Calling Marco Passarani.

So it turns out I'm going to spin in Rome in a couple of weeks, my first time there since the UR days! I want to have a reunion with my old and long-lost friend, the electronic genius Marco Passarani while I'm there, but we've both changed e-mail addresses over the years. So if anybody reading this knows how to get in touch with him, let me know at info@alanoldham.com. I'd really appreciate it.

I'd also like to thank my agent, Michael Matusak at Tresor Booking for all these new opportunities since I've been here in Berlin. He's really come through for me this year. If you're interested in booking me, contact him directly at michael@tresor-berlin.de.

This girl named Tina is having a birthday party at SO36 tomorrow night, I'll probably go to it. She's turning 36, but she looks like she's 25, I swear to God. This petite little German chick with glasses. Crazy.

Next time I come back to Berlin, I'm gonna live in Kreuzberg again, I'm too far away from everything in Mitte. It's beautiful there, but too isolated.

Berlin, Berlin.

Not much going on this week. Next gig isn't for awhile. A friend of mine is in from the States, so we've just been going around. Hit up Tresor @ Maria last Wednesday night for the Greg Shiff show. He's very good, as good as Stewart, who was there by the way. John Selway and Tony Rohr were there as well, so New York was in the house. Shiff was the star of the evening so he provided drink tickets. I like Greg, we talked politics.

Hit up a few galleries and museums here in Berlin as well. They're endless. There's an installation of minimal art at the Hamburger Bahnhof, walking distance from my flat. Much of the art was too minimal for me, though. I was scratching my head.

There was another room where they were setting up a new installation of modernists that wasn't open yet. I saw two Warhols and a Rauschenberg in there. Would a Basquiat be too much to hope for? That room looks more appealing. I'm planning to go to see the Helmut Newton exhibit, too. Thursday's the free admission day. I usually don't go for photography at all, but I love fashion, and that's all he shot.

I'm invited to an art opening day after tomorrow, so I'm hitting that. It's that gallery with the 5000 EUR window blind I told you about. Art's weird, but the space is nice. I made friends with the owner. I'm just the little man about town, huh? It's all about the free wine and cheese.

I was watching BR the other night and they had a live performance on there by Johnny "Guitar" Watson. It had to be from 1977-78, live in Bremen. I'd never seen actual footage on him before, just album covers. My mom was big into him back in the late 70s. She used to listen to his (8-track) tapes non-stop. He had a lot of hits, "A Real Mother For Ya," "Superman Lover," "My Love Is Your Love," "Ain't That A Bitch," on and on. That's that old-school pimp music for your ass, ya'll young'uns don't know shit about that =). It's a shame I have to come all the way over here to see a concert by him.

Interview.

I recently did an interview with a Croatian techno website. It was translated for that site, but here it is in English. Maybe you'd like to read it. If you're on this blog, you probably know all this stuff already, but I don't have anything new to write about now. =) Enjoy.

1. Recently you moved from Chicago to Berlin. How come? Since lots of guys
from USA did the same before, you probably get to see some familiar faces?
:)

I moved here for the same reason lots of artists moved here, because Berlin is
where everything creative is happening at the moment, and also to get away from conservative America. Lots of familiar faces are here, too. Tresor is taking care of me like family.

2. First impressions of living in Berlin?

Great people, great city, easy to get around by bike/train, plenty of cultural
things to do, lots of parties, galleries, museums, clubs and inspiration. Design everywhere. The weather's been great lately, as well.

3. When it comes to the influences and the interest in music, unlike many
other artists, you're mentioning rock and metal stuff on one side and jazz,
early house on the other. How did you develop such an eclectic taste? And to
return on the others, is it possible that everyone grew up listening
kraftwerk and acid house, or are they just afraid to mention names not
really close to electronic music?

I think it's the latter. Growing up in the '70s and '80s in Detroit, with the
way radio was back then, as well as the influences of my older relatives, I and
everyone else of my generation was exposed to a wide cross section of music,
not just one thing. I see no reason why I should not discuss that. The fact people are so shocked that somebody can actually like more than one style of music shows how little the world has progressed musically these last 15-20 years.

4. Tell me something about Fast Forward show and your involvement in
bringing techno to a bigger audience thru radio. How did you end up on WDET
in the first place?

Before graduation, I got an unpaid internship at WDET assisting the music
librarian. I was there for a short time when one of the on-air hosts quit. The
program director liked me, and approached me about doing a show. I had done a
smaller college show before, and let her hear one of my air-checks. She liked it and
gave me my own late-night show! It ran for five years and was pretty popular in Detroit at the time.

5. Although you were promoting lots of artists at that time, you dont get
to be mentioned so much, unlike Mills for example, or Mojo. Why is that?

Who knows, really. What's good is that we were able to put a lot of those shows
on the Internet. They're now heard the world over. I get e-mails and messages
from old fans who grew up with the original show, and appreciate hearing them
again, and also new people who are into Detroit history. The people out there
do know what I accomplished back then, and it still lives on today. That's what counts.

6. Some time back, you werent invited on the first DEMF. When I spoke with
another guy from Detroit about three years ago, he said this lack of credit
and respect is normal for the city?!

Yes it is. That's why I left.

7. As someone who works on the radio and its not really happy with not
having his hands free, I want to hear from your point of view: the radio
then and now?

With everyone walking around with their iPods on shuffle, it seems that radio is
superfluous now. I dont know anyone who really listens anymore, outside of the
occasional Internet broadcast. I have one friend who's got satellite radio and that's it.

8. Can we really expect from the kids to be open minded or develop a
certain taste in music if the media isnt supportive in this? OK, there's
always Internet, but to what extent is it helpful?

The media is pushing its own agenda and is promoting music that it can easily sell. It is not concerned with kids being open-minded and adventurous in their musical
tastes. Even electronic music people who were once very progressive musically
now seem very stringent and conservative in their tastes. As far as the
Internet, it seems to me that people use it to seek out stuff they already
like, as opposed to finding new things. That is my personal impression, anyway.

9. You left the radio after you were called to join UR and become their
assault DJ. How did it feel like to be part of probably still the best known
techno collective?

It was a great time for me. I spent a year on the road with UR. Mad Mike took me
around the world and taught me a lot. He made me a global name and helped me
start Generator. I wouldn't be where I am today without him. I'll always be grateful to him for that.

10. Can you explain the term "assault dj"?

The "assault djs" took the UR agenda on the road when the live unit wasn't going
out. I'd have special acetates, test presses and loop tracks made by Mike and
play them out. We would gauge reaction to the new stuff and it would help to
decide what would be released.

11. Its also the time when you choose artistic moniker: T-1000. Why
Terminator? Are you a fan of SF?

I think it's well-known that I love SF and comics. And if you watch "T2" again
it will become apparent why I chose that DJ name.

12. Difference between Generator and Pure Sonik?

Generator = different artists. Pure Sonik = all me.

13. Interesting thing is, it was you who opened UR catalog with UR001,
though, your very first EP was released in Europe. Is it again some Detroit
thing?

No, Banks and Jeff Mills were X-101, I released later under the name X-313. Too
much confusion in those early days!

14. Some of our readers probably arent aware of the fact that you did a lot
or artwork for record labels. How did it all start and for whom did you all
work?

When I did my first EP for Djax in 1990, I did the artwork for it, too. Saskia
asked me about it, and I told her I had done the art for Transmat. She was
really impressed and asked me to do art for her label exclusively and the rest
is history. I have also done artwork for Plus 8, Astralwerks, New Religion, Musik magazine, and others. I am now looking to do more artwork outside of the electronic music world.

15. You also did number of comics and had some exhibitions of your artwork,
which inspired some other people too: for instance Dan Bell and Claude Young
took the name for their Seventh City label from your comic. Where do you get
inspiration for comics? Any upcoming art shows?

I dont know, I get ideas all the time for comics. I'm working on a new one that
will arrive early next year. This comic is fully-painted, not the usual pen and
ink style. As for art shows, I recently had an opening in Paris that went very well. I'm doing large gallery pieces now also, as well as comics.

16. For one of the comics you also did a soundtrack with couple of well
known names. Tell us more about it.

More than a couple! It was called "The Sexy Adventures of Orietta St. Cloud." I
wrote and drew the comic with a CD soundtrack by me, Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin,
The Advent, Bryan Zentz, Stewart Walker, Terence Dixon, and Marco Passarani. I
thought it was a good project, but it flew over techno people's heads. I read
on the Internet that some people didn't know you were supposed to read the book
and listen to the music at the same time.

17. Production-wise, what's coming next from Alan Oldham?

2006 is the 10th Anniversary of Pure Sonik, so we're planning a bunch of new
music and products. Everything will be extremely limited now, signed and
numbered where possible, and available largely thru www.puresonikrecords.net. We will release very few copies through distributors.

18. DJ-wise, I'm reading at your blog that you're interested in Ableton.
Does this means you're leaving vinyl soon?

Not at all, I am only interested in the loop/remix potential of Ableton to take
old tracks and be able to re-edit them on the fly into something new and
exclusive. It sounds very interesting.

19. Craziest party experience lately?

My show at the Tresor closing last April in Berlin was the best I've played all
year. I think that will be the last really wild party I'll ever play, at this point.

Can't Think Of A Clever Title.

Not much happening at the moment. Late night at the Internet cafe. Checking out a lot of galleries and museums this week, getting inspiration. Just a couple of gigs left, I'm biding my time until I play again. The Warlocks are playing Magnet tonight, but I'm on a budget. I'll be going to Maria tomorrow night, though. It's Tresor night, so I'm on the guest-list. Greg Shiff is playing. He's Stewart Walker's ex-partner. We saw (Giaxia and I) saw him play live once in Detroit a few years ago, he was very good. Almost as good as Stewart. I'll be going back to the States in a few weeks to take care of some business there. I really don't wanna go back, man. If I had my way, I'd stay here in Germany until Bush was out.

My New Best Friend.

Just spent the afternoon with Alexander Kowalski. As you might remember, he did a remix for me a couple of years ago. He came to pick me up at the flat, then we went to breakfast at Markthalle, after which he took me to his studio to hear some new music of his.

I heard his new album. Many of the tracks have vocals and all the tracks are very well-produced. Fans of his old-school DisX3 stuff will be disappointed, though. No hard, evil Tresor bunker-style techno there. It's got a lot of commercial potential, while still being underground.

In talking to him, I discovered we have a lot of the very same philosophies about music. We like a lot of the same bands, too. Plus he's turning me on to some bands I didn't know about, like Muse. Really cool guy. We're supposed to be hanging out again tomorrow night, but he's got to go to France on Thursday morning, so maybe not.

On another note, this record for Gayle San's label may not be happening. Gayle herself picked the tracks in the first place, they're catalog tracks, you know, not new ones. The idea was to reintroduce myself to the 12-inch market after being away for awhile.

Anyway, I delivered the CD way back in March '05. It had 8 tracks on it to choose from, different styles. Gayle chose the most DJ-friendly ones. Now Intergroove wants me to change the tracklisting all of a sudden. Hello, you've had the EP for almost a year, I'm 3000 miles away from my studio now, can't change shit, sorry.

What's funny, too, is they (Intergroove) originally wanted me to do artwork for the release too, but didn't want to pay my fee. Haven't seen an advance, either. So we're now veering into "more trouble than it's worth" territory.

Oh, well, that's the business. What can you do.

Bored and Rambling.

Went to Raumklang on Friday to see Tarrida and Cristian, a couple of cool guys. I expected their sets to be all weird and clonky like their records, but they were both actually pretty good. Tarrida played harder than I expected, Tresor bunker-style. Raumklang is more of a minimal/lounge-type place. Saw some familiar faces there as I knew I would, like Max and Carola from Tresor, Stewart Walker, Sender Berlin and Alexander Kowalski. And the club owner, of course, Ralf Stucki. It gets lonely here sometimes, and its nice to see friends.

The place was packed, too. Very nice crowd, all dancing, having fun. Miss Kittin played Maria the same night. It amazes me how there can be multiple events on one night here and everybody can get good crowds. I would have gone to see her, too, but I would've had to pay =)

A sour note, though. this guy at the club asked me in German if I had any drugs. I guess as the bald black man at a techno party, I either a) have drugs, b) are the bouncer, or c) am Carl Cox.

My gig on Saturday didn't materialize, so I was stuck in Berlin this weekend. Didn't do much but watch TV. They ran "Robocop" last night, dubbed in German, of course. That movie's a natural for a remake, I'm surprised nobody's talking about doing it. The whole evil corporate OCP angle is still relevant. And the satirical TV shows in "Robocop" have actually come true with reality TV. This time, they can actually shoot it in bombed-out ass Detroit, like Michael Bay did with "The Island." In fact, Bay is the *perfect* director for a remake.

LOL, I'm bored and rambling.

Yes, it's possible to be bored in Berlin =)

PS: It is actually past 8 pm here as I write this. The clock on the blog is still in US Central time.

Quiet Week.

This has been a very quiet week. I've just been making the gallery rounds, seeing what's going on. I met this one gallery owner who's got a space right near my flat, this cool black guy. They show this weird, minimal art. The last show had a window blind that was painted white and was selling for 5000 EUR (almost 6000 USD).

You can see why I'm trying to move sideways into this gallery thing.

Nothing planned later except going to see Dave Tarrida and Cristian Vogel tonight at Raumklang. Should be a few familiar faces there. I haven't been out just to hang out in awhile.

I was walking down the street yesterday in Kreuzberg and ran into Lars, a.k.a. Pacou. Berlin is crazy like that. Techno City.

The "It's Not Over" double CD and vinyl is out now on Tresor. It's got my first new 4/4 track in quite some time on it, "The After Hours." I'm on the CD version, though, not the vinyl.

I've been playing "'Bout to Bang It" out lately, the original version, not the remixes. People have been into it. I spent a lot of time second-guessing myself musically (especially when I was in Detroit, surrounded by people who want to put you down), but I find there's nothing wrong with the way I was making tracks. When I get back in the studio, it'll be back to basics.

I was watching this talk show on TV and they had Kim Cattrall ("Sex and the City") on there. Who knew she spoke German? I was very surprised. Sandra Bullock speaks German, too. And Jane Fonda was on French TV when I was there, speaking French fluently.

I might take a German class next year. I'm really missing out.

Also on the TV tip, I was watching the MTV Europe Awards last night. Gorillaz won Best Band. They're a bunch of cartoon characters and they beat U2 and Coldplay. I'd be pissed if I were them.