Roel on ‘Dreamliner’, Working With Low Steppa and Bringing Disco Into Modern House
For Italian producer Roel, working with Low Steppa on ‘Dreamliner’ was never part of the original plan. What began as a demo intended for Low Steppa’s Low Trax imprint became something more significant when the UK producer heard enough of himself in the record to want to become directly involved.
The resulting collaboration feels appropriate for two artists whose approaches meet across different generations of house. ‘Dreamliner’ combines disco and funk musicality with jackin’ grooves and a tougher contemporary finish, while retaining the uplifting character that first caught Low Steppa’s attention.
“The relationship developed naturally through my releases on Low Trax,” Roel explains. “I then sent him another demo to complete the EP, and that demo was ‘Dreamliner’. When he heard it, he liked the track so much that he asked if we could turn it into a collaboration.”
For Roel, that sequence was important. Rather than entering the studio with a high-profile collaboration as the objective, the partnership happened because the original music connected.
“The collaboration came from the music itself. He heard something in the track that he connected with, and that naturally opened the door to working on it together.”
That connection makes particular sense given the record’s roots. Low Steppa has described ‘Dreamliner’ as reminding him of the house records he encountered while establishing himself around Bristol’s club circuit. Roel approached it from the opposite direction, starting with his longstanding fascination with disco, funk, soul and jazz before filtering those influences through house.
“I didn’t have one specific record in mind when I made ‘Dreamliner’,” he says. “I was simply following the kind of vibe I naturally like to create.”
A sample provided the catalyst. Guitars, organ riffs and piano gradually accumulated around it, establishing the musical identity before Low Steppa tightened the production.
“The original version of ‘Dreamliner’ was built around a very uplifting, old-school house drum approach, inspired by the kind of energy I really love in Armand Van Helden’s records,” Roel says. “When William became involved, he added his own touch to both the drums and the bass. He made the drums tighter, drier and more club-oriented, and added a Reese bass synth that gave the track an even stronger club feel.”
Crucially, its original disco and funk character remained.
“I really liked how open and respectful he was towards the original idea,” Roel adds. “Rather than separating our roles, I think it was more about combining our sounds in a way that worked for the record.”
That musicality has increasingly become Roel’s calling card. His relationship with disco and funk stretches back to his teenage years, when digging deeper into house led him towards disco house and funky house. Being surrounded by musicians, including friends studying at conservatory level, exposed him to another world beyond electronic production.
“I had a close friend who studied jazz piano, so I was naturally exposed to that musical world as well,” he recalls. “That also played a big part in my fascination with jazz, especially with instrumental solos, which are still one of the things I love most in music.”
Jackin’ house eventually offered a way to connect those older records with contemporary club production, encouraging Roel to investigate their source material further. That exploration now stretches through soul, jazz, funk and disco from the ’60s onwards, including interpretations of those sounds from outside their most familiar Western contexts.
“They’ve taught me to pay much more attention to the musical side of a track, the harmony, the groove, the instrumentation and the human feeling behind the music,” he says. “Today, I’m not trying to simply recreate disco, funk or soul. I take the elements that I love from those genres and reinterpret them through my own way of making house music.”
That philosophy extends into the studio. Despite the analogue warmth associated with Roel’s productions, he is less concerned with whether a sound originates from vintage hardware than with how organic and precise elements interact.
“The warmth comes from the sample, the guitars, the keyboards and the way I process them, while the tighter and more technical side comes from the drums, the groove and the way I shape the sounds in the mix.”
His catalogue has provided plenty of opportunities to refine that balance. Releases across Soulfuric Recordings, Groove Culture Music, MoodFunk Records, Spacedisco Records and Low Trax have placed his music within subtly different corners of house without requiring him to reinvent himself for each label.
“Working with different labels has taught me that you don’t necessarily have to change your sound to fit into different environments,” Roel explains. “Over time, that helped me become more selective and more aware of what I want my music to represent.”
Recognition has followed. Support from Louie Vega, Anané and David Penn for his Soulfuric material proved particularly significant, not simply because of their stature but because of the history surrounding the label itself.
“Seeing the record being played by artists like Louie Vega and Anané, and then seeing people reacting to it on the dancefloor, was something very special for me,” he says. “It made me realise that a track I had created in my own studio could travel much further than I had imagined.”
‘Dreamliner’ now has the potential to travel further still. It represents Roel’s highest-profile collaboration to date, but he is careful not to frame one record as a career-changing moment.
“I don’t expect ‘Dreamliner’ to completely change my career, but I hope it can open doors to people, artists and environments I haven’t reached yet,” he says. “I’m not looking for one release to define my career. I want to use every opportunity to take the next step, keep improving and build something that lasts.”
It is an approach reflected in the collaboration itself. ‘Dreamliner’ did not begin with a strategy or a name attached to it. It began with the musical ingredients Roel has spent years making his own, reached someone who understood them, and developed naturally from there.
