My name is Steve Shiels. I have been djing, producing and promoting music for over 14 years. The last eleven as resident at Voodoo. I've been listening to dance music for as long as I can remember. Growing up it was break-dance and electro where you would think nothing of walking The Streets with electro blaring. Times have changed indeed, that scene sort of died and in the late 80s when acid house arrived, it was a natural progression musically.

In 1989 I started going to clubs such as the Hacienda, Daisy and the Underground and was so inspired by the dj's I was seeing Record collecting and djing also became a natural progression for me.

In 1991 I started playing at illegal parties around the city. playing a hevely influenced jack trax sound. After scuffing round these parties for a while I started the Friday night at Baa Baa which at the time was the only bar playing music with an underground soundtrack. Doing the Friday night gave me great exposure and not before long Smile (in my opinion Liverpool's biggest night at the time) came calling. This was my first meeting with Smile promoter (now Voodoo promoter) Sam Jones. Sam asked me to come down and play at one of his nights and I guess that was the start of things. Djing at Smile opened the door to gigs out of town, the most memorable being a messy gig we done down at 'Club for Life' in London.

By this time I was playing a harder edged form of house music and it wasnąt long before the techno bug bit big. At the time I was into Robert Hood, May Day etc.. and my favorite DJ of the time was Sven Vath. I started going to Voodoo as a punter and to me it was the perfect club, playing deep moody music with back the drop of the Mardis Gras. The two seemed to go hand in hand.

When Voodoo moved across town to Le Batue I secured my first guest spot playing deep house and electro. After four or five guest spots I got a residency up stairs. Through playing the second room, guest spots became a regular thing down stairs on the main floor. The rest really is history.

Coming from a time when having a residency was vital, at Voodoo it meant I could work and mould my sound to the people I was playing in front of, week in, week out. Voodoo has taken me all over the world Djing and has given me the opportunity to play at clubs I queued up hours outside years previous. I think I have warmed up for every single DJ I have ever rated and to this day getting a Voodoo box ready still gets the nerves going.

Five of my favorite clubs I have played at: Slam at the Arches, Glasgow; Shine at Belfast University; Bugged Out at Sanky Soap, Manchester; Das Shiff, Balse, Switzerland; Elvis Jesus, Maritime Museum, Cape Town, SA

My top five Voodoo DJ's: Laurent Garnier, Richie Hawtin, Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, Dave Clarke