 Name::VoiDeT, a.k.a Richard S.
Age:: 20
Nationality:: Australian and German
Occupation:: Student, Graphic/Web Designer
Interests:: Mixing, Mixing and more Mixing, Designing, I guess anything Creative
Websites:: www.Nightgen.com and no personal website as of yet, not enough time for myself to make one.
Years of Djing:: 6
Years of Production:: Well I don’t really produce, I more or less just play around in production software, but I will say 2 years of playing around.
Technique to Play:: I usually like to follow up from the previous Dj, keep it in line then build it up into complete mayhem by the end of the set. My mixing is what I like to think of, as very clean. You won’t find me doing stupid cuts that are out of time, or doing scratching. A lot of dj’s do these dj techniques without first mastering the basics. I try to develop my sets with clean mixing being perfect as possible with phrasing, a bit like a music writer.
International Gigs:: I have been overseas, but have not really been pushing to score gigs. I don’t need the hassle on my university holidays to deal with promoters I don’t know. So none until Agoraphobia Label Night, which to me, sounds like a very professionally put together event with a venue that has a superb sound system. I’m really looking forward to this event. But up until then, I am just a tourist!
Releases:: None as of yet, as I said I only produce for fun. But there might be some Vs’s coming out in the future, who knows!
Favourite Record Label:: Don’t know, mainly who support artists that are my favourite, like ViperXXL, Waldhaus, Weichentechnikk, Wittekind Arkus, Thomas Gee etc.
Favourite Net Label:: It was Nightgen, which was a semi label, I spent most of my days on that website, but now, I have no idea.
Favourite Producer:: Very hard decision, depends what I’m looking for. Driving and pushing sounds it would have to be ViperXXL. But for destruction and mayhem 100% Waldhaus and or Weichentechnikk, these guys have some amazing talent.
Favourite Dj:: Wow, ok, I haven’t listened to a demo cd or a set off the web in a very very long time. I respect Waldhaus and Weichentechnikk for their Live Acts: I know it isn’t Dj-ing, but meh ^__^
Future Releases:: Look above ;) Future plans however? Go back to Australia and get more involved in the scene there. I have been travelling and promoting foreign scenes without even trying to push the local scene, which at the moment hasn’t heard of hardtechno. Sorry Australia!
What influenced you mainly to start listening and playing Techno Music?
I have been listening to electronic music for a very long time. I think the first electronic CD I bought was when I was 8 years old. I was always caught up in the energy that is in electronic music. So eventually as I got deeper into the music I discovered more artists and more styles. I progressed through these styles, always getting harder and harder with more raw energy. Finally 3 years ago I stumbled across techno, listened to it for about a few weeks until I discovered the harder style to techno, Hardtechno. I have been listening to this for a while now; it’s amazing to spin it, especially live. So I guess it was the gradual progression that made me pick up this form of techno.
I was informed that you’re in the middle of a world tour. How was it so far and which cities have you been playing in?
Well I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a world tour. I have been on holidays, been playing more a tourist round two than on a Dj. With that said I have been staying with Dj’s, mostly from the old Nightgen Dj Team, whom I had stayed with on my last European holiday. So I guess I have been touring in that sense. But I have not been so keen as to try and land any gigs. As I said this tour around Europe was more of a chillout, just taking things easily, seeing the sites of the world. It is not easy, and especially not cheap, to travel around the world, coming from Australia. But ok, I have been to Munich Germany for 6 weeks, staying with the now minimal artist Alex Makee, stayed in Sweden for 2 weeks with Ekstroem, stayed a week in Hannover Germany with Tjark, a week in Detmold Germany with Waldhaus and now my last 2 weeks are with Mr Zina from the famous Zina and Mandy
How is the techno scene in Australia and what do you think about the Maltese crowd?
Ok, to start off with, let me give you a bit of a background on the Australian techno scene. Its new. Australia’s biggest styles are Trance, Hardtrance, Harddance, Hip-Hop, Breakbeat, Psy-Trance, DnB/Jungle, and Hardcore. I have always given Australia a bad wrap about its techno scene, even when I haven’t visited Melbourne (which is the capital, small, but capital of Australia’s techno scene). Techno is in Australia, however it is very very small. You might see a techno party advertised on the internet, but its just in an underground bar with maybe 20 people. This is what I have experienced anyway. I spoke with Dj Bold in Berlin last European summer, he said if you want to get into techno, get out of Australia. When I get back into Australia I will try to work closely with Brisbane’s big hardcore scene, try and introduce this sound to the people more. Last gig I did was at Godspeed, I played some Viper and some Weichi and Waldhaus, the people didn’t know what to do! But I think there is a future for Australia, but then again, we will see.
What do I think about the Maltese crowd?!?! Oh my god, you people don’t know how lucky you are. You have such a strong scene here it is amazing. The community is full of support, promoters stick to their guns, and you have quite a lot of clubs. I think this is largely attributable as to the reason why so many big name artists come to Malta. Malta in itself is a very beautiful place. You have perfecto seas, and quite an amazing display of historical monuments. I think Malta in the next couple of years will be so big that it might even be compared to Ibiza, but a more underground version of Ibiza, not so much trance. No offence intended Malta! Just be prepared for a lot of foreign tourists/supporters in the upcoming years if your scene keeps on going the way it is.
As to the Maltese party-goers. I was recently in the Liquid club, watching Helen Brown spin. One question, why are most of you trainspotting so hard? Seriously, I looked from the back of the room, and 90% of the people were gathering around the Dj Booth. It was quite funny. But if that’s the way it is, that’s how it will be. I just don’t know how I will react to dozens of staring eyes on my fingers as I’m about to get into a mix! I was told that the reason behind this trainspotting culture is because the Maltese people are intelligent and want to learn the dj’s skills by watching…..That or maybe my friend was trying to call himself intelligent?! Haha
You’re the man behind one of the best international techno communities – Nightgen. I may say that it grew very popular and it is still growing!! How did Nightgen start?
Thanks!! I started Nightgen back in 2004. I was listening to quite a few mixes back then, a lot of bad mixes too. But of those mixes that I heard a few gems shone through, time and time again I would hear these artists mixing tracks so great and with so much skill that I would bookmark them in my mind. Eventually I had a good list of favourite Dj’s, but it was hard to track each ones releases and mixes. So I came up with the idea of making an artist directory, in the form of a Dj Team, called Nightgen, short for Night Generation. The idea behind Nightgen was to incorporate the great artists, possibly even undiscovered, and put them in one entity, so that people could simply check out one location and find great skills. It worked well, as people would log into the site and check out for example bazz-dee, they would check out his material then browse through the artists. It became too popular that I thought I would create a techno team instead of just a hardtech team. So Nightgen white and black was born. Months past and so did the bandwidth. We peaked at 600gb in one month, when our webhost said, no more, we cannot support you unless you pay $80US a month. Being a non-profit organisation we couldn’t afford this, I think….and I didn’t want to sell out our image to a sponsor. So the Nightgen Dj team fizzled out. But now I have reinvented it in a way that promotes information, and isn’t just a mp3 directory…too expensive! So if you want to check it out, Nightgen.com is the address.
What are Nightgen’s aims and goals?
Well I just answered part of it above about the old Nightgen. But here is the logic behind the new version. Nightgen will promote the techno scene on a global basis. I was fed up with registering to like 20 different boards just to contact the world. There was just too many regional forums out there. So being internationally based before, I started up the new version of Nightgen to incorporate information, nonbiased of location, into a site which if fuelled by the users. Each user can submit reviews, photos, articles and what not, and can still share a link to their material; just we won’t be hosting bulky files again. Non-profit is too hard to keep alive without damaging the brand.
Any future plans to improve this community and the techno scene?
I think the future of the techno scene looks quite bright for the future. It’s important I think, that people stay positive about it. Let people do what they want to do. If you don’t like bootlegs, fine, but don’t dare say they are ruining your scene, because they are not, in my opinion they are only ruining the “artists” integrity by not coming up with something 100% original. Let’s get this idea of hardtechno becoming commercial in the near future out the window also. People that constantly bitch about our scene are the people that are most scared that they will left behind, and if they get left behind, due to their own faults, need an excuse as to why, to self justify that they were right! I think it is these people who are hurting our scene the most. You don’t own it! You just participate in it!
So what am I going to do for the future in our scene? I am going to make sure I get my foot in the door in the Australian scene. I won’t get distracted by the politics of the hardtechno scene, or the local scene in Australia. But most importantly I will stop the bitching myself, remain focused and positive! Which may be the road less travelled?
Anyways thanks for the interview and the chance for my thoughts to be exposed!!
I hope to see a lot of you Maltese trainspotters at the event on Saturday, it should be a big one! |
