Craig Hollywood sits down for a chat with Berlin based producer/DJ Richie Hawtin; A man who many regard as being one of worlds most forward thinking techno creators.

Ahead of his upcoming performance at FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL, techno messiah Richie Hawtin takes some time out from a break in the Philippines to go through the in’s and out’s of what he has been up to. Now, before we get going, a bit of background must be provided. Hawtin is a figure who is one of the founding pioneers of music of the minimal equation. His releases Decks EFX & 909, DE9 Closer to the Edit and DE9 Transitions have forever changed the format of modern techno music. Added to that, Hawtin is also the managing dignitary of Berlin’s M_Nus label. Having recently altered his live performance technique, which encompasses a delivery method that has resulted in major debate amongst the world’s techno community, there was no better time to converse with the man himself.

Can you go into detail about your recent technological alterations? The inclusion of the use of 2 Apple Mac Book pros, 2 Audio 8’s, Allen & Heath Xone:1D MIDI controllers etc must bring with it a whole new range of benefits. Can you fill us in on what has been brought around as a result?
“I think one of the best things about technology is that it can automate some tasks that have become outdated for us humans. The only bad part of that equation is that if we, as humans, don’t take advantage of that saved time to do something that you wouldn’t have done before. Whether that’s with communication technology or work technology, having an extra moment to spend with your family, or whether it is with me on stage having an extra moment to re-edit something and totally heighten the experience. So, if you don’t use the benefit of technology then it’s a bit of a waste of all the time and years of development.”

Considering that you are an artist that has continually led the push for technological change, could you provide some examples of the main benefits of this new approach?
“I suppose one of the great things about the technological aspect is the fact that I don’t have a bad back from carrying records [laughs] I’ve got everything in my computer and I even carry, I pretty much carry two of everything. So I have two computers, two hard drives, two Audio 8 units which allow me to do my whole show. But even if something goes down I can always just do the basic set up with one of the computers so it’s pretty redundant and at the end of the day I’m travelling all over the world and I want to perform for the people and that’s another great thing about technology, there’s so many different places that I think, Y’know, for me there’s loads of great things about technology but the most important thing for me at the moment is that it allows me to build upon what I’ve done in the past and helps me do sets that are different, inspiring and evolving over time”

You have recently come under a bit of fire for the fact that your new set up follows more of a pre-recorded path, which no longer requires for yourself to think about things such as beat matching. What do you have to say about this?
I was always looking for things to be done differently. I was taking things apart, experimenting with old tape players and in a way always looking for a new challenge. The idea of allowing computers to beat mix for me isn’t that I’m lazy it’s that it allows me to do something that I couldn’t have done if I was worrying about beat matching. That’s interesting to me and it’s inspiring and also challenging. Y’know, Can I still be creative and be called a DJ if I’m not beat matching, Are the people really going to care? Honestly, ninety percent of the people I don’t think really care if you’re beat matching or not, they just want something that is fun, creative, inspiring and exciting.

The set up now gives you the ability to utilise four tracks at any given moment. Do you find that this helps you out a great deal? And is it entirely necessary?
That’s the thing, just because I can play four songs on top of each other now, doesn’t mean that you should always. There’s songs that really compliment each other, there’s songs that work together with one other song and there is also songs that I play right now which honestly sound pretty boring by themselves but if you cross it with another song, or maybe two or three other pieces, then it does become something different and something special so it’s always different and you’ve got to be the master of that technology to know when to use it to the extreme and also when to pull it back and to allow a great song to be a great song

Do you think that there could ever be any downfalls in relation to continually altering your angle of performance?
“No I don’t think that there is any downfall. The art of DJ’ing two records together and manipulating the timing and scratching by a human hand or a foot or whatever is something beautiful. It’s one of the most beautiful interactions of man and machine. But, do I find inspiration my doing the same thing day in and day out for the rest of my life? No I don’t find inspiration doing that. I want to find new ways to challenge myself and see how it changes the dynamics of how I play and see what makes it better and what makes it worse. So I think that my changes in relation to technology have resulted in my music becoming more harder and more loopy and less trippy. But then sometimes it became more story telling and right now it’s even a bit too technical at times right now but it’s a journey that I’m interested in taking and hopefully there are enough people out there who are interested in listening to why I experiment and I don’t think I’m getting lost up my own arse. [laughs]”

You have recently taken part in the Contact series of shows, which sees a wide live collaboration of a majority of the artists on the M_Nus label. Can you tell me the concept behind putting together such an event?
“The Contact show was really, well, we wanted it to be a very special, a very unique show that celebrated M_Nus’ 10 year anniversary. I didn’t want it to be a repeat of anything we did before. I didn’t want it to be a M_Nus showcase, I wanted somehow to bring a lot of the M_Nus gang on stage together to interact with each other, to make contact, to inspire each other and hopefully make contact with the crowd in different ways. So, we had the audio being manipulated by all of us, we had the visuals by Ali Demirel, we had the interactivity of being able to send out SMS’ to the crowd, the crowd were able to sign in to video and audio streams. So, Contact was a really special thing, it was my way of experimenting with different technologies that might in the future become more important to my shows or other peoples shows. It’s all an experiment and I love jumping into an experiment, especially in front of people”

Do you believe that this nature of live performance is only still just scratching the surface of where you eventually want to take it? Where can the Contact show travel from here on in?
“Yeah I think that the Contact shows in a way were quite basic and I think that we can go much deeper and get more interactive. I really want to explore that, not at every show; I don’t think that every show should be a Contact show. I think there should also sometimes be some really simple shows. Y’know, everyone nowadays is walking around with very powerful computers in their pockets and cell phones and mobile communicators and I think it’s interesting to try and harness some of that power into the experience”

How are you currently finding the progress of the artists on the M_Nus label? How does the already established talent such as Brian Zentz and Marco Carola benefit things? And what are the influences of up and coming inclusions such as Gaiser and Troy Pierce?
“For me it’s really important to have a cross section of old and new, like, some of the kinda early pioneers like Marco and Brian Zentz and also the new guys like Gaiser and Magda and Troy Pierce. They all have their own interesting sound and brand and what I love about it is that the young guys are inspired by the old guys and many times the old guys are inspired by the young guys, so it’s a great kind of creative community to share ideas and just to move forward together”

The Future Music festival will soon be kicking off. Where does Richie Hawtin stand in 09 with relation to set creation and what do you think that we will be able to expect from your upcoming performance?
“That’s a hard one to say right now because I’ve taken the last two months off. I’m currently filtering through my music, I’m filtering through how my set up is, I’m probably going to make some changes with the set up and the way my controllers work. I think it’s going in a way that will become, in a way smoother and more story like again, rather than being too technical, as it has been in the past”

Catch Richie Hawtin and his souped up set-up at this year’s FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL on Sunday March 1 Labour Day weekend, as you’ll be able to put strong money on the fact that it will be a sight not to be missed.