Bieber song puts producer Steve James on the fast track
March 30, 2017 12:00 AM- Elliott Brockelbank
Music producer Steve James (formerly Philibin).
Steve James has a writing/production credit that sent him to the Grammys this year and should leap off his bio for some time to come. It's the piano ballad that serves as the closing and title track of Justin Bieber's chart-topping "Purpose."
Now, doors are opening wider for the 18-year-old DJ/producer/pianist from Johnstown, who has toured with the Chainsmokers and just released the single "Warrior," written by and featuring Canadian EDM star Lights.
James comes back to Western Pennsylvania Saturday to play the Never Grow Up fundraiser for the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.
With his mom a church performer and his dad a music teacher, James (born Steve Philibin) started his classical piano training when he was 3 or 4, and he was on that track until his tween years when his brother turned him on to electronic music. He started making his own on the computer, and at 14, an Avicii concert solidified things for him.
"Avicii has always been one of my favorite artists," he says. "I had never been to a live show before and we got kind of lucky he was playing this small festival in Maryland. To finally see all the music I'd been listening to for the last year or two on a massive stage like that, and see him and the production all around him, I just knew that making catchy music while putting on big spectacles like that was something I wanted to chase."
James was making progressive house, trance and electro originals in the basement he turned into a studio, as well as remixes, like his attention-grabber for Zhu's "Faded" that sent him to the West Coast.
"I spent most of the summer of 2015 in LA, and basically tried to break that mold and find something different that still felt like me," he says. "I made Caribbean and reggae-sounding stuff, some coffee shop tunes, a lot more hip-hop or at least hip-hop-inspired stuff. One weird 8-bit-meets-hip-hop idea with a cool melody actually became my first single, 'Renaissance.' So trying all those different things worked out well."
Jeremy Snyder, a producer friend, hooked him up with Bieber co-writer Poo Bear, who liked what he heard and got James involved with "Purpose."
Asked if he was a Belieber, he says, "Guiltily, yes. I mean I had been surrounded by the age range of girls that love him pretty much my entire life, but I can get sucked into anything with a great melody; his songs have never been any exception. So yeah, I quietly had 'Believe' downloaded to my iTunes. And hey, props to Justin for always having a dance-music influence in his music. I don't know anyone else in pop who's given us the nod like him, and I think that's awesome."
Since then, he says, his team has tripled in size and his own project is in the works, beginning with "Warrior," a massive-sounding female empowerment anthem from Lights that stemmed from his work on her album.
"We had a really awesome time doing that, I love her style and creativity, so I asked her if she wanted to do a song together for myself as well," he says. "As she's said before, she had written 'Warrior' and it was in a really early stage where it needed someone who connected with it to do the right production. I love empowering music like this, so I spent a few weeks and ultimately months trying to find all the right pieces, and it turned out as one of my favorite records I've ever made and she loved it, too.
"As for the rest of my project," he says, "I'm really excited about where I've gotten to creatively and the music that is to come. The last few years, being a teenager in LA trying to balance everything, it's been a really humbling and introspective experience. You really have to know who you are out here, so I've taken to digging into the songs — the lyrics and melodies of my music — before the production, and making music that speaks to me and people who might be dealing with the same highs and lows as I am."
In the meantime, James is hitting cities here and there, promising "super high energy" sets.
"I love melodic, upbeat, uplifting stuff so that's what I play. I also love vocal tracks so we do a lot of singalong. I'm the kind of person who feels so at home the moment when I'm behind the decks and playing the stuff I love. So I'm pretty much always jumping all over the place and talking to the crowd so we're on the same level — I find it's always an absolute blast."
Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com; 412-263-2576. Twitter: @scottmervis_pg.
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