Taken from the new album – Balearic Bliss, Steen Thottrup’s ‘Rising Like The Sun” is out now.
Check out our chat below where Steen talks about his musical inspirations, the album and loads more.
T.H.E – Where are you from? Where are you based now?
Steen Thottrup – I’m from Denmark, recently I left Ibiza after several years and I now live in Tuscany/Italy
T.H.E – Were you always musical growing up?
Steen Thottrup – Yes, I was obsessed with music from an early age.
T.H.E – What inspired you to start making music?
Steen Thottrup – My dad bought a drum kit and I was instantly hooked, practising 4 hours a day, that then lead into samplers and electronic music etc.
T.H.E – What artists would you say are your main influences?
Steen Thottrup – In my case, it’s been genres that were my influences. Artist comes and goes quickly nowadays unfortunately. So genres stretching from Post punk to Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals and then the biggest one for me…… The whole house music revolution and the 24/7 party scene that came with it, where downtempo also was as necessary as the uptempo stuff.
T.H.E – Can you tell us about your new album ‘Balearic Bliss’?
Steen Thottrup – I hope it touches the souls as much, as I have been told, the previous 2 albums did.
The last few years have been good to me and therefore I think it has a deep, positive and appreciative energy mainly. I also wanted to go away a little from the ‘Too’ purpose build chillout style and try something different. For example 2 of the tracks are with opera and quite a few of the other tracks are with a male singer, which immediately changes the sound from the previous 2 albums. I also have quite a bit of acoustic instruments in there and that is also a very different way to work.
So all in all a very refreshing experience for me, which I think music production should be at all times- It is important it doesn’t go stale and uninspiring.
With this said, then I hope I have achieved a result that touches the souls both lyrically and musically, make people appreciate things a little more and lastly done something there is a little different from my side, but not so different that my followers wont recognise the sound I hopefully stand for. But that is for them to judge….I can only hope.
There is a lot of stress at the moment and we are all a bit nervous. Hopefully this album can give a little piece of mind and an escape from reality for 54 minutes.
T.H.E – What other places are you looking to take your music?
Steen Thottrup – I think the music chooses its own path and I just follow, with that I mean. Doors I wouldn’t even think about could be opened and people I don’t know yet could be my musical partners in the future, which then creates another inspiring path.
T.H.E – Where do you aspire to travel?
Steen Thottrup – From the Northern lights to the most eastern point, I think. I really have one passion, bigger than anything, and that is people and their cultures. To explore them more, so I can be constantly reminded that everyone have something in common, even though society often tries to convince us otherwise.
T.H.E – What’s the favourite place you’ve performed in anywhere in the world?
Steen Thottrup – Marrakech with Jenufa Gleich. We performed Live As One – Be As One and it was very well received. We really had a mixture of cultures, Moroccan violinist, African drummers playing with us, great fun!!
T.H.E – What three Balearic records never leave your record box and why?
Steen Thottrup –
Joe Smooth – Promised Land
Boy George – generations Of Love
Sueno latino – Sueno Latino
T.H.E – What does the future hold for Steen Thottrup?
Steen Thottrup – We will see, I am in a very good place in my life and open to everything, which makes the unknown interesting. I found true love and she is curious about life as much as me, that could be a recipe for exciting things
