His album If Life Gives you Lemons, Make Lemonade killed it at the beginning of the year, and he is also going from strength to strength as head of his own label Snatch!

We caught up with him to ask him what we can expect come Saturday evening…

Firefly: Hey Stefano, hope you’re well. Could you briefly describe where you are and what is around you?

Riva Starr: Kitchen, cooking right now… Got basil, parmesan and spaghetti on the table. They are ready to jump into a tomato sauce I m cooking right in front of me

FF: At Firefly we are hyped about you coming to play at the Garvey next month, what springs to mind when you think of the UK and how do you rate the crowds?

RS: I live in the UK – have been here for a few years now – London to be precise.. And I love uk crowd, propa rave-heads!

FF: What memories of Nottingham and its people do you have?

RS: I really love Nottingham – been there a few times and its been a massive night each time.. Still looking for Robin Hood though…

FF: What sort of a set can we expect at Firefly, or does it really depend on how the night takes you?

RS: It all depends on my set time. I could play a bit deeper, or totally rave it up. I never plan my sets too much – I like my record box to be like a magicians hat, you never know what I am going to pull out.

FF: You’re dates appear rammed up until the new year, playing across Europe and going to Asia before starting 2011 at the Australian festivals – when is the next time you are going to find time to get back in the studio and get some new productions out?

RS: Tell me about it! Thank God I can work on my laptop while I m travelling but I really need to make mixdowns in the studio as I am an analog freak… Got plenty coming thru my label plus a few remixes so it’s all sorted till the end of the year!

FF: How much involvement do you have with your label Snatch!, and what can we expect from that?

RS: I’m the boss, A&R, make coffe and clean toilets in the office sometimes… I can even pretend to be a voicemail if needed.

FF: The Italian electronic dance scene has thrown up some pretty massive names in recent years such as yourself, Crookers and Congorock – who is the next set of DJ/producers we should be looking out for?

RS: Well, there are a few more established one like Santos, I would keep an eye for Pirupa as he’s smashing it at the mo.

FF: If you were booking a festival and you had three spaces on the mainstage to fill, who would you have playing alongside you who?

RS: Oh gosh! I would say Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Doors (on their golden age)… I could do a prog/rock set!

***

If you still haven’t got your tickets for Firefly on Saturday with Riva Starr, Phil Kieran and Scuba vs. SCB – you are in luck, because there are still a few here.

Riva Starr couldn’t be hotter right now.  Stefano Miele – aka Riva Starr – has smashed out of the blogosphere with his unique patchwork of styles, swiftly establishing himself as one of the most unique and recognisable producer / DJ today.

Riva – with his love for re-inventing any music that inspires him – has coined the term “Snatch!” to describe his very personal bootleg remix technique, snatching and pick-pocketing any music style and making it his own. Also known as “Mezcla” – the Spanish word for blending or fusion – Riva’s music moves from mood to mood, genre to genre, but always leaving his cheeky, wobbly footprint. His eclectic love of contrasting sounds reverberate through his productions – Disco, Folk, Electro and Balkan beats are all thrown in there…

“I’m a house DJ… My house style is like a magician’s hat; you can put your hand in there
& you won’t know what will come out of it.” (Riva Starr – Time Out London)

With an impressive catalogue of releases and remixes on key dance labels such as Made 2 Play, Get Physical, Dirtybird, Kindisch and Southern Fried; Riva’s diverse, but always distinctive sound has helped him notch up a fan-base that ranges from Annie Mac to Pete Tong, Tiesto to Riccardo Villalobos, Carl Cox to DJ Sneak, and Groove Armada to Sven Vath. His remixes are as diverse as his own productions, already including The Gossip, Derrick Carter, Usher, Thomas Schumacher, Plan B, Dennis Ferrer, Lionrock and Estelle. But no matter how diverse his productions and remixes, there is always an inimitable thread that is unique to Riva.

“The Riva Starr sound has many different angles to it; It’s funny, sometimes it’s grotesque and sometimes it’s bouncy & dark, it really reflects my personality.” (Riva Starr)

Riva’s recent album “If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade” (Made to Play), was released in January this year to critical acclaim. Drawing inspiration from the Balkan music scene, Riva showed his depth of musical knowledge – using the brilliant Noze on ‘I Was Drunk’ – whilst showcasing his directorial talents in the self-edited video release – a montage and homage to Balkan director Kusturica (over 800,000 hits on YouTube and counting). The single has already gained huge support on Radio 1 and the DJ elite and having been recently snapped up by major label Positiva, is due for release in August 2010.

Riva’s Miami Defected compilation (March 2010) featured his remix of Dennis Ferrer’s ‘Hey Hey’ (arguably one of this year’s most talked about remixes), and was the perfect opportunity to showcase Riva’s dynamic sound and made one of Defected’s biggest compilations of the year.

Snatch! (well of course!) Records, was launched in April 2010, and has already made a huge splash with releases from Donk Boys, David Keno, Riva’s own ‘Splendidub’, and Thomas Schumacher.  You have to watch Riva’s incredible ‘Splendidub’ video, which again he made himself on Ableton… and is due to be another YouTube sensation – sheer brilliance…
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf3uG6QnarQ)

On the live front, it’s been an insane year for Riva – properly been rocking all over the world… With an enviable energy, Riva has DJ’ed at every major club and festival this season – including Cocoon Germany; Space, Ibiza Rocks, the Radio 1 weekender & Pacha in Ibiza; UK festivals Glastonbury, The Big Chill & Love Box and Fuji Rocks & Womb in Japan. No rest for the wicked though, and Riva’s mad tour doesn’t end there – with plenty more booked for the rest of the year such as Dance Valley, Pukkelpop, The Warehouse Project, Ill Muretto, Creamfields and The Loft in Barcelona.

Keep your eyes on this boy – he really is a star in the making!

“One of the most exiting names in house music…
The surprise is that it sounds just as good outside the clubs, too” (The Big Issue)

http://www.myspace.com/rivastarr

RIVA_STARR-BACK_TO_THE_BASS_MIXTAPE by Rivastarr

the Elite Force Revamped track has had the nod from the band so expect for this to land on re:vamped 2 some time in 2011.

www.myspace.com/chewlips

Our Boys the Loops are killing it right now!! With the Rack Em Ep remixes dropped this week on Beatport. With the orginals still not out of the charts after 8weeks, they decided to drop some tasty refixes by Zodiac Cartel, Maelstrom and Vandal.  This Ep has has huge support from Sasha, The Crystal Method and many more who have been hammering the EP for a couple of months now!

Go and sample the Zod Remix Here
Loops Of Fury – Rack Em (Zodiac Cartel Remix) (128k TASTER) by Zodiac Cartel

or head over to beatport here

Free downloads and mixes here

Enjoy

If you are heading to Bestival this weekend THePETEBOX will be playing a couple of secret shows check out his facebook for more info here.

If you havnt already seen the video of Pete doing a cover of Nivana Lithium using his loops pedal where have you been? Click here… Anyway Petes decided to record the bootleg in the studio and is giving it away through his website here

Riva Starr headlines firefly on 23rd October with Phil Kieran and Scuba Vs SCB…

Snork29

Phil Kieran – Totally Snorked e.p.

Format: 12″ & Digital

Releasedate: 03.09.2010

A: Pure Tension

B: Bells and Spells

Sample Here
http://soundcloud.com/philkieran/sets/totally-snorked-ep

Finally Phil Kieran is totally snorked.
He provides two mega snorky tracks for his new release on Snork Enterprises. Another yellow monster for the dancefloor.

Belfast´s Phil Kieran is well known for his work for Cocoon records, Novamute, Skint, his collaborations with Funk D´void on Glasgows Soma Records, and also his releases with his band Alloy Mental.
Top quality productions ranging from electronica to crisp techno mayhem, have made him an in demand producer, dj and live show expert.

Side A
Brings you the pure tension of an oldschool like bleepy and beepy techno mover.

Side B
12 minute monster of invoking bell rhythms…

So, buy the record and get totally mega snorked too!!!
https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/release/detail/277233/Totally%20Snorked%20EP

Buy on Beatport Here

[taken from the Elite Force Mailing List]

Oh my. It’s been a summer of madness this year with weekend after weekend of top quality shows, cracking crowds & super sunshine. I’m sure you all know I’m something of an uber-productive maniac when it comes to creative output, but at the moment I’ve been struggling to catch my own breath, and not only have we just surpassed the 10,000 followers on Facebook, but we also topped 250,000 listens on Soundcloud, whilst MySpace visits are closing in on 2 million. Bonkers, weird & lovely all at the same time – can’t thank you all enough for your support really!

Anyway I’m going to keep this (mercifully) brief as I just wanted to give you a quick recap on a few new bits …

/////////////////////// PRODIGY Vs ELITE FORCE – SMACK THE FORCE UP [320] ///////////////////////

Literally just dropped this today through the widget system we use to celebrate hitting the 10k mark on Facebook. You do have to enter your email to get it but your details are only ever used  for the occasional mailers from me so rest easy.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE > http://t.opsp.in/K80t

Please use the SHARE button on the widget to spread it via Facebook & Twitter – really helps me out!!

/////////////////////// VANDAL – BIG DOG (ELITE FORCE REMIX) ///////////////////////

This has been a mainstay in my sets these past few months, and the chances are if you’ve been to any shows, this will have rocked your world. It was release today on Beatport as an exclusive, and given the past few mixes I’ve done have hit the #1 slot on there I would LOVE your support on this one

GET THE BIG DOG MIX HERE > http://beatport.com/s/t5EzMf

/////////////////////// VIDEOS – ASSORTED EYE-CANDY FROM THE SUMMER 2010 ///////////////////////

So I’ve been working quite hard on trying to up my video skills & was pretty pleased with how the two Wickerman movies turned out. For those that don’t know, my U&A label took over one half of Bass Camp at this excellent Scottish Festival this summer and both nights we smashed the tent to bits, having grafted long & hard to put all the visuals & decor in place for the event (Tom Reed & VJ Air please take a bow).

Wickerman – U&A Movie (Part One) [Zodiac Cartel, Simon Jackson, Loops of Fury, Mike Hulme]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5sL9oxr6dw

Wickerman – U&A Movie (Part Two) [Calvertron, Vandal, Rektchordz, Resistance]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcS9VktSXPg

The following week it was onto the Kendal Calling Festival in the Lake District where I was on after Yoda & had a MASSIVE crowd to play with.

Elite Force @ Kendal Calling 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIDolaw4n18

Just a few days later I was out in Canada to play the unbelievable Shambhala Festival where I got a great slot on the massive Pagoda Stage on the Saturday night. View from the booth was like this …

Elite Force @ Shambhala 2010
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=424090937489

Then yesterday I had the privilege of playing the wicked family affair that is Montreal’s unique Picnik Electronique which happens every Sunday during the afternoon and features a killer line-up of internation & local talent every week. Another cracking crowd!

Elite Force @ Picnik Electronique 2010
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=426624607489

Last but not least and going back a few weeks, was the Elite Force Boat Party on the Thames, which was a complete success, blessed as we were by a beautiful evening and a full boat. I imagine this might well become an annual event already, and as a fundraiser for Opulent Temple at Burning Man I was thrilled to be able to donate $750 from the proceeds.

Elite Force Boat Party 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JggU_44xVQc

/////////////////////// DJ MIXES – ASSORTED EAR-CANDY FROM THE SUMMER 2010 ///////////////////////

Penultimate thing (jeez – this was meant to be short!!) is some pod-fodder for you. Last year Meat Katie & I did a BIG back2back session at Opulent Temple at the peak of the Saturday night after the burn. There was an amazing energy that night from the crowd (as many of you will have seen from the youtube clips), but for the first time the set has been made available as a download for you, so please grab it from here as we gear up to Burning Man 2010

Meat Katie & Elite Force – Live at Opulent Temple, Burning Man 2009
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DIDXP966

/////////////////////// FORTHCOMING SHOWS ///////////////////////

Well the diary’s looking pretty busy, so to cut down on personal admin, I’ve been trying to maintain a single page that covers all the information on forthcoming sets. I’m not adding anything that isn’t 100% confirmed. You can find them on the following page hosted by ArtistData…

Full List of Future Elite Force & Zodiac Cartel shows …
http://www.artistdata.com/elite-force/shows/

There’s also a simple Burning-Man-specific page for those heading to the Playa this year – no fewer than 11 sets from me!!
http://www.uaarecs.com/burningman.htm

Big ups to all of you for the support, and don’t forget, if you feel like slinging me a vote at this year’s Top100 nonsense at DJMag then my agent will be over-joyed I’m voting for Jimi Saville.
http://www.top100djs.net/