Awanto 3

Pinning down Steven de Peven aka Awanto 3 is not an easy task. Maybe it isn’t something one should do to anyone anyway, but in Steven’s case it’s just downright impossible Steven is what you might call a true ‘release beast’ and not just of music that is. Innovating things is what he thrives on, which resulted in the release of books and music, the start of interesting collaborations, him diving into the world of multi-media and even opening up a shop. Steven’s studio is not found in the hectic streets of Amsterdam anymore, and neither is his home. He now lives an hour up north of Amsterdam in Bergen aan Zee, a beautiful place known for it’s community of artists. Some of the people there are calling Steven a neo-Dadaïst, referring to the art movement from the early 20th century. A moniker he proudly wears. His studio is found a stone’s throw away from there. In the elementary school he attended as a little kid that is now turned into various studios. If you’ve ever explored Steven’s work, a couple of things probably stood out. First, the humour is always evident. And second to that, all his work is visually strong and distinctive. For Steven, music alone isn’t enough, there should be a visual illustration as well, and this illustration is never his own image. Overall this yin/yang balance in all of his work is what he strives for. So how do we do the inconceivable? We pigeonhole Steven de Peven’s work into four different categories. Simple as that. Music Steven had a genuine musical upbringing, as music runs through the veins of his family. He played the saxophone for 8 years, went to musical-note lessons, and got to hear a lot of classical music. And that’s from his father’s side alone. His mother’s got him into playing records, as his uncles were in this band called Charms and released the disco-boogie hit ‘Giving it Up’ in 1982, which made a huge impact on Steven’s preference in styles of music later on in his life. Forwarding 20 years and Steven is releasing his own records on his very own label Klakson, which he founded together with Steffi. After some time Steven decides to pass the baton to one of his first musical friends, and examples, Dexter and to go his own way. He then releases records on the Rush Hour imprint (amongst others) and makes the switch to Awanto 3 with his first Dekmantel release ‘Pregnant’, which marks a new era in his artistic life. Also Tom Trago’s label and musical platform Voyage Direct was of influence to Steven. It was on this label he released the ‘For Five’ EP in 2010 and ‘Holy Mozes’ in 2013. Driving an Opel Mantra should always be while blasting Awanto 3’s debut album through the speakers as the album is named after this car. Opel Mantra was released on Rush Hour in 2014 and is distributed into three separate 12-inches. It was Dekmantel’s label boss Casper Tielrooij who ignited the idea for a second Awanto 3 album. Gargamel will be released on their label in the spring of 2017 and is produced specifically for the dance floor, and the people dancing on it. DJ-ing These dance floors must be pretty familiar with Awanto 3 nowadays, since he has played for many. Here is a small pick of some of them: Panorama Bar (Berlin), Concrete (Paris), Trouw (Amsterdam), Dekmantel Festival, SXSW (Austin, Texas), Awakenings Festival, Fuse (Brussels), Village Underground (London), Nitsa (Barcelona) and Pitch Festival. Collaborations There’s no way Steven would have wanted to go through these past years all by himself. Fortunately there have been many collaborations with different artists and various concepts alike. Rednose Distrikt for instance. One can’t talk about Rednose Distrikt without mentioning Amsterdam’s Café Vaaghuyzen, Kid Sublime, Piet Parra and last but not least Steven’s soulmate and lifesaver Aardvarck. Rednose started with Steven de Peven and Kid Sublime, who Steven met at the record store (Fat Beats) he then worked at. Later on, when Kid Sublime already left Rednose, Steven was about to quit as well. This is where Aardvarck comes in and convinces Steven to keep on going, hence the lifesaver status. Rednose is a perfect example of the yin/yang balance in Steven’s work. Everything Rednose produced was visually on point and always with a touch of humour as well. Another paramount collab was with New Cool Collective in the 90’s. Steven was their resident dj back then and they had enlightening sessions together. Other major collaborations have been working together with fellow producers and artists San Proper and Tom Trago, who Steven considers his good friends too. Multi media Another important episode in Steven’s life has been his work for PIPS:lab; an inter-active group using all types of (performance) art while always serving the audience the unexpected. It was a perfect place for Steven, as he loves innovation and mixing all forms of art together to invent something new. To transform himself into something new, over and over again. These past years Steven has been working together with fellow artist Bart Eysink Smeets with whom he produced projects such as the Super Green series and Bukken Voor je Leven (Bend For your Life), where they glued a 50 cent coin to the streets, photographed the people trying to pick it from these streets and then made a book out of it. So there you go. It wasn’t easy and we’re far from telling Steven’s whole story, but there’s always Steven de Peven’s website to dive in deeper into the material or just come to a show he’s playing off course.