Location: Chicago, IL
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excellent interview with many insightful points about the scene in general and people who really get it....
Richie Hawtin Interview
November 02, 2005
-By Mike Gehrig
As a DJ and producer, Richie Hawtin has constantly sought to push things forward musically. A key figure in the second wave of Detroit techno, he has been at the cutting edge of dance music; integrating computers, effects and other techniques into his DJ sets and live performances.
With “DE9: Transitions,” Hawtin once again leaps into the future. Using programs such as Ableton Live and ProTools to strip apart and then reassemble his tracks, the DJ has produced a mix album in its truest sense; combining together the elements of hundreds of different tracks to form completely new and unique soundscapes.
The day after delivering a mind-bending set to a packed house at Sound Bar in Chicago, we were lucky enough to steal a few minutes with Richie.
In a quiet restaurant overlooking the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, Hawtin let us into his world and discussed the new album, not worrying about beat-matching, hanging out with trance DJs, and much, much more...
You looked like you had a really good time last night and clearly had that place rocking...
You know Chicago has always been really important for me. In the early days, I came and had amazing parties here and now that continues. Also, a lot of my friends from Detroit and other areas moved here. One of my friends flew in from L.A. yesterday. One of my new artists was there, and I was playing one of his new tracks for the crowd. So many reasons make it special. The people were totally open last night, ready for anything.
Recently, minimal has become one of the buzz words in dance music and an increasingly popular sound. What do you think about the music’s newfound status?
For me, I’m an optimist. I look at it as something that’s very positive for what I’m doing and for the whole scene in general. I don’t know if the word minimal is so much about the minimalistic nature of ourselves, or if it’s a tag word that people are using to describe really what’s happening at this moment.
Things have minimized, but I also think things have come together. I think minimal music, or the idea of minimal, is that there’s a balance again in what’s happening. It’s not about techno, it’s not about house, it’s not about slow, fast, hard or soft; it’s about all those things and where they meet in the middle. I think that’s what we’re talking about, that’s where the hype is. Minimal is maybe a good term for that because it is the right combination, the right balance and the right ingredients.
The interesting thing about our, let’s call it the minimal scene, is that the people really connect with the audience. I don’t think minimal is as star-driven as the other genres. People are coming to see you, but we’re there to play and do what we love to do. I think there’s a much tighter connection between the friends, fans, musicians and producers.
I go out in Berlin and dance to Ricardo (Villalobos) for six hours and then when I go on, Luciano goes on to the dance floor and vice a versa. This is our scene and the people are still a part of the scene; you’re in there, you’re dancing, you’re enjoying it, having fun, you’re partying. You’re also making music and playing sometimes, but this is our lifestyle, you don’t just turn it on or turn it off, it’s part of us. I think people can feel that.
That leads perfectly into our next question. You are seen as the de-facto leader of this movement because of everything you’ve done during your career; producing albums, DJing across the globe, etc... What is it like to be seen that way?
I moved to Berlin two years ago to be part of the scene and take our sound to the far corners of the globe. There’s so many interesting musicians and producers and everything right now, so many new guys coming up that I really feel that we’re all in it together. For sure, one of the reasons I’m seen or known more widely is because I’ve been traveling the globe for 15 years – I hope people know me (laughing).
I was never into David Bowie, his music or anything, but I always had high respect for him because, in traditional music he always redeveloped himself, reworked his ideas, changed his look and his sound. He was always searching. If David Bowie was born during my age, he probably would have been making techno music because the idea of change is really tight in him, and this is what I’ve always tried to keep in my music.
In my DJing, there’s constant evolutions, progressions, experimenting and searching for what’s next. Because of that, it’s enabled me to have this longevity and be one of the guys who started in the late 80s/early 90s who’s still standing. I think with that comes a certain loyalty and respect from the greater population. Perhaps, if anything, I think that’s why I’m able to do what I do. The funny thing about it is that the music I do is still not very accessible.
You seem to have become more outspoken recently, for example your “call to action” on behalf of DJs such as Magda and Villalobos in the 2005 DJ Magazine poll. Why is this?
I’ve been doing a lot of traveling, especially this year, more in South America and all over the place, and I’ve been doing a lot of parties. I think I’m much more open and aware to what’s going on in electronic music now than I ever was. I’ve always been in my own techno, minimal area, but we were hanging out and playing at parties with other trance guys. I’ve seen Christopher Lawrence play more this year than I did in the last 10 years. I saw Ferry Corsten and Tiesto and these guys, I’ve been hanging out with Ferry Corsten. Some of these guys are so nice, and the music they do is not my thing, but I’ve been seeing their crowds, which are huge. I’ve been seeing what happens to a crowd after I play and then when Christopher Lawrence plays, and it’s like, these guys are like superstars – people freak over the music they play.
At the same time, two Saturdays ago, I saw 25,000 people at a two room party, freaking out to Tiesto and then when I played, seeing 15,000 people freak out to exactly the same type of set I played last night; really minimal, no compromising music.
Our scene has so much passion, the people are so strong in their beliefs and people need to know about it. This is why I’m a little bit more outspoken than I was. I feel really strong about what we’re doing right now, what I’m doing with my album, what I’m doing as a DJ, what happens when Ricardo and I play together, what Steve Bug, Luciano, Poker Flat, Cocoon, Sven and all these people are doing in our scene is important.
When I play a party and I see the people who are into Tiesto and trance come over into my room, like 75 percent of them, and then start freaking out to slower, more heady, strange music which is not as hooky or accessible, but still completely freaking out. I see it in their eyes, and I’m like “hey, something’s going on.”
In Europe there’s been a momentum and energy for the last couple of years really building. It’s a little bit behind here, but the momentum is also there on a smaller level, and I really feel something exciting happening in North America again. I always had good parties here (in Chicago); good support, but last night the people that were there, they came and they were totally open. This is what allows people like me and all my friends and colleagues to be able to do what we love to do, to come and play really, really cutting edge music with no compromises.
You seem to draw a unique crowd for your shows, what would you say about the people who listen to your music?
I’m not so sure. I think people; I hope people, come to the shows or listen to the CDs who hope for something new.
I always remember when I was growing up and going to first parties, these eye-opening experiences, these moments when the penny dropped. It was something so new and special that you couldn’t explain it in words, it was a feeling and this is why I hope the people come and see me.
I try to bring this into the music that I’m making and I’m playing every night and have people going away thinking and remembering it as a really special night in there lives. I’m really aware of this and I think the people feel that. I think they come and listen expecting something special, and maybe expecting something unexpected.
You play all over the world at some of the most interesting and unique locales imaginable, but where are some places that have struck you recently as really having a great scene?
If I had to pick some of the more special gigs of the year so far it would be some of the gigs in South America and the gig in Romania. In Romania, the whole time I was playing, I could hear and see people around me screaming and asking my technical guy Patrick, “What is this guy playing, this guy’s crazy, we’ve never heard anything like this!”
You see this in the people’s eyes, and in Romania I really felt like I was an explorer, a pioneer landing on the new world and delivering something that not only had they never heard before, but that they never even knew existed. That was so amazing.
People say what would you be if you were born 100 years ago and there wasn’t electronic music, and I always say I would be an explorer; I would be the guy going to the North Pole first or tracking through the Elks.
That’s a little bit like what we are. For sure it’s music, it’s also entertainment, but we also have a job to introduce people to new ideas and new sounds. When you see that work and that happen, it’s like the biggest possible reward you can get.
Let’s turn to the album now. The whole DE9 concept is obviously more than just a standard mix comp. Can you explain what your goal was for the series, now that you can look back on it, and how do all three pieces fit together?
Very early on, I was using different, additional pieces of equipment in my DJ sets to try to manipulate and change the music I was playing and all to try to create something new and for the moment for the people. Decks and Efx, from the beginning, was about searching for new ways and new technologies to allow me to experiment and grow as a DJ. That’s really what the whole series is about, looking back and seeing how things have developed around those elements. Before the first Decks and Efx, going out with your own mixer and using effects or a drum machine was unheard of. It was me, Jeff Mills and one or two people doing it. Now you look around and it’s commonplace.
The idea now for DE9 is it’s a series for me to explore where DJing might possibly go in the future. So the first one would be effects and drum machines, the second one would be micro sampling and looping, and this one says, “What happens if we let the computers do some of the work? What happens if we forget this outdated technique called beat-matching? Where can we focus our attention?”
Once I let go of worrying about having to manually beat-match hundreds of records that really opened up the door into a whole new world. Sometimes as a DJ, it’s all about the music that you’re playing, but if you spend so much time on beat-matching, and worrying about timing and synching, it becomes more about that technique than the music that you’re playing. This is a balance you have to find.
So when you forget about beat-matching, when you let the computer take control of that, not only do you have more time to focus attention on different parts of the mix, you have more time to focus your attention on the music and the tracks you’re playing and how they interrelate and interact.
That is really about what the new Transitions is all about. Having the time, the energy and the space to listen to hundreds of records and figure out which two or three or four or five or six work together, and compliment each other and become something more than the sum of their parts.
On Transitions you gutted the tracks and retitled them, talk a little about the whole process and your goal with this.
For me this is the most important thing. To manipulate and modulate the records that I’m playing in such a way that they become something completely new, like when I saw Derrick May the first time. I was like, “I know this record but I have no idea what he’s playing right now.” It’s that complete understanding, and complete chaos and confusion at the same time. This is what I’m always trying to search for.
That’s why it’s called Transitions. In the past DJing was about transitioning from sound one to two every three or four minutes, this album is about the transition from second to second. As soon as you hear a sound, it’s gone. You start to focus your attention on that sound and it pulls you, and then you can’t, it’s so far gone and there’s so many other sounds coming at you.
You always have to focus your attention directly ahead. This is what I do in my music, my career. This is techno is all about, it’s always about where are we going now. None of us know where it’s going, we don’t know what’s going to be next for the sound, but it’s this journey, this sort of exploration that excites us and inspires us. I wanted the album to be like that every second. This is why I gave all the parts new titles.
You can’t listen to “The Tunnel” section and say this Sahko track is that track. You take any part away, and it’s not just not “The Tunnel” anymore, it starts to fall apart. It’s like taking the wrong brick out of a building and it tumbles down. It’s very fragile, but by combining all those different parts together it’s become something completely new, and to me very organic. I didn’t want it to just to be these five (tracks) together, I wanted them to continually evolve, interweave and mix as time went along.
If you listen to the album, and go through and listen to tracks one, two, three and four and skip through the album listening to like five or 10 seconds each, each section is completely different. If you listen continually, you have no idea how section one gets to section two. There is no one transition, the transition is constant. It’s a little bit like my life. It’s a history lesson; it combines all the records that have kind of made me who I am to this point as a DJ. It’s like the cover, the cover is my face, but it’s all the track titles. As a DJ, I’m only as good as the parts that I have.
Recording the album as a DVD seemed to give you more flexibility artistically and you were able to record longer composition. Do you think this is something we’ll be seeing more of in the future?
I think any of the new high-definition mediums that are coming along, and even the idea of internet delivery, is giving us our freedom back musically. Since prerecorded music came about, we’ve been given an allotment of time where we have to get our ideas across. I love the idea that now not only are all these technologies allowing us to again allow our ideas, the music can evolve at the rate we feel is appropriate for that piece.
That’s why on this release, the CD version is there because CD format is still the format of choice. It’s a 74 minute version, but you miss 20 minutes of the mix. When I was recording, I didn’t think about the timing. I was like, “I’m going to start, I’m going to continue and I’m going to end when it feels right.”
It’s important for electronic music to have as little barriers and definitions as possible. Our music needs openness and room to breathe, room to live. As soon as you start confining it, it loses the lifeblood. Techno is all about change, innovation and progression. It’s about imagining what is going to be possible in the future. When someone starts to say that you can think of the future and you can make imaginary worlds, but only to my definition, it’s already broken.
I think that is the perfect place to end things, unless there is anything you would like to add?
I never add anything (laughing).
source:
http://www.clubplanet.com/news/archive/richie_hawtin_interview.asp
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