Student Spotlight: Steve Williams -

June 9, 2021

Welcome back to our student spotlight. This time we talk to Steve Williams.

What’s your name and artist name (if any)? Give us a bit of background on yourself. How long have you been producing and how did you get into music?
- My name is Steve Williams and I produce and perform as drusnoise. I have been part of the electronic music scene since my time as a raver in the mid-late Nineties in Canada, through to clubbing in London and Paris in the 2000s, and now as an electronic music producer and performer based in Berlin. My drusnoise artist persona integrates two key areas of my background. As a sustainability scholar, I work on sustainable energy system transitions. In my research, I am particularly concerned with the role of citizens and decision making, justice in transitions, engagement with Indigenous peoples, and the arts and sustainability. So my research background has a direct connection to my musical interests. When I was completing my PhD in Canada, my niece and nephew started calling me ‘Dr. Uncle Steve’ which led to ‘dr.us’ and then to ‘drusnoise’!
When were you a student at 343 Labs?
- I started with 343 in Berlin in Summer 2020 through to Spring 2021
What classes are you taking/have taken?
- I ended up taking four classes! Starting with Mixing and Mastering, then Sound Design, Composition & Arrangement, and just wrapped up the Live Performance class.
What is/was your favourite thing about being a student at 343?
- Definitely the community! I made lasting connections with fellow students and instructors that led to making music, performing, and making videos together. It was also great (when lockdown rules allowed) to be part of the community of producers, performers, and engineers at Riverside Studios in Berlin.
What type of music do you make? How would you describe your music?
- I mainly produce and perform live techno with a hardware-based setup but my music is full of contrasts and tensions. Between analog and digital, improvisation and programmed sequences, four-to-the-floor techno and random noise, synthesized sounds and field recordings, produced tracks, and live performance. I embed field recordings that fuse nature and urban life such as the sound of rain on metal balcony roof, rattling bicycle fenders and bells, banging pots and pans from street demos, and recordings of friends chatting on the street. I am also fascinated with making music from ‘natural data’ including the electrical emissions from plants that generate voltages for sound pitch and triggers and global CO2 concentration data from the Mauna Loa Observatory on the island of Hawaii translated to sound and waveforms.
What inspires you when you make music, and which artists or producers do you look up to?
- My biggest love and inspiration is the energy I get from performing live in front of a crowd on a big sound system. Although lately, that means on livestreams! I love the interplay between me getting lost in my own music and the reactions of people on the dance floor. Music is such a big part of my life and building a connection through music always inspires me.
Do you have any projects on the go? Tell us about them!
- My debut EP – Invisible Wires – drops on June 11!! Check out the launch party on https://twitch.tv/drusnoise 11.06.21 at 19.00 Berlin time – streaming live from 343 Labs in Berlin. Three dark techno tracks that are produced and arranged versions of tracks that started out as live performances. I used Ableton for mixing and arrangement but almost all of the sounds are from my modular and analog synths, drum machines, and outboard FX running through an analog mixing desk.. Next up, I am working on a four-track EP each featuring a globally recognized, innovative sustainability scholar discussing different aspects of transition, transformation, and the Anthropocene. This bridges my worlds of sustainability and music, by embedding each of these sets of ideas in techno tracks. Samples, synthesizers, percussion, melodies, and rhythms are carefully chosen to support, challenge, and enhance the ideas presented. Check out my web site or follow my socials for latest info
What are your goals for the coming year?
- Finding a real-life venue to play live sets! There is a LOT that is out of my control to make that happen but I am hopeful that Berlin (and other European countries) clubs will start to open later this year. I know my performances connect with people through online livestreams but there is really no substitute for a dance floor with a sound system that shakes the walls and rattles your bones.
Is there anything you would like to share or say to the 343 Community?
- What I have learned most at 343 is don’t be afraid to take risks. Get that almost finished track out there. Play that livestream. Sing those lyrics that have been sitting in your notebook for a year. It won’t be perfect but it will be out in the world. I always try to remember the quote from Miles Davis “Do not fear mistakes. There are none.”