The Thrillseekers aka Steve Helstrip
has been at the very forefront of the trance scene for over
5 years now. From his 2003 Hydra project and recent Ferry
Corsten collaboration 'Sublime', back to the legendary - The
Thrillseekers 'Synaesthesia', he has produced a powerhouse
of hugely emotive music.
Steve started out making trance music while working for
the computer games developer, Manic Media. Whilst living in
Chipping Norton, on the Oxfordshire border, with a relatively
basic home studio he constructed the milestone that is The
Thrillseekers - 'Synaesthesia'. Signed and released by Neo
Records at the height of the 1998 trance boom, it went on
to sell over 15,000 copies on its initial UK release.
With its vibe on the subtler side of the genre it took more
than a year to fully realise its own potential however and
its path to eventual chart-success was assisted, in no small
part, by Paul van Dyk. He took the record and gave it a six
month long, gig in, gig out battering. The next year saw PVD
sign it to his own Vandit label, remix it and with the inclusion
of a vocal from Sheryl Dean it entered UK charts at number
27. As a standalone track it has rocked a million clubber's
hearts across a hundred countries. It still appears in a huge
cross-section of DJ's all-time top tens today.
Whilst still closeted in Chipping Norton, Steve took it
upon himself to learn the art if DJ'ing. It was initially
born out of a desire to see how his records worked in the
mix with other tracks, and as a tool with which to improve
their DJ properties. This quickly turned into a desire to
see them, first hand, fire up a floor. Over the last four
years Steve has played guest slots right across the globe,
taking in some of the finest venues in each continent.
Steve was always one for quality over quantity and whilst
his production peers belted out one sound-a-like track after
another, he focused on creating a catalogue he would still
be happy with in 20 years time. Following 'Synaesthesia' came
'Dreaming of You' which was released on the Ministry of Sound's
Data label and in the UK alone, featured on 14 Compilations
last year.
In the intervening period Steve went on to launch a new
moniker for MOS subsidiary, Incentive. En-Motion was born
and with it came 'Truth' in 2000 and 'Getting Away With It'
in 2002. In the adjoining years he also pushed forward with
collaborations with Andy 'Pulser' Perring as Insigma ('Open
Our Eyes'/'Avalon') and with ATCR owner Tim Stark under the
name Rapid Eye ('Circa-Forever'/'Stealing Beauty').
Steve's remix career started pretty much the same day as
'Synaesthesia' was promo'ed. Since then he has revamped, remapped
and reshaped in excess of thirty other artist's tracks. From
Sonique to Sholan, from Tiesto to Timo Maas (twice!) and from
Chicane to Cequenza, he has lent them all his awesomely melodic,
electronic touch.
DJ'ing under the moniker "The Thrillseekers",
Steve has played the globe over Germany, Finland, Denmark,
America, Australia, and Japan in addition to securing high
profile slot in the UK at the likes of Ministry Of Sound,
Passion and Golden. In the process developing his ever-growing
reputation as a DJ towards the level he is looked upon as
a producerarguably amongst the best in the world.
