'We do what we do, no matter what’s going on the world of music' - Octave One Interview
Having spent over 20 years creating sounds spanning emotive, vocal house to melodic and groovy techno, brothers Larry and Lawrence Burden continue to master exceptional live shows, staying true to their Detroit origins as Octave One.
As children, the brothers learnt piano and are classed as musicians as well as electronic music producers. The other Burden siblings Lorne, Lynell and Lance had creative input with production in the early days, long before Octave One was to become a solid duo. Building up an impressive collection of machinery to cover all aspects of their endeavours, the brothers now have a strong relationship with their devices that allows them to get under the skin of the equipment and produce regaling live techno.
Showcasing the Burden’s roots through their own 90’s label 430 West Records, the pairs euphoric classic ‘Black Water’ (released in 2000) can still be heard bouncing off walls at 6am in a variety of club institutions around the world - one way to end any self respecting underground set on a high.
Looking at the siblings hard-earned success and their status as one of the most respected artists from Detroit, MOTZ caught up with Octave One to see how it works to produce alongside three other close-knit family member and to hear their thoughts on the overwhelming comeback of techno in recent years…
In the early 90s, how did the five of you learn to make tracks together and discover your synergy to create something special on the Detroit techno scene?
In the early 90s, there were just three of us. The other two Burden brothers were too young then. When we first started, we learned together as a unit, so as we learned the instruments we also learned how we could best work together. We found our sound as a group, and we discovered our methods of production as a group.
When did you guys decide to mainly produce under Lenny and Lawrence as ‘Octave One?’
We still produce as a group of five brothers as Octave One. We perform live as two, but produce as five. We found that the duo playing live was better as everyone did not want to travel so much, but all five producing together was better to give us a greater variety of sound.
The founder of Roland, Ikutaro Kakehashi, sadly passed away this year. What did the Roland name mean to you throughout your years of learning production?
It was sad to hear of his passing. It was not until we got our Roland TR-909 Drum Machine that we felt we were producing Techno. The sound of the unit gave us our foundation.
Through the years we found that the Roland sound is something that we really love and it’s found it’s way into many of our productions. We have the Roland MKS-7 (rack mount Juno 106), MKS-70, MKS-50 (rack mount Alpha Juno), MKS-80 (Super Jupiter), JP-8000, Aira TR-8, TR-909, Aira JP-08, JU-06, VP-9000, and TB-03 in our studio among many others Roland units.
Do you have a favourite piece of hardware that you simply cannot produce without?
That would be our Roland TR-909 Drum Machine. We have had it many, many years and it our go to piece of gear when we produce on music.
Tell us about the difference between Octave One and your other early alias ‘Random Noise Generation'? Do you still do many shows under this name?
Octave One was always our pure synthesis band where we didn’t do use any samples from other productions, and with Octave One it has primarily been dance floor productions. With Random Noise Generation we have used many samples and various sources of inspiration to produce the music. Nowadays, the lines between the two are very blurred. We have not performed as Random Noise Generation in many years, but we may in the future if we find a real purpose to do so.
The two of you play a hefty amount of live sets each year, what’s the process of planning between you both before a live show?
Between shows really there is always a lot of work involving the maintenance of the equipment. There are many things get broken or need to be updated throughout touring. We are always trying new songs and new equipment also, so we are constantly working on new things.
How do you overcome any creative differences on these occasions?
We have a lot of flexibility when we perform so we transform many of our tracks into whatever we need for the moment when we play live. We don’t have as many tracks as a DJ might have, but we have the ability of making a housey track more aggressive and more techno, or the other way around. We can do more stripped down mixes, we can speed and slow down tempos. We can do a lot of solos or less solos with the music. We have a lot things we can do to be more creative.
Considering how long you’ve both been active on the techno scene and taken your craft around the globe, do you think that techno is now a much more popular genre to a point where it’s widely considered commercial?
We do what we do, no matter what’s going on the world of music. We have been extremely busy the last four or five years, but not to the point where it’s commercial. It’s just good to have the opportunity to play for many people in many different places.
Looking at the strong resurgence of techno, how is Octave One different to the many other established techno artists around today?
As we said before, we do what we do, no matter the trend, no matter what’s popular. That’s really what makes us different. We just produce and play Octave One music, the Octave One way.
Octave One play in Union Nightclub, Los Angeles this Saturday alongside Roman Flügel and Heidi Lawden. Tickets available here.
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