COVER STORY Since you are holding this magazine you undoubtedly know something about Jeff Mills. Parliament. Like the New Testament, there are varying accounts of ’s inception, Most likely, that he is the world’s most loved and respected techno DJ, famed for hard, written long after the actual events took place. The received wisdom is that Mills, as part minimal sets where he mixes at lightning speed. You may also know his birthplace is of Underground Resistance (the group he founded with “Mad” Mike Banks and Robert the same as techno’s: . What you may not be aware of are his beginnings DJing as Hood) signalled the dawn of Detroit’s so-called second wave. In actual fact, Mills, as The Wizard. Or his stint in industrial-dance band Final Cut, who produced the early vocal Mojo’s on-air rival, was just as important in laying the foundations of techno, combining house classic ‘Take Me Away’, with vocalist True Faith. the sonic industrialism of 70s Europe with black US electro-funk.

The story of how began is as often told as the nativity, in dance music In this revealing interview, one of techno’s greatest thinkers talks in detail about his pre- terms. In the most popular version of the techno story, the three wise men are Juan UR days as The Wizard, and in Final Cut; the inspiration for Axis and Purpose Maker; and Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May (aka the Belleville three). Their guiding light the ‘Blue Potential’ CD, which sees Mills and UR classics reinterpreted with the help of the was the eclectic radio DJ, Electrifying Mojo, whose show, the Midnight Funk Association, Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra. mixed European electronica like Kraftwerk with the black futurism of Prince and Boy and the bigger labels to send these things I wanted to ask you about your pre-UR radio as soon as they had them – even if it was just a days as The Wizard as there doesn’t seem to master tape. I think he [Mojo] was using [Tommy be much known about that period. When did about six months. Then I got a call from Mojo, who Boy’s] Whizz Kid from New York and a few other you start playing as The Wizard? actually wanted to hire me to work for him. He was people. But I would have the things almost at the Detroit received the meat of hip hop it was being using DJs from Detroit and New York because he It was from, maybe, 1979 until 1988/89. I was same time. I was travelling to Chicago and Toronto received by two, maybe three different entities, it wasn’t a hip hop DJ, so he needed to have DJs to on two different radio stations at the time and the to buy things earlier in the day, then bringing wasn’t just one radio station that was amplifying deal with that. We met, once, and he gave me the show was syndicated to – at the highest point them back and playing them on the night. When it. We were playing it constantly. Detroit caught [job] offer. First I said yes. Then I decided not to – three different stations in America. One in Los technology took a turn and sampling came in I up very quickly with New York and LA. work with him, to just stick it out and maybe fi nd Angeles, one in Texas and the other in St. Louis. knew he had gone and bought a sampler, and And then, because of Juan Atkins, for some another job, at another radio station. Which I did. was using it in the studio. So I went and did the reason…well, people in Detroit, like people in Then the battle was on again, part two. There’s a perception the Belleville three same. That’s when the radio stations took a turn Chicago, have a history of dancing, in a certain (Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin into more original productions. I not only bought a way. We used to call [electro] bass-station back How would you say your style differed from Saunderson) initiated techno as a result sampler, but also a drum machine, keyboard, and then – music from Florida and the West Coast: Mojo’s? From what I gather, he would play of hearing Electrifying Mojo, and that sequencer, and began making the music earlier Egyptian Lover, Dr Dre and all those guys – all Juan’s early stuff with B52s, Prince and Underground Resistance represented the in the day and programming the tracks on the of that was coming to Detroit at the same time. Funkadelic, were you doing a similar thing? second wave of Detroit Techno. Were you in night. So I would make special versions of things. I suppose hip hop and electro, or bass-station, fact doing a similar thing to Electrifying Mojo, I very quickly developed a way of manipulating the I would take a record, write it on top of an original got all mixed together in Detroit. Detroit techno on radio, at the same time? situation. This was probably my fi rst experience of track, and then edit it and create completely new was really inspired by Chicago. It was house, taking music and using it in a very conceptual way. versions only we had. That’s how I really got into bass-station and hip hop, and it was at the end All of us, the whole city, grew up listening to I would not only play the things that he would play, making music. of the post-punk era, so you had that mixed in Mojo. I think Mojo came around in the mid-70s, I would then take the things that he was famous for as well. It was all happening at the same time. so every weekend everyone was listening to and manipulate them, creating new versions. And What I fi nd really interesting about Detroit, On top of that, Mojo was playing things like B52s Mojo. I was put on [air] at the exact same time then throw it back to him to see what his response is that the electro legacy seems to have and Prince. I think [hip hop] gave us the idea that [slot] as Mojo because [WJLB] needed to have would be. continued but nobody really began to make hip we could play just about anything, as long as it something that might have a chance to compete hop, why do you think that was? was funky. So things like Meat Beat Manifesto, with him. So I was given complete freedom, the So these were DJ mixes? Section 25, Nitzer Ebb… all those industrial same as he had, to programme anything. Detroit was then, and still is, predominantly black. bands fell into the same thing. I didn’t need to have approval by the station Well, for instance, at the beginning of his Hip hop in the early days was actually a form of or the programming manager. And we [Mills programme he would always use the same intro communication. The way they were partying in the & Mojo] began to battle immediately. I think I track. It was from some really hard-to-fi nd jazz very, very early stages of hip hop – where it was It seems like Detroit was more receptive to debuted a few days before New Year’s Eve, it , but I found it. On occasion, I would take his a social party but at some point somebody would early European electronic stuff like Section may have been 1983/84. That gave the city intro and totally manipulate it to create something break down and do something – they were doing 25 and Factory records, why do you think some indication as to what was coming, and kind of negative [laughs]. It got to the point I would the same thing in Detroit. People had families that is? they were building up this confl ict on New Year’s be doing my show, and I would have his radio show between the three cities: Chicago, Detroit and New You have to look at the history of Detroit. It’s a Eve. When New Year’s came I think I played on in another room. I would do something, and York. I can remember going to high school back in story I’m told by older people in Detroit…it has continuously for about eight hours. At that point then go and listen and see how he would respond, 1977, and going to after school parties and people to do with the automobile industry… at one point the city was set, and the shows just progressed and then go back again. were doing the same thing, it was the same type Detroit was, for black people, really like a utopia. over time. Then the station I worked for changed of atmosphere. People were listening to Parliament You know, people coming from the south, they programming and they wanted to go, like, easy It was kind of like a hip hop DJ battle then, in and Gap Band, mixed in with all types of things had a choice of going to Chicago or coming to listening or something. So they let everyone go a sense? – it was the same situation. Rap came many years and I was unemployed. I was DJing in the streets, Yeah, yeah… it was really, really intense. later, [but] it started out as hip hop. Mojo was and in the clubs, but I wasn’t working in radio for Eventually I decided I needed more freedom, so playing things that were more on the edge, like I told the programme manager I needed to have Beastie Boys ‘Cookie Puss’ and stuff like that. By things as soon as they came out in New York. So the time of LL Cool J, Run DMC, Schoolly D and we established a relationship with Def Jam, Tommy all those people, I was actually on the radio. When

14 ONE WEEK TO LIVE COVER STORY

industrial band, and Germany was a little harder than any of the other countries. Maybe I was responsible for the album being so harsh! [Laughs] Detroit. And for some reason Detroit was more advanced – the city itself was considered to be As with your days as The Wizard, little is a little bit more advanced. It could be because known about Final Cut, other than the house it was so close to the border with Canada and classic ‘Take Me Away’ you did with True Faith. they used to speak a lot of French, just over the Can you explain a bit about Final Cut, the river in Windsor. Detroit was a very wealthy city personnel, etc? because of the steel and automobile industries, so the wages were higher and the standard of It was just Antony Srock and myself, for the [live] living was slightly higher than Chicago. It gave band we added two other members: Joe Lafafa people a certain type of mentality. – I think he died a few years ago – and I can’t remember the other guy’s name. Tony and myself actually put together the music. It was kind of From Motown and jazz label Tribe, through to refl ective of what was happening in Detroit at that Juan, you and Drexciya, Detroit’s black music time [late 80s]. The genres were really beginning has always been futuristic as well as soulful. to mix, with what Mojo was doing and what was Do you think there’s a subconscious idea of a happening on the rock stations. Most of the rock future black utopia that is responsible? stations had converted to a new-beat/industrial- I think the greatest turning point was probably dance type format. Derrick [May], Blake [Baxter], in the 70s, during the era of the Black Panthers. Kevin [Saunderson] and Juan [Atkins] had Because Detroit was a predominantly black city begun spinning in clubs that were known for much earlier than any other cities it had the industrial-dance. When those DJs were mixing the want the same thing over and over again. He was harshest experiences. Not just with the riots in atmosphere would be half black/half white, and based in Detroit, I was based in Chicago, and we ’67, but also the dissolving of the black family the music would be Detroit techno, Chicago house were making tracks separately, in the night, and model. There were Black Panther chapters in my and industrial. You would hear these things all then letting each other hear it the next day. neighbourhood, and around the city, so it was the mixed in at the same time. Final Cut was really a Saying “this is what I did, this is why I did it, and this focus of the government to dissolve and destroy refl ection of what was happening there. We wanted should work”. That led to the label, Purpose Maker. that. I think when we were young, maybe indirectly, to create something that was in the middle. We Then Rob did Minimal Nation, and started his label, we could see our neighbourhoods being slowly were listening to Nitzer Ebb and Front 242; at the M-Plant, and that’s how it happened. destroyed. They were putting drugs into all the same time we were listening to Mr. Lee and Todd black areas, which lead to crime, and the gangs. Terry, and we wanted to make an album that was The ‘Blue Potential’ has you and the When I was young – maybe seven or eight – it right in the middle. ‘Deep In To The Cut’ was the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra turned from a very pleasant place to, like, a hell. fi rst album. Tony had connections in Chicago with reinterpreting many of your classic works. I think when you grow up experiencing these [industrial label] Nettwerk, and [bands] Ministry, Were synthetically symphonic tracks like things you automatically want to create something and Revolting Cocks. I had connections because of ‘Amazon’ created with being performed by an to escape that situation. So you tend to look The Wizard – more with house music – so we just orchestra in mind? towards a place that is neutral ground, one in merged those two things. which to live and work. And you want to pull Some of these tracks were things that, when I sat your listeners to this place, even if they might down to make them, I wasn’t thinking about the It sounds like what gets called electro clash dancefl oor – I was making them because I needed It’s largely thanks to Mills that, for many not understand what the space is, or where the now. How would Final Cut stand up to that stuff? of us, our perception of Detroit is not boundaries are. Space, and spiritual, transcendent to. I was creating and trying to imagine how an In some ways, maybe, but it was much darker orchestra would materialise it, if I had control as one of America’s most dangerous things have always been quite attractive for blacks. and divided cities but primarily as the When you think of George Clinton, Sun Ra, Roy than what I would consider electro clash. It was over an orchestra. So things like ‘Eclipse’, ‘Time leaning towards gothic, which was big in Detroit Machine’, and ‘The March’, I was trying to imagine, birthplace of black America’s most Ayers, Juan Atkins… I think [their work] is a result celestial music form since the spiritual- of the destruction of their communities. at that time. We were inspired after seeing Nitzer if real string sections were playing them, how that Ebb once, when they came to Detroit and played would happen. So there was some intent, long jazz of the late 60s. He, Underground at St. Andrews Hall. Most of the people who make Resistance, the Belleville three and When Underground Resistance came out of before we materialised this project. in Detroit, who were old enough, Drexciya, through their music have Detroit with records like ‘X-101’ it was quite were there that night. How did it feel hearing old UR material like created the future black utopia that shocking how hard they sounded. It was a Detroit was always supposed to be. prolifi c period for hip hop, and people were ‘Amazon’ being performed in this way? You are perhaps now best known for your used to that; and Detroit techno had, until Strange. Really, really strange. It’s like somebody  Tony Wilson that point, been lush and transcendental, hard, minimal, stripped-down work on your taking your words and slightly changing the were you trying to refl ect black anger? own label Axis. When did the decision come to impression of them, your name is still tied to the pursue this more reduced vision of techno? Yeah, it was designed as a weapon. It was the words but it’s not exactly how you would say it. It fi rst stuff we were sending over to Europe, all the After I left UR I was in New York, and I had not felt really strange, listening to the fi rst rehearsals: other things were directed at a domestic market. started Axis yet. I was hired by [Limelight] to play it was in the vicinity of what I was trying to say, JEFF MILLS CLASSIC 7 Things like [early UR track] ‘Your Time is Up’ were on a couple of nights, to do whatever I wanted. but not exactly. ‘Exactly’ would be the original modelled after what was happening in Chicago, The club had reached such a high level and composition. It felt like somebody had taken 1. TRUE FAITH featuring FINAL CUT: ‘Take and [Inner City’s] ‘Big Fun’ and ‘Good Life’ and intensity that I needed a certain type of record to something that I’d created, and changed it… it Me Away’ [Full Effect, 1989] things like that. But ‘X-101’ was actually the fi rst make transitions from things like T99’s ‘Anastasia’. was the fi rst time I had ever experienced that. cut. I had travelled to Germany a few years before You couldn’t fi nd anything harder than that! I 2. UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE: ‘Elimina- and then I went back once, taking Mike [Banks] needed to have certain types of records and you I love the way that we’re always reminded tion’/ ‘Gamma-Ray’ [UR, 1991] with me. We went to Switzerland, then to Berlin, couldn’t buy them. The things that were more [on the album] of the tracks’ Detroit origins, 3. UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE: ‘World 2 and a few other places. We had an idea of what minimal were from Chicago, like acid house, but whenever a 909 high-hat or kick drums cuts World EP’ [UR, 1992] was actually happening in Europe, and we thought they were too slow. You have to remember this was through the mix. Was that intentional? before [CDJs] so you couldn’t speed it up. I needed we needed to make something like [‘X-101’] to I made it a point to make sure there was a 4. JEFF MILLS: ‘Waveform Transmission to have records you could put a needle on and play be heard. It was designed specifi cally to stand out balance, because it’s very easy to have one be Vol.1’ [Tresor, 1992] continuously that were a little bit harder, y’know. from what [else] was happening in Detroit. compromised. I wanted to make sure that neither So I got my equipment from Detroit, set up a studio ‘Kat Moda EP’ [Purpose was compromised, that it was almost perfect. At 5. JEFF MILLS: We had an idea of the concept of rave, because in my apartment and began to make tracks. Maker, 1997] times, depending on the track, one was slightly we had heard so much about it, but we had not That’s what lead to ‘Waveform Transmission 1’. higher than the other. I was really cautious, and put ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’ [Axis, really experienced it. We knew that there were That’s how I got into the hard, minimal thing. 6. MILLSART: thousands of people, we knew that it was really a lot of attention into each composition to make 2000] big productions, but we hadn’t experienced it. I left New York a few years after that and moved to sure the balance was there. We really wanted to 7. JEFF MILLS: ‘Blue Potential’ [Axis, 2006] But we were very, very conscious of what had Chicago, and was getting more into cultural things. show two genres of music, far away from each been released from Detroit, and what it had I was studying minimalism in art – structural design other, fusing together to create a third genre. done, and how far it had gone. So things like and things like that – and was in contact with Robert [Suburban Knight’s] ‘The Art of Stalking’, [Dark Hood. We were discussing the fi ner attributes of ‘Blue Potential’ is out now on Axis/Uncivilized World. Comedy’s] ‘War of the Worlds’, we really wanted minimalism, and how it would condition people to to go in that direction, rather than ‘Strings of Life’ www.axisrecords.com or ‘Salsa Life’, for example. We had connections www.myspace.com/jeffmills2006 in Germany from my time with Final Cut, the ONE WEEK TO LIVE 15