Steve Anderson began his musical career at DMC Studios as one half of remix/production team Brothers in Rhythm with Dave Seaman. They went on to work with artists including Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Janet Jackson, Sting and Paul McCartney. Anderson's role at DMC was initially as an apprentice or, as he described it, "tea-boy creating some mixes for their subscription service".[1] Anderson's first remix for Kylie Minogue under the DMC label was her 1990 disco single "Step Back in Time".
Though this remix was not officially serviced, it has been suggested that it later provided inspiration for the successful Harding/Curnow remix of the single.[2] Further, it would lead to Anderson collaborating with Minogue on her ballad "Finer Feelings" in 1991. Recalling the important influence of the band Massive Attack's music at the time, Anderson stated in an interview:
Finer Feelings came from someone at PWL loving what we were doing with Brothers in Rhythm, which up until then had been predominantly house music, so taking on a gorgeous mid tempo was quite a risk but of course we loved the song and just embellished what was there with a whole load of piano, strings and choir... On the original 1992 remix it was purely about making the rhythm section tougher and the orchestration more lush—everyone was influenced by Massive Attack then, so that's where we were headed.[1]
This led to production work for the Pet Shop Boys, Take That (including the number one singles "Never Forget" and "Sure") and Minogue's debut album for Deconstruction Records in 1994, including "Confide in Me", which he co-wrote and produced.[3] Extensively collaborating with Seaman, Brothers in Rhythm also had mainstream hits in their own right with "Peace and Harmony" (1990) and "Such a Good Feeling" (1991), the latter reaching number one on the BillboardDance Club Songs chart. "Peace and Harmony" secured greater exposure when it re-appeared as the B-side to "Such a Good Feeling".[4]
In 1994, the follow-up to "Such a Good Feeling", "Forever and a Day", was released in the UK via Stress Records, with vocals from Charvoni, charting at number 51.[5][6]
Production work
Around the time of the Brothers in Rhythm release "Forever and a Day", Seaman and Anderson featured on the first Kylie Minogue album since leaving her label PWL. The two co-wrote and produced the first single, "Confide in Me", which went to number 2 in the UK charts and signified a "reinvention" of Minogue's image and sound.[3] According to Lee Barron, he felt the image of the music video was an example and opening of "Indie Kylie"; an image that later progressed through the work of her 1997 album Impossible Princess.[7] Brothers in Rhythm also produced four additional songs on the album—"Love Is Waiting", "Dangerous Game", "Automatic Love" and "Where Is the Feeling?". After the release of "Forever in a Day", Anderson and Seaman concentrated on writing, producing and recording Minogue's second album for Deconstruction Records/Sony BMG, Impossible Princess. Temporarily retitled Kylie Minogue in the UK and Europe following the death of Princess Diana, this was Minogue's sixth studio album, released on 22 October 1997 by Sony BMG and Deconstruction Records in Japan. Minogue had co-written all the songs on the album, with additional credits in production and composition; the album was also assisted by Dave Ball, Ingo Vauk, Brothers in Rhythm and Rob Dougan, among others.
The album received a polarized response from music critics. Commercially, the album reached number 10 in Australia, Scotland and the UK, but was certified Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for physical shipment of 70,000 units.
After the release of Impossible Princess, Brothers in Rhythm continued to collaborate, having their remixes on single releases by D:Ream, M People, Placebo, Garbage and Alanis Morissette.
While the Brothers in Rhythm never officially split up, the beginning of the millennium saw Seaman concentrate on his DJ career while Anderson consolidated his career in music production, song-writing and theatre.
After completing Impossible Princess for Minogue in 1997, Anderson continued to write with Minogue for the album that became Light Years. Recalling a sense of freedom during the early period of recording in 1999, Anderson states:
The thing is, when we get together to write, we just do what we feel like. We never try to pitch at an album or sound, so often we write something we love that happily sits on a B-side, and that's fine with us. If you take something like Harmony for instance—the sun was shining at Real World and we just wanted to do something really bright, warm and summery with a lovely lyric. We knew there was no way it was going to fit on an album, but that's not a good enough reason not to write it.[8]
Released in 2000 through Parlophone and widely seen as Minogue's comeback album, Light Years features three songs composed by Anderson ("So Now Goodbye", "Butterfly" and "Bittersweet Goodbye"). He also co-wrote "Dancefloor" and "Give It to Me" on the follow-up album Fever, which reached the number one slot in the UK, Australian, Austrian, German and Irish album charts and number 3 on the US Billboard 200.
Anderson also worked on songs for Britney Spears, including "Breathe on Me" for her 2003 album In the Zone and two unreleased songs ("State of Grace" and "Grow") originally intended for her album Blackout.
In 2009, he produced "Talk Me Down" for the Irish boy bandWestlife's Where We Are album. He also collaborated with Australian singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte on the song "Supersensual" for her number 1 selling album 1000 Stars. He co-wrote and produced the song "Entre Nous et le Sol" for French singer Christophe Willem's album Caféine, which was subsequently released as a single in 2010 with the English-language version of the album, Heartbox with the restored original title, State of Grace.
In 2010, he wrote and produced the song "I Will Reach You", which appeared as an album track on Westlife's Gravity album. In the same year he wrote the lead single to Spanish singer Edurne's album Nueva Piel, "Soy Como Soy".
In 2012, he also produced the English version of Willem's album, Love Shot Me Down. As part of Kylie Minogue's K25 celebrations, Anderson also produced The Abbey Road Sessions album, on which he co-wrote the single "Flower".
In 2015, he produced songs on Westlife's Markus Feehily album Fire and numerous songs for Kylie Minogue's Christmas album, Kylie Christmas.
In 2016, he wrote and produced Paola Iezzi's single "Lovenight". He also became heavily involved in the production, arrangement and release of new singer Harriet and her self-titled debut album. He also produced Boyle's Christmas album A Wonderful World, featuring covers of Madonna, Robbie Williams and ABBA songs. Anderson also produced Minogue's expanded re-release of her Christmas album, Kylie Christmas: Snow Queen Edition.
In 2018, he produced and wrote a couple of tracks on the solo debut album of Steps' singer Claire Richards. He also co-produced the debut album "Brave" by 15-year-old Beau Dermott with Cliff Masterson.
Anderson has done a cracking job of funking up Larson's score, replacing overweening guitar rock with pumping gay club anthems and diva pop, flavoured with rippling keyboards and electronica.[11]
In 2014, it was announced that Anderson was working on a new musical based on the music of Minogue.[20] In September 2015 Minogue herself confirmed that the musical had "momentum" once again, after being "in talks".[21] A successful trademark registration by Minogue's family company from 2012 indicates that the musical's working title is Lucky: The Kylie Minogue Musical.[22]
Anderson is currently working on a new musical, The Most Beautiful Man In New York, with long time collaborators Ian Masterson and Terry Ronald.[23]
