About RivaStarr /
Since maverick DJ/Producer Riva Starr (aka Stefano Miele) burst into the House music scene in 2009 with his cheeky remixes, bootlegs and re:chunks, he has been called many things…
…One of the best producers on the planet… Claude Von Stroke
…Gritty Berlin techno urbanite … Time Out
…brass-heavy / ethnic … freaking out dancefloors everywhere… Dazed Online
…The Eastern backpackers’ [DJ] of choice”… Super-Super Mag
…king of the bouncing grooves… Spiller
…one of house music’s brightest, chirpiest and talented DJ/producers…. DataTransmission
…not just another standard house producer”… MixMag
…Colourful, exuberant and, crucially, dynamite on the dancefloor”… Q Magazine
…crazy sexy cool… Fatboy Slim
…mad as a hatter!... His Manager
Riva Starr has equally graced many different venue lately: from co-headlining the infamous Sensation 2012 events in Amsterdam (with Dennis Ferrer, Mark Knight and Hardwell) and opening for the likes of Swedish House Mafia, Kelis and Jamiroquai in Ibiza, and for Tiesto and Benny Benassi in the States, to regular underground gigs for the likes of Warehouse Project (Manchester), El Row (Barcellona and Ibiza), Cocoon (Frankfurt), Picnik Electronik (Canada), Watergate (Berlin) and Avalon, Beta and Set (USA).
Throw in the mix his very own Snatch! Silent Disco at Creamfields, the Snatch! Arena at Tomorrowlands and the Bateria Fantastica set at We Love… (Ibiza) and what you have is ever more perplexing… A Bricklane based Neapolitan cultural exile with a degree in Chinese literature?; a passionate family guy who still manages to juggle a DJ schedule of over 200 gigs a year, a label, remix and production duties?
How can you pigeonhole a man who never sits still?
Intriguing?… They say you cannot keep a good man down, and as he swings from genre to genre and from fan to fan (over the years he has been praised by the likes of A-Trak to Tiesto, Giles Peterson to Pete Tong, Annie Mac to David Rodigan and almost every one in between) Riva’s sound remains truly hard to pin down!
Straddling genres, tempos and geographical inspirations, Riva first hit onto the scene with two seminal slices of modern latin beat: “Maria” on Kindish and La Conga on Dirtybird, quickly followed by equally booty shaking jackin house EP on Southern Fried, and a twisted house beats EP on Dirtybird. Then came the inspirational Balkanhouse beat of “I Was Drunk feat Noze” followed by the drugged out underground Rap of “Dance Me” on Made To Play, then Get Naked with Fatboy Slim and Beardyman on Moshi Moshi (?!?).
All this, intermingled by remixes for Gossip, Usher, Estelle, Plan B, Lauren Pritchard, Wiley, Fatboy Slim, Marina and the Diamonds, Parov Stellar, Manu Chao, Noze, Dennis Ferrer, Lionrock, Cajmere, Major Lazer, Steve Angelo, Reboot, Azari & III, Malente and many, many more…
In a time that favours the strictest categorisation, Riva is indeed an odd one:
“Music is all about freedom, inspiration and fun, and the one sound I never tend to turn to for inspiration is… well… my own…!”.
All we can say is: he was born in Italy, lives in England and loves to make music.
Watch this space….
Album out 2013 featuring: Horace Andy, Fatboy Slim and Beardyman, Roots Manuva, Rsslll the Disaster, Chromeo, Wiley, Speech Debelle, Bob Andy, Carmen Consoli, and selected others…