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Exclusive interview with Steve Hillage :: System 7

Continuing our series of one to one interviews with the people who will make us groove at Shamania; Trixiebelle chats to Steve Hillage - one half of the mighty System 7 phenomenon.

:: > Many thanks Steve for agreeing to talk to us as part of our special Shamania Interview series, welcome on board…it is a great privilege to interview you…now, your musical career has spanned a few years…and has encompassed everything from psychedelic rock to gentle ambient guitar pieces to full on techno trance…what style haven’t you tried yet but would like to?

Well on the one hand, for me, everything I’ve done as an artist has a unity, an expression of my being and a channeling of a source of inspiration. I’ve always seen our music develop as a progression. But on the other hand, who knows what idea I might wake up with tomorrow? One thing I’d certainly like to do more of is working with string orchestras – I’ve done a fair bit of that with my Arab music productions with Rachid Taha and others. I absolutely love the sound of Middle Eastern strings !

:: > What are you listening to at the moment ?

Right now:- Bluetech’s new tech-house album under his artist name Evan Marc : Trentemøller : Liquid Soul : Panick : Minilogue : Audion. For Shamania we’ll be providing our trademark link from progressive to more full-on trance and techno and taking the energy up a level to further open the portal for total blast-off !

:: > You’ve just returned from Glastonbury…who was the most interesting act you saw there – (musical or not)?

Trentemøller live – Amazing!

:: > Cool…one of my favourite tracks at the minute is Moan off his The Last Resort album, so I am very jealous I was not at Glastonbury to see that…but you’re obviously playing at the Shamania Festival at the end of July…what other festivals are you playing at this summer ? What makes a great festival for you ?

Among others The Glade : Sonica in Italy : Mother Festival in Nagano, Japan : Solfest : Harmonia in Spain : Nagisa in Tokyo. There’s many factors making a great festival – location : people : lineup - but for me one very important factor particularly for dance music is the technical quality and power of the soundsystems. It’s such a shame when you get a nice festival environment but the soundsystem doesn’t deliver...

:: > We promise you an amazing soundsystem at Shamania Steve…do not worry! So -were you always musical? Did you know from when you were very young that you would always create music or did you have ambitions to be something else ?

Learnt piano from age 4 – switched to guitar from age 9 so I guess music has always been a part of my life. I’ve always been hearing tunes in my head since as long as I can remember.

:: > How did you and Miquette meet? Who does what best ?

Miquette was already living in the Gong community when I joined the band – we quickly struck up a strong affinity and pretty soon decided to live and work together. We’re quite opposite – I’m strongly Leo and Miquette’s strongly Aquarius and we’ve retained a strong mutual fascination. Hard to say who does what best as we often swap leadership roles – but in broad terms Miquette’s a good starter and I’m a good finisher of projects....

:: > You have had 9 albums out as System 7 - 777, Point 3 - Fire Album, Point 3 - Water Album, Power of Seven, Golden Section, Seventh Wave, System Express, Encantado, and most recently Live Transmissions – what more is to come ?

We’re at the final stages of the new System 7 album “Phoenix” - it’s deeply inspired by a Japanese manga graphic novel series about the Japanese Phoenix myths that was the life-work of Osamu Tezuka, one of the founding fathers of manga culture. On the album we have collaborations with Eat Static, Son Kite, Jam el Mar (of Jam and Spoon) and Slack Baba – and we will definitely be spinning some of the new tracks in our Shamania set. The album’s set to be released November 5th.

:: > Are you trying to get to 77 albums ?

Not particularly – in the end I think it’s quality rather than quantity that counts – although if I count all the records I’ve produced for other artists as well I’m probably over the 77 mark already.....

::> Is 7 your lucky number?

Most certainly... This year my Glastonbury wristband was number 777 – didn’t protect me from the mud though !

:: > Ah! What synchronicity! ….do you have the faintest idea how many various singles you have released as System 7? What about in all of your other guises too?

I think for System 7 it’s around 17. With our previous incarnations maybe a dozen or so – and with my productions for other artists it’s a pretty large number!

:: > Why did you start your own record label?

It had always been our dream to fully own the rights to our musical output and to run our own label – at the end of the nineties an opportunity came up and we seized it!

:: > Yeah…I think with the slow dissolution of traditional record companies that was probably a wise move and you are both obviously au fait with sound business…so what is there left for you to accomplish?

I tend to think that you’re only as good as your most recent mix or composition or your last gig, so my main horizon of accomplishment is to bring whatever is my current project to the best possible fruition. But as I said above, I love those Arab string orchestras....

:: > When you are not creating, making, planning, dreaming of music…what do you really like doing?

Internet : windsurfing : and I’m still partial to the odd bit of fishing....

:: > I really love the sample you have on your System 7 myspace called Love Mission…where could we buy that track?

The track’s called “Love Mission – Mission Love” and it was a one-off exclusive for a Japanese advert promotion for MP3 players. It’s now fully available on iTunes. We’ll definitely be playing it at Shamania....

:: > Fantastic…that’s another sale for you and it is indeed brilliant…I can’t wait to hear it live! For anyone who has not heard it yet, or indeed any of System 7’s latest tracks … get a glimpse of them on their myspace …. Click on the links below

Thanks once again Steve….You’ve given us all a great taster for the marvellous things to come hearing you both play at Shamania. Portal Blast Off indeed……
xx

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