The 2010 return of Plastikman –Richie Hawtin’s legendary moniker- is without any doubt one of the highlights in the electronic music scene this year. Early rumors already caused a huge buzz amongst clubbers the world over and not entirely without reason: Apart from delivering genre-defining music such as the Spastik EP (1993), the Concept series, and the landmark Sheet One, Consumed and Closer albums, the Plastikman project has always revolved around groundbreaking live shows remarked by forward-thinking technological elements, visuals, and the use of a wide variety of gear on stage.
The Plastikman moniker was conceived in 1992 and formed an unorthodox counterpart to the electronic sound of that era. Drawing on a very introvert and minimal sound, the concept quickly established itself amongst clubbers the world over due to the many innovative elements that marked its gigs and releases. After a hiatus between 1999 and 2003, Richie revived his Plastikman project with the impressive Closer LP, which to this day is still considered one of the absolute highlights in minimal house and techno. During 2008’s Contakt tour, Richie and artists from his Minus label took the on-stage integration of audio, visuals and communication technology to a whole new level with the end result being a ‘multimedia concert’ as never seen before. During this tour, which covered ten cities, Richie carefully examined and implemented his experiences and ideas in what was to become his next major project: Plastikman Live.
2010 A.D. The Plastikman Live project has embarked on a tour that brings Richie to a carefully selected number of events across the globe. The concept of a gig serving all senses by means of unique technological features, new ways of crowd interaction, and of course profound music and visuals is once again reshaped by one of the most inspirational innovators in electronic music today. But perhaps it's best to let the man himself do the talking...
The 2010 World Premiere of Plastikman was in Mannheim during Time Warp. Of course you've got many, many years of experience under your belt but what was it like for you personally to reignite Plastikman after such a long hibernation period? Any nerves or other special feelings? Bringing Plastikman back to the stage was not an easy thing to do because of all different parts of the show we were trying to put together…. new technology, remaking songs, creating SYNK application, live visuals… The show is extremely complicated and it took a long time to get everything working correctly… so for the first show the entire team was extremely nervous. The hour or so before the first show at Time Warp was incredible, nerves, anticipation… it felt like being a new captain and flying a 747 airplane full of passengers for the first time!
Since Mannheim, Plastikman has traveled the globe and seen many music festivals. Did the show further develop or is it still 'the same' show? Each show is slightly different from the others. I have a set of tracks that I play, but how I play each of those tracks and how I get from one track to another changes with each show. That's why it took us so long to come back to Plastikman Live. I wanted a full live show with synchronized visuals and audio that was not just a playback each night… I wanted to have control over as many different parts of the experience as possible but still have the freedom to go with the feeling each night and play 'live'.
The show changed quite a lot right after Mannheim: we immediately threw 3 songs away which we were not happy with, moved some visuals around between the songs and then that became the base of the show you still see today. Again, we are always tweaking and adding special moments sometimes just for one show (like a special ending for Sonar)… and the show will continue to evolve. We've now built our own special custom setup that allows me to perform live and bring together lighting, visuals and the music… now that the system is working, I plan to continue to add new material, new songs, visuals etc.. and see where we end up!
At Lowlands (check out our review of the show) we saw the stage being built up quite rapidly, but surely there's more to it than that. How much preparation is involved prior to a Plastikman gig? Perhaps you can take us through the days/hours leading up to the gig? The team for Plastikman is made up of 10 people who travel to each show. There's a few other team members who work only on each show during the weeks/days before the event, preparing riders and technical specifications. Building the cage stage setup can now be done quite fast IF we are prepared. But the total setup time usually takes us 6-8 hours. At Lowlands people only saw one part of the stage being built but we had been there all day, making sure all the fiberoptic, ethernet, video cables were all going from the stage to the FOH, checking all the lighting setups, make system checks so that all the computers were communicating with each other. It's very hard to explain everything here, but it takes a lot of dedicated and incredible people a lot of time and patience to get each show ready to go!
The Plastikman sound is minimalistic but very intense due to loudness and crystal clear, high quality sound. The sound quality at festivals differ a lot, how do you cope with this? Do you bring your own sound systems or are the festivals required to put up a specific configuration? Do you have people check this for you or do you check this yourself? Johannes -my sound engineer for the Plastikman tour- is always checking everything months before we even get to the gig. We go over all the sound system ideas of the promoter and make sure it will be correct for the show. If not, we make changes, or advise the promoters to insure we have enough 'power' and 'clarity' to create the impact we want. Before any promoter can book Plastikman they must agree to a number of special considerations for the show! Either through our iPhone or directly; every now and then we get to see a glimpse of you at work behind your canvas. Can you explain us what you're actually doing there? How much control do you have? How 'live' is the show? The show is about as Live as you can make an electronic music show. I have re-built all the songs into midi/audio loops and then for each show decide how to put those loops back together to create the songs you here. How I play these loops, or the extra material I program live on top not only creates the audio that you hear, but also creates the visuals you see. Behind the LED cage I have nearly a full studio setup: multiple touch controllers to help 'play' the show, a large analog mixer to mix all the audio channels coming out of my computer (28 channels of analog audio), extra analog processing and effects boxes to create new effects and things like that. There are many great live shows out there, but many of them (specially the ones with visuals etc) are pre-programmed and play out exactly the same way every single night. Although with Plastikman Live I do play the same songs each night, the way they are played and how the audio and visuals interact with each other is different each night! Speaking of the iPhone and the SYNK app, do you believe there's a future in interaction between audience and performer? Does it not take something (concentration) away from experiencing the show? Yes it can take something away from the show if it's not fully part of the show. SYNK offers basic information about the show as it's happening, giving people track names, and tempo and other basic info about what's happening on my computer systems. But at key points, Logikal and Synkotik, the iPhone actually becomes part of the show, allowing at times, the audience to control part of the show, and at other times, turning the iPhone screen into a 2nd display for the shows visuals. I believe that any great live show is a combination of everyone who is there at that moment, the audience & the performer, and with SYNK I'm experimenting with how technology can play, heighten, or even dissolve that interaction between us all.
Do you do everything yourself or are there more people working with you? Most of what you experience during a Plastikman Live show is controlled by me alone on stage… however, to make sure everything is running correctly we have a crew keeping an eye on all the different systems during the show. Johannes is in control of the Front Of House (FOH) sound console, making sure that everything sounds like I want it to onstage, and also making sure we have the most possible sound pressure at all times! Matthias is overseeing and performing the lighting (some of these are done manually each night by Matthias and other lighting cue's are being generated directly by me on stage from my computers). Bryan is overseeing the networking and iPhone systems. Ali/Bryant are making sure the visual computers are working but once the show starts, I take over control over those computers so that the audio and visual are always in sync and connected. Michael/Nima/Stefan/Franzie are all on/around stage making sure everything is working and nothing goes wrong while the show is on.
For years you put Plastikman in hibernation because you felt the time/technology wasn't ready yet. Now in 2010 you reintroduced Plastikman to us, does that mean technology catched up upon your ideas, or is it still behind? It took so long to bring Plastikman Live back to the stage because of Technology AND People. Finding the right technology was one thing, but also, finding the right people who understood how to bring it all together was a big challenge. Do you have new ideas for other things not yet possible? Is this the ultimate Plastikman show or do you still have other ideas for things still not yet possible in 2010? At the moment we are at Plastikman Live 1.0 and we plan to bring Plastikman back on Tour in late 2011 for Plastikman Live 1.5 and I hope, if the technology allows us, to bring Plastikman Live 2.0 to the stage in 2012.
Who or what is Plastikman really? Is Plastikman a person? Is Plastikman Richie Hawtin, or really someone else? Plastikman is as close to the real Richie Hawtin as you can get. It is the project where I am most closely connected to the creative ideas in my head and the technology that allows them to come into our reality!
Where do you get your inspirations for Plastikman? Much of the inspiration for the Plastikman project comes from events and experiences in and around Detroit in the early 1990s. Even the later albums, 'Consumed' & 'Closer', find inspiration connected to the people and memories of that time. Of course, with each album there are other forms of inspiration, technological advancements in recording and music making always help give new angles to the overall sound but still, somehow, I feel that there is always a connection to Detroit, the city and it's feeling in each and every Plastikman album/project.
The visuals and sounds remind us of a psychedelic (acid) trip, care to comment? ;-) Plastikman was originally inspired by many intense first-time experiences in the early days of Detroit warehouse parties where (now long time) friends found each other for the first time. Those were times of heavy experimentation with acid and pushing ourselves to see the world in a new way. Sheet One acid blotter style cover was not a marketing idea, it was a reference to where we all were at that moment and where much of the musical ideas found their foundation….
Of course both are you but do you see Richie Hawtin and Plastikman as one and the same; somewhat connected; or perhaps as two separate 'identities', each with different ideas and believes? Of course they come from the same place, the same person, but I see one as the introverted Hawtin, Plastikman and the extroverted Hawtin, DJ Richie Hawtin.
You're releasing Plastikman Arkives, why now? This can't be a final 'Achive', or is it? Arkives is the collection of all Plastikman material up to 2010. My main goal with Arkives is to bring everyone, new fans and long time supporters, all up to date with who Richie Hawtin is in 2010, and I believe that you can't fully understand this without knowing where I came from…. Plastikman is at the very core, the foundation of who I am today. With everyone up to date, I hope that this will be the closing of Chapter 1 of Plastikman and then allow me to start writing whatever will become Chapter 2,3,4 etc… and begin the process of creating new material that will in the end become the beginnings of the next set of Arkives.
Looking back on the “Arkives” do you feel any of the albums stand out a bit more? I honestly love all of the albums… each has it's own specific story and deep connection to me. They all take me to different periods of my life, of electronic music, bringing back memories and experiences that have all become part of Richie Hawtin in 2010. I guess if I had to be extremely critical I would say that the one album that could have been better would have been Artifakts(bc). I love everything on this album, but the original idea for this album was to be more closely connected to Sheet One and Musik… the original title of that album was supposed to be Klinik and it should have been more cohesive and immersive like the other albums, and less like a compilation of tracks. However, I love every track on that album :)
Releasing the Arkives is a point to look back and see everything you accomplished with your Plastikman alter ego. Did you ever think you would come so far after that first Plastikman release? I was 22 when I recorded Sheet One and was very driven to make my mark on electronic music and make a statement with my own sound. Did I expect to see Plastikman go as far as it has so far… well, like I said, I've always been very driven and dedicated to the ideas in my head. I've always believed if you are dedicated to good ideas, are prepared to work hard and look beyond the short term many wonderful things are possible.
Where do you see Plastikman in 2012, back in hibernation or still touring the globe? Part of the reason I'm putting so much energy into Plastikman Live and the Arkives project right now is that I need to gather up more momentum and support in order to realize the Plastikman ideas that are already on the drawing board for 2012 and beyond.
Where do you believe will music and technology bring us in the coming 10 years? Realtime collaborative creation of fully immersive sensory experiences.
