Low Steppa
Will Bailey played fidget house before a side project called Low Steppa took off in 2013. The bootlegs, the label Simma Black and the Defected years.
- Birmingham DJ and producer Will Bailey, closely tied to bass house.
- Broke through in 2013 with a bootleg of Route 94’s “My Love” and a rework of Hardrive’s “Deep Inside”.
- Runs the label Simma Black and has hosted the Defected Radio Show.
Low Steppa started as a side project. Will Bailey had already played in a fidget house duo and released music under his own name when, in 2013, the new alias took off. Within a year he had management, his own label and a name that soon became shorthand for bass house.
Rave tapes and Bristol
Bailey grew up in Birmingham listening to Steely Dan, Thin Lizzy and Prince. He discovered house at 14 through rave tapes traded at school, saw a DJ mix live for the first time at art school and practised by mixing Daft Punk’s Homework in his bedroom. He moved to Bristol for college, where a chance meeting while crate digging in a record shop led to his first gig and steady five-hour bar sets.
Twocker and the Will Bailey years
After college he started Red Leather, a small experimental label, with his friend George Kafetzis. With Alex Calver he formed Twocker, a short-lived duo that helped introduce fidget house. Working as Will Bailey from the mid-2000s, he collaborated early with Valentino Khan and Chris Lorenzo and remixed “Magic Carpet Ride” by Mighty Dub Katz, an alias of Fatboy Slim.
The Low Steppa breakthrough
Low Steppa began after a short stint in Los Angeles and a job he disliked; when he was laid off, he went full-time. In 2013 he signed with a management team, released a bootleg of Route 94’s “My Love” that passed 2.2 million SoundCloud plays, and reworked Hardrive’s “Deep Inside” and Roger Sanchez’s “This Feeling”. Strictly Rhythm picked up the “Deep Inside” rework, which reached No. 1 on Traxsource in its first week. The same year his own label, Simma Black, released EPs such as Simples, Lowdown, 97 and The Cloak.
Defected, Armada and the road
From 2014 he released regularly on Armada Deep, from “Take Me Up” to the 2020 album Boiling Point. Food Music, run by Shadow Child and Kry Wolf, put out his Sleepless Nights EP in 2016, and Defected released the Moments EP in 2020. He has held a Monday residency for Redlight at Sankeys Ibiza (2016), a show on Rinse FM and the Defected Radio Show, and has played EDC Las Vegas and BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend.
His records sit where house meets bass music. Keep digging with Chris Lake.
FAQ
What is Low Steppa’s real name?
Will Bailey, a DJ and producer from Birmingham, UK. He has also recorded as Rudi Stakker.
What is Simma Black?
Low Steppa’s own house label. It has released his records, and other artists’, since 2013.
What was Low Steppa’s breakthrough?
In 2013 his bootleg of Route 94’s “My Love” passed 2.2 million SoundCloud plays, and Strictly Rhythm picked up his rework of Hardrive’s “Deep Inside”.
