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DJ Strawberry's special report from club Tresor, Berlin, after the fantastic event of DJ T.1000 from Detroit. In the chill out minutes, a special interview for the listeners of the "Strawberry Fields" show on Kanal 103 FM, Macedonia and Skopje Clubbing Web page follows: JULIJA: Hello and welcome to Strawberry Fields. For the start a little introducing, with you for our listeners. for our listeners. |
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ALAN: Hello, my name is Alan Oldham and I DJ and produce records under the name DJ T.1000, and hello Macedonia and you know, I am just having a nice bit of wine here, with DJ Strawberry, and we're having a nice bit of a chat here, in Berlin.
JULIJA: Well, you work as a DJ as well as a producer. For the start, can you tell us more about your producing work? about your producing work?
ALAN: Well, my producing work_ I did a record for Djax Up Beats back in 1990, under the name "Signal to Noise Ratio," that was my very first record. I then started Generator label a few years later, we did that for three years, and now we stopped Generator and now we moved on doing the Pure Sonic label.
JULIJA: What are your plans for your latest label Pure Sonic; what kind of stuff do you release and what are the plans for Pure Sonic?
ALAN: Pure Sonic is hard techno and that's basically what we're doing. Minimum's are hard, we're not really experimenting anymore with different kinds of music. In Generator we did all kinds. We did experimental, we did ambient, as well as hard techno. But looking back on the Generator stuff, the best Generator records were the really hard techno records. So, we're taking that and we're moving on with Pure Sonic. What we have in the pipe line, I had three 12"s on Pure Sonic available right now, the "Downshifter EP", "Track Machine", which is one sided limited edition release and the latest one "Signals of Minimalism", which I gave you a white label of last night, and I also have an EP for Tresor in January, called "Jetset Love Life," so we've been pretty busy. And I also have an album for Tresor which I haven't even started yet, hopefully, this summer of '98. And that's what I'm doing.
JULIJA: I really enjoyed your set this night, it was amazing, your contacts with the audience, your playing was so damn good, you were really awesome. So, can you make comparation between DJs and your producing work?
ALAN: Well, you know, I started out as a DJ, first on the radio like you, that's how I begun, then I went in the clubs and I got into producing, it's almost if you wanna be in the techno game, if you wanna be in the music business, you have to produce your own stuff. It's almost a necessity if you wanna be a big name DJ, you have to make your own records. I know very few DJs that are being and don't make records. It's really cool to be able to make your own stuff and play it out, because you can clearly make your own stuff and it's a kind of stuff you want to spin as opposed to spinning someone else's. Although I can't be like Jeff Mills and play all my own stuff. Because, the problem becomes when you live with the track for so long and when you make it, it's almost as if when you put it out, it's over and you can't play it anymore. Sometimes, I give like that, and I make a track and I don't even play it out in my own set, I make it for other people to use. So, you know, it depends on my mood I guess.
JULIJA: And for you, what's the party worth seeing for?
ALAN: It's got to be a good party. That's my thing, I mean... everybody likes money, I'm not gonna sit up and say well, I don't do it for money, blah, blah, but in the same time, it's got to be a really good party and the money is not even worth it if the party is not good. That's the way I feel about it. We wouldn't sit before talking about if it's a bad party and just standing there playing, and not getting anything out of it. It's not even worth it. Like Tresor last night, started out kinda shaky, but it turned out really good. So, it is worth it.
JULIJA: It was really mind blowing party last night in Tresor, definitely. What do you think about Tresor, about the techno scene in Europe in comparison with Detroit techno scene?
ALAN: Well, first of all I wanna say that I am really
honoured to be on the Tresor label and I'm really excited that
Tresor excepted me and they are now putting out my stuff. And that's the first thing, `cause now I'm in the same league as all the greats now,
like Joey Beltram, Blake Baxter, and you know, different cats -
Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, so now I'm in the same league with them
so I'm very excited about that. The European techno scene - the crowds are older, and they're more mature; it's more about the music in Europe as
opposed to the drugs.
In America, it's very young, it's like 14-15-year-old and it's about
the drugs and it's not really about the music. It's very
few people in America that's about the music, but in Europe is
more about the music, definitely. But I like both the American and the European
scenes, though, that's the strange thing about it. I'm
30. In America, you rarely see somebody over 25-26 at a
rave. But here, you see people 40-years-old, husband and wife, going to party so
it's good.
JULIJA: Back in Detroit you were growing up with names like Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Carl Craig, Robert Hood, Stacey Pullen, Jeff Mills, all in the same buzz. So, what's happening in Detroit's scene lately?
ALAN: It's not much of a rivalry as it used to be like me versus you, but now, everybody is very comfortable and everyone is doing well with the music now. It's got to be very mature scene. We don't see each other that much in Detroit, `cause everybody is kinda in their own world, everybody's out djing all the times, so we never see each other. I had dinner with Stacey Pullen, Carl Craig, Richie Hawtin, that we all had dinner last week in a restaurant in Detroit. Then I just saw Richie again last week and this is the most I've seen of Richie in five years, I swear to god. I saw him at Tribal Gathering and I saw him twice last week, and that's like the most I've seen Richie, and haven't seen Jeff in like five years, you know Jeff Mills, I saw him at Tribal Gathering. I played at Tribal this year and that's the first time I've seen Jeff Mills in five years. We don't see each other that much really. It's not that big deal for us.
JULIJA: You prefer working on your own, everyone's working on their own in Detroit?
ALAN: Pretty much. I like working with people. I like collaborating with people but the problem is people's egos get in the way and things really get in the way and the best way is to kinda, just do your own thing. When I was flying over, just this last time I had to fly to London and change to Berlin, so on my flight coming over, Blake Baxter was on my same flight. So we set and talked for few hours and the thing in Detroit is everybody's kinda working by themselves and you need to start on working on your own career now.
JULIJA: So what are the real key moments in your career?
ALAN: There were two of them just this year; Tribal Gathering, the Detroit tent at Tribal Gathering was just awesome, and it was me and all of the great techno talents all in one place and that was a very key moment for me. I was accepted in the big club of great techno talents and the second one was of course when I signed with Tresor. They agreed to put on my records, then wanted to do an album with me, it's brilliant, I think it's really great. Those are the two key moments just this year of my whole career.
JULIJA: This is definitely your year.
ALAN: Yes!
JULIJA: It is amazing that you are much more popular in Europe than in your home town Detroit. How would you explain that?
ALAN: It is the same with anything you know_if you look at the old jazz artists they were a lot more accepted here in Europe then they were in the States. So lot of cats like Miles Davis and others were geniuses in Europe, but in America they are kinda margialized and it's the same thing with us. Same dynamic and work like 40 years later. I can't explain it, it's like an old thing, a profit in their own city. That's the way with us in Detroit, but it's cool because you get to go home and you're nobody and you can just get on with your life so it's all right. It keeps you from getting too big-headed about this whole thing.
JULIJA: How many times have you played in Europe?
ALAN: I played in Europe a lot but not as much I played in the States. I'm just now, this year, again, getting into playing mainland Europe `cause usually I go back and forth to London and that's it. But I played in Malta, I played in Berlin, I'm gonna be in France in January, so it's getting to be more and more here in Europe and I'm kinda happy about it.
JULIJA: Are you coming to Macedonia soon?
ALAN: I want to. If somebody sends me a plane ticket, I'm there baby.
JULIJA: Great. You know that there are really people who love techno and I have few friends who really have your records, they really love you. What do you think about the country called Macedonia and your records being played there?
ALAN: It's amazing. When you told me that people in Macedonia knew me, and they knew my art work, `cause I do the art work for day job, I guess we've got to mention that, that's kind of my day job, but I was amazed. I played in Malta like I said earlier, a month and a half ago, and I was amazed that I was known down there, but Macedonia, that's even more awesome, so I'm just amazed and I'm very glad and flattered that people living there even know who I am. To me in my own head, I am just this little comic book guy, I just DJ a little bit, I make half-way decent tracks, but it's nice that people know who I am and it's gratifying and I am very flattered.
JULIJA: Alan, don't be so modest, because lot of people have so much respect for your work, anyway, how do you see the future of techno music and dance culture in the coming years?
ALAN: I think that the dance culture in Europe it's not gonna go anywhere. In America, dance culture has no way to go because people are kinda tired of rock'n'roll thing and the hip hop is cool but it's just too violent, and a lot of people are gonna start turning into house and techno because it's all about the vibe and it's all about good music and it's not about what clothes you have and all other crap you know. The whole scene has really got nowhere to go and a lot of people gonna wake up to the fact that you don't have to take drugs to have a good time at a party. You gonna see less and less of that and just more and more vibe and more good DJs and good music because nothing could take the place of good music. If the music is crap it doesn't matter what kind of drugs you've got. You know what I mean? So I think that in the coming years it's gonna become more mature and it's not going anywhere. Every time I think that my career is over and there's nothing else going on, I find there are more and more people who know my stuff and who appreciate the music and I'm just happy about it.
JULIJA: What are your plans about the future?
ALAN: I'm just gonna continue with Pure Sonic. Eventually I wanna emphasise more on music and just more developing in myself as a good person; just getting real life and not be just a DJ or just a producer. I like to do more with my art work as well, I got a comic book coming out 1998, another one. This one's gonna be pretty big, nice, 24 pages, huge like 11 by 17 inches and I don't know the metric system I'm sorry, I'm American. I just wanna be more of an artist and an all around decent person instead of just trying to be a naughty techno guy.
JULIJA: It's such a pleasure for me to sit with you, one of the techno gods from Detroit, and to talk about everything, music and stuff, everything from the life and techno. What is really techno to you? What does it mean to you?
ALAN: I think that techno as opposed to other music - I like all the music out there, I like drum'n'bass, I like house, but I think the techno is more about the purity of the sound and it's about getting the new sounds and using the new sounds because if you look at music, techno makes the new sounds first, all right, and then the drum'n'bass and the house guys, they use the sound in their own productions doing different music, but techno makes the sound first. Even if you look at something like CNC Music Factory, which was very commercial, and very famous, but lot of the stuff and lot of the sounds that they used in those records came from techno first. Techno is the search for all the new sounds that we've never heard before. And that's what techno is to me. It can be very hard, it can be very minimal, it can be ambient, almost. I have a track on Tresor record which has no kick, which has no 909 in it all, it's just all very atmospheric. But I think techno is all about the new sounds. That's what it is. Techno paves the way for the drum'n'bass producers and for the house music producers, for the hip hop producers, cats get the techno records, they sample them, and they just go off with them. But it all begins and ends with techno and it begins with Detroit and ends with Detroit. That's how I feel about the entire scene. I think it's really healthy.
Berlin, December, 1997.
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