Riding the waves

I was convinced that I had lost this interview, but I found it on the hard drive of an old PC I had sitting around at home. It's a rare interview from 2002 with a Drexciya 'spokesman', aka one of its two members, James Stinson, about their 'Harnessed The Storm' album (among other things). Sadly, just a few months later, Stinson died and Drexciya ceased to be. This is possibly the last interview he did - but if anyone thinks that I'm wrong, please let me know.

Drexciya

Mysterious fish men, sub-aquatic statements, sudden, unexplained disappearances and an aversion to media attention sound like key ingredients for a particularly juicy episode of the X-Files, but it’s all part of mysterious Detroit electro duo Drexciya’s colourful career to date.
Like many of their Motor City peers - Underground Resistance and Rob Hood are the two other most striking examples – Drexciya have made a point of not playing the game. In fact, their insistence on not doing interviews, refusing to have their photos taken and issuing cryptic mythology referencing double speak to explain their unpredictable movements are, in many ways as fascinating as the spell binding electro that has ensured them global cult status.
Bearing in mind that their music inspires the kind of fanaticism rarely associated with dance music - each Drexciya release is a revered, quasi messianic experience for their loyal and unflinching fan base - conducting an interview with one half of the act seemed like a daunting task. On the few occasions the duo agreed to talk to the press, they hung up as soon as the interviewer asked an unpleasant question. Bearing in mind this interview was one of the few opportunities we’ll ever get to speak to them, I expected a nerve wrecking encounter, especially seeing as this was one of only two world wide appointments to promote their new album, ‘Harnessed The Storm’. The time difference didn’t help either and ringing Drexciya at three in the morning Detroit time didn’t seem like the best way to get off on the right foot with one of electronic music’s most respected acts.
As it transpired, the Drexciya ‘spokesperson’ was already up and working. Indeed, though they’ve just released an album as well as two other long players last year - as Transllusion and The Other People Place – it looks like they’re going through a creative purple patch and, musically at least, we’ll be hearing a lot from them over the next twelve months.
“We’re making music at the moment and when we’re in the studio, we shut ourselves off from everything, from any outside influence,” the ‘spokesperson’ explains. “We become like hermits, we don’t go to parties or clubs, we don’t listen to the radio or to mix tapes, hell, we don’t even think of or remember the tracks we’ve done in the past. We push away from these things, away from the past and get so deep inside the concept we’re working on we become the concept. Drexciya is about going forward, about striving for perfection and purity. Remember,” he warns, “people are like sponges, they suck up all kinds of influences, but this is what we avoid. We take control of where we’re heading and adopt leadership. It’s amusing that people accuse us of not ‘playing the game’, because we have our own view and play our own game.”
Strong words perhaps, but then again Drexciya have always had the music to back up such claims. Late last year, one half of the act - the other member works as Dopplereffekt - released ‘The Opening Of The Cerebral Gate’ as Transllusion, while The Other People Place on Warp was also the work of Drexciya. Now, just as the robust bass bumps and atmospheric textures of ‘Harnessed The Storm’ are working their magic, Drexciya have decided, true to their unpredictable nature, to unleash a rake of long players over the next twelve months, with four more albums to follow. However, try finding out what they’ll sound like or why Drexciya have veered towards a deeper, less abrasive style on the Kraftwerk tinged ‘Cerebral’ and the decidedly symphonic string led Detroit tones of ‘Harnessed’ and you’ll be presented with a less than clear response.
“We’re changing gears and we thought it was time for something new,” the ‘spokesperson’ says. “In the past, Drexciya was for the real hardcore DJs, but we got to a stage where we were questioning the need to be hard all the time. It was time for something new so we went with it. At the same time, it wasn’t a planned move,” the ‘spokesperson’ adds. “We got into other, deeper concepts and created a musical storm. The works that we’re releasing this year will control this storm,” he continues cryptically, “and they’ll be launched from various positions.”
While we’ll have to wait for these new Drexciya related works, in the meantime, we’ve got ‘Harnessed’ and ‘Cerebral’ to contend with. Both works contain some of the act’s most emotive and soulful music and are in stark contrast to some of their darker, denser material. In fact, although ‘Deep Sea Dweller’ and ‘Unknown Aquazone’ gave off a darkly compelling vision of electro, the newer works prove there’s a human heart beating behind the machines.
“I suppose we’re trying to say ‘enjoy life’ with these albums,” the ‘spokesperson’ says. “The world has become a dark place and it’s our job to entertain, make people happy and put the fun back in the music. That’s what Drexciya is about in the first instance and that’s why our (music) concepts have become deeper lately. Sure, we’re political and deal with reality, but we also leave the door open so people can create, explore and go into their own world.”
Of course there’s another, more personal reason why the Drexciya sound has softened over the last few releases. The ‘spokesperson’ says that he had a lot of personal baggage to deal with and it also explains why, after releasing ‘The Quest’ at the end of 1996, Drexciya claimed they were turning their backs on music for good.
“I had health problems, and, to be honest I became very seriously ill,” he recounts. “It meant we had to shut things down for a while, but the positive aspect to it all is it made me look at things in a totally different light. We used to be very angry and release this frustration through our music. I think we’ve replaced it with positive feelings. It made me realise our music has a lot of feeling and spirituality: we hope it can ease people’s pain and suffering, give them some soul cleansing and suck the bad feelings from them. These are hard times, but we believe electronic music has a healing power.”
While the very notion of Detroit’s most revered electro producers sitting cross legged and indulging in a spot of mantra chanting might seem comical, the ‘spokesperson’ is adamant that reaching a higher plane is the driving force behind what they do. He also points out that the water and sub-aquatic themes and metaphors that are an integral parts of the duo’s work are also pointers for the listener to find their own ‘way’.
“Water is the most powerful force on earth - if the polar caps melt then we’re all dead and there are places underwater humans will never reach - but all the records we’ve made give you clues, how to tap into your inner selves. We bring you right to that door and give you the key,” he re-iterates, wary that Drexciya’s Atlantis referencing titles and sound bites aren’t misinterpreted as a mere creative whim. “We’re doing what we’re able to, dropping messages from day one without getting too deep and scaring people off. We can only hope people will pick up on what we’re doing.”
Whether or not the act’s music impacts on a spiritual level with its audience is hard to quantify, but in a scene where a dearth of morality is seen as a plus, Drexciya’s opinions make for a refreshingly admirable and indeed honourable alternative. Wary of their reaction to unwelcome questions, I venture into less safe territory and surmise that ‘Birth Of New Life’, one of the stand out tracks on ‘Harnessed’ is a reference to the regeneration that their home town, Detroit has experienced in recent years.
“Yeah, it looks like the D is coming around,” comes the frankly disinterested answer, “but we’ve never looked at Drexciya as a Detroit act. We exist in our own separate world and this city never had an effect on what we do. I mean, we could have come from New Jersey and we would have sounded exactly the same. I’m moving to Atlanta soon, so does that mean Drexciya will have an Atlanta sound? We go into deep mode in the studio and our surroundings don’t really have an influence on us. At the same time, Detroit is where we’re from and back in the day things were bad, economically and politically. In fact, it never really recovered from the race riots and it’s still feeling the repercussions.”
Unsurprisingly, the other topic of conversation that elicits strong response is musical integrity. It’s a well-known fact that both members of Drexciya hold down day jobs so they’re not dependent on the ‘business’, which they distrust and view in a severely critical light. In fact, if you work for a record label then you should probably stop reading now.
“These tracks are my babies, my art,” the ‘spokesperson’ cries out. “The record labels need to back off and leave the music making to the artist. If you work for a record label, then my advice is stick to what you do, you are a vehicle to put out other people’s music and give them exposure. Our work is freestyle, there is no pre-planning, so why are asking us to do remixes? How many ‘remixed’ Mona Lisas and Picassos do you see? That’s the way we feel about people fucking with our music.”
Despite the ‘spokesperson’s constant insistence that Drexciya want to leave their past behind, their new work has a distinctly timeless feel. However, the duo has little time for current musical trends and you’re unlikely to find them ‘reinventing’ themselves to suit the current musical climate.
“Producers get hold of a sound and they milk it, but we’re dedicated to being different and that’s what people like about us, “he maintains. “If there’s a style of music that’s popular at the moment you won’t find us anywhere near it.”
Despite their reluctance to deal with the industry and their continued isolation from dance music’s main arteries, Drexciya still collaborate with a number of key imprints around the world, including Tresor and the Supremat sub-label, home to the two most recent Drexciya albums as well as the recent Transllusion long player.
The ‘spokesperson’ admits that the Berlin’s label “gets the job done” and is one of the few selected ‘wave jumpers’ or entities that are allowed collaborate with Drexciya or the duo’s new production company, Dimensional Waves. Set up to work on every aspect of the act’s work, from artwork and packaging - “you need a strong visual image” - as well as the music itself, Dimensional Waves’ influence will become more apparent when the duo embark on their first ever series of live dates in the not too distant future. In typical Drexciya fashion though, the ‘spokesperson’ won’t divulge when and where they’ll appear, but issues the following statement.
“We’ll be there but it won’t be known in advance,” he says ominously. “Trust me though, if you’ve been following what we do you’ll known when it’s going to happen. Your intuition will tell you that something is going to go down at a certain venue on a certain night and you’ll follow your feelings. It’ll be beautiful.”
In the meantime, the act’s fans have the current Transllusion and Drexciya works to keep them happy. If the four new albums appear in 2002 is another matter and, similarly, it’ll probably be a while before they make it over to Europe to play live. Amidst all this speculation though, there’s no denying Drexciya are still one of dance music’s most individualistic, defiantly non-conformist acts. As the ‘spokesperson’ says before heading back to his studio to sculpt more futuristic alpha-rhythms, “we cut our own groove, we are the total package. I wouldn’t be talking all this stuff to you right now if I didn’t believe it. We’re full of energy and that’s why we’re blowing up at the moment with our music. We ain’t forcing ourselves, we’re just riding the wave.”

Comments

[cnnr]

thanks for that
amazing stuff
just great hearing what 'the spokesperson' has to say. what a tremendous loss to music.
did he die of a long term disease?