Rhythmism.com
Sunday, Apr 10th 2005, 03:24 PM
#1
Interview with Kevin Saunderson Re: Fuse-in (DEMF)
(from Technotourist.org)
Kevin Saunderson
For as long as I have been into techno I have known Kevin Saunderson, not only as one of the godfathers of our beloved music, but also as an exceptionally honest and friendly person, with a solid reputation. We at Technotourist.org weren’t surprised to find out he was to be the main man behind the upcoming festival in Detroit, FUSE-in as it’s called now. After stepping into the organization of the festival at the last moment last year, because he ‘wanted to see it happen’, he now has taken on the full weight of organizing the event. Early March I met up with Kevin in Antwerp (Belgium) to get to the bottom of a number of issues surrounding the festival. In this interview Kevin openly talks about his troublesome participation in last year’s edition and about the late reaction of the city of Detroit, leaving him in a dire situation. Kevin demonstrates a strong vision when talking about the future of the festival and about his firm intent to involve the community, trying to unify the city and give youngsters a positive outlet. Furthermore he calls out to the techno community for support and explains the idea of asking a small admission fee to help the festival through this difficult year. Enjoy this open-hearted talk with the new force behind the music festival in Detroit.
Last year you got involved in the festival more or less at the last minute.
Did you get asked or did you offer your services yourself?
To be quite blunt I was supposed to be part of the festival when it first initiated. It was some political bullshit that kept me out of it, but I kept quiet for two years. It's as simple as that. I kept quiet because I wanted to see it happen and, you know, I'm a pretty easy guy. Let's put it that way. I forced my way in at the end for one reason: because I want to be part of something I knew needed some help. Secondly the organization, the structure of the whole thing…, they were struggling, trying to keep it together. And this is what I love, this is what I do, music, you know. Ok, I haven't thrown a festival, but I've thrown events, I've thrown parties, I've been around this music for long enough and I feel that I can contribute so that's what happened.
How hard was it to be thrown into a situation where it wasn't even certain the festival would go on?
I knew what could be the consequences. When I came in it was at the point where the festival wouldn't happen. I brought some organization to it, some financial stability to it. I really had to make a decision last year two or three days before the festival. I had an opportunity at that time. I was only involved two weeks and I was looking at all the different variables of the festival, the financial aspect, all kinds of different avenues for the festival. I really had to make a tough decision: do I want to stick with this or do I pull out? If I pull out the festival doesn't happen. I stuck with it, with the hope of in the future hopefully fixing a lot of the problems, unifying the city, city counsel, the community, everything that's around that makes the festival. It's still a challenge it's still a battle. It hasn't been won. That was my reasoning and my beliefs for doing what I've done.
I believe that it didn't take Derrick too long to realize he didn't want to do the festival anymore after last year. When did you decide you wanted to continue the legacy of the festival?
I knew when I got involved at that point that I wanted to continue develop it. After the festival ended my and Derrick were supposed to sit down and talk about how to fix the problems of the last two years. How to get rid of the relationships he had developed with people who might have been good partners. Let's put it that way. But the problem was that Derrick and myself… Well, Derrick didn't communicate with me very well so I couldn't move forward. I kept saying 'It's June, common Derrick, let's talk. Let's make this happen. Let's move forward and fix the problems. Let's look at the debt, look at the whole picture and see how we can make this thing work so it's a winner for everybody.' But I didn't hear from Derrick till September, almost the end of September. By then, to be truthful, I was pissed off and said 'I'm not going to work with Derrick, although I love him like a brother. I'm not going to work with him on the business side.' That's just the way it is, as simple as that.
You are the third in a row of techno icons to organize the festival. To what extent has this influenced your relation with Derrick and Carl, and other artists from Detroit?
Me and Carl, we talk all the time. I haven't talked to Derrick as much, but we talk, when I see him or when I can reach him. I've seen him in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago, stayed right next door to him. Like I said, I've got plenty of love. He's not my brother, but he's like a brother. Sometimes brothers disagree, but they still support each other. I believe he still supports the festival and wants to see it happen. We communicate. No hard feelings on my end.
From all the news features about the festival we have gathered that it took an awful long time for the city to respond to the proposal you had put down. Do you have any idea why it took so long for the ball to get rolling?
You know, when they approached me in January I was really, really pissed off about it. I said: 'To do this festival at the point… Ok, it can happen, but WHY, why does it have to take so long?' I haven't been able to get a legitimate answer to be truthful. I thought they were researching other opportunities, but for whatever reason they didn't get back to me till then. Our city definitely has some problems. It goes back to when Derrick first took the festival, two years ago. He got it in January too. It's a problem for anybody. Getting at that point without any financial support…
John: A festival like that is a year's effort.
Kevin: Exactly! There's no doubt about it. It's amazing that we've been able to make it happen, but what comes with that is lots of debt, lots of problems, and lots of people being mad because they can't work for free. So I don't why it took the city so long. I didn't want to play on it too long. I just had to see if I wanted to do it at this point and how possibly to pull it off.
We all know that the city of Detroit is not doing so well on the financial front. Does that mean that there will be no financial support whatsoever from the city itself?
No, not in our pocket. There's support this year. They are going to pick up security costs, pick up some other costs. It works on the back-end more or less. It doesn't help us with signing contracts with artists or getting our production up and developing all kinds of avenues. But no, there' no real financial support.
The festival always attracts a lot of people from all over the US, Canada and even from across the oceans. All these people provide a serious boost to the local economy. I'm talking hotels, restaurants, pubs, taxicabs, … Paris da Black Fu even promised to take me to a booty bar! To what extent does the city of Detroit value this boost to both the economy and the prestige of the city?
Wouldn't you think that the influx that the festival generates would translate in more support of the festival?
That's true because you know who benefits? People like the food vendors. They clean up because they make money on food and drink sales. They give us a small portion of it, but in reality they make money. The hotels make money, the airlines make money, the rental car places make money,… Everybody makes money, except for the organizers of the festival, which is not right.
In a city like Berlin you saw the city council supporting the Love Parade for many years, even though it generated a lot of logistic problems and clean-up afterwards. This sort of thing doesn't seem to happen in the US and in Detroit in particular.
It definitely doesn't happen in Detroit, but my own aim is to hopefully change that, to unify people, in our city. This is an important two years coming up for the city of Detroit because they are doing a lot of rebuilding in the city. They are fixing it up. You've got the Superbowl. You've got the All Star Games. You've got the NCAA Finals. You've got three major events. If the festival for some reason doesn't happen it's a blemish on our city, once again. I don't think that the city wants that. The festival should go on anyway because of what it does, for the economic impact, and for what it does for our city in general. In saying that, I'm going to approach the city council within the weeks because if we can't find any funding outside the sponsorships… It's not enough. I do plan on approaching the city council on having a minimal charge instead of making it a free event, in my belief that it could help us pay for the production, the artists, the whole operation. I'm not trying to get rich of the festival. What I'm trying to do is say: 'Let's do this, there's our budget.' People need to get paid. Artists need to get paid. All our bills need to be covered so we can move on to next year, starting in June.
John: So you can focus more on the artistic side.
Kevin: Right! That's one thing. Any debt from the past I would like to see paid so people aren't sour. I'm not personally obligated to do that, but I would like to set up a system with some money going to community service to do something for our school system or the music department. That's what I'm going to propose to the city. I would like to set up a non-profit organization, a foundation.
Talking about foundations, is the Dutch Generator foundation helping out again this year?
They are going to be involved. Olof, who led that last year, is helping out again. It won't be as heavy as what they did last year. They did a tremendous job. But because of the timing… There's certain paper work you need to turn in on time.
Is there other international support you can count and what form and shape does it take on?
Right now Olof is our main help. He's bringing in other avenues and resources that might be beneficial and help. We definitely get a lot of people inquiring about helping us. It's overwhelming right now. It's a good thing. One thing we'll do, that I don't think was done as much in the previous years, we will utilize this support. Obviously we need to pick and choose what support we really need, but we will.
Will this support also translate into own stages?
Right now that's not in the plans. We are looking into a number of possibilities.
Due to the late decision of the city you are left with very little time to organize the festival. What are the primary problems you are facing?
The first is money, finance. Our plan is to go out there and hit every sponsor, attacking different sponsors that we want. That's the first thing because you need the have some kind of 'seat money' to get up and running. I've been concentrating on that for the last couple of weeks, trying to pull a team together. We have a location. We are going to be on the second floor of the Submerge building. Ade (Mainor aka Mr. De) is our festival director. He's working very hard already. It's a challenge for all of us, but we'll get there. Obviously money is important and trying to keep up with all the inquiries we get, balancing it out over the different departments.
John: Seems to me Submerge is going to be a pretty big force in this story.
Kevin: They play a very supportive role. They have an avenue for distribution. They will help us compile the festival compilation, merchandising, etc, just doing what they are good at.
Through this interview we would also like to offer you a platform to call out to the supporters worldwide. In what way can the community help out?
I think right now we need a lot of volunteers who are not looking to make big money and who have time to put in. We are looking for people who could help us in different departments, our artist relation department, etc. It takes a lot of people. We need at least ten people for that. We need people with sponsorship experience to help us in that area. We have agents, but agents want high percentages. They want to squeeze you because they know you've got a few months and they know you are desperate for money and that's not always the best deal to take. So we need people with that kind of experience that can come in and help out on those avenues. We always welcome creative people, creative minds as far as graphical design, web design and all that things. I would say that there isn't one category where we don't need help in. We do have people in place, but we probably need a little more than what we have.
The short time span will probably also have consequences for the scale of the festival. What are your plans or ideas on that front?
I'm going to try and make it as good as it has been the last two years, as far as production. I want to change a few things around. My vision is to have more live-acts on the big main stage. I also want to make it a little more diverse because myself, Juan and Derrick were influenced by a lot of stuff. There was European stuff, people like Prince, Parliament, Funkadelic, B52's, Tangerine Dream,… If you add up all that music and it's a fusion of what we have been really influenced by. It's not going to be all techno, let's put it that way.
That would explain the name 'Fuse-In'. Is that also the reason why you choose to rename the festival?
That's definitely part of it. I want to let people know that this is a new direction. We want to make it bigger and better as it has been in the past. To do that you need to clear the past and move on.
What's also new this year is the idea of asking admission to compensate for the loss of sponsorship due to the late decision of the city. What's the city's view on this?
It has been supported by the city director that we have been dealing with and it has been supported by the president of the city council. Now it's up to us to put together the plan and it's up to us and them to find a solution. Hopefully they won't reject it because that would put us in a predicament. It really does and it would mean scaling back to make sure we have it this year.
How would you like to develop the festival in the future?
I would like to see it evolve. I would like to see it evolve production-wise, staging-wise, the way it can be dressed, the whole look of the festival. I think there are things we can do, it you have the money to pay for the production. I think people don't mind paying a small percentage for what they would get. There has already been an element around for the last couple of years that is quite magnificent and that's also why people come and support the festival. I think we can even help out our American dance scene and market by really making an impact. It gives our music community a real centre point so people can finally say: 'We get it'. If we get it right in Detroit, we can possibly do other events, maybe not festivals, but other events that are related to it. We've been traveling, we've traveled overseas. We've seen markets develop. We've seen what England has done, we've seen other countries, each with their own scene. Some do big events, some do small events.
But you don't see much happening in the US.
That's the problem. I think it can happen, but it needs a support mechanism. It definitely needs media support. I think Detroit is still the centre point. We can make that happen.
In your opinion, what have been the biggest achievements of the festival, for the community, for the music scene and for the city itself?
I would say for the city itself it brought awareness to the city of Detroit. Obviously people have known this music from Detroit, but now it has brought them avenues of awareness from different sources around our country. Now when they pick up a magazine that promotes Detroit, that is what is on top of the list: the festival. It has made an economic impact. When the festival happens everybody is looking forward to how they will benefit. Community-wise I think there is still some work. Obviously it brings artists together. Everybody comes to support it. What I would like for the scene to happen is that they start making an impact on the youths of our city, inspiring then, so that when they have a vision there's an outlet for the music. I'm not sure if it has really done that yet. That's too early to tell. I think for that to happen you have to have programs set up where you actually do community service, work on high schools, talking to kids, giving workshops, stuff like that.
I know it's really early, but I also know you are a very hardworking guy so I'll ask it anyway. How is the line-up coming together?
It's at the beginning stages. Obviously I have a few friends. I've been in the business. My first attempt was to contact them personally, to let them know that the festival is happening. It's very early. I had to deal with other issues to get to this point. I hope to have a line-up and some kind of press conference no later than the middle of April. I don't want to go into May with that.
What are your criteria for having a band or dj on stage at FUSE-In?
Partially I would know some of the acts, obviously. I would know some of the performances. That is going to play a role. Part would be through the people I have around me, a body of musical knowledge, because I don't know every act. I would also like to see what the people are saying, what the people want to see. I do take a look at that.
What would you say to the fan base around the world in order to make them come to the festival?
It's a great experience to come to the home of this music. It will truly be an experience they haven't experienced before. It has everything that they have already seen, but it will have a Detroit touch and it will be in our own city. Plus there aren't many festivals that are directly in the city. It's right off the water, with the nice skyline of Windsor. In general: come find out where this music comes from, where it started from. Come feel it.
To what extent has the festival an impact on your other activities, as a label owner, a dj and an artist?
Label owner is simple. The only thing I put out now is back catalogue. Submerge manages that for me. That's easy. Dj-wise, my schedule is already booked. It makes it a little complicated, but I'm on the phone every day, talking to my festival director. I'm e-mailing and communicating with people, bringing people together, so I can still be quite effective. I'm not just over here dj-ing and resting, going back in two weeks to start everything up. I'm continuously going. I get 300 e-mails a day now. It's quite a lot of work, but it hasn't affected my playing out, not yet at least. I'm still having some great parties.
Musically, making music: I'm not in 'music-make-mode' right now. I have three tracks coming out this year. They have already been mastered and they will be promoted at the Winter Music Conference (Miami). So that side is there. Maybe it hurts me doing a live show because I don't have the time to prepare a live show.
Is there anything more you would like to share about the festival or any message to the community out there?
Just that are goal is to make the festival happen, in any possible way we can. I hope that if we have to charge 5 dollars, which won't be more than that, I can guarantee you that, (stresses) I can guarantee you that, that it has a purpose. It's a million dollar operation that has been running on 300.000 dollars for the last two years and it's impossible without going bankrupt or without having organizational problems.
Interview done by John Osselaer on March 4, 2005 in Antwerp. Many thanks to Fred at Deep'art
Kevin Saunderson
For as long as I have been into techno I have known Kevin Saunderson, not only as one of the godfathers of our beloved music, but also as an exceptionally honest and friendly person, with a solid reputation. We at Technotourist.org weren’t surprised to find out he was to be the main man behind the upcoming festival in Detroit, FUSE-in as it’s called now. After stepping into the organization of the festival at the last moment last year, because he ‘wanted to see it happen’, he now has taken on the full weight of organizing the event. Early March I met up with Kevin in Antwerp (Belgium) to get to the bottom of a number of issues surrounding the festival. In this interview Kevin openly talks about his troublesome participation in last year’s edition and about the late reaction of the city of Detroit, leaving him in a dire situation. Kevin demonstrates a strong vision when talking about the future of the festival and about his firm intent to involve the community, trying to unify the city and give youngsters a positive outlet. Furthermore he calls out to the techno community for support and explains the idea of asking a small admission fee to help the festival through this difficult year. Enjoy this open-hearted talk with the new force behind the music festival in Detroit.
Last year you got involved in the festival more or less at the last minute.
Did you get asked or did you offer your services yourself?
To be quite blunt I was supposed to be part of the festival when it first initiated. It was some political bullshit that kept me out of it, but I kept quiet for two years. It's as simple as that. I kept quiet because I wanted to see it happen and, you know, I'm a pretty easy guy. Let's put it that way. I forced my way in at the end for one reason: because I want to be part of something I knew needed some help. Secondly the organization, the structure of the whole thing…, they were struggling, trying to keep it together. And this is what I love, this is what I do, music, you know. Ok, I haven't thrown a festival, but I've thrown events, I've thrown parties, I've been around this music for long enough and I feel that I can contribute so that's what happened.
How hard was it to be thrown into a situation where it wasn't even certain the festival would go on?
I knew what could be the consequences. When I came in it was at the point where the festival wouldn't happen. I brought some organization to it, some financial stability to it. I really had to make a decision last year two or three days before the festival. I had an opportunity at that time. I was only involved two weeks and I was looking at all the different variables of the festival, the financial aspect, all kinds of different avenues for the festival. I really had to make a tough decision: do I want to stick with this or do I pull out? If I pull out the festival doesn't happen. I stuck with it, with the hope of in the future hopefully fixing a lot of the problems, unifying the city, city counsel, the community, everything that's around that makes the festival. It's still a challenge it's still a battle. It hasn't been won. That was my reasoning and my beliefs for doing what I've done.
I believe that it didn't take Derrick too long to realize he didn't want to do the festival anymore after last year. When did you decide you wanted to continue the legacy of the festival?
I knew when I got involved at that point that I wanted to continue develop it. After the festival ended my and Derrick were supposed to sit down and talk about how to fix the problems of the last two years. How to get rid of the relationships he had developed with people who might have been good partners. Let's put it that way. But the problem was that Derrick and myself… Well, Derrick didn't communicate with me very well so I couldn't move forward. I kept saying 'It's June, common Derrick, let's talk. Let's make this happen. Let's move forward and fix the problems. Let's look at the debt, look at the whole picture and see how we can make this thing work so it's a winner for everybody.' But I didn't hear from Derrick till September, almost the end of September. By then, to be truthful, I was pissed off and said 'I'm not going to work with Derrick, although I love him like a brother. I'm not going to work with him on the business side.' That's just the way it is, as simple as that.
You are the third in a row of techno icons to organize the festival. To what extent has this influenced your relation with Derrick and Carl, and other artists from Detroit?
Me and Carl, we talk all the time. I haven't talked to Derrick as much, but we talk, when I see him or when I can reach him. I've seen him in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago, stayed right next door to him. Like I said, I've got plenty of love. He's not my brother, but he's like a brother. Sometimes brothers disagree, but they still support each other. I believe he still supports the festival and wants to see it happen. We communicate. No hard feelings on my end.
From all the news features about the festival we have gathered that it took an awful long time for the city to respond to the proposal you had put down. Do you have any idea why it took so long for the ball to get rolling?
You know, when they approached me in January I was really, really pissed off about it. I said: 'To do this festival at the point… Ok, it can happen, but WHY, why does it have to take so long?' I haven't been able to get a legitimate answer to be truthful. I thought they were researching other opportunities, but for whatever reason they didn't get back to me till then. Our city definitely has some problems. It goes back to when Derrick first took the festival, two years ago. He got it in January too. It's a problem for anybody. Getting at that point without any financial support…
John: A festival like that is a year's effort.
Kevin: Exactly! There's no doubt about it. It's amazing that we've been able to make it happen, but what comes with that is lots of debt, lots of problems, and lots of people being mad because they can't work for free. So I don't why it took the city so long. I didn't want to play on it too long. I just had to see if I wanted to do it at this point and how possibly to pull it off.
We all know that the city of Detroit is not doing so well on the financial front. Does that mean that there will be no financial support whatsoever from the city itself?
No, not in our pocket. There's support this year. They are going to pick up security costs, pick up some other costs. It works on the back-end more or less. It doesn't help us with signing contracts with artists or getting our production up and developing all kinds of avenues. But no, there' no real financial support.
The festival always attracts a lot of people from all over the US, Canada and even from across the oceans. All these people provide a serious boost to the local economy. I'm talking hotels, restaurants, pubs, taxicabs, … Paris da Black Fu even promised to take me to a booty bar! To what extent does the city of Detroit value this boost to both the economy and the prestige of the city?
Wouldn't you think that the influx that the festival generates would translate in more support of the festival?
That's true because you know who benefits? People like the food vendors. They clean up because they make money on food and drink sales. They give us a small portion of it, but in reality they make money. The hotels make money, the airlines make money, the rental car places make money,… Everybody makes money, except for the organizers of the festival, which is not right.
In a city like Berlin you saw the city council supporting the Love Parade for many years, even though it generated a lot of logistic problems and clean-up afterwards. This sort of thing doesn't seem to happen in the US and in Detroit in particular.
It definitely doesn't happen in Detroit, but my own aim is to hopefully change that, to unify people, in our city. This is an important two years coming up for the city of Detroit because they are doing a lot of rebuilding in the city. They are fixing it up. You've got the Superbowl. You've got the All Star Games. You've got the NCAA Finals. You've got three major events. If the festival for some reason doesn't happen it's a blemish on our city, once again. I don't think that the city wants that. The festival should go on anyway because of what it does, for the economic impact, and for what it does for our city in general. In saying that, I'm going to approach the city council within the weeks because if we can't find any funding outside the sponsorships… It's not enough. I do plan on approaching the city council on having a minimal charge instead of making it a free event, in my belief that it could help us pay for the production, the artists, the whole operation. I'm not trying to get rich of the festival. What I'm trying to do is say: 'Let's do this, there's our budget.' People need to get paid. Artists need to get paid. All our bills need to be covered so we can move on to next year, starting in June.
John: So you can focus more on the artistic side.
Kevin: Right! That's one thing. Any debt from the past I would like to see paid so people aren't sour. I'm not personally obligated to do that, but I would like to set up a system with some money going to community service to do something for our school system or the music department. That's what I'm going to propose to the city. I would like to set up a non-profit organization, a foundation.
Talking about foundations, is the Dutch Generator foundation helping out again this year?
They are going to be involved. Olof, who led that last year, is helping out again. It won't be as heavy as what they did last year. They did a tremendous job. But because of the timing… There's certain paper work you need to turn in on time.
Is there other international support you can count and what form and shape does it take on?
Right now Olof is our main help. He's bringing in other avenues and resources that might be beneficial and help. We definitely get a lot of people inquiring about helping us. It's overwhelming right now. It's a good thing. One thing we'll do, that I don't think was done as much in the previous years, we will utilize this support. Obviously we need to pick and choose what support we really need, but we will.
Will this support also translate into own stages?
Right now that's not in the plans. We are looking into a number of possibilities.
Due to the late decision of the city you are left with very little time to organize the festival. What are the primary problems you are facing?
The first is money, finance. Our plan is to go out there and hit every sponsor, attacking different sponsors that we want. That's the first thing because you need the have some kind of 'seat money' to get up and running. I've been concentrating on that for the last couple of weeks, trying to pull a team together. We have a location. We are going to be on the second floor of the Submerge building. Ade (Mainor aka Mr. De) is our festival director. He's working very hard already. It's a challenge for all of us, but we'll get there. Obviously money is important and trying to keep up with all the inquiries we get, balancing it out over the different departments.
John: Seems to me Submerge is going to be a pretty big force in this story.
Kevin: They play a very supportive role. They have an avenue for distribution. They will help us compile the festival compilation, merchandising, etc, just doing what they are good at.
Through this interview we would also like to offer you a platform to call out to the supporters worldwide. In what way can the community help out?
I think right now we need a lot of volunteers who are not looking to make big money and who have time to put in. We are looking for people who could help us in different departments, our artist relation department, etc. It takes a lot of people. We need at least ten people for that. We need people with sponsorship experience to help us in that area. We have agents, but agents want high percentages. They want to squeeze you because they know you've got a few months and they know you are desperate for money and that's not always the best deal to take. So we need people with that kind of experience that can come in and help out on those avenues. We always welcome creative people, creative minds as far as graphical design, web design and all that things. I would say that there isn't one category where we don't need help in. We do have people in place, but we probably need a little more than what we have.
The short time span will probably also have consequences for the scale of the festival. What are your plans or ideas on that front?
I'm going to try and make it as good as it has been the last two years, as far as production. I want to change a few things around. My vision is to have more live-acts on the big main stage. I also want to make it a little more diverse because myself, Juan and Derrick were influenced by a lot of stuff. There was European stuff, people like Prince, Parliament, Funkadelic, B52's, Tangerine Dream,… If you add up all that music and it's a fusion of what we have been really influenced by. It's not going to be all techno, let's put it that way.
That would explain the name 'Fuse-In'. Is that also the reason why you choose to rename the festival?
That's definitely part of it. I want to let people know that this is a new direction. We want to make it bigger and better as it has been in the past. To do that you need to clear the past and move on.
What's also new this year is the idea of asking admission to compensate for the loss of sponsorship due to the late decision of the city. What's the city's view on this?
It has been supported by the city director that we have been dealing with and it has been supported by the president of the city council. Now it's up to us to put together the plan and it's up to us and them to find a solution. Hopefully they won't reject it because that would put us in a predicament. It really does and it would mean scaling back to make sure we have it this year.
How would you like to develop the festival in the future?
I would like to see it evolve. I would like to see it evolve production-wise, staging-wise, the way it can be dressed, the whole look of the festival. I think there are things we can do, it you have the money to pay for the production. I think people don't mind paying a small percentage for what they would get. There has already been an element around for the last couple of years that is quite magnificent and that's also why people come and support the festival. I think we can even help out our American dance scene and market by really making an impact. It gives our music community a real centre point so people can finally say: 'We get it'. If we get it right in Detroit, we can possibly do other events, maybe not festivals, but other events that are related to it. We've been traveling, we've traveled overseas. We've seen markets develop. We've seen what England has done, we've seen other countries, each with their own scene. Some do big events, some do small events.
But you don't see much happening in the US.
That's the problem. I think it can happen, but it needs a support mechanism. It definitely needs media support. I think Detroit is still the centre point. We can make that happen.
In your opinion, what have been the biggest achievements of the festival, for the community, for the music scene and for the city itself?
I would say for the city itself it brought awareness to the city of Detroit. Obviously people have known this music from Detroit, but now it has brought them avenues of awareness from different sources around our country. Now when they pick up a magazine that promotes Detroit, that is what is on top of the list: the festival. It has made an economic impact. When the festival happens everybody is looking forward to how they will benefit. Community-wise I think there is still some work. Obviously it brings artists together. Everybody comes to support it. What I would like for the scene to happen is that they start making an impact on the youths of our city, inspiring then, so that when they have a vision there's an outlet for the music. I'm not sure if it has really done that yet. That's too early to tell. I think for that to happen you have to have programs set up where you actually do community service, work on high schools, talking to kids, giving workshops, stuff like that.
I know it's really early, but I also know you are a very hardworking guy so I'll ask it anyway. How is the line-up coming together?
It's at the beginning stages. Obviously I have a few friends. I've been in the business. My first attempt was to contact them personally, to let them know that the festival is happening. It's very early. I had to deal with other issues to get to this point. I hope to have a line-up and some kind of press conference no later than the middle of April. I don't want to go into May with that.
What are your criteria for having a band or dj on stage at FUSE-In?
Partially I would know some of the acts, obviously. I would know some of the performances. That is going to play a role. Part would be through the people I have around me, a body of musical knowledge, because I don't know every act. I would also like to see what the people are saying, what the people want to see. I do take a look at that.
What would you say to the fan base around the world in order to make them come to the festival?
It's a great experience to come to the home of this music. It will truly be an experience they haven't experienced before. It has everything that they have already seen, but it will have a Detroit touch and it will be in our own city. Plus there aren't many festivals that are directly in the city. It's right off the water, with the nice skyline of Windsor. In general: come find out where this music comes from, where it started from. Come feel it.
To what extent has the festival an impact on your other activities, as a label owner, a dj and an artist?
Label owner is simple. The only thing I put out now is back catalogue. Submerge manages that for me. That's easy. Dj-wise, my schedule is already booked. It makes it a little complicated, but I'm on the phone every day, talking to my festival director. I'm e-mailing and communicating with people, bringing people together, so I can still be quite effective. I'm not just over here dj-ing and resting, going back in two weeks to start everything up. I'm continuously going. I get 300 e-mails a day now. It's quite a lot of work, but it hasn't affected my playing out, not yet at least. I'm still having some great parties.
Musically, making music: I'm not in 'music-make-mode' right now. I have three tracks coming out this year. They have already been mastered and they will be promoted at the Winter Music Conference (Miami). So that side is there. Maybe it hurts me doing a live show because I don't have the time to prepare a live show.
Is there anything more you would like to share about the festival or any message to the community out there?
Just that are goal is to make the festival happen, in any possible way we can. I hope that if we have to charge 5 dollars, which won't be more than that, I can guarantee you that, (stresses) I can guarantee you that, that it has a purpose. It's a million dollar operation that has been running on 300.000 dollars for the last two years and it's impossible without going bankrupt or without having organizational problems.
Interview done by John Osselaer on March 4, 2005 in Antwerp. Many thanks to Fred at Deep'art
