Written by Jennifer Warner

"It always sounds different, moving, changing, going further than it has before. That's the spirit for me of Techno music." Richie Hawtin could well be talking about his more than 15 years exploring new frontiers in electronic music. With the his newest sonic masterpiece "DE9: Transitions" realized in 5.1-Surround Sound, Hawtin pushes the latest recording technology to create an immersive sonic experience.

"The day you stop growing is the day you grow old. I refuse to get old."

As the early morning light pushes through the smog, I dial an inordinate amount of numbers to reach Richie Hawtin's hotel front desk. After getting through the German Hotel receptionist...

JW: Hi I'm calling for Richie Hawtin?

Richie Hawtin: Could you hold on a minute... [some odd sounds in the background] Sorry about that... my sink was filling up with hot water!

No worries, that's important!

You're on West Coast aren't you?

Yeah actually this time worked out really well since it's first thing in the morning here.

Ah good, better to get the harder things out of the way first in the morning, right?

Right so I don't have to be nervous about this all day! So what are you up to today?

Well now its six o'clock in Germany, I've just been hanging out having some meetings with some friends preparing to have a nice night tonight at the Cocoon club. We're having a Minus night with some of my label mates and artists from my label Minus. It should be good. It's a friend of mine's club Sven Vath's club, and we have a lot of friends in the area so everyone's coming down tonight to have a party and drinks. So it should be nice!

So are you playing and then a bunch of other people from your label are playing too?

Yeah Marc Houle who's on my label, and Magda, a friend of mine, are DJing, and then myself.

So you're doing this to promote your album or is this something regular that you do?

The main thing for sure is promotions for Transitions, at the same time I'm bringing some of my artists along to promote their new releases on my label, so its always multi faceted, its never just promoting one thing. Its to let people know... to give them what they came for and also give them something new. Whether that's a new record I'm playing or a new artist they may have never had the opportunity to see.

Of course I'm here to talk to you today mostly about your new album, Transitions. You're really known for pushing the boundaries of what technology can do for the music... were there some things that you did with technology that people might not know you could do, or might not realize you were doing when they listen to the mix?

The whole album was a bit of an exploration. Whenever I do the Decks n Effects series, its happens every two to three years, and its my CD series to experiment where I think DJing might be going in the future. So I always start off with an idea thinking, "Ok this new technology is interesting and this new software can help me do this." So you go in there with this idea of what might be possible, and hopefully you find a way to do that. You always finding new possibilities and new techniques, with something going in a way you never imagined. For me whether that's the DE9 series or Plastikman album, its always part of the equation. Trying to find... trying to experiment and stumble upon something.

Was there anything that you stumbled upon while doing Transitions that you can share with us?

I think on this album, the intricacy and the power of surround sound was what really inspired me for the album. Even though a lot of people will actually only hear the stereo version on the CD, the main version of the album was first recorded in surround. Using and starting to play with the same technology they use in movies, to record what was coming from the left, right, front and back was really amazing for me. It was amazing to playing with different EQs and delays, and seeing what would happen to the sound. You're trying to do something and suddenly it sounds like its coming out from behind you, even though you haven't moved it to behind you. Frequencies were coming out... you'd put two records together that you'd play like in a club... and they sounded a certain way in a club. But when you start to place them in surround sound, different frequencies interacted with each other, and it really became something new again. So it was a bit of exploration, to see what tracks would work well together.

That sounds... [Richie's so enthusiastic he just keeps talking]

One of the things I stumbled upon.... one of the secrets of the whole album, is the very end. And it's one of the most pivotal points of the album, on the long version, where the vocals come in about transitions. It was a piece of vocal that I really wanted to use on album, and I was getting to the end, and I was like, "I haven't found the right place." So I was about to go back through the mix and try and place it somewhere, because I really wanted to use it. And then all of the sudden, really by accident, I had a Plastikman track playing from my last album, "I Don't Know," just the strings from it really, and I started playing the vocal over it, and I found they were completely in tune.

Wow.

That was the moment I was looking for, that means that is the end of the CD. No going any further, that was it.

Did you have any difficulties working in surround?

[He sighs.] You know it was a really long drawn out process creating the album. There was so much time that went into the experimentation, just thinking about the album, and experimenting with surround and testing some ideas, that once I got into it, it was remarkably easy. Time consuming for sure, and sometimes frustrating, but quite easy. Things really flew together. I'd spent a good part of nearly six months listening to tracks and thinking about the album. So that I think my subconscious had been working night and day on the possibilities. So once I came to sitting down in front of the computer it was nearly second nature, "this song comes next and then this and then I have to get to that moment." I think that's why the album has a such a fluid feeling. That's why it's all about the transitions, that's why it's called Transitions. Transitioning from one moment to the next, and having it happen so effortlessly that you don't even notice.

Would you ever do shows live in surround sound?

For sure! We haven't done anything for this album yet, in 1998 when I released the Plastikman "Consumed" album, a couple of events we did in quadraphonic so four channel speaker system. We did a couple more of those in Detroit over the last couple of years. It's something that I really want to do. Unfortunately, at this point in time, it is very hard to do a tour based on that because it is very specific technically.

Right to find...

To find the clubs and the people that understand how to hook these systems up properly, is next to impossible. So that's why the only ones I've ever done is in the Detroit area, where I knew the sound people, had control, and was able to spend weeks on planning each event. Once you are on tour trying to do three four or five gigs a week, its kind of hard to plan so many technical possibilities.

Hard but not impossible?

It's not that it won't happen, it just hasn't happened yet.

Understood. Now, what continues to inspire you to continue create music and DJ ‚ how do you not get burnt out?

Part of it is the exploration into new areas. New sounds, new ideas. When I first got into electronic music, into what was called Detroit Techno, I was kid listening to people like Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins. Their whole idea behind the music was that it was created for the future or had come from the future. So although my music doesn't sound like its supposed to be the soundtrack for Buck Rogers 2001, it always sound different, its moving, changing, going further than it has before. That's the spirit for me of Techno music. That's what keeps my inspiration and that's what keeps my attention.

Same here.

Every time I think I'm getting bored, either I come up with a new idea, I talk to someone with a new idea, I get a new piece of software or a new DJ mixer, a new program, its like going back to school every day or every month. You have to continually learn and grown, and I think that's what keeps us alive as humans.

Definitely.

It keeps us going, whether you are 17, 20, or 80 the day you stop growing is the day you grow old. I refuse to get old. So I continue to try to find things to inspire me and feeling young.

That's a very personal view on not growing old... how do you, with your broad worldly perspective, think the electronic music scene can avoid growing stale and old?

I think part of what I said before answers that question. Every time someone tries to pin it down, or when people start to get bored, someone else comes on the scene. A new fresh idea. Some people leave after a couple years, but there is a constant influx of new people, listening and dancing, and there is a constant influx of new producers creating, experimenting, and inspiring. So all those people together... even when you have some moments when it seems like it's not changing enough, its slowing down, then suddenly something else happens. Because all of those areas, from the way we listen to the way we dance, the way we experience, clubs are changing... all these things are tied to technology. Technology is engrained in every day life its always going to continue to evolve. Pushing us, pulling us, and challenging us. It makes sense why people get attached to it and still find this music inspiring 10 or 15 years later.

I do... I think most anyone reading this will agree! Thank you so much, you made this really easy, you're quite articulate and I enjoyed listening to what you had to say, and I think our readers will too.

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read our REVIEW of "DE9: Transitions" here

For more info visit RichieHawtin.com