ETERNAL TRANCE GIVES A WARM WELCOME TO...

ACTIVA

(A.K.A Solar Movement, Mekk, Substate, Force One, Aira Force, CMR & Eluna.)

Music Style:

Activa (AKA Robert Stevenson) has been DJing since his first mixing experience whilst at school! From those humble beginnings, the tech trance talent has gone on to play at some of the biggest nights in the UK as well as breaking onto the international scene. Activa is bi-monthly resident the hottest and fastest growing night in the UK, Digital Society.

Studio Work:

Labeled by Paul Van Dyk as ‘producer of the year’, Activa has appeared on the likes of Spinnin, Discover, High Contrast, Black Hole and the mighty Vandit Records, which has enabled him to push his way into the record boxes of the biggest names in the industry and receive their continuous support.

The tech trance titan is most renowned for dance floor destroying tracks ‘Perception’, ‘Remember’ and ‘End of Summer’, which found their way to many of the top trancers play lists. ‘This World, the follow up to ‘End of Summer’ was released on Discover. The new Activa EP, including ‘Rise Above’ and ‘Get On With It’ was released on Vandit on February 26th. After months of hard work in the studio, Activa’s debut album ‘This World’ was released on Discover Records on the 26th of October and features 16 brand new Activa tracks which include collaborations with Gary Maguire and the legend Giuseppe Ottaviani. The album sold 1000 presale copies in 2 weeks as Activa became the fastest selling Discover artiste ever!  New original tracks are in their early stages including collaborations with Dave Parkinson under his Revolution 9 alias and the fantastic Aly & Fila, for their upcoming album. New tracks as Solar Movement are well underway; Indigo has been sent to Anjunabeats, while When You're Near Me is still in production stages.

The prolific producer has remixed for the likes of Filo & Perry, Giuseppe Ottaviani, John Askew, Jon O’Bir, Greg Downey, Alex M.O.R.P.H and his most recent project ‘Unreal to Me by FKN’ for Deep Blue has been has been ripped apart and rebuilt into a pumping Activa Club Mix! Activa is delighted to announce that Paul Van Dyk has commissioned an Activa Remix for the 2009 re-release of his classic, ‘For An Angel” that features in Van Dyk’s greatest hits which is out now. The latest Solar Movement track, ‘Eclipse’ is now available on Anjunabeats and comes with an excellent remix Mat Zo which has peaked at No.2 in the Beatport trance chart! Activa has been busy once again creating remixes for Super8 & Tab's new single, Black Is the New Yellow and John Askew's classic The Door for his Re-Discovered album, check these out on the Activa Myspace page.

With the closure of Conspiracy Recordings imminent, Activa has decided to branch out and create a new label project called Borderline Music. Borderline is set to launch in August 2010 with a barrage of high quality, high energy uplifting and tech edged - but more underground - trance music, watch this space!

Five Questions with Activa

 Your label has gained the reputation of giving new acts a showcase.

Where did you get your inspiration to start out, and where do you get your inspiration from now?

Conspiracy did gain a good reputation for giving new artists a leg up onto the ladder and from there we were able to build on that reputation and sign some great tracks. Conspiracy has actually stopped releasing material now after a good run and for me, will be replaced by Borderline, a solo project for material and artists I really like, old and new. The label will be the home for producers like Marcos, JK Walker, Sonic Element, Substate and a few of my solo productions.
The ideas to create a label with Jon came about when we were talking about what kind of things interested us within the music business and both of us mentioned running a label. I suppose inspiration for the label, the ideas and ethos came about because of all the good unsigned music we were both being promo’d at the time.
Conspiracy was a great part of my career, but its time to turn my attention to Borderline.

You’ve achieved a lot in a relatively short space of time.

 What would you say was the defining moment in your career as an artist and DJ so far?

My career has steadily grown, I have worked extremely hard on my productions and have had some tracks which have pretty much typified the ‘activa’ sound, Remember for example. But it has only been the last year or so where my career has taken me all over the world Djing and at some extremely special events like the Vandit Christmas event with Paul van Dyk in December last year. That was an extremely special event for me as Paul has been very important in my productions gaining a worldwide audience.
Although that was a special event, I think that the release of my artist album was my defining moment, it was the product of over 10 years of gaining knowledge and 18 months worth of hard studio work and something I am extremely proud of.

You’re in the middle of a world tour right now. How do the UK crowds compare to the crowds overseas?

I think the UK crowds are definitely more seasoned, but depending where you are can be a little too knowledgeable at times. I think because the heyday of the likes of Gatecrasher were back in 99 and 2000, clubbers in the UK have pretty much been hit with the best that the genre has to offer in the early 00’s while other countries were a little behind and maybe didn’t know as many brand new and upfront tracks.
But in all honesty, I don’t think there is too much difference any more. Nearly everyone in the world has an internet connection and can access the newest music 24/7 making it a lot more even.
Some places in the UK are a lot livelier than others, the same with international gigs.

You’ve played at some of the biggest club nights (Digital Society, Gatecrasher etc) in the UK and have made a name as one of the hardest working producers around. What else do you want to achieve in your career?

I see my career as a music career and not really limited to dance music so I think ill try and move into other areas of music production. I am still very much in love with trance so that will be a focus for some time yet, however I would love to break into other genres as well as music for different formats like TV and games.

And finally, what’s your drink of choice to help you wind down after a set?

If I’m thirsty, an ice cold coke followed by some Kopparberg. The pear flavour is pretty sweet but is really easy to drink!
 

Interview by Katherine Alder

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