Steve Lawler - In The Dark, With Advice and Vodka!

Black out sheets and stretched spandex are highly synonymous with the inner sanctum of a fitness club. For almost a year, it's also found a second home in clubs all around the globe thanks to the tribal house king, Steve Lawler, and his faithful production team, who are out and about promoting his new compilation - Lights Out - a new offshoot series from the man himself and the boys at Global Underground.

Lights Out is getting heavy rotation in a lot of music enthusiasts' cd players at present, and is also receving high acclaim from all four corners of the world as being a well rounded and varied double mixed cd. "I don't really know what makes it different" Lawler says, "but I did try to do something that was more across the board, rather than doing a cd of say the first two hours of my set or the last two hours. "It was more a six/seven hour set condensed into two cd's, and with the whole concept of Lights Out behind it, I wanted to make sure it had some "Off the Wall" moments..."

Lawler has been on the road since February promoting the new album to clubbers everywhere, taking along with him a production team to try and create an atmosphere that will have you immersed with every twisted beat and accapella Lawler has to offer. "It's been such a big tour and needed a lot of commitment because it's a new series for Global Underground.

"It's my own series with a total different concept to the touring side... The tours have been mainly successful because we take a lot of production into the clubs (black out sheets, stretched spandex to create a sort of webbed effect from both the visuals, our own lighting jock, etc". He continues. "We need the clubs to really work with us, and not all of them can, so we don't always get the lights out effect. Most of the time we get it right and when we do people are totally blown away".

Not content to leave it at just a visual perspective, Lawler adds his own imagination to the atmosphere. "I have certain tracks, edits, accapellas and effects that I have made especially for Lights Out gigs, so there's certain things that will be slightly different.. All the nights have been completely mad and have been an enormous success."

It's all a part of the team effort it seems, as Lawler will get to most venues prior to the gig and spend time with the production crew to tell them if there's anything in particular he wants for the night. "I travel with two other people (production) and they have a lot of bags and boxes with them (slide machines, drapes, sheets, spandex, posters, etc). Lawler won't take all the credit for it either.

"Trust me, they're the hard workers and deserve a lot of the praise for what they do.... "

It seems it's all about the crowd for Lawler as well, and there's an excellent mentality that makes you appreciate the time and effort he and his team put into the night. "The purpose of this tour was to do something more, try and add to the atmosphere of a club, get the rooms darker and so that way the music, the lights and the visuals are more intense, to try and create more a night out an experience.

"House music can blow your mind and it can change your life... I believe people are paying their hard earnt money to go out so they should get the best... "

His mentality shines through to the perception he has on the global scene as well. "Well, you know, just lately I've realised that we are part of something very special... When I travel the world, you realise just how many people this scene has reached and it's very warming and makes me feel proud to be a part of it..."

So what can we expect from Lawler on the night-

"A whole range of music. I will bring it down at the start and build from there. Musically it will go through dark, uplifting, intense and sexy vocal moments. "Basically it will keep changing and if 've done my job well then by the end of the night people will have had a great time and hopefully be gagging for more" he< Tags

• steve lawler
• lights out