Interview with Ben Stevens ahead of D-Railed

DAN: Hi Ben, How are you? And what are you up to on this fine snowy day?

BEN: Hi Daniel I'm very well thanks, just about recovered from the festive period but I have been snowed in today so its time for more snowman building and sledging (I wish!)

DAN: We've joined forces for our event with your own label, Fireball Recordings. Tell us a little about Fireball and what's the latest on releases for the label?

BEN: I started Fireball two years ago as I had quite a few tracks that I had done that hadn't been signed. Amato who were the distribution company for Vicious Circle had gone under and because of this VC were no longer able to release tracks until it was all sorted out. I decided that I would set the label up so I could get my tracks out there to people faster and also to try and support some of the up and coming producers in our scene. I know how difficult is can be to get people to listen to your stuff so I wanted to give other people the chance to have their music released.

The label has gone from strength to strength over the past two years and I took the difficult decision to stop pressing vinyl and move to purely digital releases, whether this is by downloads on the net or as physical CD's.

DAN: Fireball also now boasts a new website. How is this going?

BEN: It has been a long time coming to be honest, I really wanted a site that looked professional but was also easy for me to update myself. I have had problems in the past witht eh contect of sites becoming stale as I had to rely on someone else to update them for me but this site is fully integrated into the system that delivers the releases to the digital stores so the site can now be the best place for people to get up to date information about Fireball and what I'm up to.

The website can be found at:
http://www.fireball-recordings.com

We also have a brand new store that is linked to Trackitdown so if you want to buy any of our releases head over to:
http://fireball-recordings.trackitdown.net

DAN: You've worked very close with Paul Glazby and Vicious Circle for quite a while. The two must have had a huge influence on your career, but who/what else has inspired you throughout the years?

BEN: It has been a great oppertunity for me working for Paul and at Vicious Circle, they gave me the insight into how our industry works and I have been lucky enought to meet some fantastic people over the past 7 years. There have been lots of other people that have helped me along the way as well like the guys down at Tidy, Goodgreef and Parlez-Vous.

DAN: ....Also what got you into Hard House in the first place?

BEN: It's probably a similar story to lots of other people but going to Insomniacz in Sheffield every week was what got me into it originally. I never really went to Gatecrasher like many people did but just got a lift to Sheffield at 4am every Sunday morning. My parents thought I was a right muppett!

DAN: We're really excited at D-Railed, not only to have you on-board for our January event, but your partner in crime Rodi Style and your new concept; Chaos Theory! Rodi has made huge waves throughout the scene is such a short time. What's he like to work with? and how did you come up with your new act?

BEN: We are relly looking forwrd to unleashing the Chaos Theory project down at D-Railed, it has been a work in progress for the past year really. I first saw Ben do something similar in Canada a few years ago where he was doing a b2b set over two sets of decks. We have taken this idea and brought it up to date over here as it hasn't been done in the UK hard dance scene before.

At D-Railed we will be unleashing the next phase of the project by incorporating two laptops running Traktor into the setup so that we have an amazing amount of control over the tracks, samples and fx. Miss it at your peril!

DAN: Yourself as a DJ, has regular gigs at the countries best clubs and events. But where do you enjoy playing the most! Also what events do you enjoy the most away from DJ'ing?

BEN: I of course love playing at the big events like the weekenders and festivals but I really enjoy the smaller more intimate venues and the crowd are always really up for it and into the music. I am also lucky enough to go over to Australia and New Zealand and the crowds there are fantastic.

Away from DJing I enjoy going to the gym and just generally relaxing watching films etc. I have started going mountain biking recently and will be spending as much of my spare time this year doing that.

DAN: What does the future hold for Ben Stevens and Chaos Theory? What is in the pipeline for 2010?

BEN: 2010 is going to be a great year as I have a new project that is ready to launch at the Storm 10th birthday, I can't let the cat out of the bag yet but watch this space! There will be plenty more tracks coming out this year and check out Tidy Music Library 19 which has 3 new tracks from Rodi and me and an exclusive Chaos Theory mix on the second disc. 35 tracks in 80 mins so don't miss out on it!

DAN: Thanks very much for taking a little time out of your busy schedule. Feel free to plug away on anything Ben Stevens. And see you on the 9th Jan, for Double Trouble!!
Danny Lee

BEN: No probelem mate see you on Saturday!