Influences – Steve Bug

I remember my parents listened to a lot of disco records when I was a kid and they keep on telling me I would dance and play the air guitar when they put on a disco record. Of course I really discovered disco when I was older, but I think in general disco had an influence on me and my productions as it did on house in general. I could have chosen many other tracks but I chose this one because the vocals had been sampled in many of my favourite house music tracks. It was originally released in 1977.

The Cure – one of my favourite bands ever. The voice of Robert Smith and the melancholic harmonies have been a big part of my youth and I think you can still hear it in my productions today. When I got into house I stopped listening to the cure for many years, but I re-discovered them a few years back. Especially the album 3 Imaginary Boys made it into my playlist at home again. It is my favourite one, because it sounds so raw and basic.

I was a fan of the Visage and many other bands of the new romantic synth pop era. There was a great new world of unheard sounds, and style disasters to discover. Visage – Visage (next to Simple Minds – New Gold Dream) was the album I played the most on my walkman. Fade To Grey was the biggest tune of the album but there is way more to discover. I chose this track because there is a video so you can get an idea of what the 80’s looked like. I’m glad never had a haircut like that, by the way…

One of the first hip-hop tracks ever, and as far as I know the first one to reach the charts. Unlike most other hip-hop tunes it is not based on samples, it was still played on real instruments and it had a lot of funk elements. The early hip-hop and breakdance movement was the first thing I perceived as a style of its own, not just as music. I’ve never been a good breakdancer, but at least I tried! Haha! Funk was also playing a roll for me during these years.

The first house record I ever bought was the House Sound of Chicago on London Records and it featured mostly tracks from Chicago Trax Records. The label Trax, (next to Warehouse Records, Jack Tracks, Hot Mix 5 and others), has of course been a big part of my early days in the house sound. Frankie Knuckles r.i.p. next to Larry Heard and Dj Pieree have been my heroes on the label. I still play Your Love as a last track of the night sometimes and I still get goose bumps.

Juan Atkins, the man of the first hour, with releases like No UFOs back in 1985 or his Cybotron project together with Richard Davis which they started in 1981. Metroplex, Transmat and KMS, the three big Techno Labels from Detroit – so much history and still so much to learn from. The funny thing is a lot of the tunes sound way more futuristic than any track from today. The track The Chase used to get played a lot in my favourite club in Hamburg, The Front. I wish I could hear that track once again on that dance floor coming out of the horn speakers with the lights going off and the 3 danger signs lighting up. I miss those days sometimes…

New Groove records has been a very big influence on me. With artists like Foremost Poets, Bobby Konders, the N.Y. House’n Authority, Major Problems, Code 6 and so on… This is one of the many releases that I still love very much. It is hard to believe that people would go nuts when the DJ played this song. Such a deep, atmospheric track with way too many breaks for nowadays minds, but if you close your eyes it definitely does the job.

This record introduced me to the Berlin techno sound of the early 90’s. It was produced by Sven Röhrig who also did “Der Klang Der Familie” with 3 Phase and it was released on Tresor Records. Soon after this I started to play in the berliner clubs Globus (the house floor of the legendary Tresor club) and the E-werk through friends of mine who’ve been residents there in the past. One of them is my longtime mate Cle, with whom I am just working on a new project.