Steve Hill

Steve Hill is a New Zealand-born hard-house DJ and producer whose work is associated with hard house, hard trance and trance. He is active in Australia and is linked to a number of aliases and collaborative projects including Phlash!, Neon Lights, Nylon, Hardcore Masif, Masif DJ’s, Steve Hill vs Technikal, Hard Dance Alliance and Nu-Renegades.

Career

Hill starts out as a professional guitar player and is performing professionally from the age of 16. By 20, he is playing more than 200 gigs a year. His first album appears in 1997 and is voted Best Canadian Debut Recording by Vancouver’s Real Blues magazine. After touring across Canada, France and Belgium, he returns to the studio in 1999 to record Call It What You Will.

On a later Canadian and European tour, he shares bills with Ray Charles, B.B. King, Jimmie Vaughan, Buddy Guy and Johnny Lang. He wins Electric Act of the Year at Toronto’s Maple Blues Awards and receives a Juno Award nomination. In 2001, he produces, plays on and co-writes on Nanette Workman’s Blues and Roots album, then tours it before joining Louisiana cajun musician Zachary Richard for another Canadian tour.

Albums and collaborations

In 2002, Hill releases Domino, which marks a move away from his earlier work. The album combines rock, R&B, electronica and blues, and is presented as a step forward in his songwriting and production. In 2003, he begins working with Montreal rock artist Michel Pagliaro, a partnership later documented on the Live à Québec DVD in 2006.

His 2007 album Devil at my Heels shows him also as a singer, with a harder rock sound built around Gibson guitars, played without a pick, and a Marshall amplifier stack. During the tour that follows, he appears with ZZ Top, The Tragically Hip, Jeff Beck and Santana. He later works with Quebec singer Eric Lapointe on the Ma peau album and tour.

Later work

In 2009, Hill releases The Damage Done with his band The Majestiks, alongside Rock Laroche on bass, Sam Harrisson on drums and Johnny Flash on guitar. It is recorded live in the studio over five days and presents his guitar playing and vocals in a stripped-back band setting. Whiplash Love is also listed as a later album in his catalogue.