Interview with Terry Mitchell - 11th Hour Technology

Terry Mitchell first caught the DJing bug around 1988, having been a dedicated follower of electro, hip-hop and later the development of early House, Acid House and Techno. By 1992 his talents for mixing, scratching, fazing and cutting beats were noticed and he begun a professional career as TNT and later The Droid at nights like the 'Move' parties, and 'Experience' at The Wag Club in London. Work continued when he joined innocence FM, a pirate radian station with spinning partner, DJ Hardcore. Their 'Hardcore and The Droid' shows were hugely successful and guest spots at large rave event like 'Evolution' followed. In '93 Innocence ended but Terry was soon back on the airwaves with Chillin FM until Winter '95.

Spinning a mix of Jacking Chicago House, funky Techno, Disco and full-on club Techno, Terry has honed his sets to suit the night. A strong believer that DJ's aren't super-stars, he is renowned for his mellow attitude and modest nature. Previous guest spots have included 'Sex, Love & Motion' (Soundshaft, London), 'Take No Prisoners' (Cloud 9, London), 'Future Beats' in Southampton, 'Absolute' (The Colosseum, London) and 'Final Frontier (Club UK, London).

Not content with just DJing, he was also part of the original promotion teams behind 'Hardware' (at Prohibition and Club 414, both London), 'Analogue City', which still runs today and 'The Electric Underground' which catered for Terry's own unique vision of the House/Techno mix. He currently still holds residencies with 'The Phuture/Eurobeat 2000' and 'Analogue City' and is regularly invited to play at nights like Carl Cox's 'Ultimate BASE', 'Uber' and 'Trancentral'.

Terry Mitchell soon felt the need to stamp his style on vinyl. In 1995 he released 3 EPs with Basic Electronics, including the 'Kaos Theory' double pack under the guise of DJ Pro-One. In 1998 he started his own label, Dark House Music which features the ever popular 'Trackhead Series' and is now on its 18th release. January 2000 saw the start of a second label, called Random which has already received great support for its first release.

11th-hour When did you first pick up on electronica, and what where you into before?

Terry Mitchell I think I was about eleven or twelve when I got the first English release of Planet Rock and stuff like that, Juan Atkins, the old Electro compilations, and it was a progression from there really. I got into the hip-hop thing for a while because of the way [Electro] went but I didn't like a lot of the attitude that came with it, so I moved on a bit, and then house came along in '86/'87 and it went from there basically.

I got into the Techno thing early on with Derrick May and Juan Atkins, but drifted somewhat getting into proper US House, Strictly Rhythm and Nervous sort of thing, but got bored of that after a couple of years as it was lacking in the 'balls' department and went back to techno, to the harder early German stuff and onto some Gabba as well but that didn't go anywhere what-so-ever, and I gave up on it after a couple of months, and kinda stuck to techno since then.

Jeff Mills was really the biggest impression that got me back into techno. I heard him the first time he played in London, must have been about seven years ago the very first time he played at Lost. I was always into the hip-hop side of djing but didn't realise you could do that kind of thing with house and techno, until I saw Jeff Mills and realised that this was what I want to do, so I really pushed the techno thing and the house stepped aside.

Terry Mitchell All the early electronica such as Depeche Mode and New Order was around but it never really grabbed me as I wasn't into the vocals - I'm not a big fan of vocals - although obviously there was the odd exception as I don't like to generalise to much. As far as first exposure goes it must have been all the early Electro albums really, in about '82 I think, when I first bought Planet Rock. A friend of mine came back with a Perfect Beat album, I don't know if you've heard of that, its Afrika Bambaata and Sonic Force, and that sort of thing just blew me away and I rushed out and bought the twelve inch of Planet Rock and it went from there basically.

11th-hour How long was it before you started djing, how and why did you start?

Terry Mitchell It was the house thing that got me into djing. I messed around at home with hip-hop trying to learn to scratch, although I only had one deck and I used to scratch over tapes. And then house came along and blew me away because it had a different kind of depth, a different kind of feeling, proper house though, none of the cheese you get now. It was Chicago more than anything really, the warehouse style, Ron Trent and Jesse Saunders, early '86 and '87 style house, and that got me into djing as I wanted to play the stuff at parties.

There was one proper house club in London, although I was going to ware-house parties before that where there was the odd bit of house. The night was called 'Trax' at the 'Wag' club in '86/'87, and I went there and thought, 'this is really what I want to do', bought a pair of decks, some mates and me went three ways on them, and it went from there really. We started to throw our own parties at places like the local sports centre, and we filled it straight away as no one knew anything about this new music and it was the first sort of house event in our area, so we started to do them on a regular basis, and it just went from there.

Terry Mitchell Proper house: Todd Terry, Strictly Rhythm, Nervous, Trax in particular as they were some of the first things I got, House Time records, early stuff by people like Terry Hunter, deep house nothing cheesy or vocal just deep melodic house, and that's what basically got me into it. Then Derrick May came along and I got into melodic techno, that was my introduction into the harder stuff, and from there I transmuted into harder techno.

11th-hour Do you remember your first gig? Where was it and how did it come about?

Terry Mitchell It was at the local sports centre at a mates party, but about three months before we did anything there, and that was basically my first gig and I played loads of the early Frankie Bones stuff, and just stuff like that in general together with some more jackin' stuff - Chicago -, as well.

Terry Mitchell I heard Derrick May DJ, I think it was the first time he played in this country at an event called the 'Chaos' weekender in late '88 or '89, and that was what got me into techno. I can't describe it, it was just the hardest thing and I hadn't heard anything like it. He played for six hours and he just blew me away, and I knew this was where I wanted to go, so I did. Like I said I did mess about with the housier stuff, the more soulful stuff, but it was lacking in the 'balls' department, so I got into harder stuff, and also the more extreme end of the music like Gabba. But then this was lacking in soul, and then people came along like Mills, combining the hip-hop ethic with the balls of techno and the soul of house. For me techno is humans interacting with machines, not machines doing what they want to do which is what a lot of current stuff is like for me, just mechanical 'bollocks'. Like I said it's about humans interacting with machines and getting the human soul in the machine and progressing that into music. And this is what Mills was doing, and I can't rate people like Mills' music highly enough.

Terry Mitchell Hmmm, Purely selfish. I wanted to start it out as an artist label originally, but people started approaching me. The first couple of releases were all mine then after that I started getting offers from various places, I got to know the business, and before I knew it tracks were being offered left right and centre so it took off from there basically. I originally wanted to do four releases a year but now we are doing about ten.

Terry Mitchell I'm not into the whole concept thing that people like Mills are. For me, if I like something I'll put it out. I hate to use the word 'tech-house', but I really like the more 'housey-techno' the disco-funk based stuff as well, and that's what I started Random (DHR) for, and Dark House Music (DHM) is for the harder stuff, so its really down to what I like, purely selfish like I said, just what interests me.

Terry Mitchell Dark moody kind of techno but hopefully with the soul of house. For me it all comes from house initially. I was unaware that Cybotron was called techno, it was really just Electro to me. For me the whole techno thing comes from house, people started calling it techno; I just call it dark house.

Terry Mitchell It started with number three (Dark House Music), and that was a bit of a dodgey story really. The first two releases were me, and number three was officially me as DJ Pro-One but we had Claude Young and Mark Broom remixes on there. They were originally remixes of a record that I recorded for another label, but this guy who run the label stung me quite a lot, I never saw the record or the money and I wasn't having any of that so it became the third release!

Number four was the first in the Trackhead Series and this came about as we were getting offered loads of really good single tracks but no EP's from anyone. All the stuff was connected, it was all in a similar vain, and having been into the original house thing I was really into the 'tracky' sound, the looping, effected, vocal stabs, the sounds that these tracks had. And that's why the Trackhead sound came about, piecing together tracks of that vain, and it's been one of our best successes so far.

We released Trackhead Volume 7 at the end of 2000 and are now preparing number eight. The seventh release on Dark House should have really been on Random, but we hadn't started that yet! I thought this EP was so good I just wanted to put it out. It didn't really fit in with any of the other stuff on Dark House, but the original idea for Dark House was that it was going to be quite diverse with house and techno. But due to poor lower sales (even though it was a good EP), we hard to start another label so we could encorporate a different sound. People want to know what they are going to get from a label, and the chances are if they don't know then they won't come back to the label either. I'm into being diverse. When I dj I play house, techno and Electro but when it comes to a label you do have to segregate. So this is why we started the new label basically, and we have a few new artists coming along on it.

We had a Ben Sims release ("Selective E.P.|" - DHM011) which basically came about as a compilation of three of Ben's tracks that had appeared on three different Trackheads, plus one unreleased one. People were raving about all the Ben Sims tracks, so we put them all together and made an EP that has been our best sellers so far.

11th-hour Have you tried to establish an artist roster, or do you just take it on a release by release basis?

Terry Mitchell As far as an organised roster goes, we have myself, Oka and Yamazaki from Japan who are cutting a new record for us now, 3 guys from Malta - Gordon Flash, Jean-Claude & Ren-D, also Mark Williams who's appeared on nearly all the Trackheads as well as two E.P.s and a collaboration with myself as Section 2 and Godwin Nwafor who's recorded as both Noir 4 on DHM and Future Reference on Random. We're looking forward to new tracks from these artists, plus more from Trevor Rockcliffe, and hopefully Detroit's Derrick Thompson and DJ Rush. There'll be one or two bits from me too!

Terry Mitchell Andy Weatherall, Jay Denham, Claude Young, Rockcliffe Jim Masters, and Carl Cox was one of the first people to play my records. It was Analogue City a couple of months ago and I heard Derrick May play three of my records, he played a couple last time he played at The End as well. We don't mail any to him often so he's actually gone and bought them! Thinking back to a few reaction forms. The Advent, James Ruskin plays one or two as well, we've even had the odd thing played by DJs like Sneak. Not too many Germans, but we're selling a lot of records in Japan and Brazil. It's quite mad that I'm a lot better known in Brazil then England.

11th-hour How do you plan do develop Dark House Music and Random? What are your plans for the future?

Terry Mitchell I want to do a mix CD and we aim to get that out either just before the summer or Christmas, but it may be Christmas knowing the speed I work at. It will mainly be tracks from the label but we'll probably licence a few as well. We've got an excellent new E.P. from Mark Williams (Roots E.P. - DHM017) and something new from the Malta guys with a great Scan X remix (Phuture - DHM018). We'll also be spending a bit more time on Random to build the label and mould it's sound. Like I said if I find something I like then I put it out, I'm not one for planning that far ahead.

11th-hour Was Producing your own material a natural progression? How did it come about?

Terry Mitchell All I've ever wanted to be is a dj. Originally I just wanted to get known more as a DJ and everyone was making music, so I thought that was the way to do it. It was kind of a natural progression but it was to further my djing career, but now I make stuff that I want to play, I make tools for my trade basically.

Terry Mitchell Messy! But deliberately messy though, I don't like to make myself too regimental, hats all over the place, a lot of swing. Consequently it can backfire as it can be quite hard to mix with. It's messy, a little quirky, repetitive. My earlier stuff was a lot more musical than what I do now. I started with strings and real deep pads, stuff like that, and now I aim for a more percussive and loopy, tracky sound.

Terry Mitchell The latest bit I bought actually, a Yamaha RM1X a dedicated hardware sequencer. It's mad, you can do real-time arranging on it, record your arrangements in real time. It halves the amount of time it takes to make a record. You get you loops up and running and it's like having sixteen decks and chipping in different sounds all the time, just like pulling triggers.

Terry Mitchell Maybe in 2001 as I have had a few people asking about it, but I'm not overly confident about it at the moment, I'll see how it goes.

Terry Mitchell Jeff Mills, top of the list definitely, and without a doubt. I know everyone says this, its a clich�, but I can't give the man enough respect. Richie Hawtin, Claude Young, Dj Rush, Paul Johnson for his old-school not really his new stuff, Robert Armani more for his Djing than his production. I love that kind of 'Booty Bass', DJ Godfather, he's a real turntablist, three records a minute, all over the place with all the booty samples. He played at Ultimate BASE and everyone was like, 'What?' And just could not dance to it, but where I come from, the hip-hop, Electro and that, I was just blown away.

Terry Mitchell Ben Sims. We gave this guy his first techno gig about six years ago and he has just come along in leaps and bounds. I've got respect for where he's got himself as we started out at the same stage, he's found his formula and has stuck with it, doing really well. DJ wise he's second to none, he's up there with Mills.

11th-hour What one record has stayed in your bag the longest, and continually reappears time and time again?

Terry Mitchell I can't remember the name, but it's an old Paul Johnson track on Dancemania. I still take records like Clear out, Cybotron. I don't play Planet Rock anymore, the last time I played Planet Rock out in a club was in '89, but that was the longest for a while. I got so many records coming in and out of my bag that there is no constant one, but there's always something by Mills or Richie Hawtin.

Terry Mitchell Err, that's really sad isn't it? I just don't get time to do anything else. When I'm at home I listen to everything though; Classical, Jazz and Funk.

Terry Mitchell I've been over to Ireland, and they're all just nutters, that's probably the best place I've played out of the UK. I've been to France but it wasn't that good, they we're all just drunk and standing around with their noses in the air. I've also just returned from 3 weeks in Brazil and did some really cool gigs - it's a fantastic place!

11th-hour How would you evaluate the state of the UK techno scene at the moment?

Terry Mitchell I'm not sure about the scene in the UK, especially in London. It's weird because my two favourite clubs that I go out to all the time are in London, I know everyone there and I always have a good time when I go there. But they're the only two regular clubs playing this music, there is nowhere else.

Terry Mitchell As far as I'm concerned underground is all a state of mind. Before I went to Ultimate BASE I always though it was a commercial club, and I get there and they're playing music I'm into. I was shocked. I mean trance is underground and they're getting ten times as many people through they're doors as we are in the proper techno scene or tech-house scene so I'm not so sure.

I hate that word, 'underground' I really do. For me there is good music in all forms of music apart from Trance and Speed Garage. These are rubbish by definition as far as I'm concerned, and a trance record now days is just tech-pop. But most people go to these clubs and think it's techno, but it's not, and that's the thing. I hate to sound really negative about the scene here, but it's crap. There is no 'underground' or new nights starting up. People who go out to proper techno go out to here one of the techno gods; Marco Carola, Derrick May, Jeff Mills. These guys are wicked but clubbers won't go out and hear their mates dj and this is the problem because people are always after something special, they're too bloody intelligent, and this is where the techno scene in London can take a leaf out of the Hard House boys' book. Go out and support your local dj's, your local scene. Don't just go out to hear Derrick May.

11th-hour What do you think of the current resurgence of interest in Electro? Is it just another fad conjured up by the music press?

Terry Mitchell Is it. I think there's been a resurgence for ages. I love Electro but you play it to ninety-percent of crowds and the floor just clears. Even with this so called resurgence I only play hard fast Electro, and that works. Some of the stuff I'd like to play I won't play as it doesn't work, people don't get into the beats, I have real problems playing Electro when I play so I tend to play all the Miami Bass stuff, the more up-tempo stuff. If it's really happening though, it's cool, but it's been happening for ages. There was the Dave Clarke CD a year and a half ago. In London all these sort of trends tend to happen, people say they happen, but they don't happen. Techno was supposed to be back this year, but...