Dirty Vegas comes clean about their split & reunion

You’d think a global smash hit debut single like “Days Go By”, a Grammy Award to match and placement in an epic Mitsubishi Eclipse TV ad campaign would be the sign of a concrete career in the music biz. Or at least a firm step in the right direction. Not necessarily for British house trio, Dirty Vegas.

Four years in and at the height of their success, Steve Smith, Ben and Paul Harris (no blood relation) called it quits.

But now Dirty Vegas is back. After nearly seven years apart, the boys have reunited, recorded their third album, Electric Love, (an infectious album at that) and commenced a world tour. Now that’s exciting news, but what gives with the breakup and makeup?

I set up a talk with Dirty Vegas vocalist/songwriter Steve Smith to get to the bottom of it.

First things first Steve, why did Dirty Vegas breakup?

Like most bands signed to a major label, a lot of bad stuff goes on. We had a bad experience with Capitol Records and the men in suits. We were controlled and beaten down. We got really upset with the whole way the band was being treated. Dirty Vegas didn’t split up, we surrendered.

What was the worst part of that situation?

We weren’t taken seriously as electronic artists. The nature of dance music is about different styles. One week you make a progressive house track, the next week you make a pop track and the week after it’s an electro-house track. You’re not given that freedom when you’re signed to a major label. It was either rock or pop. Paul for example has always been a free spirit who’s done what he wants, make a track here, make a club track there. He wanted to go back to that. When we were first signed as Dirty Vegas, we weren’t allowed to go off in the cold and do other things, so Ben and Paul left.

Ben and Paul wanted out, but you felt differently?

I told Ben and Paul that I still believed in Dirty Vegas and they wished me good luck. It closed the door for us as a band, but certainly not as friends. So Dirty Vegas lived on as me, I carried it on. I scored the music to a fantastic film called Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down as Dirty Vegas. The movie is about club kids and the club lifestyle and it just made sense to have done the score as Dirty Vegas rather than Steve Smith. Dirty Vegas is associated with electronic music.

You started a solo career, can you break it down for those unfamiliar?

I have three lives going on. My first love is electronic music, but I’ve always loved the traditional song writing and now living in North America, I am following my dream of being a film composer. There is a thread between Dirty Vegas and my solo material, it is the same songwriter involved. But my solo stuff is my chance to express the more rock/alternative side of what I do.

Now you’re happy and fully pursuing what you want to do?

I’m free from the record company and I set up my own label and my own publishing company here in the US. The artistic freedom is there again and I can’t express how much freedom I feel. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I can play an acoustic set on a TV show somewhere, then a DJ set in San Francisco. That expression is just fantastic. It’s great, such freedom. I’m ecstatic.

Why reunite now?

We felt it was the right time to come together. It was mutual and thankfully we remained friends. Now everyone is free and not caught within constraints. Music is about freedom and we have that now. When you next see Dirty Vegas perform live it will be Steve, Ben and Paul. We’re flying the Dirty Vegas flag together.

See Dirty Vegas live at le Belmont, Monday, April 25.  Look for their third album Electric Love available soon.

Posted by Marc Andrew on Apr 18 2011. Filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.