And thank you very much for taking the time to share some great stories with us! Much appreciated! Good luck with the Hydra album and see you soon Steve!
As there is no cafe noises during interviewer speeches, it seems that it wasnt face to face interview, Steve sitted alone and all the time was looking at some point with "look here" sign. :D Am i right?
I count this track as one of the top ever in Trance, it's one of the tracks that defines the genre to me. Before I dove deeper into Trance, it just happened to be on a live set I used for running. A great set, mind you, put together by Matt Darey when he played at Eden in 2004. Synaesthesia was sandwiched between a few other tracks (including BOTH great remixes of Adagio for Strings), and I would use the lead-up to the fullest part of Synesthesia as a prep for sprinting as long as I could. I literally wept while running so many times because it was such an overwhelming agglomeration of beautiful things. I want to point out that while the other tracks were part of the experience, Synaesthesia was the main event -- the pinnacle of my experience. So, thank you for what you've done in the past, and thank you for what you continue to do. Also, thank you ten-fold for your contribution to making this world more beautiful.
Really interesting, I enjoyed the insights, especially the views on templates & arrangements. Not knowing was one of my favourite parts of tracks/nights, its harder to experience this these days, and also why are the kicks so high up in the mix these days, trends perhaps, cant wait for new Hyrda! Cheers Steve
One of my favourite interviews from you so far Twan, really enjoyed it. Steve is a great story teller too. Loved the part about him going to DJ for PVD :D
Such a nice and interesting guy, a true legend in the scene. One of the few artists that maintained their distinct sound and didn't give into the EDM madness. Huge respect, can't wait for the album.
I’ve just met Steve in person for the first time at a boat party in Rotterdam. He’s so humble and does not come across as knowing how important he was in many peoples lives. He’s a top guy.
Love his honesty about the DJ situation...that sounds like an absolute nightmare. It can take years before you start feeling comfortable with vinyl...not something you can learn quickly - no matter how hard you try.
I must have watched this interview more than a dozen times by now! It's a pure joy to hear Steve talk and to learn about his journey. Steve is a legend! Many thanks Twan!
God damn. I'm a couple of years older than Steve and lived not far from York and was desperate for a trance collaborator in the late 90s. I ended up having to get a job instead! 23 years later, I still have a JP8000 and 12 other synths. The dream still lives. Trance for life.
Amazing story, and now his vinlys sets are like bread and butter, not a slight mistake, he managed to perfect them, hopefully ill hear it live one day!
Love the en-motion and the PVD mix. Makes it even better when it appears in a film.......51st state, plus you know it’s that good when Samuel L Jackson is rocking to it in the film. 😎
Wow, what a class act. The story about DJing back to back with PVD had me in stitches. What a lovely person. Would love to meet him at some point. And I just have to say thank you for these interviews. These are questions that as a producer I always wanted to ask.
Hello today I found your channel with all this interviews, and almost can't do my work barely can concentrate, becasue this is so amazing for all the trance fans. Hearing my heroes talk about the tracks that changed my youth is awesome. Thanks for this amazing work and keep going my friend. Trance 4 life !!
If I had to choose one person to learn how to properly DJ with vinyl it would absolutely be Steve Helstrip. His insane story of how he got started with PVD pretty much sealed it for me. I’m still virtually learning (don’t have the equipment yet), but there will come a day where I’ll have to just jump in. I’ll remember Steve’s story as an inspiration! Great interview!! ❤
One of the truest legends of the trance scene. I've said this to him many times and I'll say it again: Thank you for not giving into the "EDM" flood and staying true to your sound. You've been a great inspiration to me for the longest time. Btw, my favourite from Steve's music is not Synaesthesia, but, Circa Forever. ;)
Seeing all these legends talk is a bittersweet experience when one thinks about the state of the scene nowadays in comparison to the glorious past. Keep up the good work Twan, thank you so much.
This was a really nice interview. Really nice story about how he got the JP-8000, that must've been like a kid being handed the keys to a toy store. It's hard to beat Synaesthesia, but to me, Song For Sendai is pretty damn close. It was the first track I had put on a dub plate so I could play it in my all vinyl sets. Hearing him talking about the process for it made my eyes water too. Thank you!
My oldest daughter and I have synaesthesia, so I nearly fell off my chair when I saw the title of this tune, because absolutely NO-ONE knows or understands what synaesthesia is - at least in Denmark. It can be a thrill and a pest to have it, the worst is when people don't understand and call us mental... but for us who have it, its normal, and most of us have lived most of our lives without knowing we were different in that aspect. Thank you for making this video and explaining how you came up with the title. I absolutely love the track and listen to it many times daily, and let me just add - your Synaesthesia has a very fruity smell and taste to it, so well done :-)
Karina Brandt apparently synaesthesia is quite common in children, but they often grow out of it as they reach adulthood (my favourite singer/songwriter recently mentioned this in an interview.) I am 43, and have experienced it since I was a child, but only began discussing it with people recently when I realised that many of the DJ mixes which I had been giving out had been unconsciously arranged according to colours. I had always assumed that everyone experienced music the same way, growing up. But yeah, it seems that it's more common than we think - but maybe people just don't bring up the subject? 🤔 Who knows!
@@laurenceegan6136 while we are children we assume that everybody else sees hears and feels like we do - over time we realise its different. kids are so much more sensitive to their senses, and its a shame so many grow out of synaesthesia. Are you participating in the DNA studies of wether or not its hereditary and if its more common in some areas of the world than others?
Thank you so much Steve for your great music . Synaesthesia 😍😍😍😍💕💕💕💕 I was very happy in 1999 with 16 years old. Trance music Changed my life . My emotions for the music . Thank you TRANCE producers . Greetings from Lima Perú 🙋
Great story about his DJ gig at PVD's party. It reminds me of my first gig in 1992. I was only used to play belt drive Soundlabs and this was my first time on 1210's. To make it worse, The Dark Raver was on next and he was behind me all the time...the nerves were almost stopping me from putting the needle on the records properly as well.
An absolute legend and a humble gentleman. He comes across as an honest story-teller, witty, very down to earth and oozing calm. He has always been my favourite DJ of all, but after watching this I admire him even more.
Bless that man!!! One of the few guys who stayed true to his sound and didn't fall victim to the EDM hype machine. The first time I heard him was when I picked up the 2005 vinyl reissue of "Saltwater" and his remix was on the B side 😚🎶
What an insane way to get into DJ'ing, your first set is with *Paul* *van* *Dyk* after only a few days experience, you can't get tossed into the flames more than that @The Thrillseekers what an amazing story! :D
One of the defining tracks of the late 90s/early 2000s trance heyday. As close to perfection melodically as it gets. I still listen to this regularly in 2021.
Excellent interview and video editing, dancemania. Steve is one of my favorite producers ever (Thrillseekers, Rapid Eye, En-Motion, Insigma). A long time ago I interviewed him for old site TranceBrasil. I miss Andy Perring (Pulser) too. Good luck with the Hydra album, Steve! Cheers, PlasticSoul.
Same! I would love an interview with Andy, only got to meet him once, at the release party of Ferry's "Right Of Way" party, which was the first time I met Steve as well btw hehe
Thank you! And indeed, he later said he has many more stories, so maybe I can do another interview with him in the future ;-) And to be honest, he said he has no plans to make a new version of Synaesthesia, since he thinks he can not really add / change more, to make it better than the original. Which makes sense to me :)
What a nice interview, thank you! 'Getting Away With It' will forever be my favourite tune by Steve along with the 'New Horizon' remix of Alibi - Eternity. First time I saw Steve play was just 3 years ago in Ibiza. It was a surprise gig in 'Tropi' and it was the best night of my life.
Yeah, I didn't mind that though, I mean Samuel L. Jackson seemed to enjoy it, hahaha.. 01'-02' were a special time for me.. Not yet old enough to understand how the internet worked, so I would play the DVDs at the moment when Trance was played in "The 51st State", "Kevin and Perry Go Large" and "RISE.FM" on GTA3 over and over again. I was totally mesmerized by the music ^^,
Steve is great! I love this interview a lot myself as well hehe.... hope to do another interview with him next time he’s back in The Netherlands! Fingers crossed!
@@muzikxpress Years ago I made a DJ mix with productions by Steve Helstrip and published it on my youtube channel but unfortunately it was blocked after a while because of the track "Beyond Time (The Thrillseekers Remix) " by Blank & Jones. So much great music by Steve no matter if original productions or remixes. Twan, keep your great work going and all the best to you !!!
His generation were the best in the electronic music scene. I mix house and techno, but nothing will beat Trance in it’s prime. Such a great time of unity.
Again, more magic. More insights into the workings behind these tracks. More history. These individual interviews are like part-documentaries. Thank you again!
Great interview! Steve, you're the kind of guy that inspires and gives hope to a lot of upcoming producers and DJs. Appreciate how candid you were with your answers! Twan, thanks for arranging this interview and posting it!
Thanks for the kind words! Steve is great, loved his stories! Glad he was willing to share these with us! More to come soon btw, check the end of vlog #046 to see which names you can expect in the next few weeks!
Great interview about one of the finest tracks in the history of trance music, so simple and so effective, you can feel how Steve put all of his emotions into this track.
Being lucky enough to of enjoyed my early adult years in the late 90's, turning 21 in 1999 and having such an incredible year in general, I have strong emotional connections to the music of 1999 because of how amazing that year was for me and Synaesthesia is one of the key tracks on my life's soundtrack. Thank you Steve 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Awesome interview and hilarious about the PVD set! This song is my favourite trance track of all time and is what really got me into the scene back then.
I still recreate the synestasia sound on Synths to this day it's more than just a record it's a sound love these vids your sound as f**k in making these xxxx
I remember listening to this song for the first time so many years ago during a trip to England. It was on "Breakdown: The Very Best in Europic Chillout Music". I fell in love with it. This song haunted me. I'm so glad I saw this pop up even though it's 5 years old.
@@muzikxpress Sorry it was "The Very Best Euphoric Chillout Mixes Breakdown". 2 discs. Can you do some research on a certain song/artist for me? On CD2 there's a song called "Supernatural" (Ambient Mix) by an artist called Madagascar. However, when I try to research this artist, I find ZERO information. They have a little bit on Discogs but nothing anywhere else. The track "Supernatural" appears on Spotify by an artist named "Neve", posted 7 years ago, as the ambient and original mix. I just have to know what's going on.
amazing channel. Hope more poeple find this soon. You doing great job on this. People should know how it was then.. great times.. Great people and music. :)
Thank you Karol! I hope so too haha ;-) In the next few weeks you can expect interviews with Sander Kleinenberg about "My Lexicon", Carlo Resoort about "4 Strings - Take Me Away (Into The Night)" and Guido Pernet about "Human Resource - Dominator". And... more to come ;-)
Loved this track when it was released I remember going to an Energy 106 night as a teen this was the only track that stood out and I believe the video was also filmed on the giant's causeway witch makes it even more special for me.
Loved the story about DJ'ing for PVD on a boat. I can totally relate as my first DJ'ing gig was also on a boat. Had a DJ planned but they bailed so had to quickly learn just like Steve did 😆
Hi Steve! I really liked this interview, "Synaesthesia" representing even nowadays a reference song for the trance genre. You're right, there are some songs that you can't add more value to than they already have. They're just perfect as they are, and "Synaesthesia" is perfect! The vocal version with Sheryl Deane is also excellent and I've used it hundreds of times in my gigs. I even remember that in 2002 I created in Fast Tracker II a remix for "Synaesthesia" using parts of "Children" - Robert Miles and "9AM" - ATB. Back then I was a young man full of ideas and inspiration, and that remix would have been interesting to listen to now, after 20 years, if a power outage hadn't destroyed my hard drives and all my musical projects, this also representing the end of my DJ career. Regarding the DJ experience, I remember the 80s-90s when I used to mix at private parties using a Solid State station, a Sony deck with 3 heads, 3 mini-cassette players with speed control (modified) and a 3-channel amplifier+mixer built together with my father. Back then, 2x150W was super enough to keep on their feet 50-100 students & adults in love with music and dance. :D I wish you a lot of inspiration for your projects. I'm following you! ;) Keep the spirit alive!!!
Amazing interview! And damn, I have contact with Tim Stark on a more than weekly base for quite some years now and I never realized he was the one together with Steve behind the Rapid Eye project! :O
@@muzikxpress And even helped Steve starting his DJ career! I haven't seen them all but I can say you've made quite some amazing episodes of Muzikxpress already, but this one is the best so far! Steve is an amazing guy. An absolute legend, but also very nice and down to earth.
I seriously enjoyed watching this interview. Fantastic content of course, by a legend of a DJ, and the video editing was also good! Thanks so much, it made my day better.
7:39 - Can't lie, when I met Steve up in Birmingham (ages ago now) and we got a picture together, I did in fact think there's more than 1 person behind the legendary track =D
Thanks so much! And I love “Xpander”, but an interview with Sasha about this one is unfortunately not gonna happen. Charlie May is the one who made that one FYI 😉 Such a classic!
@@CubamusPrime you can find his name in the credits. I doubt that Sasha ever produced something himself, looks like he always had people doing the music for him and he was “just” the DJ.
@@CubamusPrime thanks so much! Hopefully more to come this year. The pandemic hasn’t made things easier, but there’s still some good stuff in the works 😊
Thanks so much!!! Always great to get feedback like this! But of course I can not do it with great people that share their amazing (and sometimes funny, like the one from Steve haha) stories with me, so I can share them with you guys! Hope you enjoy the channel, lots of plans for later this year, if only I had more time ;-)