The main surprise from the last GéNéRiQ festival was obvisouly the coming of the legendary producers from Undeground Resistance. UR is a label but also the name for an impressive group of producers and djs, all originating from Detroit such as Mike Banks, Jeff Mills and Robert Hood. They truly shaped the history of techno in the 90’s in the United States

“Some type of entity that can bring people together and i think music is one of the easiest way to do this.”

Are you yourself from Detroit ?

Yes, I was born and raised in Detroit, I still live there, it’s been going on for… I’m not going to give the actual age, but 30 something years ! I’ve been here the whole time so i’m engrained in the culture as far the city, all of my family still live there so i’m not going anywhere anytime soon.

You have always remained true to your convictions, especially in your way of staying in the shadow, always independent and underground. Have you ever had any doubts about this attitude? You’ve never been tempted to make concessions?

Of course, sometimes you have an offer, it makes you want … If one day my mother needs an operation of the heart, I should perhaps go beyond my principles and sell me to save her. I touch wood so that does not happen. Money can be a great temptation, but it will never buy a soul. My grandfather, who played a very important role in my education, once said to me, “At one time, ours were slaves, be careful never to become one. “

What do you think about the new band, Prophets of Rage, with Chuck D, RATM…?

Anything they do I love, I’m all with that man. A lot of people wonder if there’s anything to still resist, to fight about. All I can say is last summer in Detroit, a city which has been ravaged by violent crime and crack cocaine, we have radio stations there, and instead of choosing diverse program content, our number one record last year was, ‘I’m in love with the Coco’ by O.T. Genasis. Now O.T. Genasis has got his right to be on the radio, make his cocaine jam, but really, really, is that what we get after 40 years of crack cocaine? Chinese, Israeli military firearms all up in the damn city? Death after death, after death, after death, police killed enough, is that what we get for the number one hit record? No Carl Craig, no Flying Lotus, no Prophets of Rage , none of this, all of this is gone off the radio. So when I say education, what you guys are doing with this radio station, and I know you don’t have bandwidth or enough power to do what you wanna do, you can’t compete with the heavy airwaves, but don’t worry technology will make a way. That transmitter based dinosaur ass radio will be gone soon. People will be able to hear what they need to hear. Sometimes community needs to hear something different, something exciting, and that’s what happened in Detroit with Electrifying Mojo. We got to hear something that propelled us way past the moment, even though the moment was messed up with drugs and heroin. You at least have to imagine something better, different, and the thought of a future is what makes hope. For us we were very very fortunate to have Radio DJs, that cared about the community, and played what they thought the community needed. The market was so discarded, who cared about Detroit? So obviously radio-wise, they didn’t care about what we listened to, it was a garbage market, nobody had money to buy anything, so that the DJs actually could play what was needed.

We just saw you play live ; you’re a multi-instrumentalist, you were playing on a synthesizer but you also know how to play the guitar. Is it first because you’re a musician and that you share the same feeling with the others that you’re part of the Interstellar Fugitives adventure ?

I think the connection is more than just being a musician. The first connect is being from Detroit. I know that’s cliché to say but it’s to be able to connect with somebody on a personal level. We joke around a lot and you can tell certain jokes that someone else can understand. On our way over here tonight, we were laughing about stuff that used to happen on the playgroung in school. That’s the type of connection first of all. It’s like having a deeply rooted connection. Me and Mike grew up on the same part of town, he’s a little bit older than me but we can identify around these types of story. Musically, i didn’t even start playing keyboards until i joined with the group ; Mike would show me a lot of stuff. We also have this new guy, Jon Dixon and he’s an amazing keyboard player so we share knowledge internally and we learn some stuff from these guys. The connection more than anything is personal.

How about the crowd, and their response to the music?

I had several people come up and acknowledge the Detroit sound, ask what record I had just played, etc. And not a single bad request! One guy told me it was his birthday this past week, he saw the listing for UR in Shanghai and had to bring himself and ten other friends for the party. The dancefloor was packed and from what I’ve been told, that is not a common thing in some of the bigger night clubs around town!

Have you ever been tempted to live in Europe, where techno music is more popular than in the United States?

I must confess to you that I do not have too much confidence in the Europeans. I find that there are few real people. In Europe, everything seems so complex. In Detroit, people are simpler. There are so many people who have received a higher education, they always ask us tons of questions about many things we do not know. I can talk to you about Detroit, but apart from that, what do I really know? In this context, I prefer to do my job: play in Europe and then return to the United States. In addition, while traveling, I see lots of things that I then tell the kids in my city. If you knew how much our adventures fascinate them … We are an example of success in their eyes, much more rewarding than the dealers who squat their streets. And that is also a great reason to stay in Detroit.

Radio was really important back in the day to discover new music?

Yes it created Detroit techno, that’s how powerful it was. I don’t think anybody in Detroit techno is a genius, there’s some gifted guys like Derrick (May), I think he’s definitely gifted; Carl Craig, I’ve worked with a lot of them, Jeff Mills, extremely gifted, Robert Hood. The truth of the matter is, when you go to a good club and there’s a good DJ, the DJ really makes the record by mixing the 2 records together, all you have to do is listen and see the reaction of the people, it tells you what the next record could be, it’s not a genius thing, it’s a being here thing, it’s a living it type of thing. I think our DJs on the radio, back in the day, which was Jeff Mills, Jeff pretty much played whatever was funky, whatever he thought was happening. We had Alan Oldham who was very important in college radio WDET. Alan Oldham was really into industrial music, of course, that led him into UR, Richie Hawtin. I know he was the first guy to play +8 on the radio, as well some of the UR stuff. John Collins was on the radio, Duane “in the Mix” Bradley too. Radio was free, it had free moments, I’m sure they had programing as well, but it had free moments that really made the recipe for Detroit. I think all the guys they really enjoyed music and kinda DJed as well, they made what they thought should be made, and of course that parlayed through Detroit techno. Again, I don’t think any particular person was a genius, I think we got some really brave radio pioneers like Jeff, but the main one was Electrifying Mojo because he literally broke people like the B52’s, which you would never think would happen in Detroit, B52’s, David Bowie, Prince. He would play anything George Clinton brought, he walked into his studio: ‘hey man play this’, you could hear him talking, and he put it on, it was real.

Do you think the vinyl will totally disappear?

No, he always had competitors and he did well. At the end of the 70’s, it was the copy on the tapes, then the CD arrived. Vinyl has survived many opponents, it’s a veteran somewhere. When I play vinyl and a kid comes to ask me why his mp3 sounds worse than my record, I laugh and I answer that it’s normal, that I’m just playing the original source and that the best would he go to buy the vinyl and then copy it to mp3!

What’s your impression of the Void crew and their work in Shanghai so far? What are they doing right / wrong, what do you recommend they do to stay true to their mission?

Well I can’t say anything bad about my hosts now can I?? Seriously though, they’re laid back, smart guys who are passionate about this music. Anyone in the music business right now can tell you, this isn’t a quick cash kind of business… you gotta have passion for the music and what it brings to people. The main recommendation I’d say is just stay focused. The more people get turned on to your events, the bigger the temptation there is to just cash in on your audience.

https://soundcloud.com/undergroundresistance/thedeacon-fuji