“Steve Helstrip” better known as “The Thrillseekers” was in India last weekend for 2 cities tour, Bengaluru and Pune for his debut album “Escape” world tour.
On Friday night Blue Frog Bangalore witnessed mayhem and madness of Steve’s iconic 3 hours extended set comprising of only Trance and nothing else.
BPM was locked to 138 and over.
Here’s the live stream link we did for “The Thrillseekers” at “blueFROG” Bangalore.
He absolutely nailed it and crowd were loving every single track and every single beat. All we saw was super happy faces, dancing in joy and respecting and giving space to each other at the same time, you know the MANTRA for a good and successful event.
As he was in town, so it was the perfect moment to have a word with this legend.
EDMLI – You have been in Trance scene for so long, but why does it took you so long for your debut album “Escape”??
Steve – My first album, well, I always wanted to make an album, but I was also making singles as well, I wanted my album to be very special but I wasn’t able to make enough tracks. Also, I was loving and releasing singles, was touring and then, few business so it just took a long time to be happy with the album, even though some of the tracks on the album are 10 years old but they still sounds fresh. Ok yeahhh, and good music will always be good music whether it be 10 days old or 100 years old, so this is the way I approached it.
EDMLI – Yes, it doesn’t matter at what time of the day or which year you listen to your tracks, it always feel fresh, when we listen to every single tune of yours.
Steve – Ya, that’s what I always wanted (laughs) ..
EDMLI – You have remixed tracks from legends like “Armin”, “Chicane”, “Arnej”, but why haven’t collaborated?
Steve – I collaborated with “Ferry Corsten”, “Aly & Fila”. I just prefer to work on my own a lot of time, sometimes when you have an idea, you want to say, so that’s just how it turn out I guess and different people use different software so it becomes quite difficult, so at times it’s quite easy to just finish things off my own. But yeah, that’s not the thing that I won’t be collaborating with them, so we just have to see what happens next (smiles)…
EDMLI – We still remember that moment from 2009, when at “A State of Trance” 400, “Arnej” dropped his track “8 Wonders – The Morning After” (we were listening that live), remixed by you.
Does it felt any extra pressure to remix especially this one ?, as this “8 Wonders” was already perfect.
Steve – That track? “8 Wonders”? I think its from 2010, am sure a lot older than that.
EDMLI – It’s from 2009 Steve 🙂
Steve – Really? ahh, it’s a lot older then (laughs) , no I didn’t felt any pressure, not at all, in fact remixing that one was fun.
EDMLI – How much proud that moment was to land at #6 on “A State of Trance” Top 25 tunes of 2016 with “Amber” ??
Steve – Mmm, it should have been number one, (all laughs continuously 🙂 )
EDMLI – Yeahh, completely agree and from that audio clip only we came to know, “Amber” was the name of your dog, and she passed away and in her memory you made this track.
Steve – It was yeahh, she was with me in the studio for 15 years, every single track she was under my desk while I was making music, so she listened to more trance music than any other dog, I think she really had you know, even I am doing my radio, or on my mixes, listening to promotions, she was always with me.
12 hours a day, a trance dog, so this one has to be really really special.
EDMLI – Yeahh, like a good buddy who was always with you.
EDMLI – How did you come up with the name “The Thillseekers” ?
Steve – (Laughs) It’s not a very interesting story, I used to get samples from TV and radio of things, and sample was like, “Here comes the Thrillseekers”, and I used it in a record in like 1997 or 98 and my friends says, hey, you should call yourself “Thrillseekers”, so I just carried on with that and I thought you know its just not me who is “The Thrillseekers”, its just not me, it’s all the clubbers who come out for the party, we all are “The Thrillseekers”, so it just seem to work as a concept.
EDMLI – So when you visit your family or friends, they call you “Steve” or “The Thrillseekers”?
Steve – Naahh, just Steve(laughs).
EDMLI – What’s the reason behind working on different aliases like “Insigma”, “Hydra”, “En Motion”, “Rapid Eye”?
Steve – Well back in the days, I made so much of music that I couldn’t put “Thrillseekers” tracks in every 3-4 weeks and I wanted to create different sound as well, so “Hydra” is a very different floaty sound, so that was quite different sound and “Rapid Eye” was with my friend “Tim Stark”, so all the “Rapid Eye” tracks were made in just 1 day or 2 days, no quality productions, just whatever happened I put it out (laughs), it’s really quick and simple you know and well “Thrillseekers” you know I spent almost 3 months on a track until to make it perfect.
Yeah, so just different ways of approaching production.
EDMLI – People say back in the days Trance and Techno used to be the same with just a slight difference between both, did you also felt the same?
Steve – Do I feel the same? (thinks & laughs), well I don’t want to get in this conversation about what is it called because you know it’s all Techno end of days whatever you pull that from Dance music.When i started it was all “House” and then Trance and now people are into different sub genres like Progressives or whatever. So I don’t necessarily care about what is it called, I like all kind of music and genres, so if crowd likes it I play more of that or else find something else (laughs).
EDMLI – You also did a Techno compilation along with “Talla 2XLC”, any chance for Techno stuff in nearby future from you?
Steve – It wasn’t Techno as such, “Talla” had a nightclub in Germany called “Techno” and again he played Trance music and back in the days it was all Techno you know, so it wasn’t Techno as such, that was the name of the nightclub.
So yeah, I might do such compilation in nearby future but no plans at the moment.
EDMLI – Any message for Indian fans?
Steve – Well Yes, Thank You for keeping on supporting me and it’s wonderful to be here and I hope a lot of you come out tonight and tomorrow in Pune.
It’s been a while like I think 5 years ago I travelled to New Delhi and I was suppose to do more cities but there was a problem so due to that I couldn’t travel much.
But yeah more cities this time.
EDMLI – You have been in this industry for more than 15 years, releasing and producing on your own, but recently you have been associated with “Future Sound of Egypt”.
How do you think it’s gonna help you to associate with that label?
Steve – Well, there was not any plans to get associated with “FSOE”, it happened. I played by album for “Fadi” from “Aly & Fila” in my hotel, so he was like aahh, I need to release it on my label “FSOE” , I said no no I want to release on my label then he said no on FSOE and then we started discussing and then I was doing my own agency I was doing my own management, I was doing my own label and then after so much of talking i actually thought, it will be really beneficial if there will be a big team around me because I can stop worrying about the bookings, I can stop worrying about how to get this music out to people, so it came to my senses and realise that having a manager, a team, a label around me is gonna help me and it will allow me to focus more on my music rather than doing all things on my own via email so I have given up my management company, I have given up my label, just focusing on making new music and they are giving me a platform to do so.
FSOE has been very consistent with their output and “Fadi” is very very very supportive and if anything I wanna do it, let’s do it, so it’s good, yeahh it’s a good move.
EDMLI – What is the suggestion you can give to all those Indian producers to make good Trance music, to be more like you, how can they release an album like “Escape”?
Steve – You mean the secret ?? (laughs).
First of all, you have to understand that I have been doing this for like 25 years, so you just can’t create something like this in a snap, in a week.
It has taken many many many years of perfection for what I do and truly understanding how the music affects people and take the feelings of my life and turning them into music.
With Trance music, it’s all about feelings and emotions and I only focused on Trance music, I mean that’s what I love and I will continue to do what just I love, I don’t look what other people are making or what is current fashion or I don’t jump from House to Trance to whatever is current trend or for making money.
For the album I talk about it contains 12 tracks but I made more than 50 tracks for it and most of them ended up in bin, It has been a very very very high quality control level, so i never ever put out a track which is just okay, for me it has to be the best i can do and I don’t believe in putting up the tracks just for the sake I finished a track, so if I get bored to it after 2-3 weeks then it goes in the bin, because if I get bored of it, everybody else will, so that’s what i think and that’s what is my advice.
EDMLI – The last one from our side and this one is a rapid fire, the only rule to this is, you need not to think, whatever comes to your mind first you have to say that only 🙂
Steve – Sure.
EDMLI – Armin van Buuren / Paul van Dyk / Tiesto / Ferry Corsten.
Steve – Ferry Corsten.
EDMLI – Armada or Anjunabeats.
Steve – Anjunabeats.
EDMLI – Rapid Eye or Hydra.
Steve – Hydra.
EDMLI – Trance with vocals or instrumental.
Steve – Both.
EDMLI – Trance or Techno.
Steve – Trance.
EDMLI – I think we are done now with the interview.
Steve – Cheers in joy (Yayyyyyy, all laughs continuously)
“The Thrillseekers” Indian tour was organised by “Achuta Productions”.
Achyuta Productions was born from an eventful weekend’s craving for live music and its disappointing dearth in what once used to be the music destination of the country. They found that local bands, individual artists and electronic music producers– no matter how deserving – did not find the platform to showcase their music, simply because there were so few.
They decided to create opportunities for them. They now work closely with corporates, media houses, event management companies, hospitality industry, and individuals who share their conviction. Together, they provide a platform for local talents that deserve to be heard.
This is a small segment of what they do. They are also a one-stop solution provider for concert production, entertainment management for corporate events, artist management, sound recording and production, and music consultancy. They don several hats, but there’s one thing they know very well – music. India has everything, from music sense to money, all is needed a good platform and especially for Trance scene, they took this baby step to book one big artist and yes they succeeded.This is a small segment of what they do. They are also a one-stop solution provider for concert production, entertainment management for corporate events, artist management, sound recording and production, and music consultancy. They don several hats, but there’s one thing they know very well – music. India has everything, from music sense to money, all is needed a good platform and especially for Trance scene, they took this baby step to book one big artist and yes they succeeded.
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