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TheBeatRanch.com - Interviews - Ben Stevens


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Starting off our June interviews we have none other then Ben Stevens.

Ben quickly established himself at the forefront of the Hard House scene with his tracks like Squeeze, Attack and Traumatic on the legendary label Vicious Circle. His high energy DJ sets have earned him gigs all around the world to places like Austrailia, New Zealand and even over here in Canada. In 2008 Ben started up his own label Fireball Recordings, which has gone on to release strength after strength of top notch tunes.

Now with out any further ado, Ben Stevens

Welcome Mr Stevens to The Beat Ranch. Thanks so much for takin out the time for doing this interview and mix for us. According to Discogs you first release was your remix of Eufex's, Hit The Beat on Vicious Circle.?

Haha I think Discogs might be wrong then! My first release was called Devils Trix and it was released on Passion Records. It was a collaboration between Mark maitland, Alex Calver and me and it still gets a blast every now and then in my sets. The first releases I had on Vicious Circle were Squeeze and Attack.

Did you ever think you would have so many releases, on such big labels as Flashpoint, Tidy, and Toolbox?

I never dreamed that it would be possible to get tracks I wrote released on the bigger labels no, but it just shows that if you put the effort in and work hard it eventually pays off.

Your style has changed a bit over the years, how would you desribe your style now to someone who has never heard it before?

When I first started playing out I was suited to the end of the night, playing as hard and fast as I could really! As I have progressed with DJing and production more I have been writing tracks that would suit any time of a club night and because of this my djing style has changed. I am into music that has some melodic elements and tracks with a bit more groove in them. However I still love playing the last set and thrashing it out every now and then!

Who or what have been your influences over the years?

I would say my main influences have been Paul Glazby, Andy Farley, Paul Maddox and when I was going out clubbing in my younger years RR Fierce. I can never stop myself dancing to all of this lot if they are / were playing on the decks in a club. Maddox has helped me no end with my productions, even though he must really love me ringing the Maddox hotline for help! He should set up a premium rate number for us!

In terms of collaborations, you have worked with Rodi Style, Frank Farrell, WMD to name just a few. Who would you like to work with in the next year or so?

I have almost finished a collaboration project called ‘Battle Royale’ and this will be released in September. The CD features collabs from me and Andy Farley, Paul Glazby, Amber D, UK Gold, Sam Townend, Paul Maddox, Nik Denton, and Karl Davis. Keep a look out for it hitting the shops!

Your label Fireball is one of the very few labels to last release vinyl. What direction is Fireball going in the coming year?

I have had to make the tough decision to stop the vinyl releases on Fireball now as I simply can’t afford to lose money on the releases anymore. It has been great to start up the label still releasing the black wax but it is time to move with the times and embrace the digital age fully. I will now be releasing the tracks as CD singles and the digital downloads will be hitting the shops much quicker than before. The decline in the vinyl sales has been bad but many more people are buying the CD’s not as I believe people do still want a physical product.

All of the Fireball releases are available from the Toolbox Music Shop:http://www.toolboxmusicshop.com

What tracks can people expect to come out of the Fireball camp in the coming months?

We have our first CD single that is just about to be released: "FBRCDS001 - 'Worlds On Fire - Volume 1'"

Rodi Style - Change Up
Rodi Style - Change Up (Paul Glazby Remix)
Rodi Style - Cross Format Focus
Jason Roberts - U Got Me
Velos - Revenge
Ben Townsend & Leon Allen - K Stands For Knowledge
Adam M - Disco Shit
Dr Tre & Disturbed - Boltthrower

To listen to samples of the tracks and buy volume 1 of the Worlds On Fire CD go to: here

Our second CD will be released after the summer and then comes the massive Battle Royale project.

In terms of DJing, what is your favorite set up to work with? What mixer or CDJs will you not work with?

The perfect setup really would be 3 Pioneer CDJ1000’s and a DJM800 mixer. I don’t really mind using any mixers so long as its not an Allen & Heath, I never seem to get on with them every well!

Have you had any bad experiences while playing out?

Too many to mention! All mainly due to having too much to drink before I played ;).

What has been your favorite event to play out at this year?

Tidy’s Magna event earlier on this year was fantastic, the rooms were packed and the crowd were really up for it all night. I also really enjoyed doing the Chaos Theory project with Rodi Style up at Detox in Newcastle. They had taken over an old TV studio in the centre of Newcastle for the event and the set went down really well. For more info about the Chaos Theory go to http://www.chaostheorytour.com

What event would you love to play at (anywhere in the world)?

I would love t go back to Dance Valley in Amsterdam to play on the HQ stage again. This has been one of the highlights of my career to date and I feel very priviledged to have been asked to play there.

Recently a fellow Canadian, known as Rodi Style moved in with you. Whats it like living with Ben and how do your cats get along with him?

It has been great having Ben living up in Manchester, its always good to have someone else to bounce ideas off and especially with Ben as he is very talented in with he does. I think the cats like Ben more than me now!

Any last words?

Check out my sites on the web for more info about what I’ve been up to, mixes and samples of my latest productions.