[Interview] Richie Hawtin @ ADE

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[Interview] Richie Hawtin @ ADE

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Published by Ape magazine for Amsterdam Dance Event; http://www.apemagazine.com/en/app#/issue=243&page=2179


“Twenty years ago partygoers waved lighters in the air during concerts. Today lighters have been replaced by mobile phones.” During this year’s ADE, thousands of phones will be aimed at the stage during the appearance of crowd favourite Richie Hawtin.


“The ADE is a great event, an amazing gathering of everybody involved in our music scene. I want to be a part of that as much as possible”. During the ADE Richie Hawtin enthusiastically contributes to the further development of the scene, on and off stage. And we enjoy the fruits of his labour on the dance floor.

The view from behind Hawtin’s turntables has changed radically during his career. “My record label Minus is about more than just music. It’s about a whole lifestyle, just like ADE goes beyond the music and encompasses a complete lifestyle. During the ADE, the development of today’s electronic music scene takes centre stage. In order to talk about today, you always end up by talking about yesterday. Conception of the past is necessary to understand the present, to be able to progress and ultimately to define the future”. Progression is the key factor in the epic story of Richie Hawtin.

Richie is an innovator and an inventor. He works from the heart and stands for what he believes in for over two decades now. For that reason his successful career consists of many chapters and can be divided into different projects, running record labels, using different technologies and creating alter ego’s, always with integrity and quality. What is the next chapter in the epic story of Richie Hawtin? “The Plastikman live show and the only just released Plastikman Arkives project bring a period to an end by showing what I have done for the past two decades, by bringing everybody up to date of my past, of the mythic nineties - illustrating the scene’s development up to the present day. Getting everybody on the same page; they understand the past, they know about the present and are now interested in the future. I can focus on the next chapter, the next generation of my ideas”.

Electronic music is an indelible component of the Twitter-generation anno 2010. Almost unrecognisable from the music and cultural landscape twenty years ago. “At the beginning of the nineties electronic music wasn’t the powerful global force that it is now. The couple of thousand people who danced to the electronic sounds in nightclubs were the only ones. It was so underground that cooperation was necessary to keep the scene going. It wasn’t about expanding the scene, it was only about keeping it going. Releasing a first record, and a second one, and a third one; it was about survival.” At that time Richie Hawtin lived in Windsor, Canada from where he frequently made the crossing to Detroit. “I was an annoying white kid in a tough black music society”. A black kid that set out on a victory march.

While he first discovered the dance floors of Detroit, and later hesitantly the turntables, Richie felt he was becoming part of a brand new and unique group with a mission. “This electronic music genre was so positive, futuristic and harmonious at the same time, it needed to be heard. It had to be shared with the rest of the world. That’s what the ADE is about each year.”
Richie Hawtin underlines the significance of the ADE. “Even though the scene is huge nowadays, it still has a lot of territory to gain. We have to share the mission, on the creative side, but also considering the business and technology side of things in order to be able to move forward together. I believe in the strength of electronic music as the sound of the future, the most powerful and influential music force that the planet has ever known. I see this strength as a harmony of frequencies, of bass, of rhythm, that makes the body move. Electronic music brings cultures together under one sound, bringing pleasure to all. A unification of human beings, this is what I try to realise as an artist.”

He approaches his mission by entering into of collaborations. The collaborative experiment with his brother, visual artist Matthew Hawtin is an example of enjoying freedom. “I spend so much time in clubs playing straight-on house beats. The liberty of experimenting with visual presentation and playing with frequencies appeals to me. I like collaborating with other artists and with other labels. There are so many opportunities to work together, for example next year with Desolat, the label of Loco Dice and Martin Buttrich. Building relationships contributes to progressions in the music scene, contributes to mutual inspiration and to innovations. Together we must keep electronic music exciting and fresh. There are never enough days in the year for collaborations.”

“ADE is a great occasion to talk to each other, to run into old and new friends. It is a platform to discuss things without shouting into each other’s ears during loud, noisy nights out without hearing what the other person says”.
Moreover Richie praises the ADE for giving him the possibility to interact with his supporters in a more modest and personal way. He will host a pre-party on ADE’s Minus evening in the Amsterdam Gsus store. “The early evening gives me the possibility to bring back the interaction with my supporters to reality. Due to the success of the scene I see myself playing at bigger and bigger and bigger events, outrageous sometimes. I don’t want to become disconnected from the people who support me. I don’t want to forget that it was me who once stood on the dance floor as well, dancing to great electronic music, staring at the artists. I don’t want to lose the opportunity to enjoy electronic music, just as my audience does.”

“I hopefully create moments that are powerful enough to make people think, to make people cry, to make people happy and to make a moment that people will remember for a long time and hopefully a moment that they remember for the rest of their lives.”
A moment to never forget. Paradiso, July 2007. Richie Hawtin brings the evening to an end. The lights switch on after his heroic six hour closing set. Richie thanks the audience that cheers loudly. He leaves the stage. But the audience doesn’t want to leave, and certainly doesn’t want Richie to leave! Everybody begs him to put one more record on, just one, the very last one. On the way to the backstage he turns around and walks back to the turntables. The ovation hasn’t even stopped yet, but the music is already on. One more record! The lights are turned down, intimacy returns. Ooo Yeah. Moodymann whispers throughout the room. The audience swells and roars. A silence. One more. The highlight of Shades Of Jae. An explosion.
The magic of Richie Hawtin will return to The Netherlands on Friday October 22nd, in the Powerzone, during the ADE.
“My job is to create a little magic every time I perform. If I can provide that little magic every time, I’m a very happy man”. We have the privilege to share this magic with him, the main character in the continous epos of Richie Hawtin.

Richie Hawtin played at M-Nus Amsterdam Dance Event Special, Friday October 22nd at The PowerZone.

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