Clash Music

On the 2nd of July 2005, under the beautiful Pont Du Gard viaduct in Provence, France, Jeff Mills, one of the most popular and legendary techno DJs and producers of all time embarked on one of his most daring and progressive performances to date.

Famed initially for his DJ pseudonym The Wizard on Detroit’s WLBF station, Mills is credited as one of the founding fathers of the modern day techno sound through his partnership with ‘Mad’ Mike Banks in creating the legendary Underground Resistance label. This label exuded individuality and emotion and galvanized a generation into feeling the power of electronic music. He went on to start his own Axis imprint, generating incredible worldwide success and spawning offshoots like the dancefloor friendly Purpose Maker label. And all the while he has DJ’d over the world, topping the bill at every electronic event imaginable, showcasing a simply unmistakable thunderous sound and an instinctive quick-fire DJ style.

However it is the phase he entered post-millenium that has sown the seeds for this new project. In 2000 he composed a soundtrack to the classic Fritz Lang movie ‘Metropolis’, which ignited in him a passion to look beyond the dancefloor. He wanted to see how he could apply electronic music within other musical territories, to challenge the boundaries within which electronic music was being held by a now stale scene containing little or no true innovation and holding increasingly less respect throughout the wider musical world.

Last year’s performance in France was the culmination of his new ideas. Fourteen classic Mills techno productions were arranged by young composer Thomas Roussel and performed by the 80-piece Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra with the aim to successfully re-interpret contemporary sounds in an authentic classical music environment.

The results were aired live that night in 2005 and are now to be released on a truly inspiring DVD and CD entitled ‘Blue Potential’. Mills chatted with Clash in a central London hotel about his aims for this project and his views on all the work he has undertaken.

How did the ‘Blue Potential’ project come about?

I’ve been working on this for quite some time, since shortly after ‘Metropolis’. People were suggesting that I should work with an orchestra in either a performance or production. I think through ‘Metropolis’ people could visualise more vividly what it would be like to have techno represented through classical music.

How did you set about achieving the balance between electronic and classical sounds?

I don’t know if we achieved it but we wanted to find the perfect balance between the two genres. We had hoped that it would fall on that very thin line between. Before the performance I purposely did not pre-programme the drum machine, I did it during the performance. I thought this way it could actually sound like a drummer would. I listened to what the orchestra was doing and thought I’d attempt to create this huge jam session with 80 musicians. Working with an orchestra is a massive task. You have to balance it so that each individual part can be heard, no matter how little the sound.

Do you think people who are classical music fans will see the parallels between electronic and classical music?

Um, typically what we’ve found so far is that people who listen to classical music are strict and draw lines between what’s appropriate and inappropriate. Most of the people in classical music feel that this project is not classical enough. On the other side some electronic people feel that it is not electronic enough. So it falls in between. However, I think that’s exactly what is important with ‘Blue Potential’, it raises questions as to what it really is. It’s not one track, it’s 14, it’s something that you really have to think about.

Why is it called ‘Blue Potential’?

Well, ‘Blue’ meaning the sky or space and also ‘Blue’ meaning the water, the depth of the ocean and the sea. It deals with the subject of where we as humans can find the greatest answers of who we are and why we’re here and where we’re going. By looking at space and by looking in the depths of the ocean we will probably find the most answers. We have done a good job of excavating the ground and the places we live on to find artefacts to tell us of our history. But I don’t think this is as informative as what you will find in sea and space. ‘Potential’ means the chance of what we can discover when we actually look a bit deeper into our world.

Do you think music becomes stronger if you are looking deeper into the world and trying to communicate a message rather than simply making a certain type or genre of sound?

Making music has very little to do with the equipment and the nature of the sounds, it has more to do with the amount of emotion that the person actually has. If the person who makes it is full of emotion for people marching and standing up for what they believe in then you can transfer this emotion to sound and it can be a truly powerful form of communication. I think we get too caught up in titles and names, to the point that if you are a certain type of person you can only listen to a certain type of music. I think we sometimes forget that it’s just music.

Do you not think that musical boundaries are blurring and changing now? People and tastes are diversifying.

No I feel it’s the opposite. In the music media industry it seems that the media can’t navigate and keep balance between all the styles that come out. It seems that they must let one style die before another can surface. There is so much music that is relevant historically, and there are so many new styles surfacing all the time, but the media seem intent on only talking about the newest and most popular thing.

Yes, but this probably describes the industry itself and not the people who listen to the music…

Yes, true, but there is not much consideration given by the media to the electronic musician who is trying to make himself a career, a career that can last 80 years. That I think is interesting. Maybe it’s because of the editors, or the advertisers who help provide the things that suit the lifestyle created through working in this culture. How many pages are in the average magazine? I feel that there could be a lot more that are actually informative. Out of all the interviews I have done I’ve rarely been asked the single most important question, ‘Why do I do what I do?’

I would have thought that’s the whole point in an interview…

A few years ago I had had it. I thought I am gonna display the kind of things that journalists should be asking me but don’t. So I went to a psychiatrist. I had the doctor ask me things about who I am and I printed these things in the sleeve notes of the ‘Lifelike’ compilation CD on Axis. People could then be able to see what type of person would be able to create music like this. The journalists for so many years had failed to unearth this type of personality.

But a lot of artists are not interested in giving across personality.

Well if you are going to the jungle to do a documentary on the lion, you don’t ask the lion if you can do a documentary on it, you just do it. Good journalism is where the interviewer can be tactful with a person who doesn’t want to be revealing and just get it out anyway. If I sat down and made a life affirming album about the status quo of the world, say a Marvin Gaye ‘What’s Going On’ type of album and I knew that the media would do what it could to inform people about what I had to say in the music then I would feel more compelled to want to communicate the message as well.

Going back to UR is a perfect example of what you are saying. That felt like a real movement, an insurrection for change where those within really had something to say and those who were listeners truly understood and believed.

The situation in the world is a lot worse than it was in 1988 when we started UR and started making music with a message and I’m perplexed by this. Why are people consuming, accepting and just getting on with their lives? It’s soulless. Today people’s lives are almost like an absurd form of escapism where they don’t want to know anything that’s going to disturb their peace or state of mind.

When you met Mike Banks and started UR. Would you say that this was one of the most significant meetings in your life that would shape what you’d go on to say musically?

Yeah, we both had a common interest in house music. I was playing a lot of house and was getting quite into it and Mike’s band wanted to get deeper into making house. I went with Mike to a couple of parties and we kept in contact, started sharing equipment and ideas, and the relationship grew.

How would you describe your personalities? What made the overall team great?

We grew up in a very similar way. His mother and father were teachers and most of my relatives were teachers, I think we’d both developed more vivid ways of explaining things, using the method of fundamentals to be able to describe a particular type of subject. I think that comes from upbringing.

Mike in our recent interview said you were a firm friend and UR operative. Would you agree with this?

Yeah of course. We communicate a lot. I help out wherever I can. I think though, when I left we both realised it was the most logical thing to do based on the structure of the company and also the industry. It just didn’t support the lifestyle of two Afro-American men.

Was that because each individual was strong enough to be an entity on his own?

Well, that was actually secondary. It was more fundamental really. We were both living at home with our parents at the time we were doing UR and that was a situation we wanted to change. We both wanted to create something that we could both live off. We didn’t have the knowledge and resources to do it from one company. But we knew it would be possible if we separated and one of us left to start another company.

Are you doing any work with Mike now?

We’re discussing something. A very special idea in Paris.

A lot of people describe you solely as an international DJ – does this annoy you? And with new projects like ‘Blue Potential’ are you trying to push your career in new directions?

No I still consider myself a DJ. I do whatever it takes to be able to get where I need to go and to be able to allow people to do what they themselves need to do.

So the big question must be, why do you do what you do?

I think that most people want to be better. I think that sometimes they have trouble finding the parts of their personality that will allow them to do that. Some people sit at home and watch soap operas all day so they can find it, some people choose sports, some people spend time going out at the weekend amongst 1000 people lost in a crowd listening to music. And if I can help produce that motivation in any way, whether it’s DJing or producing or writing text then I’m more than happy.

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