Steve Bug - Words From The Wise

Steve Bug is widely regarded as German dance music’s most cultured creative, most sophisticated spokesman, most diligent DJ, and it’s not really hard to see why. Below, he tells Eddie Jux of his vibe-centred philosophy, his stance on changing trends and a little about his plans for his labels in the coming months, and all in better English than Jurgen Klinsmann. It’s hard to imagine he won’t keep pushing boundaries, exploring, growing, succeeding. It may have taken a little while, but early 2012 finally saw the first of his Poker Flat Parties in London. He returns on June 30th to a SECRET warehouse, the whereabouts of which we don't even know yet.

So tell us, where does your true passion lie - in the creative composition of production or the on-the-spot improvisation of DJing? Which one would you say demonstrates your talents best? My true passion lies in the music itself. For me writing music, DJing and running a label comes as a package. I can't do only one of those, it would be like there is something missing, and in all of these parts of the puzzle you're getting better experience.

As a pioneer of digital DJing, have you spent less time in recent years exploring record shops and more in your headphones online, or do you continue to bolster your vinyl collection? Every week that I'm in Berlin I am going record shopping, but in addition I started to check music online as well. I find it quite interesting to find certain stuff in both worlds and other stuff only on vinyl or only digital. I think it is the best way to find the music that you're digging for is to spend time in stores and online.

With technology always moving so quickly, and fewer and fewer staying true to vinyl, how do you think it’s possible to keep up without the shortcuts available to the digital DJ? Being a good DJ just isn't about what technology you use. The most important thing is still to be able to create a vibe, and that's possible with whatever you wanna use. But I have to say I find it kinda weird if a DJ that plays on a laptop with internal sync mode isn't even able to adjust his first record to the DJ that is playing before him, that is something you should definitely be able to do no matter what you are using.

As a veteran do you find it challenging to stay on the forefront of music fashion with your production and DJing, and how much do you think you are dictating some of the trends yourself? Are you the hunter or the hunted? Fashion / trends those two words don't really go along with creativity. It is really important for me to stay open minded and that just isn't possible if you think about fashion or trends. Trends come and go, if you go with trends you always need to change your sound, so you don't stay true to yourself. If you came up with an idea that becomes a trend and you're at the beginning of your career, you're fucked, because after the copycats steal your idea the big sell out begins a few month later the hype is over and so are you, at least in most cases.

For me personally I think it is better to have a sound of your own that in first place isn't fashionable maybe. This way you can create different styles and make real fans. It is definitely taking longer to break through, but once you did it, you will definitely benefit from it, but maybe that's just me. But I definitely think if more people would create, play and buy music they really like instead of following hypes, the dance floors would be way more interesting.

And what plans do you have for Poker Flat for the rest of the year? Any secret signings you can tell us about? We are going to release a new Steve Bug album in late September / early October and EPs by the likes of Nico Lahs, Alex Niggemann, Kyodai and several others.

Aside from Poker Flat, you have 2 more sub-labels, Dessous and Audiomatique. What are the benefits of this, do you feel sorting and spreading the releases helps to preserve the brand image of the original parent label? Not really, for us they were always separate things, but for label showcases we of course involve people from one of the other labels sometimes.

The second Poker Flat party is about to kick off in London on Saturday June 30th. How come you waited so long to bring the party to this city and how did the last one go? The last one has been a blast. We had a great time and we hopefully will do again on June 30th. We always wanted to do showcases, but we never really wanted to just open a club, so it took some time to find the right set up and be able to do something at warehouses or similar locations.

For anyone who’s not been to a Poker Flat party, what’s the ethos behind it and tell us what we can expect on Saturday? It is always about the music for us. Artists performing at the next show will be Heidi, H.O.S.H, Alex Nigemann, Dan Berkson and James What live, Jamie Andersson and me of course. Having a great time definitely comes with it, and also the location is important to us. You will see, once again we found a very cool place to party.

Listen to Steve Bug on Pulse Radio