Steven Garcia

It all started with a birthday gift. My family got me a double-deck tape recorder, which I wasted no time putting to solid use. I remember dubbing songs off the radio for my Walkman like there was no tomorrow. After amassing a sizeable collection of music, I started constructing crude mix-tapes, editing down songs to the parts I loved most and splicing the mixes into 60-minute sets. When complete, I’d test my tapes on the masses, pumping them on my boombox full blast out of our third story window to the streets below. I always loved to get the people dancing. 

Visual art is another passion of mine and over the years I honed my illustration skills, eventually building a solid rep for myself working freelance for design firms around city. Around this time, I got introduced to the New York dance scene by a collective of DJs known as the Funky Soul Rebels. I helped them sketch up a flyer for one of their events. It was a memorable party with such a successful run, that what started out as a one-time favor soon flourished into a full-time job as I went on to design most of FSR's graphics and organize future events. Perhaps it was only inevitable that I would end up collecting records and catching the fever myself. 

All it took was one DJ gig, and I was totally hooked. In the following months I was mixing things up on the scene, playing at bars, lounges and loft parties. During my exploits I had the chance to work alongside such distinguished artists as Charles Webster, Joe Claussell, Nickodemus, Joeski, Onionz among many others. Being around so much talent can be contagious, and over time I found myself inspired to work on my own music. I bought myself some music programs, a keyboard and a set of bongos to practice on. In a matter of months I was playing percussion and dropping some of my own tracks into live sets. The reaction I got was so encouraging that I decided to buy some basic recording gear and get serious. 

In June 2000, I released my first production on Otro Recordings with the help of fellow FSR DJ Seph under the name Seph & Ven. The two tracks "First Touch" and "Thoughts of You Again" were a tribute to the deep house and raw soul that defined our sound. The record sold out faster than we could have imagined. Months later, we dropped "In Your Arms" on Rhythm Love 

Records. The EP was met with critical acclaim and was picked up by compilations around the world. With a little bit of hype surrounding us, more gigs flowed in and we started playing for crowds overseas. We eventually landed in Spain, where we befriended Ino & Grobas, the resident DJs of House Café, a well-established party in the city of La Coruña. In 2002, they picked up one of our tracks to release on their record label and before we knew it, the “Funky Soul Rebels” EP was 

out on House Café Music. Once again the records flew off the shelves and I realized there was 

no turning back. 

With a few of my own tracks complete and a bit of a travel bug, I traded my studio gear for a laptop computer, left the bright lights of New York CIty behind me and moved to La Coruña, where I quickly found myself feeling right at home and completed several more projects. The excitement of living in a new country combined with the occasional bouts of homesickness motivated me to bang out track after track. In just a few short months I had a total of nine songs and my first album was complete. 

Inspired by the influences that have shaped my taste over the years, the music was infused with a big dose of hiphop, house, latin rhythms, jazz and raw funk. I entitled it "Funk You Very Much" and wasted no time in designing the cover artwork in the classic FSR style for which I was famous. 

Thanks to the efforts of DJ Ino and House Cafe Music, the album has just begun to hit the shelves and is already generating a buzz in the industry. With more projects in the works and plenty of DJ gigs to keep me inspired, I feel like this is just the beginning of a promising future.