Active in the electro house scene since 1999, Chicago-born DJ/producer Steven Stanula, professionally known as Steve Smooth, has had a distinguished career spanning more than two decades. Frequently affiliated with DJ and Beatport investor Bad Boy Bill and his label, Ménage Music, Steve was credited in 2004 with co-producing the first song ever sold on Beatport, the JJ Flores and Delano collaboration “Release”. After extensively collaborating with Flores and releasing a joint compilation, The Collection, in 2005, the pair were commissioned for a high-profile remix of Nelly Furtado’s hit “Say It Right” in 2007, and signed to Ultra Records as a duo the following year. Remaining on the Ultra roster as a solo artist after a string of singles with Flores, Stanula released a 2012 LP entitled Higher via the label, which housed a popular remix of Krystal Malik’s “I’m Not Sorry”. He found himself increasingly called upon to remix chart smashes in the following years, including John Newman’s “Love Me Again”, Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” and Kygo and Selena Gomez’s “It Ain’t Me”. In 2017, he teamed up with DJ Bam Bam to form the duo Dirty Werk, who have since remixed songs by the likes of Ariana Grande, Martin Garrix, Lil Pump and Diana Ross while simultaneously releasing original tracks. Now five albums deep into the industry, Stanula has also enjoyed chart success; to date, fifteen of his pop remixes have topped the Billboard Dance Club Songs Chart.
