Sitting with Steve Hill on the couch in the raised DJ booth area is like sitting on a dais with royalty. Our conversation is constantly interrupted by people wanting to greet him, to give him a hug, a kiss, a wave, a handshake or a pat on the back.  It’s not an entirely inaccurate choice of term either. He is royalty of sorts. Hard Dance royalty and his Masif brand crowns him King of the Sydney Club Scene when it comes to the harder styles of music.  Teknoscape Editor, Marsha Tang, was recently granted a royal audience with Highness Hill and uncovers the man behind the brand.

There are things that everyone knows about Hill.  We know that he’s an incredible DJ and that the world has dubbed him the King of Euphoric Hard Dance after blowing crowds away in thousands of shows over 50 cities and across more than 15 countries.  We know that he’s one of the most prolific and enduring music producers in EDM.  His 200 plus productions have appeared on over half a million singles, two million compilations and have smashed global dance music charts.  His 2010 release ‘HTML’ (Hard Trance is My Life) was a massive 5 CD monster featuring 108 of his tracks and was one of the biggest artist albums in dance music history. We also know that he’s an extremely enterprising entrepreneur and businessman as evidenced by the Masif brand continually going from strength to strength.

‘It’s taken hard work.  A lot of hard work,’ Steve sighs earnestly.

Steve began the Masif Organisation in 2004. The brand operates as a label, a music and merchandise store, a DJ tour operator, and an event organizer and promoter.  From its first single release eight years ago, Masif has amassed an impressive amount of CDs and digital releases under its belt, the event Masif Saturdays at Space in Sydney’s CBD is one of the most popular nights in Australia, regularly bringing over major internationals such as Alex Kidd, The Organ Donors and Kutski to our shores for sell-out shows, and you’d be hard pressed to find a single clubber in the hard dance scene who doesn’t know what Masif is and stands for.

Which finally brings us to the things that you may not know about Steve Hill. The things that make him tick, the things that ground him and the things that make him real. Here are six of his lesser known secrets.

1. Steve Hill started at the bottom too!

You don’t just go to sleep and wake up as the head honcho of a big brand. You do what you have to do to bring in the dollars.

‘I worked in a Mexican restaurant when I was a student,’ Steve revealed.  Aye Carumba!

2. Steve Hill can give Howard Stern a run for his money!

Before he was the DJ/producer/businessman juggernaut he is today, Steve was a radio personality.

‘I had a radio show throughout New Zealand in the early 90s called In The Mix,’ Steve confides.

That just shows how long he’s been banging out quality music – without Stern’s potty mouth.

3. Steve Hill is a great father!

You may find Hill smashing out the tunes and partying at Masif Saturdays till the wee hours of the morning but during the week, he’s all about his wife and kids and prides himself on being a family man.

‘I take the kids to school nearly every morning,’ Hill said.

He also listens to his daughter talk boyfriends at the breakfast table and makes sure he attends his children’s special events.

‘At Lily’s first disco. It’s all about the outfits and glowsticks. Age 5. Nothing changes!’ Hill recently joked on Facebook.

4. Steve Hill is a fundraising monster!

If you’ve got a school-aged child, niece, nephew, cousin, younger brother or sister, you’ll have inevitably been suckered into a fundraising project.  You might have been drafted into manning a stall, selling chocolates or just coerced into handing over the cold hard cash.  In Steve’s case, he donned an apron and got to work outside Bunnings last month.

‘I manned the BBQ for over 4 hours and cooked over 600 sausages and eight kilos of onions! We made a bundle for the kids,’ he said proudly.

5. Steve Hill has phobias too!

‘I’m claustrophobic. I hate lifts,’ Hill revealed.  Luckily this affliction doesn’t extend to the club because Space is always packed during Masif Saturdays.

6. Steve Hill has a shoe fetish!

Well, he actually disputed that he did when I questioned him about it but after a recent clean out his wife uncovered 56 pairs of Steve’s trainers.  Don’t get me wrong, I love shoes too but 56 pairs says shoe fetish to me.

‘Those were just the ones that she found,’ Hill said cheekily.  ‘There are a few more that she doesn’t know about.’

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Steve a couple of times and have seen him play both in Sydney and Perth.  I may only be able to scratch the surface of the man behind the brand but I can say that the more I discover about Hill, the more I admire and for that, I salute you Steve – King of all that is Masif!!!

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