Ed: You hail from Manchester - there has always been the debate whether a true 'manc' is blue. Can you enlighten us into where your heart lies?

Ben: Thats a difficult question as I've never really followed football, however if I had to make a choice then I would probably go for City. I've always liked an underdog and they seem to be doing very well at the moment.

Ed: Have you found that there is any significant differences in the clubs/events between the north and south of England?

Ben:To be honest I've never really noticed that much of a difference, the only thing would be a more varied crowd in London due to the number of different ethnic groups living in the city. That has always added a great deal to the feel of the clubs for me. Sometimes it seems that the northern crowds like the music a little bit harder but the southerners certainly know how to throw a great party. I've always loved playing in London, I just wish I had a teleporter to get me back home after the gigs!

Ed: This ever ending road to stardom originated when none other than Paul Glazby stated you are a ' star in the making' - how does that feel coming from a legend like him?

Ben:It feels great to get recognition from the people that you look up to and Paul has been a great influence on me. He has helped me with many parts of my career, giving me the opportunity to be resident for the massive Vicious Circle events and also the experience of working at a label. It has been great to be sully involved in the scene that I love.

Ed: In 2006 you one the Mixmag Future Hero gong at the Hard Dance Awards. Hows life been since winning this coveted award?

Ben: It was a complete shock to win the award as I had been up against some really tough competition, I had been trying to find out the result for about a week before the event, just a shame that Ed had kept them very close to his chest! The event at the Fridge was fantastic and the awards have been going from strength to strength each year.

Ed: Everyone wants to live like a rock star - travel the world, stay in hotels and drink pina coladas! well maybe not the pina coladas. Have you had the privilege to play overseas?

Ben: I have been lucky enough to travel to Australia, New Zealand, Ibiza and Canada to DJ and this is one of the biggest perks of the job. It is great to see people listening to hard house all over the globe and a fantastic opportunity to meet great people and try and spread my sound a bit more. The overseas gigs I've had are some of the best I've ever done and hopefully I'll get the chance to go to some other parts of the world in the future.

Ed: It seems to be a natural progression for Dj's /artists to move into starting their own record labels. When did Fireball recordings start and where do you see the label in the future?

Ben: I had been producing lots of new material in the studio with Maddox and I had more tracks available than all the labels would take. I just thought to myself "why don't I just set one up?". Luckily I had the experience and know how from working at VC and the label is going from strength to strength now. We are just about to release our 6th release and at the end of the year we will be putting out our first compilation album called 'Firebox vol 1'. This is a double CD album featuring a mix from Toolbox head honcho Nik Denton on cd 1 and me on the second disc.

Ed: Will you be showcasing any of your new material at Prohibition?

Ben: I've been working hard on my own in the studio after completing an electronic music production course at the School of Sound Recording in Manchester so have a CD wallet full of new material to hammer out! I've recently had tracks signed to Tidy and Vicious Circle so have a good
range of music to play.

I try to get a good variation of artists music into my sets, however I love testing out my mew tracks so keep an eye out for these ones:

Ben Stevens & Rodi Style - U Got 2 Know (Tidy)
Ben Stevens - The Power (Vicious Circle)
Ben Stevens & Adam M - Take That (Vicious Circle)
Ben Stevens - Prophecy (Fireball)
Ben Stevens - The Vous (Fireball)
Ben Stevens & Amber D - Untitled (Fireball)