S. Helstrips

Steve studied classical music and composition. Whilst studying he formed a pop group, The Flood, who signed to ZTT for one single. Steve started out making trance music while working for the computer games developer, Manic Media. Whilst living in Chipping Norton, on the Oxfordshire border, with a relatively basic home studio he produced a euphoric trance track which he called ‘Synaesthesia’. This track became the first release under the name ‘The Thrillseekers’. Signed and released by ‘Neo Records’ at the height of the 1998 trance boom, it went on to sell over 12,000 copies on its initial UK release.

This launched the relatively unknown producer into the often fickle world of dance music. Soon after, production work started coming in and Steve found himself very busy putting together an ambient mix of Chicane’s ethereal classic ‘Saltwater’ and various other remixes for the likes of Timo Maas, Blank & Jones, Seb Fontaine and Sonique. Steve has also recorded under various different guises, including En Motion, Insigma and Rapid Eye with releases on trailblazing labels including Neo, Incentive, VC and of course Data. Steve also works under the guise of Hydra with his first release being "Affinity". This tune received massive support from the likes of Armin van Buuren and Paul van Dyk being and was signed to Discover (John Askew's label) in the UK.