Steve Parry is a man that has amassed a huge amount of musical knowledge over the years and has racked up an impressive number of hours behind the decks from his early days at his night at Alderaan, his 3 year residency at the legendary Cream in Liverpool, and his Red Zone radio show he ran on Juice FM for 10 years.
Today Steve spends most of his time working for his company SMP3 Music Management where he sources music for a number of DJs including Sasha, Just Be, Behrouz, Sander Kleinenberg, Tiga and many others. SMP3 also has a promo mail out service which regularly features tracks from labels such as Bedrock, Sudbeat, Lost & Found, Natura Sonoris, Under No Illusion, Carioca and Babicz Style. When he is not working for SMP3 he is running his own record label, Selador which he runs with his longtime friend Dave Seaman.
Mix of the Week - Shelley Johannson
BT drops new single "k-means clustering"Steve is easily one of the hardest working men in the industry so when he agreed to sit and chat with Decoded Magazine it was a real chance to get inside the mind of one of the North West’s greatest talents.
When I caught up with Steve it was after the busy Easter period and he was in the process of playing catch up by the sounds of it… “Well its straight back after a manic but brilliant few weeks around Easter, so it’s back to normality and playing catch up today. Today has consisted of Selador bits, lots of emails, sorting out some remixers, lots of demos and chatting to Dave Seaman (we speak most days and still haven’t got bored of each other just yet) and today has also consisted of sending promos for my SMP3 Music Promo company. Next is time for lunch.”
Steve recently popped over the pond for a trip to the Big Apple, but this time was for a little bit of downtime… “It was my wife Melanie’s birthday present, a trip to NYC (yes, of course, I was always going to love it too). We last went 12 years ago, and I love cities, and this probably is the finest that there is. It’s relentlessly brilliant! Last time, we ate in the best restaurants and a lot of the big tourist attractions, so this time, we ate like locals -proper NYC burgers, pizza, breakfast from deli’s, and of course Chinatown (obligatory to visit whilst over there).” Steve went on to add… “we hadn’t walked across the Brooklyn Bridge before, so that was high up on my to-do list. it was awesome. Those views!!! I got goosebumps! We actually spent the whole day walking, we stayed up in hells kitchen and walked to Brooklyn. It was amazing. We hadn’t seen the high line previously either – a converted walk through the garden that’s an overhead disused railway – amazing – beautiful – and peaceful (that’s rare in Manhattan). A great way for a city to use an old disused train line. We did the usual touristy stuff like Central Park, Fifth Avenue, Rockerfella Centre and we went to Moma again, is great! And took lots and lots of photographs. I think I got 1000 haha!”
I felt exhausted just listening to what Steve got up to in New York so we went on to speak about some music. I asked him to tell me a little more about the Selador 100 release… “Selador 100 – basically we wanted to mark this landmark milestone with something a bit special, and so we selected 5 tracks from our 5th birthday release, none of which had previously had been remixed and set up a collection of new remixes. So the tracks came from me & Dave, Joeski & Gorge, Guy Mantzur & Lonya, Luke Brancaccio & Tim Healey, and Cristoph and Quivver – and so we assembled a crack team of remixers to make a bit of an impact, and they are Andre Hommen, d-Nox & Beckers, Doc Martin, Kotelett & Zadak, Petar Dundov, and Moonwalk respectively.”
“The package ended up great. Really happy with this one. It took a lot of work co-ordinating remix deadlines and all of the artists and remixers schedules so as not to clash with any other release that they had. We got there in the end. We are happy bunnies now. No pun intended.” Still, on the Selador tip, 3B Records recently had a special party so I asked Steve about how it went…
“I worked at 3 Beat for 10+ years, and now my good friend Thomas Tuft owns the shop. Its recently been renovated so it’s half shop/half bar, which is great. But underneath is a secret mini club! holds 100 people, and reminds me very much of the lemon Lounge where I ran my Alderaan nights for 6 years every week.”
Anyone who knows or has heard about those Alderaan nights will know how special they were!!! Steve continued… “my good mate Nick Gartland started off upstairs playing housey vibes, and then I played in the club, and they had to switch the power off as I wouldn’t stop playing! Was great! rammed and a great crowd so was like the old days. smiley faces galore!”
As I am sure many of you are aware, especially the Liverpool contingent, Steve has been a huge supporter of the Liverpool nightlife now for some time. Liverpool has a real abundance of quality underground nights at present so I asked Steve why he thought Liverpool was such a hotbed for quality underground events… “People in Liverpool always want a good time. The atmosphere in clubland in Liverpool always seems to have that extra sparkle, and people are enthusiastic. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s in our heritage from The Cavern when the Beatles were kings and people went wild? Also, there are countless videos of Quadrant park on youtube where the atmosphere is probably the best I’ve ever seen ever in a club, so we have to keep that standard up! Cream again kept up the high calibre of clubbing, Circus still doing it too, and so many other smaller nights. I think as well, once people go out in Liverpool they go to have a good time, and don’t stand around the edges looking all cool. They are in the dance floor equivalent of the mosh pit, being hot and sweaty.”
I went on to ask Steve about his favourite nights around Liverpool… “303 is great. Its really is! They have been clever and brought in great DJ’s that weren’t getting booked in the city and obviously they book me, so I especially like them haha! They have a great crowd, friendly and great music.” Steve recently warmed up for Patrice Baumel at 303 and from what I hear it was another one of those very special events that the 303 bunch have got a name for producing. Steve continued… “I love it there! Circus is still a powerhouse in the city, Yousef and his large line ups are still packing a punch. You’ve got to doth your cap to him for that. I’m sure there are lots of little events and I think they’re vitally important for a city’s scene.”
Moving onto Steve’s production side of things we went on to speak about the track Steve produced with Dave Seaman, ‘Repeat Offender’ which has gained some huge support. I asked Steve if the track was written for the Selador 100 release… “The original was on our 5th birthday EP. We wanted to do something for our 5th birthday and make it about me and dave so we were saying shall we make a new track each? or shall we get remixes of our tracks? When I suggested making a collab he liked the idea, and so this was born. It came together quite quickly as a track, as we both have very similar tastes.” I went on to ask Steve about how they decided upon the remix artists…
“Dave and I always have a list of remixers that we like and that we would like to remix for the label. You have to when you are releasing regularly.”
Steve continued… “It’s a varied list of new producers and people we have loved for years. And musically varied too. For example, if a track is more techno-edged, we will counterbalance the musical style of the remixer we approach and go in a different musical direction. Some people we have had on our lists since day one and for one reason or another when we have asked they couldn’t do a remix for us previously. For example André Hommen. We’ve asked him about 20 times to remix something for us. Luckily we made him crack with mine and Dave’s track for the 100th release! Never give up!!!”
I asked Steve when he is locked away in a studio, what are some of his go-to bits of kit? “I’m an Ableton boy. It’s pretty much always software related that’s used when I make music. I use an engineer when I make music. It speeds up my workflow. I always choose absolutely everything from Todd a track and lay everything out/fiddle/re-jig constantly. Currently, I use Jay in Scrutton Street Studios in Shoreditch, and previously Paul Nolan, who I’ve known for donkey’s years. These guys know the sound and style I’m after, and can also put up with me and my varied tastes and trying things 10 different times just so I can make sure the first time was the right one hahaha!”
“I love it when an engineer pushes me down a route I hadn’t thought of or takes me a bit out of my comfort zone. It’s a great way to help your sound develop.”
Moving back to Selador for a moment, the 100th release is a very significant milestone that many labels do not reach. Here is to the next 100 I say. I asked Steve what he and Dave Seaman had planned for the label over the coming months and if there were any goals they really would like to achieve… “We’ve got some great releases coming up (I say very modestly haha). Christian Nielsen EP with Florian Kruse and EdOne remixes is next, then a new EdOne EP. Dave has a new EP coming, ill have another soon and collaboration too. Dee Montero and Chicola have promised us new bits as well… so watch this space. This year we want to help push our Selador gigs. We’ve done Watergate, Space Ibiza, Ministry of Sound, Pikes Ibiza, and Club NL in Amsterdam, so we are looking to keep up the quality and broaden our horizons. We’ve also just started setting up Selador artists and management too, and a publishing arm for the label. It’s keeping us very busy.”
I asked Steve what else is on the horizon for him in terms of releases and gigs… “So Selador 100 has just been released and features the André Hommen and D-Nox & Beckers remixes of mine and Dave’s Repeat Offender, and the 8th wonder had my track ‘Michelada’ too. I’ve made a track with Luke Brancaccio that’s coming in the summer on Selador, it’s quite a pumper, just dieting remixers now. I’ve signed a track to another label, that I can’t say much about, that’s coming with a big name remixer in August, I’ll tell you more about that soon! Back in the studio on Monday… I’ve got a track halfway through, and a few others I’ve been tweaking, and knowing me I’ll start something else!”
Finally, before we parted ways, I asked Steve about the mix… “The mix is all of the tracks from Selador’s 8th wonder showcase and a few Selador gems from yesteryear in the mix. Rather than just releasing an EP of tunes, we thought it would be good to make it a mix series. And we worked hard on this release and knew the quality of the tracks was right up there. Very varied musically in a typically Selador way, so was nice to make the mix flow from deep to melodic peak time.”
I would like to thank Steve Parry for his time, and for this great mix that I am sure you will all enjoy…
Tracklist:
01. Tumbling Fields – Supa Somali (Intro Mix)
02. Florian Kruse & The Lazarusman – Breathe (Frankey Remix)
03. D-Nox & Beckers – 114 Miles (Roy Rosenfeld Remix)
04. Tumbling Fields – Supa Somali
05. Jaydee – Kirko
06. Steve Parry – Michelada
07. Danny Howells – Earthlings X (Jimpster Remix)
08. Joris Biesmans – Menneke
09. Alice Rose & Malbetrieb – Creatures Of The Night (Steve Parry Remix)
10. Collective States – Azumi
11. Never More – Forward Momentum
12. Artche – Tell Me
13. Interaxxis – Spicy
14. Impellizzeri & Stupia – Battleship
15. EdOne – 17
16. James Teej – Bonzai Tiger
Photographs by Nick Mizen at 303 Liverpool
