Roast Groove's Steve Rothery fills us in on why its groovy to be roasting
Steve is the founder member of RoastGroove along with Chris Norris. Originally hailing from Portishead, he started mixing over 10 years ago. Steve successfully ran Fusion in Birmingham from 1997-2001 promoting events featuring the biggest DJs in the land as well as Fusion's River Severn boat parties.
Playing a mixture of electro tinged dirty basslines, French afro-influenced house and soulful grooves - Steve is definitely a party DJ who loves to build his sets up and he loves going mental to the tunes as much as anyone in the crowd. Steve has played at a variety of venues in London including Pacha, Egg, The Cross, Turnmills and Brixton Academy for SW4, Puscha, Space, Glitterati, Prologue, Pukka Up, Ménage a Trois and Sundazed and was resident for Super Sundays for 18 months. He is also a resident for Sunday Roast with friend Greg Oldfield at Inigo Bar in Clapham.
So, tell us about RoastGroove. How did the band come about? What was the original idea behind it?
I've DJ'd for quite a while and always enjoyed just playing tunes out, but 3 years ago I was in Ibiza and one night I was absolutely dazzled by seeing this sax player and percussionist working together with a DJ. The difference to anything I'd seen like this before was that they all seemed to know the tunes that the DJ was playing and were mates, they worked really well together and this made a big difference. This really lifted their night and made it stand out above a lot of the big clubs on the island, despite the night being in quite a small bar.
How did you all meet each other?
Chris and me started the group back in march 2005 and he was put in touch with me by a mutual friend, as he wanted to get more involved with house music. We joined up with two good DJ friends of mine - Oli Smiles and Greg Oldfield and their successful Roast nights and became Roastgroove the live act. After we got some momentum going Jen joined us to add her vocals and she was a friend of Chris's, then it was Andy on bass, then Olaf on percussion and most recently Tom joined us on keyboard. It's mainly been friends of friends putting us in touch with new musicians when we've been looking to add something on a gradual basis.
Has RoastGroove always had the same line-up or has there been some shuffling around?
The core of the group has always been the same, but in order to build ourselves and grow the right way, we've tried out different people as we've worked on our sound to get the right set-up. I'm really happy with the balance that we've got now.
How did you first get involved in the dance music scene?
I started off playing drum n bass in 1994/5 in Bristol, but I found the house scene a lot more friendly and have been mixing house since about 1996. I went to Uni in Birmingham and organised club nights and boat parties up there – that was what got me really involved and I got the chance to play with some of the bigger DJ's at the time (Tony de Vit (rip), Brandon Block, John Kelly, Alex P, Sonique). I went away travelling and it dropped off but I missed it so much when I was away, so since I moved to London in 2003 I couldn't wait to get back involved.
Out of all the gigs you play, which have held the fondest memories for you?
I think the most important thing about any gig for me is seeing loads of my mates there really going for it and getting stuck in! DJ wise I've really enjoyed playing at both the main room and the middle arch at The Cross because the atmosphere is so great in there. In terms of the band we're building up the bigger gigs at the moment, but NYE just-gone-by at the Circle Bar (Clapham) was amazing because it was all friends and we did the whole night – also the last time we played the Whitehouse in the VIP room was a complete roadblock there was a great atmosphere in there – so we're really looking forward to making our main room debut for PUSH on Sunday.
Where do you hope to take this project? What are your ambitions for it?
Well we started out just to have fun and enjoy ourselves when we are performing and we still stick to that. Musically, we'd like to move into more production and develop more original material, we have some tracks we're working on but are always looking for new talent. So, if any up-and-coming producers that want to work with live musicians are reading this, please contact us via our website www.roastgroove.com. We've got a really good set-up and a great live presence so I'd love to take us onto some bigger stages, playing a live set at one of the bigger clubs like Pacha would be great. However, a definite ambition would be for us to play a part in this years SW4 festival especially as most of us live in Clapham so it would be great to play to our home crowd at such a well established summer gig.
This Sunday sees you guys performing at The WhiteHouse in Clapham for Push Sunday Sessions, a new house music event. What are your expectations of the night?
Pretty high really, I went to the launch night to see Rocky n Diesel and it was rammed really early, which was a great way for PUSH to start. Our set is from 6pm – 9.30pm this Sunday so we'd love to see people down there early, I think our live set-up really benefits from having an up-for-it audience because the musicians and the dj's definitely buzz from that.
You play in Clapham a fair bit…what's so great about the place in your opinion?
The thing I probably most like about Clapham is that it's full of up-for-it people mostly in their 20's to early 30's and people in Clapham aren't too serious about life. There's a great summer scene here when the common gets mobbed. Too many people these days live their lives around their day jobs, it's good to have people around that aren't afraid to come out and play on a schoolnight and take a few risks!
Which are the hottest tunes in your box right now? Something that might get played on Sunday…
Well I don't want to give away too much about Sunday's set, but there's a few that stand out for me at the moment: A new tune by Freemasons – Watching, Dreams by Deep Dish, Soul Central – Need you now (Sergio Flores Mix), Haji & Emanuel - Take Me Away, Soul Purpose Salsa House and a bootleg of Madonna - Get Together, - most of the time it's what we do as a group over the top of the records that really defines our sound and makes the tunes stand out
Do you have to think about which tunes to play in terms of what the band can do over the top of the track? Or do you just play anything and see how it goes?
We've definitely found that it helps to plan our set and to rehearse so we can work out which instruments suit each track and then to get an idea of what the sequence should be so we can compliment the records being played. The band listen to my mix cd's and then we chat about which tunes they'd like to play over and I give them some guidance and direction about what I think fits the tune and how we can get the best out of them and the tune, and then we work together so we are all happy with how it sounds.