Model by day, DJ by night - Billy Steele is a vital, magnetic young artist whose abundant talent and charisma are already well known in the Manhattan fashion and club-going scenes.
Billy grew up on Long Island, about two hours outside of Manhattan, always knowing he would one day make it big in the city. He arrived in Manhattan at 20 and with his chiseled looks and physique, was swiftly recruited into New York's high-fashion modeling world.
Behind the camera, he was all business. But when off the shoot and out of the lens, Billy Steele was all about the party. The fashion and club-going scenes regularly inter-mingle so it wasn't a surprise that Billy would become a prominent member of each set. What was a surprise was that the rising model would eventually decide to leave the shutterbug industry - and his career behind the lens - to pursue DJ-ing and a career behind the turntables. "I experienced the legendary parties thrown by DJs Junior Vasquez, David Morales, and Jonathan Peters," explains Steele. "It was intense - the freedom and security I felt when dancing. But a few years ago, the music started to become darker and monotonous. The parties didn't have the same energy, people stopped going, and the parties began to die down."
Billy decided he was going to bring the parties back to their glory days.
He began his DJ career two months after purchasing his first set of turntables with a Saturday night residency at Manhattan's Limelight. He was 22 years old.
Billy's philosophy on spinning records is simple: he wants to make people happy. His beats incite an absolute need to dance, as if there is unfinished business on the dance floor, and the result is pure emotional ecstasy.
He eschews the typical anthem songs, or anything that people can hear anywhere. He believes it his responsibility to offer club-goers a unique experience. "Real clubbers don't want music they can hear on their car radios," he explains. "They come to the club to dance to the newest and most exciting beats."
Steele also demands that his dance floor be welcoming to everyone - black, white, gay and straight. The dance floor is a place where all groups can come together with their common love of dance music. "I learned from the masters the power of the musical connection between a DJ and his dance floor," Steele continues. “It's funny to say but the connection is similar to that of a guru among his people. The people look to the guru for guidance and he offers his message - the music is my message."
But that doesn't stop the guru from jumping into his congregation every once in a while. Billy has been known to pop onto the dance floor to break a move with his crowd.