2014 has been all go for Stephen Howe. Residencies, a raft of festival appearances and a Chemistry degree are all already under his belt. Listening to Stephen’s mixes and hearing him play though, it’s hard to believe that he only started DJing three years ago. While his story rings true for a lot of student DJs though, he discernibly surpasses most in terms of technical ability, refined taste and success. That’s what makes the fact he’s sticking around to help build Mavrik’s reputation all the more exciting. Oh, and he’s finishing his Masters. This all with a background dissimilar to most other DJ’s too. Stephen is in the minority having never produced his own music and whilst he recognises the difficulty in gaining recognition and bookings without a history of production he is critical of those who seem to churn out tracks purely for careerist purposes. His appearances at Beacons and Dimensions are testament that this isn’t always a necessary evil and that being a talented DJ is often enough to get noticed.
By combining Funk, Disco, House and Techno rather impressively on vinyl, his dedication to mixing records means the tracks he plays are a refreshing mix of lesser-known finds, old-school discogs buys and exciting new releases. That’s not to say his taste has always been as desirable as they are now though. From the typical teenage ‘band phase’ through to Annie Mac and Hospital Records in sixth form, Howe’s interested have varied as much as the next guy and that makes his story all the more interesting. Rather intriguingly, it was only when Stephen came to university that he really began to immerse himself in the electronic music scene.
His interest ultimately stemmed from nineties Garage and once armed with virtual DJ software and a back catalogue of old Garage, he began to DJ. He laughs as he remembers the mp3 controller he used to use and recalls that his transition from virtual to physical DJing was prompted by seeing his friend DJing at BPM society. Until then, Stephen admits that he had disregarded the vinyl format not realising its lasting prominence in modern DJing. This much more physical and hands-on method of mixing appealed to him and was the original motivation for his own record collection.
Stephen began to shop at Tribe Records and Therapy, now relocated to Sheffield, when he found it difficult to find his favoured Garage records online. The industrial warehouse was slightly out of town, and DJs would often donate their old collections, including an abundance of Garage white labels. Following its closure, Stephen’s interest in older music now mainly limits him to buying from discogs, as despite the market for it, there is an unfortunate lack of good record shops in Leeds.
After collecting a substantial number of records, Stephen finally invested in industry standard Technics 1210s and began to mix on vinyl. His tastes slowly changed as he got into House and Techno, largely down to its exposure in the Leeds’ club scene and the emergence of UK label, Swamp81. Stephen mainly looks to the internet in search of new music, utilising online blogs where like-minded members share music, and keeping an eye out for records by favourite record labels, Workshop, Dance Mania, FXHE and Sound Signature. Thanks to two years of studentoverdraft, Stephen’s record collection now numbers over five-hundred.
Stephen has plenty of opportunity to expose crowds to this ever-growing collection having bagged residencies with Straight Up and more recently with Mavrik. Set up by Howe’s University friends, Mavrik appears to be the perfect home for the increasingly popular DJ. Mavrik contains a dedication to music that is clearly evident on their blog, in their mixes and regular curation of club nights at Wire. Having already hosted Simian Mobile Disco this term, it appears that their stock is set to continue rising with some carefully guarded and exciting line-ups on the horizon. With Howe on the bill, that upward curve they’ll be hoping for is likely to be a pronounced one.
Harriet Shepherd