Early Musical Education - Interview with Deetron

Swiss Sam Geiser aka Deetron appears very decent and pleasantly unpretentious. As a rising star in the Techno scene, not least for his reputation as a dynamic three-deck DJ that’s propelled him across the globe, but also for his popularity as a producer for a growing roster of record labels, you could expect someone with loads of airs and graces. Wrong! Sam’s musical background started early and very sheltered, at home, where music always has been a constant. His father with a great record collection, has been all along the inspiration for his addiction to Jazz and Mo’town, and has definitely laid one cornerstone for his way from Hip Hop to House and Detroit Techno, even Down-Tempo. With his new album Twisted, he renders homage to Detroit and above all tries to tell a little bit about his very own musical history.

Your way into music was already given before you could even think of where you are today, since you come from a family of musicians. That’s right. My dad was a jazz musician and used to be in a jazz trio for long time. Now it’s become a casual passion, since he plays in a symphony orchestra now.

So you were surrounded by music from a very early age. I guess that ensured your musical background. Sure. At home it was all about music. My dad has a huge record collection with a lot old and rare jazz records, for instance old Herbie Hancock records. There was something to find! And my mum is a piano teacher, so I always wanted to get into music. At the age of eight I played the piano, but gave up as a teenager of course. Guess that’s the way it is! But I think I adopted some basic understanding.

In 1992 you’ve started as a DJ. Yeah, around that time.

First with Hip Hop! I only had one Techniks MK and one record player with belt drive. In the beginning I played around with my father’s records. Trying to mix Jazz stuff with Hip Hop beats, like Tribe Called Quest or Gangstarr. All the more jazzy stuff, than the whole gangsta rap thing.

What got you into DJing? I don’t know. I think, that I just saw my talent. I was into Hip Hop and Hip Hop is about four basic elements: DJing, Graffiti, Breakdance and MCing. For me, everything else than DJing was just out of question. A friend of mine was a DMC champion and that really got me hooked as well as all those videos of the Scratch Perverts...

And some time later you got into House and Techno. It started with early Todd Terry records, that a friend of mine showed me, but Detroit Techno actually came to me through E-Dancer’s ‘Pump the Move’. That was around 1993/94. That friend was already pretty known as a DJ in Switzerland and later we also ran a record store together for a while.

So Kevin Saunderson was kind of the initial influence from Detroit?Yeah, but I wasn’t only curious about electronic music. All the Mo’town stuff, like Stevie Wonder, and everything I got to know through my father and there is still loads of interesting music coming from there. For instance Platinum Pied Pipers! Kind of Downtempo on Ubiquity Records.

I’m totally into the whole new era of Deep House from Detroit, like Omar S, Reggie Dokes’ Psychostasia Records or Jus-Ed’s Underground Qualitiy label. I really missed all that raw house music. Exactly! I think it is great, that they are just so raw and so unbelievably funky.

Fortunately not too clean! Not too digital! That’s what I also liked a lot about your album. It sounds so much like Detroit without being too far out there. Oh, that makes me definitely happy! I got some kind of addiction to it, that’s obvious.

But you didn’t get too stuck into that influence. I think, it is more of a combination of that addiction to the Detroit sound, your other influences and probably all your experiences, that you gained as a DJ on the road. That’s great, that you see it like that. The idea was my own interpretation of Detroit, that obviously stands out. Maybe to try to bring in a new direction, also with the vocals for instance.

How did Twisted come about? Actually it was planned a long time ago. You know, I’ve been always working on different projects, so it took me about four years to get this album finished or rather until I was ready to present this album. I also did a project for Compost Records as well. More Downtempo and jazzy. With Twisted I tried to combine all my influences and to put them properly together in one album. So I guess, that’s why, it took me so long. I mean, I had loads of material, but it had to grow first.

I think, it is good, that the tracks don’t only work as tools. You don’t have to necessarily be a DJ to buy your album, for many tracks have some kind of song character, just because of the vocal tracks for example. That was intended, that it also works at home or in the car, but of course there had to be tracks, that I would want to play in a DJ-set. My idea was finally, that Twisted would become some kinf of a balance between my stuff on Compost Records as Procreation and the more harder DJ-toll records.

And then your addiction to Detroit techno isn’t just fixed on one thing. I mean some tracks are more Detroit electro, other more epic string techno... I’d say, that comes naturally. You don’t plan on doing that. You shouldn’t! I think, that it just arises from your musical background and all your experiences, that came about all along. You cannot drop off your own history.

Tell me about all the collaborations on Twisted. There are some acclaimed personalities from the whole electronic music sphere. DJ Bone for instance wrote me once, because of a record of mine, a release on Intec Records, that he liked a lot and asked me if I would contribute a track for his mix compilation with only exclusive tracks, that he made for his label Subject Detroit. Then we met in Detroit at the DEMF (Detroit Electronic Music Festival – editor’s note), where I played. He was really nice and for some reason everything was just clear. He was ready for it right away. But you know, actually he doesn’t do vocals. I’ve an very old and rare record on Claude Young’s former label Utensil Records, with a vocal part by Bone. Probably the very first and last time. Anyway, I brought that up and he thought it was funny that I knew about that. He was hooked right away. With Justin Chapman, I just asked him, since I’m a huge fan of Recloose’s ‘Ain’t Changin’’, that he sung. I love that tune. Paris the Black Fu finally lives in Switzerland now, so that was pretty easy. To me he’s just the George Clinton of Techno!

Your album sounds in parts kind of analogue. Both analogue and digital. But it was in a way my intention, that it sounds analogue. You know, meanwhile with good software and the right mixing, you can make a lot of it sound analogue. But I also used old equipment, like a Roland Juno 106 and Alpha Juno One. Old Detroit stuff as you can see.

Now you are signed on Music Man with Twisted. Have you found a home base there? Definitely! Stefan, the A&R, is unlike many other label owners interested in a long-term collaboration. He rather sees it as a long process, that has to develop and grow and he allows me great latitude. Actually one of the few techno labels that survived for so long. I believe about 15 years.

Besides your own productions, you also did loads of remixes. Amongst others one for Ennio Morricone. How did that happen? I did a remix for ‘Lontano’, but please don’t ask me from which movie it comes. Compost Records did once a compilation with various artists, such as Matthew Herbert. The whole spectrum. Three volumes with remixes of various Morricone pieces. I did one as Procreation/Deetron.

What did you come up with? I put a 4/4 beat on it, used many elements of the original that however consists only of strings and piano without rhythmic elements. It turned out to be kind of jazzy and playable.

You are one of the few still existing three-deck Djs. What is your aim playing with three decks at once? It’s important to me to get the most out of the tracks that I play. To build up the intensity. On the third deck for instance, I could play just a vocal track and fit in a dance set. Basically, I try to get as close as possible to remixing.

Any plans to play your album live? I thought about it, but there are so many techno or – let’s say – electronic music live acts, who just go under behind their laptops. To me something would be missing. It should approach more the meaning of a live act, maybe with a vocalist. But I’m not ready for that.

What’s next? Touring, remixing for Detroit Grand Pubahs amongst others and releasing three more singles from the album. ‘Isotobe EP’ has been already released. Now ‘Afterlife’ as well as ‘Live Soundtrack’ with remixes by Redshape and Radio Slave are coming. Finally the track featuring Ovasoul ‘Icling’, but there we still don’t know about the remixes. Besides I keep on working on new stuff. Ovasoul comes back to Switzerland in October and we will definitely come up with something again.

LINK: http://www.deetron.com