As the child of an art teacher and a world champion magician, Steye came into this world with a creative spirit that he will carry with him all his life. Soon after his father performed a disappearing trick off to Spain, Steye developed his own way of looking after himself, learning to play the guitar and fiddling around with the 4-track cassette machine his father had left behind. The miracle of life is the greatest gift his mother left him when she passed away when Steye was sixteen. It’s this miracle that still inspires him, and one he feels closest to by creating beautiful things.

 

Steye enrolled at the Royal School of Arts, Music and Dance in The Hague to study image & sound. Here he practiced animating moving images and combining these with music in directing multimedia performances. Besides studying he also began making videos for local bands, as well as his fist documentary.

 

While in art school Steye joined PiPS:lab, a group of creative friends that have all known each other since high-school. Together they have become pioneers in theatre, using live video and expressing their absurd sense of humor in their internationally famed shows.

 

Steye has always been musically inclined, cluttering his student bedroom with recording equipment. Originally inspired by hip-hop and funk, his interests soon moved towards songwriting. In his words; “a beat means nothing to most people if you don’t give it an emotional, or at least an imaginative, context.”

 

While making a documentary in the slums of Nairobi (Kenya) Steye met a group of young rappers. He soon returned with Buruman (a fellow PiPS:lab member) and a backpack full of recording equipment, converting a rented room into a studio to produce a record using local talent: ‘Kilio cha Haki’ for ‘Uptoyoutoo’.

 

After this adventure Steye decided he was ready to make his own album. With the help of Stefan Kruger and Stefan Schmid (from Zuco103) the record “I’m just here to make you feel warm” came out in March 2008. The record received very positive reviews and Steye was able to tour the country with some of Amsterdam’s finest musicians. At the end of 2008 this debut album was also released in Japan.

 

In February 2009 Steye was asked to go to Canada for the project ‘In a Cabin With’. The goal of this project was to record an album in just ten days. The final album can be downloaded for free at the ‘In a Cabin With’ website. While this project was certainly a challenge, the album has been well received, with 15,000 downloads in just two weeks and a number two spot on the online Dutch alternative chart ‘luisterpaal’.

 

At the moment Steye is working on a show in which video plays an equally important role in the band as the music; “I want to make a rock & roll show that has the imaginary wealth of multimedia theatre and the looseness and momentum of a rock & roll concert.”

 

In June 2010 Steye intends to be locked up in the Amsterdam zoo Artis to work on his third album.