Photography // Steve Void – press.
Following the release of a remix of Niall Horan’s “No Judgement” the Dutch DJ, producer, and label owner Steve Void is now back with new single “Can’t Feel My Face” which samples The Weeknd’s megahit. Peachy Magazine spoke with Void about the single and discussed the exciting collaborations he’s recently been a part of with Lewis Capaldi and Niall Horan, to name a few, and much more.
How would you describe your sound and overall producing style?
I love to infuse culture and trends from multiple niches into something new that could be seen eventually as Pop, Deep House, Dance.
You’ve collaborated with a lot of prominent artists such as Niall Horan and Lewis Capaldi recently – how is that process? And how is it compared to working from scratch on a solo track?
We have been in a fortunate position where we get options in, based on that we pick whatever feels most natural and suited to a logical step for Steve Void self. Always bearing in mind if we can add something new to an already brilliant tune. If the answer to that core question is no that it stops there, if the answer is yes, then we start brainstorming how a Steve Void twist should be implemented to the original song – bringing a new angle hopefully to the song and a new audience.
How do you select or come about collaborating with other artists? What do you look for in a “perfect” collaboration?
Many factors here, if somebody has brilliant potential, I’d love to get it from that early demo phase towards a position where everything is right sonically speaking.
You’re releasing a new track, “Can’t Feel My Face” which samples The Weeknd, a track that you’ve actually already released another version of back in 2015 that did very well. Why that track and why did you decide to give it another spin?
A year ago this idea started to bubble up, back in 2015 I didn’t have the resources, network and I didn’t know how to release the song legally on all other platforms than just Soundcloud. Now 5/6 years further, being a little wiser of how the music industry works, we were able to get this up and running. Actually, quite happy we waited five years to do so as even though a lot of people loved the 2015 version, I genuinely love this new version as it feels more like an established Steve Void sound.
Listen to “Can’t Feel My Face” while reading the interview:
“Fail as hard as you can, on as many aspects you want to improve on as fast as possible. Don’t be afraid of failing as it’s the quickest way to learn, develop, and evolve as a human being.”
steve void on failing
You’ve experienced a lot of success early on in your career; looking back at the beginning when you started out making music, what would you say the most important lesson has been that you would’ve liked to have known back then?
That no matter what you do, there will always be people cheering on one side of the spectrum and people hating on the other.
The music business is quite a tough space to be mentally speaking where the amount of industry people I worked with six years ago now majority moved on to pursue other dreams. It’s a really tough evolving space, but that also makes it so exciting and vibrant to be in.
You cannot do this all on your own; this is probably the toughest point that I was definitely aware of but didn’t anticipate early enough on. But for the last six years, I learned to do it all, and there is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. If you want to scale, you need to build a team around you that pursues a similar dream and or goal with you. There are different meanings to what people call “working hard,” and that is something I’m reminded in everyday life as every human being has a different level of being able to handle stress, workload, mental wellbeing and all other factors for you to live and maintain a healthy happy life.
Fail as hard as you can, on as many aspects you want to improve on as fast as possible. Don’t be afraid of failing as it’s the quickest way to learn, develop, and evolve as a human being.
You started your own label “Strange Fruit” how come? And what is it like to have that kind of resources as an artist?
I’m as much of an artist as I’m a music fanatic as a businessman. With that said, I love to create music and visualize as Steve void, strange fruits, etc., love to A&R as a music fanatic and love to be entrepreneurial.
Strange Fruits ticks all the three boxes for me where I’m able to create, curate, and be on the business side of things. It’s challenging every day where being just in one of these instead of a full circle wasn’t bringing me enough fulfillment at the end of the day.
Strange Fruits is also the freedom to create, explore, and disrupt. Being one identity is a lot of fun, but representing 100’s or 1000’s is a lot more thrilling to be a part of.
“Strange” stands for the strange/ weird guy in school that liked to think or at least explore that not everything in the book was a given fact, but something to be brainstormed about or at least second guess.
“Fruits” stands for the guy who is always eating fruits while in the studio or at school during that time. Having a ventilator in my studio, and some fruits were often the perfect place for people to come together and chat.
That’s how the “Strange Fruits” idea originated from my time at the Herman Brood Academy 5 years ago as a producer, music fanatic, and businessman.
