'You have to stay concentrated with your body and mind' - Max Durante Interview

Max Durante has had an epic career nearing thirty years. MOTZ caught up with Max to discuss his longevity in the industry, his career throughout the years, his current projects, life in Berlin and the current soundscape of techno.

Max is well known for his diverse and well curated sets so prepare to be hypnotised. You can catch this vinyl veteran at Slow Coma, Turin next month.

You are quite versatile in your soundscapes and enjoy producing and playing acid to electro. Do you think diversity is an important aspect in your profession?

Diversity? Yes, absolutely. Having your own sound is fundamental, as a producer and as a DJ. We are in a wrong era, where everyone has to be homologated. This is a bad thing because we need to give space to our own personality, we need to give space to the research and experimentation. A DJ must devote time to search his sound as music selection is paramount. I used to play only vinyl. Everyday I search for the right record to buy - I spend my whole day in the record stores.

At this moment where everyone is a DJ and there is not much technique with the advances of sync buttons etc., the fundamental thing is the music selection - you need character, as personality is fundamental. You have to express it through the sound. You have to find your own sound, you have to make a difference.

Nearing thirty years in the industry, what have been the biggest changes you have witnessed and also the highlights of your career?

I was born in 1970. I was lucky enough to be born before the time of techno and at the same time, during the birth of hip-hop. The 80's were fundamental for me and for all those who lived in full. In the 1980's, I witnessed the growth of a socio-cultural-musical movement with hip-hop. I discovered DJing, graffiti and breakdance. I started doing graffiti and then I tried to breakdance. But I left everything right away because what really made me fall in love was the art of scratching. I started practicing scratch in 1985 and in 1987, I started to play as a DJ in clubs! Everything went fast- those were the dynamic years.

But the golden age was the 1990's or 'the rage age'. I was part of the musical revolution in the '90s! Techno and rave changed my life and the whole world! The biggest change we've had over the last thirty years is undoubtedly thanks to techno and rave!

Now we're used to dancing to techno music for days. We're used to dancing in a big warehouse and big techno festivals with thousands and thousands of people. It now seems normal. Once techno was for a few and now it is for many.

What we live for now is simply a simulation of the rebellious years - the 90's! It was those years that marked the big change in the music industry. After rock music, techno became the music that created a real movement, now boasting millions of fans all over the world. There are countless record labels now! Techno had a strong interest in the 90's and was a new force in the record industry, until the occurrence of digital and MP3. The 2000's completely destroyed the record industry. In modern days, vinyl come back to give a new life to the record industry that was frozen! In recent years, innumerable independent record labels have been born again. Before of the 90's, all this did not exist! The birth of techno has brought modern music to new horizons. Bringing the music out of the clubs, the DJ's role has grown professionally, resulting in a dizzying fee. A DJ is now considered a star.

Techno and rave brought a strong change in society. This is the strongest change I have seen in thirty years, both in social and cultural terms. Techno is the soundtrack of the last thirty years. Technology is the advance of future and modern days, written on techno vinyl grooves as a sound photograph since the 90’s.

Techno is a great movement that represents the modern society. Undoubtedly great moments have been for me in the 90's. My character and my strong love for music has led me to success.

In 1987, I started to play as a resident DJ in a small club in the neighbourhood where I lived in Ostia, Rome when I was a child. My travels to London let me discover the acid generation and acid parties, and then the techno and rave scenes. In 1991, when I was 21 years old, I organised one of the most important Italian raves. Together with the D’Arcangelo Twins, we created the ‘Automatic Sound Unlimited’ - the first Italian industrial techno band. I then produced my first techno record in 1992.

I then started to play in Europe. I performed at ENERGY 93 in Zurich, Switzerland which was one of the largest raves in the world with about 25,000 people. It was a great success for me and I was just 23 years old.

From 1994 to 1998, I moved to Zurich and I began to perform assiduously at raves, festivals and clubs. From Zurich, I started to move around Europe, performing everywhere from the mountains hosting the 'Swiss Snow Rave' to the Austrian caves in Salzburg, at the Cave Club. Also on ships like the MS Stubnitz Rockstock in Germany and the legendary German club, the Ultraschall in Munich along with Kozzmozz in Bruxelles, Le Triptyque Club and Le Nouveau Casino in Paris and the Nitsa Club, Barcelona. Then I crossed Europe to perform at the best clubs of the European capitals.

I have done records with Anthony Rother and Keith Tucker of Aux 88 to name just a few. I have great memories as I said in organising events and prototypes of events such as the Grey Planet in 1998 in Zurich, Switzerland. It was a prototype of the modern festival that lasted four days and was divided into four locations with about fifty DJ's from all over the world, including workshops, shows and multimedia installations .These experiences gave me a lot.

I grew up through music. Other strong moments in my career was when I played in 2004 at the famous Fabric. in London and when Dave Clarke invited me to play at the ADE in 2008. I have received a lot of satisfaction from my career. I have always been committed. So many experiences...I could write for hours! Now since 2015, I am on Sonic Groove

- another crucial milestone in my career that all depends on me! More than love and passion for me - it's is a mission!

What’s the secret to your longevity in this industry? Especially when so many have come and gone during this period?

Doing this job is like juggling martial arts. You have to stay concentrate with your body and mind. It's a discipline, you really have to believe in it.

Doing this job means sacrifice:

You have to devote much of your life to music,

you have to keep your mind elastic and young,

you have to understand the new generations,

you have to go ahead,

you have to anticipate the times and changes,

you have to change the path to the unforeseen,

you have to be strong!

You have to stay in the underground, you have to run away from the mainstream.

You do not have to look for success but you just have to understand that you have to be unique, and only with hard work and sacrifice you get what you want.

There is really no secrets.

It takes respect. Respect for oneself and their fans. A great artist grows together with his/her fans. There is a reciprocal exchange. I communicate through my music. I never sold myself. I never followed the mass. No compromise. We must not become a product and I believe in what I do. I believe in myself! I never left the techno sound. Many have tried other ways and now they are back. I never gave up! Many lose themselves and many have nothing more to say.

You started playing in Rome back in the 80’s. Has the scene lost its authenticity since then? And what are your current favourite parties in Rome?

Rome in the 80's was my little New York. It was my window on the world. A city in full breeze. Big DJ's with great technique. Unfortunately now, we cannot speak of authenticity, not anymore. Times have changed! I need to say that the whole world has lost authenticity - not only in Rome. Of course Rome is still active - there are many artists and organisations but if I'm honest, I do not have a favourite party nowadays.

Any special gigs or projects coming that would you like to tell us about?

Absolutely! Well I just celebrated my birthday and thirty years of my DJ career at Arena Club in Berlin on Saturday. It was pure, industrial techno with HYPNOSKULL LIVE, D'ARCANGELO and myself.

I just finished a double EP of ambient/experimental sounds where I collaborated with D'arcangelo and Retina on some tracks. It will come out in 2018 on Kynant Records. I am also ready with two new EP's for the Berlin label, Aufnahme + Wiedergabe. I am very happy to say it will be released in 2018 too, I cannot say more for now. Indeed I have said too much!

Residing in Berlin, how do you find life here in comparison to Italy and does the city provide you a lot of creativity as an artist?

In Berlin I feel free, free to be, free to do. Berlin is so much. I previously lived in Rome, London, Zurich and for a short time, Paris. But Berlin is the city that I love. Absolutely Berlin is a city that accepts new codes and new inputs. I cannot compare it with Italy. I love Italy and I am proud to be Italian, but Italy is an old nation driven by bigoted people (unfortunately).

You have previously mentioned your disaffection towards heavily distorted techno. Do you think EBM, post punk and electro etc. are gaining more popularity as people move away from more industrial sounds?

Warning! I never said that because I love distortion, I love industrial sound - I produce this kind of sound but what I've always said is that I disapprove when techno is totally distorted and has no dynamic and no power. I love powerful hard music! But the sound has to be hard AND dynamic - warm and loaded, not a distorted brick without dynamics. Noise must become sound, otherwise it will be just noisy!

Behind a distortion takes a concept, otherwise everyone can do noise! Honestly people are confused talking about industrial and EBM, not everyone knows what they are talking about. However I don’t think people are approaching EBM and are moving away from industrial music. The genre does not depend on the audience but on the artists. Until we produce or play industrial music, a genre does not die a genre. It does not overdo the other genre. We can now say we have more choice in genres!

The EBM, post punk and electro are all kinds of music that have a strong connection with industrial music. With the fusion of electro and industrial music, EBM was born. I think people are now seeing it's fashionable! Today if a label does EBM, then all it talks about is EBM, tomorrow it could be an industrial label and then just release industrial music.

I think it's a natural process where people, after techno, have discovered industrial music. The market response is obvious - we're now emerging into EBM etc. We are talking about dark music with similar affinities, where machines and industrial sounds are present everywhere. Then the choice widens so we come back to experiment. We have melted many music genres together so it's also difficult to classify music.

Consider also, now we are living in a double dimension where there is experimentation on one hand and simulation on the other. Nowadays, artists need more creativity, more

imagination and people need more rhythm.

Follow Max Durante on Soundcloud and Bandcamp.

#EBM #Industrial #maxdurante