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Robert Hood - The spirit is telling me to keep techno alive

All-time Detroit Techno legend Robert Hood, of Underground Resistance, Axis and his own fame, was in Belgium to drop a pumping DJ-set on the Ten Days Off festival. On top of that he's releasing a brand new album on Peacefrog. Time to have a talk with a deeply committed and religious man about injustice, trying to be a good husband, the city of Detroit and war metaphors.

Tekst: da volgaBabe

Publicatiedatum: 09 september 2002

How did you like your set yesterday?
"It was ok. I mean it was only at times that I really opened up. I had a good time. It's funny with me. When I play I just like the direct contact from the audience. I think if you're too high up (like in the main room of Ghent's Vooruit, ed.), the contact is not so special. So I think that when you play at big festivals, it's not as intimate as it is in a small club. I just need to see the faces a little closer. That always makes for a better performance. It's not that I am a better dj technically. But I have more fun. And more fun makes for a better set."

I was listening to your new album Point Blank yesterday and I couldn't help noticing the titles contain a lot of war metaphors.
"Point Blank is my in-your-face techno album. It's to show that I'm still here. People might have thought that I would have died out by now and wished me gone. They said things about me: 'you're not affiliated with so-and-so anymore', 'he's not going to last'.
I'm not going anywhere. Those war metaphors just show that I'm fighting against evil. I'm fighting against anything that's not from God. Robert Hood is God's child so when you're spreading lies about Robert Hood, if you have any ill will, if you're going against me, then that's like going against God. Then I'm waging war against you. We're all God's children but when you act in a way that's not of God, then you'll be left a reprobate. Eventually you'll be left on your own."

So music is a mission then. Has it always been that way?
"Always! Always from the heart! Always, from day one! You know, growing up in Detroit, seeing so much injustice in the world, with racism, injustice in the black community, the way people do their children, the way people deal with women in relationships, just any injustice in any part of the world has always been heavy on my mind. The weight of the world is heavy on my shoulders. So that has always been the case. I'm always waging war against what I think is injustice."

Why do you have four different labels?
"It's about different visions. It's always the same Robert Hood, but with three, four different visions. There's many sides to everybody. You know, there's a dark side. there's a happy side, there's a fun side, there's a serious side, there's a political side. Each one gives me the opportunity to explore. Hardwax is my techno side, while Drama is the house cousin of Hardwax. These labels are put on display at the moment. But M-plant still remains the main concept. Duet, that's my personal house label that me and my wife Eunice have developed."

It must be really great to be able to make music with your wife.
"Since the early days I haven't really collaborated that much with anyone. With her I did some tracks on Night Time World volume 2. Over the years we've gotten so much closer. She's had a lot of input in my projects. And positive input at that. She's involved with everything I do now."

Does she accompany you on your travels?
"Yeah, most of the time. It's lonely to travel by yourself and it's so much more fun together with my wife. We laugh a lot together. Things we see and experiences we have, it's just memorable. When I leave home I hate to leave my wife and daughter.
They're just my heart. It makes it easier when she's with me."

Do you still live in Detroit? Is it still inspirational because it is Detroit?
"As long as there is injustice in the world or in Detroit, that will always be an inspiration. Right now we have a new mayor. He's a young mayor, probably the youngest mayor Detroit's ever had. He has a vision of Detroit: to clean up the city and not just the tourist part, not just downtown. He's talking about the neighbourhoods and so that's been an inspiration on me lately. Just to do better for your community, just to pick up. No matter where you go in this world, you just have to be an upstanding person. His new direction for the police force is so positive. Whereas before it was a bleak vision of Detroit, artistically for me it was of a desolate kind. Hopeful but kind of hopeless at the same time. With this new mayor there is a new attitude. It breathes new life into me, a new spirit of competition."

You've been on top of the techno world for about ten years now. How do you keep finding your inspiration?
"Here's my formula, here's my ingredient, my inspiration: God. The word of God. I let God do everything. To come up with a new concept I let God put it in my heart. It may not come immediately but it's always on time. Always on time! That's everything I depend on. I don't look outside for who's doing what. If you do that you become trendy. Nowadays techno has gone more poppy. And yeah, that's where the money is of course, going mainstream. But I'm not that kind of person. I have never been that way so there's no sense in going there now, is there? Of course I hear sounds and tracks that inspire me. But not to the point where they make me change my point of view. I always go back to people like the Rza from Wu-Tan Clan, Timbaland and Missy, DJ Premier from Gang Starr. Dr Dré may be doing his thing and Premier may have his New York state of mind, but I always have my Detroit state of mind, my rendition of the world as I see it, from Robert Hood's point of view. That's all I depend on."

Is Detroit a unity?
"Detroit was never a unity. Community-wise it has always been a unity. We have our Detroit pride, but artistically it has never been a unity. Most of them are fake and phoney. They smile in each other's faces and talk about them behind their back. That's the reason why I don't rub too many elbows with Detroit artists. I know they don't care anything about Robert Hood, about Robert Hood's progress and success. I only affiliate myself with people that love me and are looking after my best interests mutually. It's really sad. Back in the early days I was a little bit naïve, the-one-big-happy-family-feeling you know, everybody's supportive of each other. And that's not the case. I wish it could be. I was just here to add my two cents to the mix. This is my vision of Detroit techno and music as a whole. A lot of people take each other's success personally. If he's coming up that doesn't mean you're going down. Who's getting the most gigs? Who's deejaying more, where and at what time? They're just hating on each other. I wish it wouldn't be like that.

Up until a couple of years ago, you've always kept a low profile. I think I've only read one or two interviews with Robert Hood. What has changed?
"I was just getting my life together. I was busy killing the old Robert Hood and becoming a new Robert Hood in Christ, in the word of God. It's like being rebuilt. It's about becoming a husband, and not just a husband but a good husband, becoming a father. And then getting my competitive spirit back. Before I was just laid back, thinking about what I wanted. Now my daughter's six, I have a beautiful marriage. So right now I'm just all teeth. I'm kind of resurfacing again. So to speak, because I've always been there. This ain't a comeback. Competition is just beating so much stronger. 9/11 and all that: it's all about the battle against evil. Again there is that war metaphor. People don't know what we're fighting against. We think it's just because they've knocked down a couple of our buildings, that we go to war. It's not as simple as that. Let's say you wipe Afghanistan out, you wipe out Al-Qaeda. Even if you kill Osama Bin Laden, even if you kill all of them, evil is still there. When you have a government that doesn't understand that, then you're not getting at the heart of the problem. We're fighting against something that's much bigger than Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden is just possessed with Satan, that's all. When you have an R Kelly situation, if it's true that he's sex with young girls, then he's possessed by the devil. There was a time when Robert Hood was possessed by the devil. And didn't know it. Not to say that I am a bad person but sometimes you're possessed with evil ideas and you're going to do bad things when that's the case. We have to get at the heart of the problem. There's going be a hundred, a thousand Osama Bin Ladens. Evil is killing the world right now."

How is techno doing in America right now? Because we over here in Europe have been accustomed to it for years in the clubs, on big festivals, even on the radio. I was in America recently and to me it seemed like techno is still mainly a marginal phenomenon.
"Techno is there but it's not there. Well, there's techno and hiphop. There's techno in blues now. One of the biggest blues records out right now, Ann Nesby's Put it on Paper, is using drum programming. The synth sounds just make it a banging record.
Techno has influenced America more than we think. If you listen to Timbaland and Missy, Dr Dré, Eminem, Eric Sermon, Busta Rhymes, it stops with no-one. Listen to one of Busta Rhymes' latest singles: it's a rave track but just slower. Commercially I think it's only Moby who's done big things. But Robert Hood and M-Plant, and things like reggae and dub, that will never be mainstream. Just like hiphop, I'm not talking about radio hiphop, the Jah Rule stupid hiphop, but about Gang Starr. That kind of music will never be embraced by the bigger public. Too many of the big Detroit artists have just abandoned Detroit and haven't really been pushing for radio shows, to have a Detroit representation, a stateside representation of techno. The DEMF was only half-hearted, because you're not including everybody because of personal reasons. When you don't do that it's just a half-hearted attempt at bringing techno back home. Black home so to speak! People need to rake their own leaves in their backyard instead of looking over the fence. Detroit artists have been looking over in Europe and everywhere else but have not been picking the leaves at home."

So as an artist you're always starting from your own community?
"Everything you're doing, you're doing in your community, whether you're an artist or a bricklayer. Your surroundings should be important to you. But even more so as an artist because then you've got a bigger voice. If you've got something positive to say, if you've got a format to say something, let's say Oprah: she's a big time multi-media queen. If you have that platform you should use it."

We haven't been seeing you in Europe that much. Are you picky when you're coming?
"Not really, if they want me I'm coming. If they do right by the contract and everybody does what they're supposed to do, were it Venice or Venezuela, anywhere they want techno, I'm there. If they like it I love it."

You have a lot of Untitled tracks. Is there a special reason for that?
"I just can't put a word on that song, I just can't put a title on that concept. I don't like to work by conventional methods of time. It's not like: the song is done, it's time to put it out, you have to give it a name. I don't think it always has to be like that."

I've noticed that on this album you're trying out less techno-style arrangements, soundtrack-style pieces, ambient pieces and so on, slower tracks. Is that a new working method?
"I already did a lot of experimental stuff when I was a member of the productional and artistic side of Underground Resistance, on the X-101 and X-102 and X-103 albums. I've been experimenting since forever. My composition and arrangement side I've been showing since Night Time World volume one, when I stepped out of what people came to perceive as the typical Robert Hood minimalism. I also have many unreleased tracks that people would be surprised of. And really of all kinds of music. Hiphop of course, a little bit of everything. Whatever God puts in my mind, I will do. Right now God is saying: represent techno. That's what the spirit is telling me: keep techno alive. I think techno is gone so Mariah Carey. I'm with whatever evolution throws my way."

And that doesn't necessarily have to be something new?
"It doesn't even always have to be something new. It can be something ancient. It doesn't always have to be the future. People are always talking about the future, the future, the future. If you don't look back, you don't know where you're going and you don't know where you come from. At times you have to look back and remember your roots. If evolution says: look back and melt the past with the present to create a future, then so be it. People are always trying to be so different, so eccentric. They always want to be the innovator. Nothing wrong with that, but don't force it. Let it become a natural progression. When I first came in I was influenced by Derrick May, by Juan Atkins, Kraftwerk and Marvin Gaye and so on. But to pay homage to them I had to do it differently. I'm not paying proper homage to them by copying them. Copying Derrick May, how can that be pushing techno forward? Of course it took time to do something that I could call my own. And it came along something by accident, you stumble onto something and you say: that's it, I never heard that sound. And when you hit it, you just know you got it. You don't wake up saying: today I'm going to be different, I'm going to change everything. Sometimes that works, but most of the time it doesn't."

Last question: we know you as a DJ and producer. Have you ever considered doing it live?
"I love doing it live. I did two or three gigs in Detroit, live with Underground resistance, on tour, live in Germany, live in Switzerland. I love playing live probably more than anything. Even more than DJ-ing, even more than producing."

Are you producing on stage then, or is it more of a sort of a best of Robert Hood?
"It's not always live but, yeah, most of the time. I have a machine called a SAM16, an analogue sequencer. Most of the Point Blank album is based on that. It's not just 4/4, you can do whatever you dream of and just add effects to it, to attack and sustain, it's a thrill. Lately I like to put that in live shows. I did a DJ-mix and used the SAM16 along with other equipment. So you could say, that I love doing live. And you will be seeing more of that side of Robert Hood in the future. Just wait and see."

Robert Hood's Point Blank is out on Peacefrog. Check the Kindamuzik review of the album

http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/robert-hood/robert-hood-the-spirit-is-telling-me-to-keep-techno-alive/1837/
Meer Robert Hood op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/robert-hood