?“The music is important because it is music not because it is electronic.”
Techno’s most enthusiastic collaborator talks to RA about Ibiza, NarodNiki and the explosion of minimal.
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The house that Dandy Jack built
Techno’s most enthusiastic collaborator talks to RA about Ibiza, NarodNiki and the explosion of minimal.
Dandy Jack, aka Martin Schopf, knows how to pick a partner. He’s made records with Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano, Tobias Freund, Uwe Schmidt and most recently he’s been stepping out as Junction SM, a unique DJ/live set collaboration with his partner Sonja Moonear. Just in case anyone feels left out, he’s also a paid up member of NarodNiki, the live techno improvisation outfit that counts among its rotating cast Villalobos, Luciano, Richie Hawtin, Dan Bell, Monolake, Carl Craig and Maurizio. “When you are alone, then it’s just about you,” explains Dandy. “And that’s sad.”
Even when Dandy Jack is making records by himself, he like to invent an imaginary friend: regular Dandy Jack collaborators The Latin Elvis, The Latin Lava and The Plastic Woman don’t actually exist, except in Schopf’s imagination. “I like to create projects as an alter ego, to create a background personality and story.”
Like Luciano and Villalobos, Dandy Jack is a Chilean, part of the first wave of ?migr?s that escaped the Pinochet dictatorship in the seventies to settle down in Europe. But he maintains a link to his home country, regularly traveling back to play and finding space in his music of Latin sounds and rhythms.
RA caught up with Dandy Jack after a rare solo gig in London. The interview went something like this:
You’ve been making music since the late eighties. Are you as enthusiastic now as you were before? Has your outlook on techno changed over the years?
For me, in the beginning, electronic music was completely attached to a whole new aesthetic. It was not only music for dancing; it was like a new structure in the whole of society. I believed in the technology at the time. I was young and I was idealistic. I was thinking cool – electronics, techno, computers – this is going to rule the world. This is going to help do something better, you know? But slowly I realised that it wasn’t happening like that. Nothing is getting better. Nothing is getting more beautiful. Nothing’s helping nobody. Technology is nothing really. The picture that America was painting was that technology was going to be something nice because one day we were going to fly to Mars, you know? And now the world is completely wrong and fucked up. This changed my opinion about electronic music. I started to realise that the music is important because it is music not because it is electronic. I lost my idealism a bit.
Also in the nineties, the electronic movement was something amazing because everybody was happy, partying together, talking. I made many new friends. I was living in Berlin when the wall came down. Suddenly the people from the East came over and you were connecting with everybody, and it was like wow! But it changed. In 1993, it started to be a big business – the raves, the security staff hitting people. It slowly got ugly. The DJs were getting big payments and they were coming in limousines. They wanted this, they wanted that and everyone was like “Okay, sorry, sorry. You are the master!” Then suddenly the same people were fascists. One day I saw Westbam playing at E-Werk – a lovely place – and I got a shock, you know? I realised that these guys were leading these people with horror music – people, no soul, nothing. I went up to him and said, “Hey man, stop playing that music right now. Because you’ll destroy the charisma of this place.” Yeah! Then I grabbed the needles. Two thousand people were like nooo! And I was thinking “Oh my god. Now they’re going to kill me.”
So what happened?
They threw me out.
“The music is important because it is music not because it is electronic.”
Why do you collaborate so much?
For me it’s much more interesting to combine my music with other people’s, especially for live projects. Although I also like to play alone. I can concentrate on my own energy when I play alone. But when I work with others, the music morphs more. When you mix two things together, a third thing comes out.
Who is one person you’d like to collaborate with?
Simone. She’s a Brazilian singer who was great in the seventies. She was producing with Milton Nascimento. I have never heard anything like her voice. Ever.
What does she sound like?
She sounds like a man. A very full voice, very deep and very sexy. She was producing bossa nova in the late sixties/early seventies. She’s very dramatic. When I listen to her, I start crying. And then she had an eighties period when she became very cheap. Pop cheap. I think she would be really a good combination with electronic music. She would be a killer.
Have you tried to contact her?
I tried, but she’s very famous, you know? It’s like trying to contact somebody from Funkadelic or something. A big person. Maybe Simone is now sixty years old. She’s probably sitting quietly at home. And then there’s this guy going [hustler voice] “Hey, you want to make techno? You want to sing on my track?”
Junction SM has an unique way of performing live techno. Could you tell us about your setup?
I do it with Sonja Moonear. I’ve been making live music for a really long time. About fifteen years. I’ve done many projects, like Carbina 30:30 with Luciano and Ric Y Martin with Ricardo. I love to play with those guys, but the problem is that they became too famous. To say it simply. They are concentrating on their own career, you know? They are not really interested in collaborating and investing energy in a live concept because this is really a lot of work. You have to prepare, make new sounds, compose and mix every day. So I was searching for somebody that is really interested in opening up and not just concentrating on themselves. Ricardo and Luciano, they are too much about themselves. They want to be the heroes of the night [laughs]. But then I found Sonja. It’s amazing how sensitively she can react to my music. She plays records, which means that we can play for hours. She can play a record while I reload something and I can take a bit of a breath. Because also when you’re playing live, it’s really intense. After two hours, I lose my breath. I need to do sports!
You’re known for your wild live performances. Do you think electronic music needs to have a performance element?
Yeah, definitely. Mutek in Montreal, it’s my number one favourite festival in the world and I love it, but last year it was too much. Only laptops. It’s so boring. I realised that there is some problem in the personalities of the people who are making electronic music. The people are not able to express their feelings. In the moment when they have to talk or when they have to show something, or to cry, they just break down. I think it’s very important to relax the body. The problem with just using a laptop, it’s too much in the brain. All these ideas to make all these controllers and more equipment, it confuses the head. With an instrument, you can play it blind. You can go with just the body. This is important. If you are all the time using your head, you are not really relaxing.
“Behind each instrument there is an idea. A philosophy. And this is what I want to find out.”
How do you play your own equipment live?
In the end, I’m a percussionist. I try to do that with my MPC. For me it’s a very interactive instrument. I overdub all my music with percussion, and I assign the buttons on the MPC to trigger things rhythmically. This is why I like collaborating. Because then we are two, then we are three. Then something can really happen.
What do you produce with in your studio? Do you use analogue gear or software?
I started buying instruments at the end of the eighties. I have a huge collection of little machines and equipment. I love them and I still produce with them, but I’ve also introduced software. I prefer originating ideas with a sampler. If I only use a computer, it’s really boring for me. I need to touch the instruments. Because behind each instrument there is an idea. A philosophy. The guy that was developing it in the eighties, he was thinking something. And this is what I want to find out.
The problem today is that people want more and more and more. It’s a typical consumer attitude. You get one plug-in, you spend one hour with it and then you move onto another one. But you never understood what the first one was doing! Too many things and too much information. In the end, you are not really getting into the instrument. Before, instruments were like €2000. You bought it and you were like ‘Wow!’
Why are their so many Chilean-Germans making minimal techno?
Because our families had to escape from a dictator [laughs].
There’s such a tight-knit group of Chileans making a distinctive techno music.
I think maybe there are two people in the Chilean electronic scene that influenced the rest of the group. One of them is Ricardo. He was three years old when he went to Germany but he kept his Chilean roots. When he goes back to Chile, he keeps in touch with the people. And this sounds a bit egocentric, but maybe I was also one of the reasons too. I grew up in Germany, but my roots are really in Chile. I was a bit like a connector between Germany and Chile. And also between Ricardo and Chile. Because when I met Ricardo, he couldn’t speak Spanish really. I introduced him to the Chilean scene. I think that was a catalyst. But it’s not so special. It could have been Argentina or Brazil, but in this case it was me and Ricardo so it was Chile. Our families had to escape from Chile to Germany. And we took in all the German influences. We were the first generation of ex-pat Chileans.
What were your influences when you were growing up?
Kraftwerk. Like everybody. Yellow Magic Orchestra was amazing. I was a big fan of Cabaret Voltaire, Chris & Cosey. Throbbing Gristle, especially Chris Carter. This is the guy that I would love to meet. His records are amazing. I am not so influenced by Americans. For me, American music came much later, like ’91, ’92. But then I realised that house music was very important. The four on the floor was coming more from there. But also those people listened to German music. They listened to Kraftwerk and they realised “Oh, we can do something with this
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