Magda ”I’m here to set the record straight”
Voted number 9 in the Top 100 DJ‘s in the World poll that Resident Advisor recently ran, Magda comes across as a pretty candid and a straight up kind of girl. Her voice has an infectious enthusiasm about it and I find she has an upbeat sense of humour that comes across easily in the conversation. I ask her take on coming in as the top-ranking female in the RA poll, which she answered “I was surprised, I don’t see that kind of stuff, my friends showed me, I didn’t even know there was a poll”.
The Polish native who re-located to the USA at the age of 9 with her family has been DJ-ing since 1996, firstly in Detroit, where she was submerged into playing underground parties such as ‘The System’ raves and cross pollinating with artists such as Daniel Bell, Richie Hawtin, Claude Young & Carl Craig. I ask her if Daniel Bell had an impact on her development or if he mentored her in anyway. “I wouldn’t say he was a mentor because we didn’t really hang out; however, he did show me how to mix for the first time and really encouraged me to keep at it. He also invited me to play for half an hour every week when the bar first opened and gave me my first real minimal record; “Losing Control” on “Accelerate”. I loved that sound, it had such a good groove”.
A move to New York followed to study a fine arts degree but she only completed 3 years of the degree of which she say’s; “my main goal in life was to study art and to become an artist but around the same time I got into music. It’s still a big part of my life and I love to go to different exhibitions whenever possible”. In 2003 she moved to Berlin and told me “I’ve always lived in a lot of places and moving to Berlin was the right thing to do”. I asked her about her work ethic since moving to Berlin. “Last year I DJ’d a lot and that took up most of my time. I’ve been trying to work on an album for the last 2 years but for me it’s a very slow process of doing stuff, going back to it, changing it, and finding different moods. It’s an ongoing process. My output is low due to this, but now I’m finishing up a lot of those things”.
Do you think there are enough women DJ/producers out there at the moment?
No, there aren't and I wish there were. I know a handful of other females in the field and most of us know and respect each other. When I first started DJ-ing I was involved in the ‘Women on Wax’ collective in Detroit but through time I realized that being in an all female collective was more harmful than helpful. It turned techno into a gender issue. I will always support women and hope that more get involved but I don't see the need to make gender the focus. If you're good, then you're good. Male or female.
You mention you were sick of the ‘scene politics’ back in 1999. Do you think those politics still exist or have they changed?
Well, I don’t necessarily think we were mistreated, it was kind of a double standard. In a way women got more privileges because it was such a novelty to be a female DJ. It was kind of like ‘OK, I don’t care if you suck or not, here... play’ and that wasn’t very fair to other DJ’s. That made it difficult for people to respect you and for women to be taken seriously as artists. I don’t see a focus on that anymore and the novelty has worn off a long time ago. I get promos from female producers, I see them DJ and I don’t see this kind of attitude.
Turntables, laptops, samplers, EFX units... what exactly do you use in your DJ sets?
I use Traktor Scratch, a loop grabber, and a delay pedal but I’m changing my set up this year. I’m going to start using a midi controller and internal effects but I really like my delay pedal and I'm not sure if I'm ready to part with it yet. I've used it for the last three years and it has a specific sound. It’s a guitar pedal but a few others use it for DJing as well; it’s a good tool. I like having external effects... so many times my looper has saved me when the computer was acting weird. I’ve had so many different technical problems in the past that I don't feel 100% comfortable only using software.
What’s happened in the club when software has gone wrong for you? Have you had moments of silence? What do you do?
That’s the worst! It’s so embarrassing! Luckily, I have the EFX unit and the loop grabber. So many times only one turntable would calibrate and I had to play using the looper and one turntable. Whatever is happening, you have to do whatever you can to make it work so people don't notice there is something wrong.
What's in your studio set up?
I don't have a huge studio but the pieces I have I really love. Among those are Vermona, Korg Electribe, SAM analogue seqeuncer, DX 100, SE1X, bass guitar, and a home made modular synthesiser. I use Ableton and various plug-ins as well.
What’s in your DJ box at the moment?
I'm not DJ-ing until April but watch for Click Box... they’ve a well balanced sound that works great in clubs.
What’s the future of digital DJ-ing in your eyes?
The age of turntables is coming to an end... it’s scary but I see it happening. So many clubs that I go to don’t even have them anymore, they just have CD players. It’s really going digital yes, vinyl will always sound better but digital technology is improving very quickly and it’s practical. It also opens up a whole other world of possibilities for a DJ to explore.
Is there anything you would like to see happening in digital DJ-ing and visuals?
It will be interesting to see what happens when more DJ’s turn away from turntables. Richie is doing that and it has changed how he DJ’s. I think it forces you to DJ in a different way. You can do many things and do them quicker so the sound of your set changes. It would also be nice if more visual artists got involved with DJ's to create a whole performance - that's a bit more personal.
So you moved to Berlin. Did you move at the same time or before Richie?
We were laughing about it because we arrived at that decision at the same time, separately. I came to Berlin to play for the first time and I knew it was the place for me. So I told Rich ‘Hey I’m moving to Berlin’ and he said ‘No way, me too!’ I think many of us caught the Berlin bug around that time.
In terms of Richie how did he come to that decision?
I think we both realized that we did what we could in New York and it was time to move on. The politics in the city were getting crazy and the police were shutting everything down whenever they pleased so it made it difficult for anyone to do an event. Coming to Berlin was so much easier. Electronic music has deep roots there and the atmosphere is very relaxed. It was a breath of fresh air. We arrived at an exciting time when the music and parties were really going off. The Beatstreet parties at that time were some of the craziest and most memorable events for me ever.
Do you think the whole concentration on the technical and equipment side has taken any of the emphasis away from the actual music?
If it has it shouldn't. In the end no matter what you use, the goal is to get the crowd going and present something they can get excited by. You can have all the gadgets in the world but if you choose the wrong tracks it won't make a difference. Equipment is a tool to enhance the music, not to replace it.
Where do you think Electronic music is at the moment? Do you think it’s gotten very fragmented?
I don’t feel that way. When I was living in New York in 2001 I thought the scene was very segregated, there was the UK tech house crowd, the minimal crowd, and the techno crowd. They didn’t really mesh but now in the last few years it’s all kind of become intertwined and a lot of times it’s hard to categorize tracks into one genre because they contain elements from all of them.
Is there any producers that you have come across that particularly stick out?
There are many talented young producers out there and with easy access to software nowadays you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a professional studio like you did in the past. One person in particular is a guy from Italy we just signed to "Items & Things" named Madato. The quality of his work is very good and we were surprised to learn how young he is.
Croatia Vs Ibiza? What's your take on that?
Let's go to Croatia!! It would be great to have something new and refreshing after all the years in Ibiza. Ibiza doesn't feel the same anymore. The government has really been cracking down on clubs, beach parties and after-hours so a lot of the small, spontaneous events can't happen. Ibiza will always be Ibiza; mega-clubs and money. Maybe Croatia would be a cooler less flashy version of that.
DC10 being shut down last year was a hard slap to the more underground dance music sound; do you think musicians and producers are being suppressed?
Ibiza isn't known for underground music in general. Even though DC10 had to close for a while and other clubs had penalties as well, more underground DJ's and producers have been coming to play in Ibiza in the last few years than ever before. That kind of sound just became much more accepted.
Who can we expect to see collaborations with on your future productions?
A collaboration between “Run Stop Restore" and "Click Box” will come out on Items & Things in the spring. I’m also excited to work with Chloe from Paris because I really like her music, especially the droney guitar stuff and I think it could be interesting.
You’ve played South America. Have you seen anything that’s really opened your eyes or shocked you out there?
It’s all quite surreal. I have definitely been in some strange places where things can get really shady but I never had the feeling of being unsafe but then again I grew up in Detroit and it wasn't so unusual for someone to get shot at a party.
Photos copyright by Minus
Interview/Article by courtesy of Polly Lavin
All rights reserved Polly Lavin
www.myspace.com/pollylavine
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