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The story of dance music with System 7’s Steve Hillage
Reported by Tara
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Submitted 28-05-08 23:01
The terms ‘legend’ and ‘pioneer’ are often loosely bandied about in the music press, describing everything from a new DJ who’s played a good set to a label with a slightly offbeat sound. So how do you describe someone who’s been at the heart of the dance scene since it first exploded? Steve Hillage of System 7 has done just that, helping define dance music as we know it today by creating his own unique sound and — like the phoenix the latest System 7 album is named after — continuing to reinvent it and evolve, to stay at the forefront of the scene.
At one point earlier this year, the System 7 track ‘Space Bird’ was in the top 10 of around five different genres on Beatport, with Dubfire’s ‘Deep Space Remix’ reaching the coveted No.1 spot. Yet this is just one highlight in a long successful musical career, which all began with a psychedelic rock band called Gong in the ’70s and led to the formation of one of the world’s first live techno acts, featuring Steve on electric guitar and Miquette Giraudy playing the synthesiser.
Since their first release in August 1990 they’ve made nine awesomely eclectic albums, alongside a plethora of singles and remixes. Mixing techno, prog house and trance, a System 7 release can be anything from full-on psy trance to chilled-out ambient, with everything in between mixed up for added effect. Pour yourself a tall one and sit back, as Steve Hillage shares some memories with HarderFaster…
Like all good stories, it pays to start at the very beginning. So how did Steve make that fateful transition from rock musician to dance music pioneer? As he recalls: “We had a rock band in the ’70s and were also members of another psychedelic rock band, ‘Gong’. We got bored at the beginning of the ’80s and got very involved in record production — which is what I still do, it’s my job. I’ve always been very interested in the way the club scene was developing. Over the years in the ’80s we realised we wanted to do a new project. We were interested in the club explosion, and in ’88 with the explosion of acid house it all came together. In ’89 we found lots of DJs come to raves. A key moment was meeting Alec Patterson from the Orb. In ’89 he was running one of the first chill-out areas at a night called Spectrum at Heaven (which later became Land of Oz). Paul Oakenfold used to run the main room. We walked into the chill out and there he was, playing one of our tracks. We thought, ‘We’re home!’ We then made a track together and there’s been loads of collaborations and remixes.
“We’ve carried on some kind of connection til now. On the new Orb album ‘The Dream’ I produced and played on a track. It was very cool to play at Heaven the other night [at the launch party for System 7’s ‘Phoenix’ album] — as that was where it all started!”
Steve Hillage Live in England DVD 1979
Checking out the website for Planet Gong (www.planetgong.co.uk), it strikes me that anyone who can graduate from the University of Errors must be destined for great things. So was it the Planet Gong Experience that inspired Steve to start performing, I wonder, or had he always been musically inclined? “I always was musical and had piano lessons from the age of four,” he explains. “I switched to the guitar at the age of nine and had groups at school since I was 13. I’ve been doing it for so long now — it’s what I do!”
So how long as he actually played the guitar for then? “Well I’m now in my mid-50s so a long time! More than 40 years.”
Ah so no wonder he’s developed such a fabulously distinctive style. “Yes”, he agrees, “I’ve got my own style. The way I use it is pretty unusual really. Sometimes I let it rip with rock but usually it’s very abstract. People are sometimes not aware that some of the sounds come from my guitar! I also do tracks with the guitar — I use it in many different ways, in samples and with the keyboards.”
It would surely have to have one of the most unique guitar sounds out there? “Yes,” he concurs, “it’s one of the things I’m quite proud of!”
Armed with musical talent then, a young Steve Hillage joined Gong, then found himself getting very excited by this new thing called dance music. As he remembers: “We watched it explode from the mid-70s onwards. The explosion in ’88 was fantastic! It was the last big musical revolution; there’s been nothing on that scale since. Everything has fragmented since.”
But was he prepared for the huge role he was going to play in its development? “We had become quite well known for what we did before, so we were always aware that we were going to influence a lot of people,” he says thoughtfully. “Some people still think dance music isn’t ‘real’ music, that it’s somehow lesser than music played by ‘real’ musicians. We don’t agree with that. Because of our backgrounds, we’ve made people take dance music seriously. We’re very aware of that. Another thing we’ve had a role in is bringing the dance or rave scene together with the festival scene. We played at big festivals as a band in the ’70s, so we had a reputation for playing at big underground festivals. There’s been a big coming together of the festival scene and the rave scene in the UK and we’ve had a big influence on that.”
Most memorable is the vital part he played getting dance music into Glastonbury. “We were asked in ’95 to put together the first Glastonbury dance stage,” he reminisces. “It became the dance tent and veered a bit from what we started. Then there became the Glade stage and we got involved with the Glade festival. We had a hand in this big connection and we’re very proud of that. Also in Japan, we’re very proud.”
The Japanese connection is nowhere clearer in their work than on the recent ‘Phoenix’ album. But how did that all begin? “We got into it as Tezuka’s daughter was a big System 7 fan. She came to see us in 2004 and bought some of his Phoenix books — he’s written loads of books and is very prolific. The Phoenix books are part of a series. We read some in English translation and it blew our minds,” he enthuses.
We go off on a tangent about Japan, for having live there myself I’ve got many fond memories of the place — especially as that’s where I first really got into dance music. It transpires that System 7 have played with one of my favourite New Zealand electronic acts, Pitch Black, in Japan, as they’re on the same label.
But this is all jumping ahead of ourselves somewhat. I’m still trying to work out just Steve managed to go from a psychedelic rock band like Gong to creating a whole new electronic sound. “The first album we did [in 1990] was quite complex,” he reflects. “We’ve always had vocals and done a lot of collaborations. It was the beginnings of the System 7 sound, but also with songs and things. After that we decided it was a bit too complex and decided to strip the sound down for ‘777’ (1992).
“The next album was the two Points, ‘Point 3— Fire Album’ and ‘Point 3 — Water Album’, both in ’94. We expanded our sound out — a bit more deeper and wider — and really crystallised our sound with ‘Fire’ and ‘Water’. The album after that, ‘Power of Seven’ (1996) was a techno album, with collaborations with Derrick May and Carl Craig.”
“Then we formed our own label, A-Wave. We realised we’d arrived at a point where prog house, techno and prog trance met and that’s still kind of where we see ourselves settled on a spot, but who knows — each time we do an album we reassess and sit with a blank canvas and go into a genuine creative mode. Right now we’re a bit more techno than trance, but we haven’t written new material for the last couple of months.”
Given their busy touring schedule and the festival season being imminent, I predict it’ll be a while before we get any more new material. “Yes. But our whole creative process is changing anyway. It’s great to do live shows — you get direct feedback. We really appreciate that feedback!”
And surely part of having your own label is having more creative control? Steve agrees: “It’s a wonderful feeling. Every musician’s dream! We’ve got our back catalogue back and own all our music except the first on Virgin. We’ve got a solid catalogue and own it and manage it. It’s a family business and we love it — it’s most enjoyable!”
“We called our company A-Wave (www.a-wave.com) and we’ve been into downloads since they started. We’re currently reformulating how we can sell directly from the site. We’re on iTunes and Beatport and have been for some years. It’s a high proportion of our income really. But CD sales are OK thanks to the new album. Despite the obvious difficulties in dance music we’re doing OK, compared with other labels. But we’ve been following it from the beginning.”
“If people are downloading for free no-one’s going to make a living. For us it’s quite important, when you own your own label and have a fan base and they know they’re getting directly from us. If they appreciate and respect us they’re not going to take it for free. But you can try before you buy — a bit like the radio! When I was developing my musical skills in the ’60s I was always taping off the radio. It’s how I developed who I became musically.”
I cite the example of Infected Mushroom, who actually thank their fans for taking their music, for it’s only after listening to it they like it so much they come to watch them play and buy CDs. “It’s not a simple matter,” Steve muses. “A lot is down to respect. You have to encourage people who like music to respect them as artists. It’s something the major labels have great difficulty doing, they don’t respect the artists. They act like plantation owners. They don’t treat the public with respect and try and sue people. I don’t agree with that. People who download often buy the most — it’s a very complex question. But we think we’re quite well equipped to deal with it.
Back to Japan and the new album then. How long have they been going there I wonder? “15 years actually! Three times last year and twice the year before.”
But don’t they find it such a different culture to the UK? “Obviously Tokyo is an extraordinary place. I love driving over the Rainbow Bridge. We’ve been to most parts of Japan. The biggest event was in 2001 when we did a special event called the World Sacred Music Festival on Miyajima Island. There were bands from very different genres — from gamelan to rock — and they wanted an electronic band and chose us and it was amazing. We even had a compliment from the Tibetan Lama who said he’d particularly enjoyed the techno music because reminded him of his mantra.”
“We touched something quite deep and spiritual in Japan. We now tell the Japanese media we’ve received a gift in Japan and with ‘Phoenix’ we’re giving something back. It’s a big thing in Japan. There’s different words for different phoenixes. Hinotori is the bird of fire. There’s another mythical bird, the Hou-ou, which is on the 10,000 yen notes. One of the ‘Phoenix’ books (which is untranslatable), book no.5, is called the book of the Hou-ou. I don’t really understand the difference between the two. It’s very complex in Japan. Take the relationship between Shintoism and Buddhism, it’s really complex. It’s impossible for a Westerner to get to the hub. We’ve done our best to explore these things by reading, we’ve got a fascination with it.”
The album ‘Phoenix’ is testament to this fascination. It also contains a lot of collaborations with various different dance producers. I wonder if these are deliberately planned well in advance, or do they just happen as they go about their travels? “A bit of both,” Steve explains. “We meet people and talk with them. You get a feeling for the people you want to work with. There’s no hard and fast rule really! There’s a lot of collaborations in dance music — look at the whole remix culture. It’s not the same as rock and pop. When you give someone a track to remix, you’re asking them for a whole new interpretation. Collaborating and co-producing are a lot like this, so a lot of dance artists collaborate.”
“On ‘Phoenix’ we did two tracks with Jam, ‘Space Bird’ and we also did a down tempo track ‘Masato Eternity’. I met Jam in 2005 shortly after Spoon died. We’d done a chill-out album in 2005 and done our own version of ‘Stella’, a classic Jam & Spoon track. Jam really liked it and came and asked to work with us. We got some of the ‘Phoenix’ books in English for him to immerse himself in and went to Berlin, then to Frankfurt, where Jam has a studio. Wrote those tracks with Jam in Frankfurt, then went back to London to put them together.”
“We decided ‘Space Bird’ would be good and had the fortuitous idea to contact Dubfire. We’d listened to his album and he’s definitely moving in a different direction to Deep Dish. We heard a mix and thought, ‘This guy’s got a sound that would really work ‘Space Bird’. We contacted his management and he was like, ‘System 7!’ It turned out he’d always really wanted to work with us. We first heard his remix on the 35th floor of a hotel in Tokyo, looking over Tokyo, and were very happy.”
That’s just one of the remixes that did so well on Beatport. How about the other remix, I ask? “The other remix is by Liquid Soul, who’s an amazing artist and one of the leading lights in the prog psy scene”, he explains. “He’s connected with Iboga Records and one of their top artists. We got a proposal to him and together with Dubfire got an ace package, which has done really well on Beatport, so we’re all really chuffed. One of the things I’ve found interesting is the success of the single on Beatport, and the album has done really well. If we’re talking about how we see our sound as a blend of techno and psy — at one point it was in the top 10 of about five different genres! I wonder how many dance artists could achieve that?! We’re really really chuffed. It’s obviously propelled by the extraordinary success of our style!”
With the festival season almost upon us, the talk moves to the forthcoming Summer’s festivities. Being such veterans of the scene, I’m curious as to what their favourite festival has been over the years. “That always gets mentioned,” Steve laughs. “One of the best ever sets was in 2000 in the Glade at Glastonbury. There was Eat Static, Hallucinogen and us. It’s one of the great parts of the job! We did some really nice ones last year. Last year in Tokyo we played at the Nagisa Festival in Techno City and had some guests playing and it was amazing. Slackbaba joined us at the end of our set and also a Japanese guy called Mito joined us as well. We just played stuff from the ‘Phoenix’ album. The set was amazing. Tezuka’s daughter came up in floods of tears, it was very emotional. As far as gigs go, you’re only as good as your last gig. So you want all your gigs to be good or there’s no point really!”
There are many elements to a good gig, but for a live act, surely the set up is paramount. Not being that technically minded myself, I ask Steve to describe how their current live set-up works. “Our current set up is two laptops, with one running on Ableton and one running on Logic,” he explains patiently. “They’re linked up and we use a special Logic facility called Touch Tracks. Then I play the guitar over top when I’m not too busy pushing knobs and twiddling buttons. I’m very happy with the set up — it’s about as live as you can get! We can play really long sets and be really flexible; we’re jammers! Obviously we prepare a basic set, but if a track is really happening we may spin it out, play it twice or even skip tracks.”
And how about in the studio? “It’s quite similar to our live set-up, with one extra large computer running Protools. We do the final mixes on Protools but it’s not something we’d take out live.”
Having done so much in their musical careers, I wonder what’s next for Steve and System 7? “I’ve just done an interesting little collaboration album [‘Dreamtime Submersible’] with a very down tempo artist, Bluetech aka Evan Mark. It’s very interesting soft tech house stuff. We’ve got a lot of gigs in the pipeline and we’re planning another System 7 chilled album, ‘Mirror System’. It won’t be for a while because the Phoenix thing has still got a lot of gigs. Check out the video on YouTube, it’s getting lots of airplay! We also filmed the London album launch at Heaven. I’m doing another production in France with an Algerian artist. I do a lot of work with Algerian artists as I like Arabic music.”
For now though, it’s festival time, and System 7 help kick of the season at the Sunrise Celebration this weekend in Somerset. They’ll be playing two sets: one live set on the main stage on Saturday night after The Orb and a Mirror System DJ set on the Waveform Live Stage, closing the festival on Sunday (www.sunrisecelebration.com. Then it’s off to Glastonbury, with a Mirror System Live set on the Glade Stage on Friday 27 June and a set before Derrick May at the Glastonbury West Dance Tent on Sunday 29 June with a special Mysterious Traveller/Phoenix set ending planned. (see www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/glastonbury/2008/)
Friday 4 July is the Guildfest (www.guilfest.co.uk), Saturday 12–13 July the Konemetsa Festival, Finland, where they play both the main and chill stages (www.konemetsa.net then on Friday 18 July they’re playing live after James Holden and before Dubfire at the Glade Festival, as well as playing the closing set on the Sunday at the Inspiral Stage (www.gladefestival.com).
With such an inspiring summer ahead, I think we’re going to hear a lot more of Steve Hillage and System 7 in the years to come. In the short term however, I’m just looking forward to seeing them both at the Sunrise Celebration this weekend! Now all we need is some sun...
Check out the ‘Hinotori’ video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxAx63r7qgo
For more info about System 7 check out: http://myspace.com/systm7
For more info about Mirror System check out: http://myspace.com/mirrorsystm
Photos courtesy of Jo and Nicky at Phuture Trax and System 7. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Other Features By Tara:
Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast!
Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project
A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden
Telling Cosmic Tales with DJ Strophoria
Tom Psylicious aka EarthAlien takes 50 Spins Around the Sun: Raising Awareness Through the Power of Music
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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for some really cosmic frequencies and excellent tunage 