| :::Into the realm of inner-psyche dialogue and postmodern politics |
| By: Amanda Connon-Unda |
| Reaching the hotel I experienced an apprehension that one only has when on the verge of meeting the person epitomized as being one of the DJs at the fore of the formative core of modern techno as we know it today. This is myth in the sense of Barthes; this was Richie Hawtin who had just released his new Plastikman album Closer, who I was interviewing. As a DJ extraordinaire, and the man who had been pushing techno's limits for decades, renowned as being homegrown Canadian talent, and currently residing worldwide, with apartments in both New York City and Berlin. This was my chance to convert the man as myth into the political, a living reality on the page. I wanted a slice of his life; his opinions not within the hyperreal but grounded in his ideas and everyday living. |
| Today the world and our experiences are described by postmodernists as being consumed by change, performance, absence, schizophrenia, difference, irony, fragmentation, appropriation, and commodification. I had a suspicion that Richie was aptly trying to construe some of these contradictions within his new Plastikman concept album Closer. To me, Richie seemed to embody, consciously or not, the notion of the fragmentary Lacanian self, manifest in the vast number of performing names he has assumed over the years; States of mind, Cybersonic, Hard Tracks, Fuse, Circuit Breaker, Up, and Zennon, while he has kept Plastikman and his own name. "It was a learning process, I knew that I was searching for my own sound. I was searching for who I was, and it would have been wrong to call anything "Richie Hawtin", because it wasn't really me. It was part of me, but I was still looking for that sound that described me as a person. Plastikman started when I knew that I'd come in touch with a certain part of my psyche. Over time Plastikman has become more closely related to who I am than anything else. Richie Hawtin is this DJ who does mix albums and they're cool dance tracks, but they're centered around clubbing more than around the person who's created them." |
| So, you might ask, is there some coherence to Richie's inner-psyche dialogue? Says Richie, "re-interpreting but you can't do such a radical change that it doesn't become you. There are certain values you have to take and adapt, so that you're still coming from the person you once were. I have 5 albums under Plastikman and there has to be differences but also continuity between them. There's this intangible element that makes and connects them. I have a certain aesthetic quality. I'm into a minimal sound, but I can take that way of creating something abstract and look at it in a slightly different way- use new technologies and life experiences. On this album I never thought I'd want to use my voice, but it made sense. I had to explore that region and see what happened." |
| Richie has experienced a lot of change during the last few years, and he understands the future as a struggle between speed and adaptation in the process of growing. "There's always an internal struggle of trying to open up to new ideas and come to terms with the way we have become. That's big for anyone who's interested in electronic music based on technology. Once you've learned you have to unlearn. It is testing our ability to grow later on in life. Before there was a lot of time to get comfortable with any types of advancement in technology and your self. Now, I think about how fast technology has made us change our interactions. I don't talk to people as much- I type. I have best friends who I don't see for six months, you say that to your parents and they'll be like, "How can you have a best friend you don't see with your own eyes?" There's always this crazy struggle keeping up with the world is changing and not become out-dated like an antiquity." |
| As techno's icon over the last decade, upon changing his appearance many fans noticed. Of course, the politics of representation affect Richie in the midst of the limelight on this head. "I felt locked into a certain look, a way that people thought about and connected with me. It was interesting how many character traits people put on me. I knew I had become somewhat of a poster boy. I wasn't the first guy with bald head and glasses, but I had some notoriety and it became 'the Richie Hawtin look'. Part of that play of changing the outward appearance is connected to a change internally. I've really changed in the last couple of years, both personally and creatively, and I let it have outward expression. I wanted to say to people who had become complacent; "Look, anyone can change, we can all keep progressing, still explore new avenues, new ways of interacting with people, of expressing ourselves - the way we look. Let's continue to do that." It's not the 50's where people remained because their lives and society didn't change much." |
| Like most of us, Richie is tied to technology for communication in relationships, and the concepts behind Disconnect had a lot to do with his personal life during composition. "I like technology because I can decide when I want to connect and disconnect. And you really can't do that to people that you care about. Sometimes I treat people like computers, I disconnect, go into the next thing, and Disconnect is about exploring that idea and the repercussions. We go through things in our lives and feelings; we can't disconnect. You have to connect, deal, and get through them. There's no way around, no quick easy answer. I went through some things where I wish they were like computers. I could have turned them off, erased the email and gone on with my life, but I couldn't. As much as I tried in vain to disconnect my brain, I couldn't do it." |
| In moving from myth, inside the contours of the issues resounding in Richie's head, we proceeded to a political self-refection on interviews. "It's part of the game. I don't make music that's digestible and sometimes you need to talk about it. Maybe somebody says, "- I am going to listen to his CD, to see what this asshole is about". With Plastikman albums; there's a reason why I did them and sometimes it can't be fully explained by music... I give reference points that make the picture more well-rounded." |
| Economics is another realm of politics. Erik Sattie, one of Richie's artistic influences was an eccentric minimalist musician born in the 1930's who wrote manifestos urging sacrifice for music, and for a time he was poor. When Richie started DJing he worked at a video store, but since then he has been lucky to live comfortably which has enabled him a degree of flexibility. "I've thrown release parties where I used more money than the record company has given me, to bring people into my realm of thinking, to show the album's concept. If I want to do something, I figure out how, do it, and worry about the consequences afterward. I would much rather sacrifice money than art." |
| I knew Richie cited Fast Food Nation and Bowling for Columbine on the popular Friendster website, which suggested some connection between his creative bent and his critical awareness. "I'm a product of North America, and the idea of commodifying anything and bringing my music to a larger audience is intertwined with the capitalist society we live in. But everything has to have balance and I don't think North America has a very healthy balance in dealing with the rest of the world now, and between creativity and commodification. In Europe people seem to have a better balance between the money and material goods that make them happy, and their openness to art and creativity. It seems the dollar sign has much more power here; over emotions, and creativity, and it's not a healthy environment. Part of my creativity stems from doing things outside the norm, and because North America is so intertwined with capitalist society, it doesn't go along with people being different, and celebrating the differences we all have. It is about assimilating; putting everyone into a similar box." |
| Wrapping up the interview I realized that Hawtin is an articulate artist, yet he remains humanely vulnerable and honest like the best of us, "I don't like to throw away even the weirdest equipment that doesn't work. I'm a bit of a packrat. At the same time, I am into less is more - but in my apartment, I am really fucking messy with an over-abundance of stuff, so it's a paradox. There may be weirder, but I choose not to remember because I'm afraid to release that information." |
| So Hawtin is myth, a postmodern self-reflectionist, and human like us all, or however else he may be represented. Hawtin is aware of his many identities, and is constantly evolving. "Everything is changing every second now, and I want to change the way I look, feel, make new records, and to explore as many new avenues until the day I die. Everyone says that, but not everyone does that." |
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| with Plastikman : Richie Hawtin::: |