Some weeks ago we asked our users to send us their questions for Richie Hawtin and here is the result:

Autor: Vitalic89
Have you thought about coming back with your Decks Fx 909 as you did years ago? And as a F.U.S.E. (Further Underground Sound Experiments)?.
I started last year to test a number of new technologies for recording and creating the next DE9 project last year while on the USA Bus Tour and only yesterday wrote some emails regarding this project to my team here at Minus.  But at the moment because I'm so busy with Plastikman I still have not confirmed the time/date when I'll actually put the project together....  but conceptually it is ready to go, I even know the title and the artwork concept... now just need time to make it!  Look for something perhaps late 2011.  As for FUSE.....  the 20 year anniversary of Dimension Intrusion is coming up soon, maybe then...... something!

Autor: isengard21bcn
Everybody knows about your bad relation with Eddie Flashin Fowlkes but what’s your opinion about Eddie’s reaction? Was because racism? Was cause because he was jelous? By the way, whats your relation with UR crew nowadays?
HA!  Funny question.  Actually I am VERY HAPPY and PROUD to say that after my Plastikman show at  this years Movement festival in Detroit, Eddie came up to me and congratulated me on the show and we spoke about some of the funny things you do and say when you're younger.  It was a huge pleasure and really a very special moment for me to finally have some nice words with Eddie as one of the first (and most favorite) techno records that I bought in the late 80's was his 'Goodbye Kiss'!  As for UR, there was definitely some (as both Mike and I like to call it now) 'Sonic Warfare' going on between Plus 8 and UR back in the early 90's but for many years now Mike and I (and of course Jeff) have had many enjoyable conversations and meals together.... Mike is one of the people I most respect in the electronic music scene.

Autor: jetlag
If you were not Dj, what would you do as a professional in your life?
Originally I was hoping to be involved with Film somehow, perhaps a director or more likely working on Special Effects as when I was studying I was very interested in early SFX technology being used in SCI-FI and Horror movies in the 80's....  if not, perhaps a test pilot for airplanes as I love to fly and to push the envelope.

Autor: quimapu
Mr. Richie Hawtin, ¿a dj is born or made?
Well, I think we are all born with many possibilities and abilities, but it's what we make out of them that defines what we end up being.

Autor: Sebss
Was it hard at the beginning of your career? Did you had a lot of opportunities?
I think in the beginning John Acquaviva and I both had a hard time finding people who really believed in our ideas and music, so we decided to make our own record company, Plus 8, and take control of our own destinies.   The one thing that was really hard was to find enough money to make our records... we both had to work extra jobs DJ'ing, at a video rental store, even at McDonalds to make our dreams come true....  where there's a will, there's a way.

Autor: tazman
I was marked by your mix deck , efx & 909 with tracks that sounded for just one minute ¿with which period of your career are you more proud? and ¿what are the main differences between dejing now and before?
I'm proud of my entire career as I feel that each step of my career has naturally created the next step... I follow my heart and my instincts and do what feels right.   When I started DJ'ing it was about (in the house/techno world) playing 1 great song after another, now I believe it's about creating one great song after another!

Autor: PICH
About festivals, do you think that 45 minutes is enough to make a live and to make people walk away happy and satisfied? Year after year your sets & live sets have been getting shorter and shorter
Great question.  I think that different types of gigs have different 'perfect' set times; on a large scale festival where there are many distractions or other artists playing (like Monegros, Sonar etc) it is sometimes better to only play a 2 hour DJ set and perhaps a 60-90 minute Live show.  But on smaller more intimate clubs the longer the set the better!  However, what you have to remember is that many of the busy DJ's are now playing 3, 4 or even 5 times per week and so with the travelling schedule it is sometimes hard to play extremely long sets every night.  One of the unfortunate things about my life is that most of the time I have to travel many more hours to get to a gig than I actually have time to perform.   As an example, recently when I played in Mykonos it took me 3 flights and 12 hours to get to the Island, and another 10 hours to get off the island (so 22 hours of travelling) for my performance that was only 5 hours!   One of the other things that many DJ's don't talk about (but I'm sure will more so in the future) is the wear and tear on our bodies after years of touring and loud music... in fact I have enough energy to play all day, but my ears cannot take the constant pummelling of the music that I like to hear VERY LOUD!


Autor: sopadeverano
I would like to know, if you understan the critics you get for not playing techno in your sets as Richie Hawtin, specially in Spain?
No matter what I play I will always get critics from some place or another.  I remember in the late 1990's and early 2000 when many people in Spain hated that I started to play less of the Hard Techno that they wanted to hear and more Minimalistic, then 6 years later nearly everyone in Spain only wanted to hear Minimal Techno.  So I cannot be everything to everyone.  I will continue to play the music that I feel at that moment and let the music help define my path.  Perhaps at the moment I'm not playing so much techno, that doesn't mean that I do not like techno, it just means that at this moment in time, I do not find enough good techno records being released to play in my set.... and I really do not want to fill my sets up with old techno records just to keep people happy.  In a few years perhaps I'm playing more techno and someone else asks me why don't I play as much minimal as a few years before?!  :)

Autor: soma-dance
Don’t you think that the Plastikman you have show this year, is closer to M_nus thant the techno you were making before? Thanks a lot, you are big!
Yes I agree that the new Plastikman Live show is much more minimal and closer to the Minus sound than perhaps the earlier Plastikman material.  But you have to remember that the original Plastikman sound from 1993 has changed and developed over the last 18 years and that those early Plastikman records also helped develop the sound we call Minus today.  Either way, Plastikman Live will continue to develop and mutate so expect to see and hear new changes with Plastikman Live over the next year or so.  Thanks for the support!

Autor: chords13
When would you stop selling marketing and will return to create the groove you became famous with?
It's funny, people always want you to go back to where you were a few years before... but for me that's sometimes hard as I continue to be inspired by new challenges and ideas... some of them marketing, some of the for DJ'ing, and performing etc.   I also think that my career has always been a combination of music, promotion & marketing as even in the early days when I was recording many of my records on Plus 8 (and also Minus) I was also writing the press releases and creating all the artwork, record/cd sleeves and even label design.  Perhaps you look at it as only marketing, but to me the entire process of making music, releasing it, running Minus etc is all part of my creative process.

Autor: Darkmindenz
I think (and many people might think the same), the boom of the techno minimal has reached its ceiling. Techno, house, dance, everything sounds to “minimal” What do you think of the current minimal-techno scene? Do you have any project to make a twist in this craze?
I personally do not really enjoy music with too many parts or changes, I like subtle songs that develop and engage me.  To me that's what a great Minimal record is and that type of record can be based upon more of a house groove, a techno groove or even a slower hiphop like groove... it's about space within the ideas and sounds and those types of records still excite me!

Autor: ragac
Do you think you’re on the top of your success? Are you going to bring the Contakt show to Spain?
At the moment we have no more plans for any Contakt shows, we are all very proud of what we presented with this idea and now want to move forward on a new type of tour and presentation.  Am I at the top of my success now?  I'm not sure, I'll only know that later in retrospect.  However I do feel that at the moment many people across the planet are interested in what I'm doing, playing, saying and hope that this will continue to help me introduce people to not only my music & ideas, but the rest of the artists on Minus and other friends and labels in the electronic music scene.  

Autor: Comesapos
Which feeling you haven’t manage to transmit with your music yet? (the death, your first love...?)
How it would feel to really be in the future.

Autor: javiadrados24
Hi Richie, I'd like to know if after playing so many years, you still feel the same when playing. Which is the greatest memory you have ever had in your life when playing?
After so many years it's hard to always make the next gig better than the last, but when the connection is there, between the crowd and I there is a special magic where time stops and things just happen, when I stop thinking and I just do, and in this moment, it's like I'm playing again for the first time.

Autor: CLAUDIA
I would like to know if the Minus Ghost space you did at Sonar 2010 is going to happen again in any place in Europe or at Sonar next year. I would like to thank you for that space as it was a delicatessen for those who are Minus fans.
We would LOVE to do more of the Ghost Spaces. This was such a huge success because it was about bringing our Minus family together with all the fans out there.  We all play so many gigs when we are on big stages with many wonderful people dancing in front of us, but sometimes you just need to bring everyone together in a nice, friendly, relaxed environment and enjoy the great scene that we all love.  Thank you to everyone who came to the Ghost Space as it was only together that we all made this a great success.  And we are now looking for other new friends in different cities with small shops, galleries etc who might want to do another Ghost Space with us.

Autor: orius
Have you thought of bringing back the faster, hard and aggresive techno you used to play but with the current technology (& structures) on your sets.
Yes, I'm definitely thinking about this now and how it might integrate with either my DJ'ing sets or possibly Plastikman Live :)

Autor: hardturcio
Richie, would you do a special remember set (classics only, from early days of your career) if a club or a festival ask you? How much would be the cost?
HAHA -  Well at the moment I'm not really interested in doing something like that because I'm very busy with Plastikman Live and new ideas for my next projects for 2011.  But I would like to do something very special for the Plus 8 25 year anniversary in 2015.  I already have a great idea for a special tour, but we still have a few years to plan that one.

Autor: Special Key
When was last time you played with vinyls? Have you thought playing with them any other time?
I've played using Control Vinyl for Traktor a few times this year playing back to back with Marco Carola (which was A LOT of fun!!!) but I haven't played real vinyl for over 2 years now and honestly, I really do not miss it as playing vinyl feels confining and quite uninspiring.  I continue to be inspired by what I do by challenging myself as much as possible, playing with the newest technology offers me many more possibilities than Vinyl ever did and I believe that playing 1 record after another (although very nice sometimes) is a 1980's aesthetic, and last time I checked, it's 2011!

Autor: Barbarello
What’s the last live not electronics you have seen? Are you interested in music made by guitars?
 Kaki King, an amazing guitar player from the United States and one of my most favorite artists from the past 2 years is my friend from Japan, Kazuya Nagaya who makes wonderful minimal music with strange Asian acoustic instruments who has done a wonderful remix of one of my Plastikman tracks!  On that note, Cliff Martinez who did the score of the remake of Solaris is also an amazing musician!

Autor: Goodfella
Richie, do you like movies about gladiators?
I really enjoy any movies that are about history and how the world used to be hundreds of years ago and also liked the Ridley Scott movie 'Gladiator'.