Steve Porter: Homegrown Kid. Porter Started With Mobile Work & A Magazine Subscription-Then Went Global.

By Emily Tan
Published in the May 2005 issue of DJ Times Magazine
Volume 18 - Number 05

What does it take for a farm kid from Amherst, Mass., to make it as a producer/artist and DJ who tours the world with the likes of Sasha? For Steve Porter, it was real-life experience as a mobile DJ, years as a club resident and—no kidding—a subscription to DJ Times.

But Porter, it seems, was always a self-starter. In high school, he joined a DJ club and taught himself to play keyboards. He began to produce electronic music after downloading Quadmation PlayerPRO freeware, and later bought a Pro Tools system. His long-running residency at Rise, Boston’s only afterhours club, gave him plenty of time to test out his tracks and you can find plenty of them on his outstanding debut, Homegrown (Fade). Described by Porter as “fantasy funk,” Homegrown tunes have found their way into the sets from a diverse range of jocks like Felix Da Housecat (the burbling groover “Swanky”) and Sander Kleinenberg (the darker, more driving “Definite Form”). We caught up with Porter to find out how he got on track.

DJ Times: Your father was a scientist and your mom was a college professor, yet they encouraged your interest in DJing. You said mom gave you a subscription to DJ Times, right?
Porter: Yeah, DJ Times was that bridge for me, a big influence. I lived in the mobile DJ world, but I wanted so much to do what I’m doing now—be a club DJ. What was so beautiful with the magazine was that it covered charts, but it also featured Groove Armada. It very much helped me map out my quest.

DJ Times: How did you first get into DJing?
Porter: I started as a mobile in high school with my own equipment, and after I graduated, I’d do weddings, meet with couples and the whole thing. I had a Gemini mixer, Technomad speakers, a Harmon Kardon amp—that was maybe 500 watts per channel. I was spinning both vinyl and CDs, and I had the Denon 2500 dual-CD player.

DJ Times: What did mobile DJing teach you?
Porter: I learned to be concerned with everybody in the crowd at an event; it wasn’t about my own ego. It was about requests—if a bride and groom wanted a Garth Brooks remix, I’d go to Sam Goody and buy it. It was a life of requests and demands. Club DJing is just a different level of DJing and sound. If I didn’t start as a mobile DJ, I’d be pretentious now. I got a sense of the general public. Being a mobile actually gave me more confidence.

DJ Times: How did you record Homegrown?
Porter: I recorded the album in my home studio in New York City. I have a Mac G4 with dual 1.25 mHz processor and a Pro Tools TDM setup and Pro Tools|24 MIX3. That has memory cards and it processes plug-ins in the computer itself. My main MIDI controller is a SuperNova by Novation, which is a virtual analog synth. I get a lot of basses and synth tones, and I’m able to get a base of where I’m gonna go with a track. It also controls external and internal things, like the Roland JP-8080, which is an older analog synth with its own Roland feel. I started producing with the Roland MC-505 Groovebox years ago. That was my Reason, because Reason didn’t exist yet. I have an external keyboard called the Ensoniq Halo. I also have a Juno-106 vintage synth. I work with samples, and I have a soft sampler for things like guitars called [IK Multimedia’s] SampleTank 2XL. It’s a great instrument. I also have a virtual Moog, which is in the computer’s hard drive, where I play with SampleTank. It’s the same exact engine that’s in an analog Moog.

DJ Times: Worst DJ experience?
Porter: My friend was helping me out with a bar mitzvah, but when the time came to do the limbo, he got sick and had diarrhea, so I had to hold the limbo stick myself, run and press the CD player, then run back onto dancefloor and hold the limbo stick myself! Later, I played a sentimental song for the grandparents to slow dance, but the CD kept skipping. Everything came to an abrupt halt. I wanted to crawl into a shell! To top it off, I didn’t get paid. Nightmare.

DJ Times: Best DJ experience?
Porter: In Mexico, with Sasha. It was my first taste of thousands of enthusiastic fans—5,000 people and a killer sound system. I felt like, “This is why I’m a DJ!”