Derrick May interview: Godfather of Techno
Campbell Cooper Date Added: 25.5.2006
We catch up with techno pioneer Derrick May to talk about his hometown of Detroit, international trends in techno and the industry as a whole. May also talks exclusively of a 2007 release.
In Australia, as well as all around the world, a lot of misconception exists around the term techno. Those who refer to it in its true sense are in the minority; it is often confused with trance, or used as a generic reference to all electronic music. Does this trouble you?
Yeah, of course it does. It makes the purpose all the more purposeful: to continue to strive and push towards trying to show people what electronic music from Detroit is and what the origins are. Its not about trying to insult or degrade peoples taste or likes or dislikes or change their likes or dislikes, its more about making sure they know all the options. I dont think most people do. I dont think most people even realise that there were options to begin with. I often say Im trying to save the world from bad music, but whos to determine whats bad music?
What is techno?
I wonder myself man. The word techno was something that Juan Atkins thought out aloud. He maybe shouldnt have, but he did. Back then, the purpose was to capture and define this hot-red, soulfully thought out music that was coming from the black urban mind. I never wanted to call it techno, I was never interested in calling this music techno, I knew it would backfire and I knew there would be repercussions, I knew that wed one day regret it, believe me. But it is what it is man, and we fight the fight.
Why do you say you were never interested in calling it techno?
Well, I felt that to call it techno was too generic. I also felt that techno was a term that had been partially used and could easily be discounted, as far as a real high-bred form of music was concerned, because at the time there were other people trying to call their music techno. I just wasnt really with it.
In an interview you once said, techno music is defined only by its community. How does Australias conception or misconception of techno reflect on our scene as a whole?
The misconception is wide and vast man, the reflection is across the communities all over the world. I think its more of a reflection on mainstream society than real techno communities. And the misconception mostly comes from the fact that the media took hold of what was easy to market. It comes from the fact that a lot of the record companies and a lot of the marketing companies latched onto it as well. They picked a couple of poster boys and ran with it man, and it became what it was. Its pretty much like any music. You could make the same argument about rap compared to hip hop. You could make the argument about nu-wave compared to punk. Theres always going to be an argument about what the music is, what the form is, how it got mixed up, how it got to where it is.
You once described Detroit as a place where everything is underground. What is the underground and how important is it to you?
I never really wanted to steer away from major record companies. That wasnt my ambition; I didnt want to starve and suffer. I chose my own path because I felt that at the time, I probably was going to end up being coerced into some kind of production that I didnt want to do. I decided to go independent and keep my sovereignty. It was always there, I always had many invitations to work at record labels. I just did not want to be told what to do. Eventually also I would have been exploited. My career might have exploded a lot quicker, but it also would have been over a lot quicker.
You either become very commercial, or you stick to your guns and you fight it out. And as far as Detroit and the underground scene is concerned, I think inadvertently Detroit has always been underground man, by economic design. By nature. And it will continue to be an underground city. Its not a big city on socializing, its not a big city on people coming together for many things. People live in their cars. People live in bubbles, and I dont mean financially well-off to do bubbles, I mean their own bubbles, you know. They dont really communicate with the outside world what really makes Detroits constant underground climate.
Detroit techno has often been described as intelligent music, perhaps similarly to the way German minimal is also thought of today. Why do you think this is so?
I think that perhaps it has a lot to do with the fact that minimal right now in Berlin is a very fashionable and very in-the-know kind of scene. The people that are doing it all know each other, they all go to the same clubs, and they all eat at the same restaurants. They clique. Its a very cliquey and intellectual scene. And when a scene is close like the German minimal scene is, it becomes powerful. It becomes intelligent. Theres real thought going into the music. It's original.
A scene only loses its intelligence when it moves out into a kind of vast wasteland where substance abuse and music pollution are allowed to exist, where certain things cant be controlled anymore. When Detroit techno becomes just techno. When it becomes the music where any idiot with a computer can call himself a techno artist today, and tomorrow, be working in the bank doing mortgages. Having completely forgotten about that record he made and any influence it had on techno music, or any kind of music at that particular moment. Hes in the bank now, you know, and he doesnt give a goddamn.
How do you feel about how distanced techno is from its black heritage today?
Good question man. I feel at a loss. Its a sad day man, you know, when people dont know that you made this music. It hurts. Just recently, we had the American Football Superbowl in Detroit, and there were parties all over the cities man, the city was on fire. People had come from all across America. But every single party, mostly, 9 times out of 10, was a hip hop party, or some kind of party with rap music.
Now I got an offer to play at a party. I took it, with Kevin Saunderson and Stacey Pullen, and we played at this party together. People lined up outside to go to this party, but most of them didnt really care who playing, they just wanted to be in the party. So along comes a guy whose been there maybe 20 minutes, figures I have something to do with the party, and he just walks up to me, he comes up and says, Yo man
can you do something about this music man? And I looked at him like, Oh, whats wrong with it? and he says, Man, its been going for like 35 minutes and its just this same old beat. Its this goddamn dance music man I cant stand it. This is a black guy. So you want to know how I feel? How do you feel after something like that. I mean 35 minutes man. The same beat, he said. For 35 minutes. He couldnt take it anymore. 35 minutes. I mean that hurts man. And you know who was playing at the time? Kevin Saunderson. (Laughs) Thats my world brother.
Why do you think that this is so?
Well, Chicago and New York have always had their own identities, but the rest of America is like a sock you put on your foot. A mass produced sock. We used to have such an individual and unique radio programming in Detroit. Each radio station had its own sound, its own identity, and its own point of view. Then Clear Channel came into the market man, and they knew it was a lucrative market, so they bought up every radio station. And these were radio stations owned by families man, since radio had begun. And before Clear Channel came in, each of these radio stations had a sense of pride, a sense of professionalism and individuality and competitiveness, because they all wanted to be number one, but they wanted to be number one on their own terms.
When Clear Channel came in, it wasnt really important for any of them to be number one, because Clear Channel owned them all. All they wanted to do is play the same kind of music so they would all be able to share the marketplace and make a lot of money through sponsorship. And thats what they did. And in the process, they homogenized the industry. And now, its an interesting world we live in for arts and science and music in particular. I kind of see music going to a place where canvas painting has gone. Canvas painting has gone to the point where its just a painting on a wall. I think thats where music is headed unfortunately.
There are rumours of a 2007 Rhythim is Rhythim release.
Oh yeah man! Yeah definitely, Im going to have something ready to go in 2007. I grew tired of just saying Im doing it. I got a reason to be doing it now. Prince just put a brand new album out and its getting five star ratings everywhere. He took a few years to get it right. I didnt feel like screwing up and then getting it right so I thought I would just not do anything and get it right the first time I did it you know.
When you resigned from running the Movement festival in February 2005 and Kevin Saunderson ran Fuse-In in place of it, numbers dropped from hundreds of thousands in 03 and 04 to just 44,000 in 05 when entry was no longer free. You sacrificed a lot of your time and in some cases money for the sake of the festival. Is this fall in attendance a poor reflection of the scene today? In terms of its commercialisation? Or a decline in interest?
Im going to answer that question pretty simply. That festival, number one, is a good thing. It really is. It brings a lot of young kids out, it gives a lot of people the opportunity to do what I was saying doesnt really happen in Detroit talk to each other, meet each other. Know each other. Realise that the music is there, and youre not alone. Thats really the reason why I did it. Everything else why I gave it up, how Kevin got it, how much money I made, how much money I lost, its neither here nor there from this point on. I just want to see the festival continue.
You described Detroit as a place where different music scenes got along together very well, and you often talk about how significant the Chicago house scene was to you as a source of inspiration for the conception of techno. In Melbourne, a lot of scorn, cynicism and intolerance go on between various scenes. How important do you think it is for local music scenes to work together in order for any number of them to develop?
Melbourne is the centre , the epitaph, of the music scene in Australia. Plain and simple. Sydney in particular, didnt seem to have much balls in the music scene. Some good clubs there, but there wasnt the substance, the quality or the talent that was being developed in Melbourne. I think that somehow, between Sydney and Melbourne, the scene was liquidated somehow. It still exists, sure, but it doesnt exist freehand anymore. Its become more of a corporate scene. You dont see these young promoters running around anymore fired up, aspiring to do the things that were done to get people like me to Australia thirteen or fourteen years ago. In a city like Melbourne, if theres internal fighting, its going to disrupt the scene. It is an awful, awful thing. It really is. It is a terrible thing. I cant stand to see it happen. It does happen a lot from time to time, and I have watched it happen in Melbourne. Detroit survived because we didnt have that. The artists have to communicate. They dont have to love each other, but they do have to respect each other.
What advice do you have to give young or up and coming producers today?
My heart goes out to all the independent musicians who are getting caught in the middle of the major labels and file sharing; artists who are struggling to have their music heard in a sea of a billion songs. I mean, there are a few avenues like Beatport and others that are still available and that still work, but I still dont think these are avenues enough to make a difference. I just really hope that people dont give up. If they really believe in what they do, I just hope they dont give up.
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