Born in 1974, Stewart Walker began toying with
music at an early age, writing songs at the age
of 5 about his ambitions to become a rock star.
Years of structured guitar and piano lessons
afforded Stewart a strong musical background
and the ability to gain aptitude from later
experimentation.
High school and college were defined by
frequent day trips to record shops, sifting
through used bins hoping to snag the new
promo cutouts of the day, and late nights spent
sitting in front of his guitar amp with the reverb
turned all the way up. About midway through
this time, he became conscious of the electronic
music bouncing around the college radio
airwaves. Habitually tuning in to hear a technopop,
industrial and EBM show plus one focused
solely on house music, Stewart began
recording tracks from these programs that he
found inspiring. In 1992 he bought his first drum
machine and became infatuated with plugging it
into his guitar amp and manipulating beats for hours.
The fascination with electronic sound grew into an obsession and
before long it became essential for Stewart to purchase his first
sampler. Using this piece of equipment he started constructing
music in a sequencer and as a result, his tracks started progressing
into the techno genre. His earliest releases from 1997 appeared on
Detroit's Matrix Records and shortly afterwards came his first
European release. This period was marked by great productivity as
Stewart had finally quit his day-job to pursue making music on a fulltime
basis.
With his records gaining popularity among DJs, he began accepting
offers to perform live locally, which resulted in a slight predicament.
The dilemma Stewart faced was how to perform live using his
limited studio setup. Lacking a DJ background, he found his initial
performances intimidating yet educational for it was early on that
Stewart gained an appreciation for the vitality generated from crowd
interaction at live performances. This energy was non-existent in
the studio, but he noted its influence on his sound and considered it
a critical part of the creative process.
As Stewart continued making a name for himself in the techno
music scene his releases followed on well-known labels - Tresor,
Force Inc., and Richie Hawtin's m-nus imprint. Each new release
brought greater acclaim and thus he was able to perform more
frequently and in increasingly exotic locales. Hooking up with Sven
Väth's Cocoon booking agency based in Frankfurt guaranteed his
ability to play in Europe as often as he wanted.
The differences in music requirements (preferences? Hard vs. Soft,
Danceable vs. Listenable) in Europe and the USA pushed Stewart to
work more and more on perfecting his live techniques until he felt
confident that he could match a DJ in intensity and stamina every
night. (Having two styles has resulted in a demand for stylistically
different releases. He's flexible, and able to perform music as
prescribed by the situation/vibe of the audience at hand.)
In 2001, Stewart decided to found his own label and christened it
"Persona" with the sole intention of bringing personality back into
the genre of techno. The label is devoted to releasing recorded
works that retain originality and avoid the made-for-DJ copout.
Stewart remains committed to defying techno music standards by
playing live and pushing himself to interact with his audience,
resulting in intimate shows consistently characterized by a
fresh/sharp/cutting-edge sound.
In the December of 2003, Stewart packed up his life and left Boston
and the USA to move to Berlin and participate in the more vibrant
European electronic music community. Since then he has been
recording remixes for such labels as Kitty-Yo, Tongut, and Tuning
Spork; he's also been practicing his Sprache during the week, and
performing in a European capital every weekend. He has recently
finished a downtempo album entitled "Grounded in Existence"
scheduled for release in March 2005.
www.personarecords.com
