Dustin Zahn Walks Alone - An Interview with a Rising Star

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Dustin Zahn Walks Alone - An Interview with a Rising Star

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Dustin Zahn Walks Alone
A Candid Interview with one of America's Rising Stars
(Justin Grall)


"All I can say is that it’s pretty amazing to be a part of the most-recent and possibly-last major counterculture revolution in the last 50 years."



June 2010. There are few interviews with Dustin Zahn online; which is surprising because Zahn is currently a rising star in the post-minimal techno underground.  Besides the releases on his own Enemy and Abiotic imprints, he has had a flurry of recent releases on European labels such as CLR, Rekids / Rek’d, Drumcode and Truesoul.   His music is a natural extension of the earlier Swedish and Detroit techno sounds but with an updated, more complex, intricate sound design.  His own imprint, Enemy, established in 2004, showcases this more diverse techno sound encompassing elements of minimal, house and experimental.

His past performances in Spain, Berlin, Colombia, Venezuela, Ireland, and at the Awakenings Festival in Amsterdam were only the start as Zahn is currently finishing his US Spring Tour, only to be followed shortly by another European adventure. Zahn’s solo live pa and 3-turntable DJ sets are renown for their quick pacing and aggressive style.  From his home base in Minneapolis, one of the US’s few techno bastions, he continues to co-promote both underground and club events, helping put the twin cities on the map and inspiring others in the Midwest scene.

While interviews may be scarce, I did manage to find a brief Q&A conducted at the start of 2008.  With the last question, “What can we expect in the near future?,” Dustin responded with a series of new releases and then replied, “And if all that fails, then you can expect me to get a job.”


Well Dustin, flash forward to 2010. How are things going with your burgeoning techno career / lifestyle?  Did you end up getting a job or are you still living the dream?  From the looks of your touring and release schedule, it doesn’t seem possible you can still be holding down a day job…

Actually, I just left working in an office. I left a well-paying career so it was a hard decision to make. I’m pretty good at what I do, so if music doesn’t pan out, I can always jump back into corporate misery with ease. Juggling both really took its toll. For a while, every Friday I would go straight from the office to the airport, leave the country, play 3 gigs and fly back in at 1:00am on Monday morning and go back to work 6 hours later. I did that for about a year. It’s not a sob story, but the lack of sleep was rough. Somehow I pulled it off, but it was getting much harder over time. Eventually, I started dropping the ball a bit too much. The reality is, the music business requires me to work much harder than I ever had to in an office. I live in the States and I don’t ride coat-tails, so things aren’t handed to me. It is hard work and less pay but I don’t regret it at all.

You started producing in 1998, how has your production style and working methods evolved over the years?

Well, I guess the only thing that people really know me for is techno. In the past, my sound was harder, faster, and weird. These days, it’s the same thing…just a bit slower. A lot of people think that for the most part, I went minimal but they have no clue what the hell they are talking about. The music is the same thing I was doing 7 years ago but it’s just slower and less cluttered. I’d like to say that I have evolved as a musician, but that’s not really true. It would be more realistic to say that I have refined my techniques. Now that I have more time on my hands, I am going to put more emphasis on experimental music, which was always my first true love.

What were some of your early influences?  What was your original inspiration to start producing electronic music?

My earliest influences were mostly anything electronic. All the obvious big names and heavily marketed artists…Aphex Twin, Autechre, Prodigy, Plastikman, and also DNB. It all ended up in my CD players and cassette decks when I was 14 or 15. With time I weeded out the b.s. by digging in the crates and following the heritage back to things like Kraftwerk, Derrick May, etc. My biggest inspiration for electronic music was definitely experimental music, mainly because it was so damn weird. I also listened to a lot of other rock and hip hop as well, but I don’t really think it has much of a connection to the music I make now.

My original inspiration for producing was mainly boredom. I lived in a town of 6,000 people. The only things to do there were snowboarding, shooting guns, and getting into trouble. Those are all great things, but I needed something to do at home too. So, my computer turned into an instrument. I wanted to mess around with music and was sick of hearing crap on the radio like Mellencamp or U2. I need to hear another Mellencamp song like I need another hole in my head. Don’t even get me started. So anyway…I started making electronic stuff because it sounded cool and it was unlike anything on the radio at the time.


>>>READ THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW HERE
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Re: Dustin Zahn Walks Alone - An Interview with a Rising Sta

Post by Alert »

projekt wrote:I live in the States and I don’t ride coat-tails, so things aren’t handed to me. It is hard work and less pay but I don’t regret it at all.

- Dustin Zahn
Mad Respect

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