Artist Interviews

Q&A: Steve Hillage

By | Published on Wednesday 21 April 2010

Steve Hillage

Starting out as the guitarist in prog rock band Gong in the early 70s, over the last two decades Steve Hillage has immersed himself in dance music culture with long-term partner and fellow musician Miquette Giraudy.

Steve and Miquette formed both System 7 and its more chilled spin off Mirror System, and in 2000 they launched their own label in the form of A-Wave. They remain in demand as a live act (as both System 7 and Mirror System) and as DJs, frequently appearing at those festivals with a credible electronic music programme.

You can check out the Mirror System vibe in a new mix CD they’ve compiled, which is out this month. Called ‘Reflector’, it is launched at the inSpiral Lounge in Camden on 24 Apr, where Steve and Miquette will also perform live. With that album, System 7 and Mirror System sets at various fests, plus a Gong reunion tour planned for September, it’s going to be a busy few months for Steve. But he still found time to answer the Same Six.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
I learned piano from the age of four, switched to guitar at the age of nine, and had a really good band at school in my teens. Finally at the age of 20 I decided that making music was my destiny. Right from an early age I always had a yearning for the ethereal side of music, and after discovering early Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix in my mid-teens I was pretty much marked for life. Seeing Hendrix at the Marquee Club in early 1967, sitting two metres from him, was a massive jaw dropping moment, and all I could think about was: “Wow I’d love to do something like that!” Similarly, later on, seeing people for the first time dancing to Kraftwerk in 1977 opened up my mind to a future vision of electronic dance music.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Mirror System is the chilled and downtempo extension of our dance music project System 7, which we started 20 years ago, in collaboration with other dance and ambient music figures, notably Alex Paterson of The Orb, that we were also part of at that time. Over the last few years, since the first Mirror System album in 2005, we’ve developed a DJ style that blends our Mirror System chilled feeling with soft minimal techno and electro beats, and we had a strong desire to make a mixed compilation album in this style. And this is that album – the Mirror System ‘Reflector’ DJ mix CD.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
It can be many things; a new sound, a groove or an idea that just pops into our heads that will act as a catalyst and help us find the spark to start us off. From then onwards the mixing process, the composing process and the performing process are all blended. It’s a very intuitive process – sometimes a track almost seems to make itself. DJing and playing live sets, which we do a lot as System 7, also helps as it allows us to try out new ideas with a live dance audience – and of course the people always like to hear new things.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?

For this particular project we were strongly influenced by artists like Trentemøller and Evan Marc. In a wider context, we have enjoyed great and enriching influence over the years from our close collaborators in the System 7 project, like The Orb, Derrick May, Laurent Garnier and Son Kite/Minilogue, and the great remixers we have worked with like Dubfire, James Holden and Richie Hawtin. In a wider context still, I always say my number one musical influence remains Jimi Hendrix.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?

For people new to Mirror System, I would say please relax and let the music take you on a rich and rewarding journey.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
As we say on the sleeve notes of ‘Reflector’, we wish this DJ mix to be a positive ‘reflector’ of what makes the electronic music scene vital. We’ll be playing ‘Reflector’-style Mirror System sets at various chill out lounges this year, while working on a new System 7 album, which will embody the harder elements of our dancefloor sound. We’ll be trying out some of the new System 7 grooves in our festival sets this year, notably on Glastonbury’s Glade Stage, where we are confirmed to play at 4pm on 27 Jun.

MORE>> www.a-wave.com/system7/



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