Oliver Huntemann : Technocrati Wisdom

Image Katja Ruge

Hailing from the land that birthed electronica’s forefathers Kraftwerk, Oliver Huntemann is Germany’s firstborn techno god. He’s been in the biz long enough to tell us off if we were ever to stereotype techno like the ignorant youngins we are. Named one of the Best Electronic Albums of 2011 by us, Paranoia is a dark descent into madness, featuring beats that would reflect your psychological state (or rather, affect it). JUICE spoke to the techno elder statesman to get the dirt on genre stereotype vis-a-vis reality, his ideal audio, and the different states of paranoia.

Hi Oliver, thanks for doing the interview. Where are you now and what are you currently doing?

Good morning, it’s 11.27am and I just switched on my computer to answer your questions. I’m in Hamburg and very relaxed after a weekend at home due the cancellation of an India tour which was supposed to happen the past three days.

You’ve played a part in shaping the genre and you’ve seen it grew since the late 80s, obviously you’ve seen a lot of things. Tell us if any of these stereotypes about the genre is true (with some elaboration on why it is or isn’t).

- dingy underground European clubs

No, it’s not! The electronic music club culture in Europe exists for more than twenty years and it wouldn’t if there would be more people in other youth cultures or music scenes. The successful clubs are mostly high-end and set worldwide standards in sound, light-design and video arts. Although clubs, for example in Berlin, are based in industry areas and still look rough, you see the art-thought behind it. It’s never dingy or dirty, even if it looks like that.

- German electronic music is cold and clinical techno.

Others say: German electronic music is like Porsche or Mercedes converted into sound design.

- Party people in goggles, various bits of shiny and neon PVC.

1995! Some people say about it, that these were the good old days. Better parties, better music, better fashion, haha. Luckily I haven’t seen goggles and neon glow sticks in ages. I heard it’s big in Asia…

We consider you an elder statesman of techno. What was it like back then during the genre’s infancy stage when you used to hold house parties in Germany?

The biggest difference from back then to today seem to me the way a DJ is playing his set. Not based on technology, I mean the way of guiding the party-people through the night. When I started, the DJ played long sets and attempted to create a journey into sound. Not only playing one style. He was able to cook up a diversified set from deep house via acid to underground resistance techno. Unfortunately over the years the DJ became a geek, a blinkered specialist without wide variety. That’s why so many artists come and go. Many try to find or follow just the latest trend.

Technology has obviously grown from that era to now. Have your production and DJing styles changed due to newer equipment?

I learned, of course, with vinyl from scratch. After a long time the first Pioneer CD players made it very handy to play own stuff from CD and I combined vinyl and CD. Since I’m interested in making steps forward and find out what’s best for me I tested Traktor Scratch four years ago. I only wanted to know what’s going on with DJ technologies and I really liked it. I still use Traktor Scratch Pro with vinyl control and a X1 controller. The best of both worlds. I can build my set in a classic way with the benefits of modern technologies.