“As a musician I am working to make music that makes people feel so good, they decide to live in a different way. And be happy. And keep that feeling with them all the time.”
Steve Knots lives and breathes music. But before getting more into that, we’ll first address the “knots” bit of his name. “I don’t use my real last name (Smith) because it sounds too boring. Knots are at least like, ‘Ok we are tying something up and turning rope into a magical tool to carry things, catch fish or keep your horse from running away.’” Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…
His musical journey though, very much unlike his real last name is one that is far from being dull or boring. In 1997, when the first portable MP3 player was launched (added this just to make us all feel old), Steve Knots launched the electronic music-making chapter of his life too.
“I loved reggae, punk rock, triphop, DnB and house music and I played bass on a 400watt bass amp. I liked anything hypnotically deep and loud that put me in a trance-like state of sound. My first setup was one turntable with a Numark DJ mixer and my MPC2000 sampler. I sampled my records and basslines and made beats. Then I beatmatched records to my beat loops and recorded new samples off the records and layered them in. I actually learned to beatmatch from playing records with a drum machine, not two records.”
Two years later, in 1999, Steve realized he didn’t want to be a bike messenger forever but there was an issue - he didn’t know how to make his recordings sound good. He packed his bags and decided to go to music school and properly learn how to do recordings. His time at the Sonic Arts Center in NYC changed his life to say the least. It provided him the necessary skills to work as a live sound engineer, DJ and producer of original tracks which he could perform.
In 2006, his Ableton Live adventure began when he moved to Europe, got a laptop with Live 5 and left all his records and samplers back in the US. The next pivotal moment for him came in 2009, when he crossed off doing 100 shows in a single year. “And I found I could sustain that and made it my life to live at night in clubs. What had to be done was book shows in advance and always keep my calendar full. Don’t wait until after one performance to look for the next one. Fill your calendar NOW!” From 2009 to 2014, Steve made a living as a hybrid Ableton DJ, holding residencies with live electronic music and guest performers on vocals and instruments.
In 2016, Steve discovered his love for teaching and he spent the next five years, right up till the pandemic learning on how to make an online business. “That’s totally different from learning how to make electronic music, so it took a long time.”
“In 2020, I lost all sound engineering jobs because of the pandemic. I started teaching Ableton Live on YouTube and discovered I love teaching so that’s where I am now, making beats and showing people how to do it. I teach at a place called www.tech25.org, I’m still teaching on YouTube and that’s all still ongoing.”
If you hadn’t guessed by now already, the music itself is what keeps Steve motivated – that, and deadlines. “A deadline is absolutely the best motivation so like I said, put those dates on the calendar! And when my cat barfs on the floor that’s pretty good motivation to clean it up. The obstacle is the path. Stoic philosophy.”
“As a musician I am working to create music that makes people feel so good, they decide to live in a different way. And be happy. And keep that feeling with them all the time. My equipment dream right now is to play live sets with twin Push3 controllers doing multitrack live mixes from song to song to song without having to stop and load a new Ableton project each time. It’s on the way.”
Back to that whole chronological sequence of events thing, it was Steve’s friends Vincent Boiron and Marc Troy at Nomadism Records who first introduced him to Birdcage Radio. “I asked to play on Birdcage around December 2023, and now it’s my favourite new group of friends! I love the music, the people are cool, it pulls me forward to put new DJ sets together and make more music, and I totally love it. Birdcage Radio has actually helped me transform a huge loss into a perfect new opportunity and I am forever grateful!”
Thinking back on some of his accomplishments in his journey thus far, Steve says it all boils down to his never give-up attitude. Of which, he describes his inner voice going something along the lines of, “Keep going. Shut up. Keep going. No. No. No. No, I’m not going to give up on this. Shut up. Keep going.”
Get Steve Knots' newest release on Birdcage Radio Records on Bandcamp!
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