Balance Selections 283: Steven Weston

Highly decorated artist Steven Weston steps up for an hour of of contemplative dance…

The name Steven Weston is gaining more prominence, which is well overdue given his impressive career in music. His CV includes an engineering background working with artists ranging from drum and bass act Rudimental to reggae artist Chronixx, while he’s toured the world playing keyboards for the likes of Ladyhawke, Charli XCX, and Mikky Ekko.

Weston also counts James Lavelle as a fan, having regularly collaborated with the veteran for 10 years now. But his passion lies in deep, progressive music, and since entering the arena he’s signed to labels such as Anjunadeep, Bedrock, and Last Night On Earth.

With tracks from GMJ, Durante, UNKLE, and Duo State, this Balance Selections mix highlights a music purveyor who lives and breathes the intricacies of the sound to which he has dedicated himself to.

Tracklisting
1. Steven Weston – The Solent {Blank Dust}
2. Birch – Venice {House Music With Love}
3. Lost Souls Of Saturn – Click (UNKLE Reconstruction) {Slacker 85}
4. Miguel Ante & Phillosopher – Ancient Planet {Balkan Connection}
5. GMJ – Silver Sky {Deep Down Music}
6. Quivver – Crystals {Bedrock Records}
7. Steven Weston & Braxton – Lanes {Bedrock Records}
8. Durante – Ancora {Anjunadeep}
9. Paul Arcane – Confluencia {UV}
10. Duo State – Pressure {Duo State Records}
11. Amháin & EMPHI – Hekla {Balance Music}
12. Hobin Rude – Until The End Of Time {Mango Alley}

Balance Selections Q+A

Name: Steven Weston
Location: London, UK
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Alias/Producer name: Steven Weston
Labels affiliated with: Anjunadeep, Bedrock, Last Night On Earth, Blank Dust

My last 3 releases:

What music did you listen to as a child?

I grew up listening to The Orb and the KLF via my Dad. I listened mostly to electronic music as a child, or old bands like Led Zeppelin, Yes and The Move. My Dad would sit in the living room with headphones on and I would listen to whatever he was listening to.

I also shared a bedroom with my older brother and he was into Fatboy Slim (Pizza Man), Chemical Brothers and Britpop… plus the early Renaissance/ Cream/ Gatecrasher comps.

When was the first time you realised that you liked electronic music?

My dad had all the early Journeys By DJs CD’s and that’s what got me into DJ’ing. I preferred electronic music over anything else, particularly instrumental electronic music.

When was the first time you saw a DJ in a club?

My brother and his friends started going to Slinky in Bournemouth (I’m from Portsmouth). I got a fake ID from the internet and I went along with them on a night Jon Gurd was playing.

Jon was friends with one of my school friends older brother, and he was the only DJ I knew, so I wanted to go along and watch. I had braces at the time, no idea how they let me in.

Which Producers / Artists / Acts inspire you?

DJ culture it’s got to be Sasha & Digweed. They started my love for dance music, from all the early comps, to their productions. Bedrock Records was the first label I really collected when I was buying and playing vinyl as a teenager. I liked some trance music around that time too like Push ‘Strange World‘.

I would say my main inspirations right now musically and artistically are Rival Consoles & Max Cooper.

The crossover between electronic, art and visuals is something I am really drawn to, that they both do well. Rival Consoles has this track called ‘Sudden Awareness Of Now’ and it has that kind of euphoria feeling that you get from Trance music.

When I was learning music production I was also into Boards Of Canada and Amon Tobin. More recently, the new Durante album on Anjunadeep is amazing. I feel inspired when I listen to that at the moment.

What was the last album you downloaded/purchased?

I don’t buy nearly enough albums these days. I used to buy a lot, but I bought the vinyl for Durante ‘Enter‘ on Anjunadeep.

What is your current production and DJ set up?

I use Ableton as my DAW. I have an engineering background so I can use Logic and Pro-Tools too but I prefer to create in Ableton.I have quite a lot of hardware synths. Prophet REV2, OB6, Novation Peak, Juno 60, Moog Little Phatty, Korg MS20, Korg Minilogue XD, Novation BassStation, Arp Odyssey and a reasonably sized modular synth.This is all patched into a patch bay which is normalled into my UAD interfaces. Everything is plugged in at all times ready to go. I much prefer hardware synths to soft synths. Mainly for the tactile response.

Plugins wise my must haves are Pro Q3, Soothe2 and Omnisphere. I really like Serum too, it’s amazing what that synth can do. Not so glamorous but I love Vision4X by Excite audio. It’s an analyser which I leave on my master output.

My studio is at my home in Manor Park, London. I have my upright piano downstairs in the dining room too. I used to have a more professional studio in Stroud Green, but I gave that up during covid.

My DJ set up is a DDJ-400 controller (ha!), but then I wouldn’t say I am a DJ. I play live a lot more, but DJ occasionally.

What releases do you have on the horizon?

I have a new EP on Anjunadeep coming out in June. I also have a new EP on my label Blank Dust due later this year. It’s a bit more left leaning electronic music like my other releases on Blank Dust. I’m working on lots of other tunes and some new collaborations which I am excited about too.

Where can we hear you perform?

My next artist shows are at Anjunadeep Explorations and Luminosity festival. I’ll be playing live at both of these, and also doing an additional DJ set at Explorations.

I also have a festival in Poland and a couple of other shows booked for later in the year. I am re-working my live show after the summer. I have been messing around with syncing visuals with Ableton so I plan to be doing a Live AV show.

I also have shows later in May and over the summer with UNKLE (I have worked with James Lavelle for 10 years) at Brighton Dome and Bristol Beacon which will be fun.

Steven Weston Balance