Over the trajectory of the past two decades Berlin DJ/producer Daniel Steinberg has continually brought a fresh twist to the dance floor. While he’s always been one to push the creative envelope, he never imagined that a drunken holiday mishap last Christmas — which resulted in a fractured right hand — would inform his just released album, Left-Handed. Working through physical discomfort with only one hand turned out to be an introspective studio experience, one that elevated his production style to a new plateau. We talked to Steinberg about how he made lemonade out of lemons, he also graced us with a smashing 17-track guest mix featuring a host of his latest and greatest and assorted jams.
Daniel Steinberg’s Left-Handed is out now on Arms & Legs.
Big Shot Guest Mix 308: Daniel Steinberg
- Rockers Hi-Fi – “7 Ways”
- Reconstructed Soul – “It’s Love” (Hernan’s Dub Revolution)
- Miguel Migs – “The Night” (Andy’s Love Bizarre Dub)
- Daniel Steinberg – “No One Can Change Me”
- white Label
- Minilouge – “Do Easy”
- Kristin Velvet – “Fan Post”
- Daniel Steinberg – “Corn Dog”
- Daniel Steinberg – “Flamingo”
- Heiko Laux – “Moved” (Ricardo Villalobos Remix)
- Lauhaus – “Downunder”
- Test pressing
- Dave Angel – “Timeless”
- Sir Drew – “Mates Rates” (Peace Division Remix)
- Daniel Steinberg – “I’ll Begin”
- Chicken Lips – “Eggi’s Pause Button” (Sieg über die Sonne Remix)
- Daniel Steinberg – “Neptune”
The story how injuring your hand informed a full-length album is an amazing one. It almost sounds like the plot of Stephen King novel (though nobody was holding you against your will as in Misery). How do you look back on the period in which you created the album? How has this time informed your post-album production work and musical outlook?
Daniel Steinberg: I look back on the time I created the album with a big smile; it was a really fun and interesting period. Injuring my hand was at first was annoying but forced me to really slow down and be patient with how I produce which subsequently changed the way I heard sounds. It was almost a Zen-like awakening. This learned patience and attention to detail I hope will stay with me.
Left-Handed is stylistically diverse but the sequencing works really well. Was it difficult to make all of the tracks flow together or did it evolve organically?
Thank you. That was my goal with this album: to make it stylistically diverse but still an enjoyable journey for the listener. I’m a DJ so it’s a fun challenge for me to make tracks from different genres flow together; I thought about the track order of the album for a long time.
Thank you for your guest mix. It’s brilliant. Tell us a bit about the tracks you included and how the vibe came about.
Cool, thanks. Glad you like it. I came home from a gig and was still vibing from the night. I made the mix live and just improvized. I find this is the best way and is definitely the most fun.
Do you have any touring plans around the album?
Sure, I want to travel all over with this album, it’s really interesting to see how people from different cultures react to the music. It’s also completely crazy to see people on the other side of the world singing the words to a track you’ve made.
Any final thoughts?
Thanks for the interview. I’m looking forward to meeting you on a dance floor somewhere soon!