Album of the Week: Riva Starr ‘If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade’

Album of the Week: Riva Starr ‘If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade’

12 February, 2010 | 7.27AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: album of the week, riva starr

Drunk on lemonade, high on life, Stefano Miele aka Riva Starr is the kind of person you want at a party. His energy is infectious, uplifting, and a wee bit cheeky.

From last year’s droll Balkan anthem ‘I Was Drunk’, to the reefa-tribute ‘Dance Me’, silly samples, and entertaining viral videos, this Naples-born DJ and producer is a positively charming buffoon.

Small wonder then, that the name of his debut artist longplayer (our Album of the Week) comes straight out of the book of American optimism. ‘If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade’ he jests, presumably before necking another shot of limoncello.

“In Naples we also have this saying, and it basically means, if life gives you scares you have to develop on them,” says Miele, from his flat in Shoreditch, East London. His English isn’t perfect, but his thick Italian accent charms away the flaws.

The beginning of Riva Starr

Riva Starr’s bubbling rise to the froth of the house scene in the last two years, could certainly be described as a ‘lemonade moment’. After a long slog in the trenches of the Italian breakbeat scene as Madox throughout most of the noughties, Miele jumped ship and headed for the promiscuous house scene.

“It was really hard running my Madox project from Italy as the country isn’t well known for its drum & bass and breakbeat scenes,” he says. “Even though Madox did pretty well, and I got sets at London’s Fabric and Tokyo’s Womb, I still felt I had much more in me, so I moved to London and started Riva Starr.”

That was three years ago. Since then, Mr. Starr has gone from nowhere, to the top of the Beatport charts, via releases and remixes on Claude VonStroke’s DirtyBird label, Get Physical’s sub label Kindisch, Fatboy Slim’s Southern Fried, and Jesse Rose’s Made To Play.

The latter’s reputation for jovial house music is seemingly the perfect match for the joker from Naples. It makes sense that the bridge Miele used to cross from breakbeat to house was a fidgety one.

Jesse Rose’s early fidget stuff really interested me...it had a good groove, interesting edits, and you always expected the unexpected

“Jesse Rose’s early fidget stuff really interested me,” says Miele. “It had a good groove, interesting edits, and you always expected the unexpected,” a sentiment that could well apply to Riva Starr’s own music.

The jovial sound of Riva Starr

Starr’s biggest single ‘I Was Drunk’, produced alongside wacky French house band Nôze, has obvious ties to the early fidget movement that relied upon juxtaposition and obscure samples.

“No one ever expects a happy guy with an accordion to pop up over a tech house beat,” says Miele, with a laugh. “The track’s about getting drunk and having fun, something that seems like it should be an obvious theme in house music, but it’s not.”

Based around a Balkan folk song, ‘I Was Drunk’ has a quirky campfire feel to it, and reminds of Samim’s 2007 controversial polka-dance hit ‘Heater’, albeit, in a more sozzled fashion.

Like ‘Heater’, ‘I Was Drunk’ causes dancefloor laughter whenever it’s played, and might well be described as a comic relief tool for DJs. Miele’s self-edited music video is similarly amusing.

“The video has had over 250,000 views since I uploaded it, which I never expected,” says Riva Starr. “And the best thing about it is whenever I play the track in a club, I always get one or two people doing the funny dance from the video.”

Riva Starr’s MySpace genre classification of Comedy / House might well be accurate then.

Roots and influences

London’s Shoreditch influenced the Riva Starr sound too, as Miele explains. “The area helped me develop my style. If you listen to my early productions, because I was deep into breakbeat back then, they were all quite fast and frenetic.

“Then after I discovered the Shoreditch afterparty scene - wild parties on a Saturday, Sunday, or Monday morning - I became inspired by the tech house sounds that I heard there. I moved away from fidget and electro, and got more into the house vibe.”

‘Caballeros’ sounds like the kind of track one might hear at Public Life (an abandoned public toilet) at 82a Commercial Street on a Sunday morning.

With its stripped back tech house drums and rave-flavoured synth breakdown, it’s the kind of hedonistic early morning music one can hear filtering out of bars and back alleys on the weekend in the East End.

The acid ragga breakbeat on ‘Dance Me’ too, sounds ‘proper’ London, with rapper Trim providing smoky hypnotic lyrics in a rough street accent.

“‘Dance Me’ could only have come about in London,” says Riva. “I met Trim by chance at a dubstep party. Someone introduced me to him because I said I needed a vocalist. He sent me some tracks, and I was really impressed with his cool London rap. He’s a talented bastard. Two days later we were in the studio.”

The London hip house sound on ‘Dance Me’ sounds like something Brixton’s Basement Jaxx might do. “‘Dance Me’ reflects my hip hop and breakbeat side, and I love Basement Jaxx,” says Miele. “They had a big Balkan and South American influence too.

“They are definitely one of my all-time favourite dance producers. I really love their wide influences.”

That knotted set of roots - which Miele says is world music - is apparent throughout ‘If Life Gives You Lemons...’. For over 15 years, Stefano has studied music, and besides Balkan folk, he’s obsessed with conga and funk from South America.

“‘Maria’ represents the South American side of me,” he says. “The great thing about house music is that you can put all these different styles into your tracks. And the more ideas you have, the more interesting it gets.”

It’s not all sun and sangria though. ‘Once Upon A Time In Naples’ is Miele’s ode to the city’s recent problems. “It’s getting worse and worse in Naples, and Italy is going through quite a violent period,” he says.

“A lot of people are losing jobs, many can’t live decently, and the government is occupied with protecting the prime minister’s image rather than taking care of the country’s economic problems.

“Naples is a wonderful city, but it’s going through a sad and hard time at the moment. But even though it’s tough, people still have a real passion for music. I just played there last week for the first time in two years, and it was one of the best parties of the last 12 months. So the track’s spaghetti western vibe has something bright about it.”

What was it like working with Jesse Rose’s Made To Play on the album?

“Altogether I had 40 tracks and Jesse and I went through them all and tried to find the best ones to make into a proper longplayer,” says Riva.

“He also gave me some tips on the production side, and he really helped me out a lot. Made To Play did a fantastic job with organising the release and promotion.”

It comes as no surprise that Stefano Miele is something of an analog freak. From his early Madox basslines, to his synth-heavy arrangements and speaker busting grooves, there has always been a certain analog grit to his music.

“I’ve used analog since the beginning, and although I’ve slowly moved towards software I still do all my mixdowns with my trusty 16 channel analog desk,” he says. “The only problem with that is that I can never save my settings which makes it difficult to come back to.

“Another thing I love doing is mixing down live, using my hands to put tracks in and out of a mix. You never get the same sound twice, and it’s quite a different approach.”

All in all, ‘If Life Gives You Lemons...’ plays like a collection of club tracks, something that Miele is keen to stress. “This is a dance album, and I make dance music, so I don’t see the point of pretending to make music for chill out rooms. This is a record for DJs to play in clubs.” That’s fine by us.

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