck about music. I won’t mention names, but some promoters just follow the trends. I wonder where the people have gone who were really in love with the music.<\/p>\n

I’m going to be playing Output in February, and I’ve heard a lot of good things about it.<\/p>\n

Yes! That was my usual stomping grounds when in Brooklyn. It’s run by the same guys who run Cielo.
\n<\/strong>Cielo is a legendary, proper space in New York. I mean, you can go there in the middle of the week and hear Louie Vega play some beautiful music to 100 people on a Wednesday. I say that back to people at home and they can’t believe it.<\/p>\n

\"Seve_Lawler_Documentary\"<\/p>\n

Soundcloud <\/a><\/span> Artist Page <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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