Haha, no nothing to do with John Steinbeck. It started when I was flipping burgers at McDonalds, basically someone got my surname wrong and called me Steinbeck, it just stuck after that. Although to this day there are still arguments over who called me it first! Wish it was a bit of a deeper story with some meaning behind it but there you go!

How long ago did you start learning to mix and, maybe more importantly,
who or what inspired you start?

At first it was the Tidy Boys who really got me into it, their Summer Seaside Annual was the first dance CD I owned (and I still play it now!) and that got me into wanting to do it myself. That’s when I started college and met Eryk Orpheus who introduced me to his side of the scene and NuEnergy, I got addicted to freeform and hardcore and started to mix with that on a cheap set of vinyl decks. Kevin Energy was someone who really inspired me at that point. Then when my mate Nick aka Techno-Shroom was playing in a local club I discovered Hardstyle, for me it captured everything I had followed up to that point and there really was no looking back!

You once said you could easily follow on from one of D4rKs sets by "Just playing some Gabba", in the event that this became a reality - what track would you open on?

Hardstyle is a very varied and broad genre which encapsulates multiple sub-genres (Italian, Dutch, NuStyle etc). Which do you prefer and why?

I’m not sure I can really specify on that one, all the ‘sub-genres’ have classic tunes in, as long as they have enough energy in the tracks you’ll find them in my collection! One of my all time classics has to be ‘SEXY BE4ST’ from D4rK , that track will always remain in my top 10! Then on the flip side one of my favorite tunes at the moment is the Activator re-mix of Cally and Juice ‘You Don’t Know Me’ it was one of those tracks that I discovered by accident on TrackitDown but went straight to the top of my mental play list.

What is the reason you started wearing make-up? What inspires your looks, how long does it take you, what products do you use and do you have any tips for us?

Oh dear, I was fearing this sort of question would come up! It kind of started with the D.O.A; we wanted to have a uniformed look but still wanted to keep our individual style within that look. Really it’s just a laugh and something a bit different and it means people instantly recognize who we are.

I know in the past it has raised some ‘questions’ about people doing this and how we represent the scene but that’s not really what we’re trying to do. Our style is our own, we aren’t trying to force it onto others it’s just what we do and how we express ourselves, each to their own and all that ;)
As for products, ermm, whatever is the cheapest in Asda really, I’m not that fussy! It don’t take that long, especially since I do my nails at work when I’m bored; and tips, well no I’ll leave that one to you I think!