Techno Legend Umek Set to Embark on 3 Month Tour Across North America

By Tine Roycroft

Oh, if there were a Techno Addicts Anonymous, my loved ones would sign me up in a heartbeat.  I’d go, because I understand that they were acting out of concern over my somewhat obsessive enjoyment of the genre.  I’d hit the food table, eat the best donuts (the yummy ones filled with jelly or crème), and enjoy free coffee.  I’d even make a little small talk before excusing myself to the loo and never coming back.  There are some addictions that I don’t want to kick and Techno is one of them.  So imagine my unbalanced delight when I heard that techno god UMEK is currently touring the world, bringing his fresh beats with him.

The tour will take the titan across North America, South America and Asia.

ROUND ONE: consists of stops in the US and Canada, with major appearances at Insomniac events Beyond Wonderland and Nocturnal Wonderland and club dates at Exchange, LA, and Shine in Vancouver.

ROUND TWO: sees the superstar hitting South America for two weeks followed by a return to North America for an extended tour on the club and festival circuits. Included stops have UMEK showcased on some prime stage real estate: FreakNight/Seattle, Pacha/NYC, Lavo/Las Vegas, EDC/Orlando and Mansion/Miami ~ just to name a few.

ROUND THREE: can be affectionately dubbed “UMEK goes to Asia.” For nearly all of December, UMEK will be covering the wide expanse of Asia, crisscrossing the continent to deliver a few very lucky countries some early techno cheer!

Flashwounds was fortunate enough to track UMEK down for an interview.  Here’s what the electro vibe guru had to say.

FW:  How did you get into this crazy world of music?

UMEK:  I’m not sure if your readers can really get this, as this happened in a country that just abandoned the communist regime in the beginning of the 90s. Try to imagine how would it be living in the environment without normal event managements, modern radios and other mass media building and supporting the concert and party scene.  Not a one decent record shop and no magazines covering latest trends in pop culture. And all this happened at a time when there was no Internet yet, satellite TV and radio were rare emerging novelties and we just abandoned the system in which the state controlled everything.

In the beginning it was really hard for me to be in touch with electronic music as the scene in Slovenia was literally non-existing.

In the early 90s, I’ve discovered the Cool Nights show hosted by Aldo Ivancic, MC Brane and Primoz Pecovnik on the students union operated Radio Student. They played all kind of electronic music; from trance, rave, techno, EBM, some really dark stuff.  And soon after that they started their nights in the students union club K4. I became regular and after a while I got introduced to artists such as Jure Havlicek (Anna Lies, Moob, Sare Muratore ~ now successfully working in the indie-disco scene under a moniker Sare Havlicek) who invited me into his studio and showed me how this music is done.

At the time, I was doing my first steps as a producer with two of my colleagues, using 8-bit Screen Tracker with 4 mono channels and we sampled our sound from the tracks recorded from the radio on the tape cassettes. It was far from being professional but we’ve spent all the time doing music. And when Jure showed me his Rolands 808 and 909 and all other legendary machines I knew that it was exactly what I wanted to do in my life. As there was no copyright legislature in Slovenia at that time, I’d started selling pirate cassettes for a local pirate recording label with my friends and soon gathered enough money to buy my first proper sampler from the guys behind the Random Logic project, and Gregor Zemljic, half of this group and now internationally acclaimed guru of studio production, taught me a lot about the music and production later in my career.

FW:  Generally speaking, can you describe the creative process for your songs?

UMEK: Let’s start from the end. I produce my music based on the experience and energy I get from the dance floor. [I think of what actions] I’ll stir in the clubs and festivals all around the world when I’ll play it. I make music for people to dance to, so that’s my basic framework. But I don’t really have a particular blueprint that I stick to when producing music. Basically I go where the music and the process of studio work take me, after I start putting the pieces together.

Though before I get to that point, I take time to prepare my building blocks or as I call them my tools. I gather sounds and samples that I like, buy couple of new synths and get to know some fresh plug-ins I’d like to use. This already directs my path a bit. When I have my tools ready I usually get the rough idea where I want to go, but then things happen spontaneously and the whole process can take me into a totally unexpected direction. I produce very fast, I create an enormous amount of music but I release only a small fragment of everything I make. I have more than a hundred hours of more or less finished music in my archive that will never see the light of the day. I’m also lucky that I don’t get any creative blocks. My greatest problem is that I’m never able to materialize all my ideas as I just don’t have enough time to put everything together.

FW: In your current tour, you’re bouncing around the globe. What’s so great about touring to you?  What cities are you really looking forward to? And after the tour – where will you go to relax and decompress?

UMEK:  I loved performing from the first day I stepped behind the mixer to rock the crowd on the dance floor. I still get the rush doing that. And that’s why I travel around the globe all the time. The hours and days I spend in planes, cars and hotels between the gigs is the downside of this job and my lifestyle, but I have to do it if I want to get to my fans. Luckily in the last couple of years I’ve become very skilled in producing music on my laptop on the road, so now I do most of my music between the gigs and I only need the studio environment to finalize and master my tracks. This is another reason for my productivity – I’m travelling all the time and I have plenty of time to kill. 

After 20 years, touring becomes predictable.  I got used to this routine and there are not that many things that excite me travelling between the clubs and festivals. I’ve seen most of the cultural and historic attractions in the big cities I’ve visited, so it’s not a surprise that my personal highlight of touring has become the people and the energy I get from the dance floor while performing. Good response from the crowd is the best confirmation that I’m on the right path. That’s priceless.

But don’t get me wrong, I like coming back to places I’ve already been to, just as I like discovering new countries, cities and cultures. If anything, I am a very curious person and I like seeing and experiencing new things.

Just right now I’m trying something new. I’ve moved my base to Los Angeles for two months as I’m touring the USA and South America intensively. This way I’ve avoided a couple of overseas flights, which is great because I’m scared of flying and being on a plane presents quite a lot stress for me. The last couple of gigs in the States, Colombia and Argentina were amazing and in between I did couple of new tracks that will kick ass and I’m meeting a lot of my fans that treat me really good. After these two moths I’ll have three days off to rest a bit and overcome the jet lag and then I’m already bound to the next gigs, as it will be the end of the year, which is obviously a very busy time for us deejays.

As I’m touring 11 months a year, I don’t really have much time to unwind, except in January. I try to keep Mondays off as I’m usually on the road from the gig on Sundays and I do keep one weekend off every two to three months if possible, just to stay home for ten days without leaving my hometown if I don’t want to.

When I do have time, I like snowboarding, cycling, playing video games (well, it’s been a while), watching some good basketball matches live or on a TV.  I go to the spa for two or three days.  I like spending time with my friends and their small kids, we go out to the movies, a diner, for a drinks … the usual stuff.

FW:  When you aren’t creating and performing, what musical artists are you listening to? Are there any groups or solo acts that you’d like to call out to?

UMEK:  Right now I really enjoy spending some quiet time. After the gigs I try not to listen to anything. I usually ask the driver to turn down the music on the way from the club to the hotel and I don’t turn on the radio or TV when I come to my room. I just want to loosen my brain for a couple of hours. I spend so much time performing, producing my own music and listening to heaps of promos – for my sets, for the Behind the Iron Curtain radio show and for my 1605 label, that I really cherish that rare occasion when I can sit in silence and relax.

FW: What charities are close to your heart? Are there any causes you’d like to get behind in the future?

UMEK:  Every last Saturday in August I headline Party for a Cause – an afternoon/evening party in the central park of my hometown Ljubljana that attracts up to 30,000 people. The entrance fee for this event is 1 euro in the form of a text donation and the confirmation text is valid as a ticket. This way we’ve already gathered some quarter of million euros for charity.

We’ve helped kids fighting cancer, gave scholarships to teenagers in need, supported young victims of criminal acts, helped set up the national network of employment clubs for young people, we promote solidarity and social awareness among young people and we spread te message of non-violence. The project is run by a big telecommunications company, supported by the major of our capital city and the president of the state.  It’s been covered in all media and basically everyone who spends at least some time in Slovenia during the annual campaign knows about it.

My wish is that someday we will be able to extend this great concept to other cities and countries. The whole concept is quite universal and effective.  It generates a lot of charity money, media attention and positive energy and it could work almost everywhere.

UPDATE: FW was also at the Boston show last Friday. See the pix here!

Check out this amazing artist/amazing humanitarian HERE and HERE.

Or check UMEK out at one of his shows!

OCTOBER


18   Boston, USA – Bijou 
(FW will be here so that we can bring you live pics from this first area show!) UPDATE: See the pix here!

19   New York, USA- Pacha

25   Seattle, USA- FreakNight

26   San Bernardino, USA- Escape from Wonderland

NOVEMBER


8     Philadelphia, USA- Sound Garden

9     Orlando, USA- EDC

15   Ottawa, Canada- Era

16   Montreal, Canada- Circus

22   Toronto, Canada-  Maison

23   Miami, USA- Mansion

DECEMBER


Asia (dates TBA)

*  This interview has been edited for content.