SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/129112
Richie Hawtin and Deadmau5: Electronic Dance Music Stars Align by Chase Hoffberger 48 SXSWORLD / MARCH FILM-IA 2013 "There hasn't been a huge scene in America for a long time," the English-born, Canadian-raised DJ continued. "When I came up, I spent a lot of time in Europe, and I think in that time that a scene developed— an infrastructure of very like-minded people who have enabled this scene to get to the point where it is now. People didn't have formal training, but they became musicians, they became DJs, they became lighting technicians ... and just kind of followed their hearts. That's the scene I belong to." Today's influx of popularity has brought separation to the line between those who are there to perform, and those who are there to party. However, EDM seems to be a movement with room to grow and resources to burn, and in Deadmau5, it has a young standout artist. "He's a one-man show," Hawtin says of his younger countryman. "There are a lot of producers in the electronic scene that have a lot of support; they have ghost writers or producers and remixers. Joel's a computer geek just like me, and we've come up expressing ourselves through electronic music and computers. We express ourselves better electronically than we do with people." Plus, Deadmau5 may also have the wits to stay just far enough away from the hype. "It's easy to get sucked into the machine," Hawtin explains. "I think a lot of artists have. I think Joel has been sucked into the machine, but I think he's also playing with the machine." Deadmau5 and Hawtin may seem to make strange collaborators when they take the stage together at SXSW. Hawtin says the two are trying to work out exactly how they will blend their styles on the fly and what they will do to counteract each other's never-ending quest for sonic precision. "We're going to keep it pretty bare bones," Hawtin says. "We don't want to have the typical Hawtin visual display. We also don't want to use the Deadmau5 hat and lights. We're going to keep it as musically focused as we can, and it's going to be us on stage interacting, layering, and playing together, trying to minimize his melodies and maximize my beats. If it's successful, it will be a bridge between what he does and what I do." ■ R I C H I E H AW T I N DANNY MAHONEY D eadmau5 and Richie Hawtin have quite a lot in common, even if they are products of different times. The two internationally renowned, Toronto-based DJs both possess an understanding that there is more to building a massive electronic audience than bringing the beats and turning them up really loud. Both of them learned Deadmau5 how to create a production with lights and layers, not to mention climaxes and dynamic shifts. However, more about the two's musical relationship sets them apart than brings them together. Given the differences in their sound, styles and scenes, it is hard to imagine that the two could ever manage to merge on a grand and international scale. The funny thing is though, that's exactly the way the two of them like it. At 42, Hawtin is one of the pioneering artists of modern DJ culture. He was an early adopter of computer-based music and has produced more than 12 solo albums under three Richie Hawtin pseudonyms: FUSE, Plastikman and Concept 1 96. He creates rhythms rooted in low ends and minimalism, showing the influence of '80s Detroit techno that he heard while growing up in neighboring Windsor, Ontario. Hawtin is forever sucking his sound further into its own shadow, in the same way his longtime collaborator Loco Dice or the pioneering dubstepper Joe Nice have done. Deadmau5, age 32 (real name: Joel Zimmerman), has made a name for himself as a master of melodic landscapes, a tech wiz who crafts sprawling, emotive and sometimes fantastic melodies that play out as hyper-digitized pop songs. He has released six proper LPs in a matter of seven years, the most recent of which, 2012's > album title goes here <, debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. No doubt, his rise has come at the right time. Today, electronic dance music (EDM) names such as Aviici and Tiësto have barreled into the mainstream conversation of concertgoing and entertainment like few DJs have before. Last year at South by Southwest, Skrillex's showcase at The Mohawk was one of the hottest tickets in Austin. Dubstep has spawned "brostep" and has been covered by The New York Times. Even noted pop music dignitaries like Kanye West have come calling; West tapped Skrillex last summer for a track on his still-unreleased album.This is all new territory for a veteran like Hawtin, who says that the movement is still a little too young to crystallize as a scene. "More hype than scene," he decreed via telephone from Munich while on a stopover during a flight between Sao Paulo and Johannesburg. "We'll see in 10 or 20 years." Richie Hawtin and Deadmau5 will take part in SXSW Music and Interactive convergence session: "Deadmau5 & Richie Hawtin: Talk. Techno. Technology." at the Austin Convention Center on Tuesday, March 12. That same night, the pair will perform at the Interactive Closing Party Presented by (mt) Media Temple at Stubb's (Interactive badges only). On Wednesday night, Hawtin will present a night of electronic artists at Bungalow (92 Rainey St.).