Onbeat: Were you given specific guidelines from the committee or were you able to pretty much run with it?

Richie: No. There were unwritten guidelines and I think we both kept the scope of the project. Enzo had more struggling—or more balancing—to do then I did, because he was at the front lines. He was working directly with the committee on a day-to-day basis. They were coming into the studio and seeing our stuff. They wanted us to go to extremes; they wanted us to make something different.

I think our ideas and their ideas of different were a little bit different. We are on different planets, but there was respect. They respected us enough to bring us onboard to do something that would retain our integrity and our own unique vision. We also understood that we had to hold onto the integrity of the Olympics, and what that stood for. It was definitely hard to go back and forth and sometimes I was ready to pull my hair out. It was a rewarding experience, even before the actual opening ceremony—just the actual process was rewarding within itself.

Onbeat: Quick question: is any of it banging?

Richie: Yeah, there’s about two or three minutes where it’s quite full on.

Onbeat: Oh nice, do you want to describe your experience during the ceremony when you witnessed the final work?

Richie: Well what was really amazing about it was at the rehearsal; it was the first time I actually saw anything real in front of my eyes. Up until that point, it was always pictures, diagrams and drawings, with Enzo explaining what was happening.

Because of the scale of the show, very few people saw all the pieces come together until the very end. There were five or six different sections of our part and that was amazing. Just finally seeing all these pictures and diagrams come to life and how it finally did interact. Enzo had told me it was all-theoretical.

He said “Rich, this is what’s going to happen. These thirty people are going to do this” and “we need to be like this for this reason” and “this is how I want it to look from the stadium” and “this is how I want it to look on TV” and “sound” and asked if I could do “this.” I just had to trust him. Seeing all this at the rehearsal was unbelievable.

The most exhilarating and funny thing was that at one section, the whole stadium started clapping along to the more techno part of the piece. Seeing and hearing like 35,000 people clapping along and knowing that it is also being broadcasted is totally strange. In 9-minutes, there were pyrotechnics, choreography, music & sound. It’s mind-boggling that they can pull this kind of thing off.

 

Onbeat: Is that why the composition is called “9:20?”

Richie: Yeah, it was called “9:20” because of the original length of the piece. I didn’t want to give it an actual name, because there were so many different moods and sections of the piece and they were made to go along with Enzo’s vision. It’s [a] soundtrack to what Enzo contoured in his mind, so I didn’t just want to give it a title. In a way, its Enzo’s piece—so it’s an arbitrary title. I should have called it “Enzo’s Piece.”

Onbeat: You took a break from Ultra last year. What made you come back this year?

Richie: I took a break from the whole thing last year. Actually, [I was] busy working on the Transitions [album], so unfortunately I couldn’t come back to the sun. This year, I’m coming back for 4-5 days. I have a love hate relationship with Ultra. Sometimes, at big American parties, or raves, the organization can get crazy. The main reason for doing something like Ultra is to reach new people and to play for them something that’s different.

A lot of the bigger parties have more trance, and more of the typical music that people are used to, especially in America. I think it is important to have a techno stage at Ultra. It’s important that good people are playing and are able to hold the torch. The music that my label is doing; the music that my friends are doing and the music that is so huge everywhere else is so small and unknown in America. If anything, it’s so much smaller then it’s ever been before. We have to find ways to bring awareness to it again and to show people how special and how amazing it continues to be.

Onbeat: Absolutely. Do you plan on conveying any of what you composed for the Olympics at Ultra?

Richie: No. The Olympic stuff was very specific. I don’t even have any rights to the music, because the Olympic committee took everything. I’m not even supposed to broadcast or play it. For Ultra and the other events, I might sneak in some samples, but there are other new things that I have that would be more suitable to that type of situation.

Onbeat: You’re always progressive with your choices for equipment while performing. Be very specific as to what we can expect in Miami, particularly headlining Ultra.

Richie: Well, fingers crossed that I’ll be there before within the hour with my Xone:3D. There is a little last-minute technical issue that we are working out, so hopefully we’ll be there with that. If not, I’ll be there with my other controller, the Xone 92 mixer, which I helped develop with Allen & Heath last year—in addition to gizmos and computers.

To be honest, I have the next three-and-a-half weeks in Berlin and this is always the time of the year where I start to test and play with new devices and make decisions about what’s going on tour with me over the summer. There was this other device that I have been testing, Lemur, by a company called Jazz Music. I have had some success with this, so that may be out on the road with me also.

 

Onbeat: With the Xone:3D, is that a prototype that you might be playing on?

Richie: There’s a couple of near-production models that are floating [around] out there and that’s what we are testing. Anything could happen in the next 3-weeks. If things come together quickly, there could be a whole bunch of them down there, or at least one of the working prototypes. We’ll see.

I’ve been away for two weeks, so I’m looking forward to getting back to Berlin on Sunday and finding out how everything is going with the new gizmos. Even if it’s ready the day before I leave, I’ll be bringing it with me. I’m a true believer and also it’s the only way I can work. Throw myself into the arena with the new toys and see what happens.

Onbeat: Since Ultra is going to be an hour-long set, how will you approach it differently from when you’re doing your several-hour sets?

Richie: At Ultra, I don’t know if it’s an hour or an hour and a half, but I’m there to highlight my little section of techno or electronic music. I’ll play some new things, kind of what I would call classic simple. Last year, I played things that I thought would be good doors to open people’s attention to what I do. That may mean it won’t be as minimal or as cutting edge as a longer set because I have more time I need to grab the peoples attention.

I don’t want to miss the opportunity to turn them onto something that may not be completely brand new for me, but will be brand new for them. That’s the reason for doing these bigger events. Hopefully, you’re the guy that opens up the door for someone out in the crowd and says “hey I really like this electronic music,” or “this is different electronic music, and I want to know more about it.”

Interview by: Garrett Shatzer & Dennis Sebayan
Title: New Album Phase One
Artist: Richie Hawtin
Photographer: Alex Gnaedinger
Date: July 2005
Usage Rights: Press Worldwide
Copyright: Mute Records