Viva Electronic: An Interview with Steve Lawler

October 13, 2008 3:09 PM
by Michael Maryanoff

Even though Steve Lawler has been part of the upper echelon of DJs for over a decade, this may very well be one of the most exciting times of his career. He’s kept up a rigorous touring and production schedule for years, but it was only four years ago that he founded his own record label Viva Music. On top of featuring releases from top-notch producers, he’s also started residencies and parties under the Viva name all around the world (along with compilations to go along with them).

He is also kicking off a North American tour unlike any other. Not only will he be traveling by bus all around the U.S., but it will contain a studio that he and the other artists on the tour will be using to produce a track while on the road.

Cooljunkie recently got the chance to speak with Steve about the fruits of his labor on Viva Music, his upcoming tour, and his November 1st gig at Mansion.

CJ: What have you been up to lately?

Steve Lawler: In the winter months of this year I’ve been producing a lot of music which is now coming out on some really good labels, leaving myself at the point of where I can tour like crazy for the summer. I was touring a lot in Europe, doing about 20 gigs a month. Europe is a great place because you have a lot of holiday destinations. I had a residency at Space for We Love Sundays on the terrace, which has been incredible. Also the label [Viva Music]. I’ve been putting more people on the team to take it to another level. We’re getting into some vinyl as well for the new release, and making some amazing music. Were also concentrating on doing some Viva Music parties around the world. In Barcelona we’ve got confirmation on a lot of events. We’ve got conformation an event in a warehouse in Birmingham where a lot of parties happen, also a Viva music residency alongside Minus and Cocoon in Moscow, and Melkweg in Amsterdam. I’m taking other people along with me, some of them doing live shows and some of them DJing. I am actually employing new staff to the Viva music family to cater to this kind of work. What else has been going on? Shit loads really.

CJ: Sounds like it.

Steve Lawler: Its been a really busy year. My business model now is to only do a certain amount of gigs in the winter so I can spend more time in the studio. The last twelve months I’ve spent so much time in the studio that I’ve really developed myself a lot. And then in the summer, just tour like crazy. I’ve got a big tour coming up in the states actually, which is a Viva Music tour, which has got a brand new concept, something that no one else has ever done before. We’re actually going to have a studio built on the bus. And myself and the other artists that I take on tour will collaborate and produce a track together, which gets released exclusively on Viva music. I’ve got a lot of confidence in it, a lot of work has gone into it. We’ve actually built a website specifically for the North American Viva Music tours, we got our own ticket site now. Its been structured exactly how a rock n’ roll tour would be structured. Dance music, electronic music, has been undervalued for such a long time. It’s to the point now where its gotten that much respect on that level.

CJ: What should we expect when we see you at Mansion on November 1st when you come with Tiefshwarz and Audio Fly?

Steve Lawler: The nights going to be amazing im sure. I expect it to be absolutely road block packed. The last time I played Mansion, I had reservations about it, because im not the biggest fan of table clubs, but before I went to the club, we had a very big conversation with Carlos, and the conformation of me playing there was depending on how many tables got removed from the club. The gig at Mansion was absolutely amazing. Space is no longer a club for me anymore, it is too commercial with the people they are putting through there. I can’t really focus on bringing people like Audiofly and Tiefschwarz into Miami and then taking them to a club that has more attention when they put more commercial artist. For me, I feel Mansion is the perfect venue.

CJ: I’ve never heard of a DJ doing that before, sounds like a good idea.

Steve Lawler: We did it last time and it worked amazingly. We didn’t remove them all because the club has revenue to generate, but the dance floor area has got to be clear. This is music to get lost in, not to show off and a have a drink to. Carlos is completely understanding of that.

CJ: Is there anything with the Viva mix CDs that your trying to do differently than other mix CD compilations?

Steve Lawler: Mix CDs are a real touch and go thing right now. They’re being given out free with every single magazine, there’s pod casts now, there’s downloads, there’s all sorts of things, and the value of a mix compilation has gone through the floor. What I’ve done with the mix compilation series, and this is not reinventing the wheel, is that for every mix CD I do now, it’s got to be associated with something that’s real. The Global Underground series is an amazing series of mixes and each mix is in a certain country, but there’s no real relevance to the country. What I’m doing with the Viva series, there is relevance to the location. There’s been a series of parties or a residency set up in that country, and once you have that regular crowd, then we’ll release the CD of that. It’s giving the people that come to the party every night something for the night. It’s almost like your developing a line of merchandise for that party.

CJ: Like when you did and indoor and outdoor CD for Viva Toronto?

Steve Lawler:Exactly, the album will depend on the city. I'm not going to do an inside-outside mix for a city where I don’t play outside. When I play at Guvernment I always do three hours inside and three or four hours on the roof terrace, so musically and for me emotionally, what I see in front of me alters the way you structure your set. When I play in a big room for 3 thousand people, or when I play on a terrace with the sun coming up for one thousand people, I do program my set differently and I do structure it different. With the viva London CD I played for 6 hours, from deep house up to screaming techno so that CD was just two CDs of indoors. The third in the series will be Viva We Love Ibiza. I’ve had an Ibiza residency at Space for nine years almost, so for me the Ibiza album is reflective of what I play on the terrace. I’ll bring in another guest DJ, someone like Jeff Mills who is a resident that does lots of gigs on the inside. That CD will be me with another guest DJ. It’s just going to be real, there’s no bullshit involved.

CJ: You’re really building up a brand with these parties and compilations

Steve Lawler: Yea, I’ve been really focused on this now for about four years. Its only now that im seeing or feeling the rewards of the labor, I don’t mean financially, like you said the brand is really building now and getting well recognized. I’ve had a whole team of people, including myself, that have worked really hard on building the new Viva brand, making it really structured and about quality. We are trying to do things that are cheaper. For instance, when we do Viva music parties we make sure the club doesn’t stick a huge door price for themselves, making it affordable for people and doing it for the right reasons, That’s how I want to continue with the brand.

CJ: Where is your favorite place on the planet to play?

Steve Lawler: I don’t think there is one favorite place. This Sunday just gone, I played the Space closing party outside on the car park, which was 8,500 people. That was the best week I’ve had this year, fucking incredible. I play Argentina in November, and I’m going to be playing on the main stage at Creamfields, which will be for about 40,000 people. I know from playing Argentina in the past, its one of the best crowds in the world. That’ll probably become my new best gig of the year, it changes.

CJ: How does Miami differ from other places that you’ve played?

Steve Lawler: I’m going to give you an honest answer: Miami used to be without a doubt one of my favorite cities in America to play, but Miami today has become too attached to electro house and too attached to the more commercial sound. Lately, I haven’t played in Miami that much because it hasn’t been the best place for me to play. I really enjoyed the last gig I did at Mansion. Really great gig, amazing atmosphere, I played exactly the music I wanted to play, and it went down really well. This year when I did my Lights Out party, for me it was the worst lights out party that I’ve done in seven years. It was still a good party, but it just didn’t live up to the expectations in my mind of what a Lights Out party should be like. When the venue became Part West, it wasn’t as good as it was when it was Twilo. When I did the Lights Out party at Twilo, it was an amazing show. This year we had some difficulties. It wasn’t promoted, there was no flyers made for the party and I brought in Robert Owens because, for me, the music conference is about music and Robert Owens is a legend and deserves respect, so I put him on in the middle of the night to perform 3 of his most popular songs. It didn’t really work because they’re old songs with a much lower tempo, and I think I made a mistake by doing that. But I’m old school and I just think the conference is about music.

CJ: So you defiantly noticed a changed from year to year in Miami?

Steve Lawler: The last couple years in Miami I don’t think have been as good as it was previously. From what I’ve heard from a couple of key people in Miami, is that Miami is turning around and is on the rise again. It has potential to be the best party city in America. LA is going through the roof right now. LA is incredible to play right now.

CJ: Who has influenced you the most?

Steve Lawler: It’s hard to say, I don’t really get influenced by other people’s music much, I get influenced by my own experiences. I don’t really get the chance to hear other DJs but as far as producers are concerned SIS., they’re really exciting right now they’ve got a track on Ricardo Villalobos’ label. It’s the fresh music that inspires me more than anything.

CJ: What do you have set up for the immediate future?

Steve Lawler: We got this tour in America which is coming up now, I will be in America for 3 weeks and the going to South America and I do all the festivals, the Creamfields festivals, some big gigs over there, then I get back home. I’ve got a four-day weekend in Romania which is one of the best places in the world to play right now, and after that I’VE got a lot of time off. I’m concentrating on a few gigs in Germany but im taking a lot of time off to get back in the studio to work on some more new music.

Click here to hear more from Steve Lawler.