SHA Xmas Present 4 // Deepchord Interview

More gifts for all as we continue our festive SHA Xmas Present giveaways. So far you lucky people have heard quality sounds from Oliver Klein, SHA’s own Craig Fraser and most recently one of the UK’s hottest talents, Sonny Wharton. Today Craig caught up with one of Techno’s key players, hooked up once again by our friends at Soma we present a truly awesome interview with Deepchord…

DEEPCHORD INTERVIEW

Welcome to SHA Rod Modell (aka Deepchord) how are you today?

Doing Great! Thanks.

You come from Detroit, a city rich in techno history which also produced pioneers like Atkins, May and Saunderson. What was your upbringing like in the Motor City?

Pretty normal I guess. I lived in a Detroit neighborhood on East Outer Drive and Warren. I was sent to a catholic elementary school, then high school, followed by a fine-art photography curriculum in art school. Then I joined the Hare Krishna’s for 5 years, had a kundalini awakening, took lots of LSD, lived in a car for awhile, then in the forest, had platinum white hair down to my waste, no eyebrows, stared at dream-machines all day, listened to Hafler Trio 10 hours a day, read “The Consumer” by Michael Gira 20 times, and built a little Brion Gysin shrine in my room. Basically, just the normal stuff that everyone does.

You attended Art School for Photography. Are we to assume a music career wasn’t always the long term plan?

I was always interested in art as a career. In high school I hung-out with the artsy bunch. Completely anti-social. One day… a couple friends wanted to skip school (which I did too often), and go meet Andy Warhol. He had recently come out with a book of photography called “America”, and was having a book signing at a local store to promote the book. It was on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and must have not been promoted too well, because when we got to the store… there was hardly anyone there. We couldn’t believe it. My two friends and I skipped school, walked into this book store, and Andy Warhol was sitting right there in front of us, and he looked up at us, and said hi. It seems surreal to think about it now. We walked up, and ended up talking with him about everything for 45 minutes, with almost no others coming into the store. Then… out of the blue… he said… “you know what I’d really like right now… a piece of blueberry pie”. It was weird, and at first I didn’t know what to do. But I said… “would you like me to go get one”, and Warhol said… “oh my gosh, that would be great”. So we left to get Andy some blueberry pie, making it back to the bookstore about 20 minutes later. When we got there… there was lots of tension, and you can tell something strange happened. Andy was gone, and the employees were all upset. We were told, that while we were gone, someone came in, lunged over Warhol’s table, grabbed his white wig, and ran out the door. Unbelievable. Someone stole Andy’s hair. Maybe as a dare. Maybe just to have such a valuable piece of history. Who knows. Naturally, he became very very upset and left immediately. So there we were, holding a pie that we bought to eat with Andy Warhol, and we had to eat it ourselves. But I knew I’d be living “The Art Life” in one capacity or another. I wanted to be like this guy (Warhol). He was an influence. Not really his art, but his persona and how his work inspired others. Now I just paint with sound rather than light.

In the early 90’s you co-founded the Deepchord record label with Mike Schommer. At the time, what were the inspirations behind this and what did you guys want to achieve?

Mike and I would go to clubs to listen to what they were playing, and it seemed like every song would start really nice, then turn to crap in 60 seconds. A basic kick drum, and a hook came in. THEN…. another hook would come in, and then another, then more percussion, then more melody, and by this time…. the song was completely fucked up. And every track was the same. They all started nice when it was only a few tracks going. A nice kick, and nice bass, and a blip or two. Then gradually, every track would be slowly destroyed by adding tracks. And we thought…. we need to make tracks where the entire song is like the first 20 seconds of these tracks, and leave all the other stuff out. I really couldn’t care about music. I didn’t think of what I did as music. I was more focused on only the psychogenic effect of the loop. At the time, I was just out of the Hare Krishna’s, and was all about the “hypnotic mantra aesthetic”. I wanted to create a frame of mind, not a song. A simple loop is so much more capable of shifting consciousness than some melody (that tended to have the opposite effect). It was all about the loop. Sometimes in my studio, I would make a loop, and listen to it for 3 days. If I wasn’t sick of it 72 hours later…. I would know it was a good one.

You went on to form Echospace with Steven Hitchell (aka Soultek). Together you have released two albums and numerous singles. Legend has it you only used vintage analog equipment to produce your sound. What were the advantages (and disadvantages) of this approach?

This is true. I didn’t have a computer back when echospace started, so using one wasn’t an option. I was the last person that I know to own one. I never wanted a computer, and still really don’t like them. I got my first computer about 4 years ago. So the main advantage of hardware was that it was all I had to make sounds with, and I knew how to use it. I had this pile of stuff from the 80’s and 90’s. It’s all I had. Maybe if I had a computer back then, I might have used it. I bought a factory sealed brand new TR-808 in the 80’s. Back then, everyone wanted DX7’s and RX21’s. You could get Prophet 5’s for $300 all day long. I bought mine (Prophet 5) for $350 (at Gus Zoppi music store in Detroit on 8 Mile Road – gone now), and the only reason that I had to shell out that much, was because it was dead-mint. I bought THREE TB-303’s for $120 back then. I remember going into a pawn shop in Sarnia Ontario, and they had 3. I asked the guy “how much”, and he said “if you take them all, I’ll do $40 each”. This old stuff was all I had to make sounds with, so we had to make it work. Junk like Prophet 5’s, TR808, TR909 was all we could afford back then (late 80’s). We couldn’t afford the expensive digital stuff. Nobody wanted this stuff back then. Steve always had a warmer spot in his heart for the vintage gear. He’s about 10 years younger than me, and maybe has a different viewpoint because 10 years makes a difference. He liked it because it’s fun and collectible. I liked it because it was all I had. In 1990, I would have dumped it all for a Mac running Samplecell cards and Digidesign Sound-Designer… if I could have afforded it, but that would have been $4500 back then. Ensoniq Mirages were $2500, and Akai s900’s were $2200. I’m discovering (a little) the beauty of computer production lately. It definitely sounds much worse, but you gain 1000% in convenience and ability to work on stuff anywhere, anytime. At the end of the day, I think a smaller, more Zen computer based setup produces better music. For me, the compromise has been to assemble samples of my vintage stuff on a computer. I use it for arrangement and FX, but haven’t generated actual sounds with it yet. I use audio editors, and vst effects. I’ve played with VSTi instruments, but don’t really use them on my tracks yet (one exception – FM7 sequenced with a SND SAM-16 sequencer on Synth 01 / Electromagnetic Dowsing).

Echospace are much revered. Your first album ‘The Coldest Season’ a touted as a genuine successor to Basic Channel‘s minimal techno catalogue. Are there any plans for further releases in the future?

Absolutely. Steve and I are very good friends. At the moment, he’s having a few things that are occupying his time, but they look like they are resolving quickly, and all in a good way. We’ve got unfinished things and we have discussed future projects. I suspect we’ll be working soon. But maybe it will be under a secret alias, and no one will know it’s us. Maybe it’s already come out and no one knows because it’s 2-step polka-tech and we put fake names on it. Maybe it will be a hip-hop project with a guest appearance by Missy Elliott. Maybe it will be produced by Rick Rubin. Maybe Stevie Nicks will do some vocals. Lots of possibilities.

2011 saw the release of you first solo Deepchord LP, Hash-Bar Loops on Soma Quality Recordings. The title may be a clue but it was apparently inspired by your time in Amsterdam, how has the response to this album been?

Amsterdam has become my favorite place on the planet. Years ago, I worked with a girl that believed she lived previous lives in Egypt, and she would go there once a year, and kiss the ground when she got off the plane. She told stories about how intensely she felt when she got there. I thought she was totally nuts. Then I started travelling more. I still never felt anything like this… until I got to Amsterdam about 5 years ago. It was strange. I intuitively knew where everything was… freaking out the people that I was with. I never experienced anything like it. I could take you anywhere without looking at maps. I knew where everything was, and the history, and I was never there before. Really, really weird. I also like the Dutch people, and find their sensibilities/ habits/ customs to be most similar to my own. I don’t really ever feel like a tourist there.

Recently, I found Linda, the girl I worked with years ago, and told her that I finally understand her. I apologized for thinking she was insane. Now, I get over to Amsterdam as often as possible (about 5x/year), and would like to relocate there soon. But I still won’t kiss the ground (like my old workmate did in Egypt).

Not really sure about the response to HBL. My response was good, and that’s’ really all I concern myself with. I think you have to make music for yourself, and if others like it…. bonus. I love HBL. It’s like a big pool of shimmering water that you fall back into, and once under water, you discover that you can breath under there, and as you swim around… you see all kinds of luminous glowing fish and plants, and a whole different world. The bass is a omnipresent life-form in the water. Some of those sounds on HBL are a hallucinogen. They are physical sounds that create a physical effect on the listener. Lots of emphasis was put on tone engineering. Mostly psychotropic sounds were utilized in that project, each with a specific beat-frequency and ability to attain brain hemispheric synchronization with headphones. It’s more than a techno album. It’s a medicinal tool for healing and restructuring brain waves.

From 1995-2005 you ran an audio mastering facility in Detroit with customers such as Ritchie Hawtin’s M-NUS label. Any plans to get back into this line of work?

Not really. Basically, I found that I couldn’t do that and make music. It was too time consuming, and after doing that all day, I found that I wasn’t in the mood for making music. But then again, I still get requests, so who knows. Possibility, but probably not. There are lots of people doing it very well anymore also, and for reasonable rates. I was doing it 100% in the analog domain also. With a rack of hardware. I’m getting away from that now. It’s not Zen having all that stuff around.

Finally, with over 50 releases under various guises and styles, what key tips do you have for today’s young producers?

Producers / musicians need to stop striving to be good and strive to be unique. There is enough good around around, but almost no unique. Try to look at things a little differently. I know so many people who are exceptional musicians and producers, but when you suggest doing something in a somewhat unorthodox manner, they get freaked out. Doing things differently is what created a vibrant music scene in the late 80’s. Also focus on unique tools. Not the same stuff everyone else is using. Software or hardware.

DEEPCHORD LINKS

DEEPCHORD FACEBOOK
DEEPCHORD RESIDENT ADVISOR
ECHOSPACE SITE
ECHOSPACE TWITTER
SOMA SITE
BUY DEEPCHORD ON JUNO