I-f interview from 2000

Thought I'd share this now as it never was released anywhere. It's an interview with Ferenc on the friday 8th of september, year two thousand, at the crowded backroom of Club Telex, Tampere, Finland. Tatu Peltonen from Mr. Velcro Fastener and Kimmo Rapatti alias Mono Junk also shared their insights. Also there was screening of Danny Wolfers "The Wheeler"

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-So, you took the hotmix logo from that old italo-disco label, Il Discotto?

-Yes, but I think I deserved it because where they stopped I took off and I continued...where I continued the work, releasing music I like. But Discotto was not such a reliable label, distributor, company because the guy- he of course never paid any artist- and my friend was in Italy, Fred Ventura, and he was with this guy and guy goes "Come, come, come!" and he went to a little barn and in the barn was a million dollar boat!

-What?

-A million dollar boat. A yacht. Now, this Cotto guy bought a million dollar yacht and...(laughter) he left, I guess, with the yacht! So, that's what I'm gonna do.

-So when you get enough money you're going to...

-Yes, fuck all the artists, I'll buy a boat and leave! (laughter)

-You are spending a lot of time in Italy?

-Yes. But Italy is also- that's why I took Discotto logo - is one of the major influences of todays dance music. Detroit techno was inspired by it, I found out that chicago house was inspired by it, it is the basis of the modern dance music.

-So they imported the records?

-That's why it was so hard to get in Holland because all the records, thousands at a time, went to United States, to Chicago and Detroit. They sold big time in Chicago and Detroit.

-I was thinking how much Ennio Morricone has influencing you. On Man from PACK there's that track, 'Il Tramonto', that is a nod to him, isn't it?

-Mm-h, yes. He was with Sergio Leone working on the soundtrack for the dollar trilogy, for 'Few dollars more', and the other ones and I saw an image of the guys together. Sergio Leone was a very driven movie-maker, he could tell all the actors exactly how he wanted it to be, he could act for them how he wanted it and he had great respect for the actors so that's why I think his movies are so...

-Intense?

-Yes, intense, and he could transmit that intensity to the guy who made the music, Ennio Morricone. They were on the exactly same level - look at the movies, he had the sounds, they were exactly at the same level. That's brilliant.

-Morricone did the soundtrack for Battalia di Algeri.

-Really?

-You haven't seen that one?

-No.

-It is a documentary of sixties battle where french colonialists try to keep the Algiers, practically using every dirty trick to achieve that end. The intense Morricone soundtrack finishes that movie, it was totally shot in black and white, like a fake documentary.

-I think Morricone has an extra, mm...sense, you know, you don't have to tell the guy in order to get what you want. He feels, he sees and he composes. There is not one soundtrack of Morricone I don't like. I have never seen a movie, for which he made the music, that sucked. It's all good, you know, Morricone is really on top of the stuff- and he's also italian, that's amazing.  ?Italy is the country where everything is outside, people only look at the outside, not the inside. It's not so passionate as you think- but if you meet people who are really passionate for stuff, it's extremely intense. That's what I experienced with Marco Passarani and the Rome posse, with Fred Ventura from Milano. If they are freak for something, they are totally freak for something, they totally go in it, live it, be it, do it.

-You just got to get to know those people first...

-I got to know them thru the music, like the Passarani guy-

-So the music speaks for itself before you even meet the guy?

-Definately, but that's my way of communication: music. I can say a thousand words but I think I can express myself better with one track.

-How about Detroit then? You have done some projects with them.

-I don't like America, that's the only trouble. I like Detroit, I like Chicago, because it's so fucked up there. We are used to the european system of security, social security. If you cannot pay your rent you go to the government, they give you money and blah blah blah.

-In Finland especially.

-Yeah, well, in Holland too. United States, that's not the fact because if you don't have any money anymore you can have six children and four wives, they kick you out on the street. You can sell your house, you can sell your car...

-And the government doesn't give a damn.

-No, they don't give a fuck. So, um, when I see all that shit I was in Detroit, I have never seen anything like it. Entire areas of where people were living- burnt down, wrecked cars in the streets, like a hundered houses down and one light in one house where still somebody is living- that's not possible in Europe, that's not possible.

-I heard that Detroits annual music festival is held at a place where children and families come at weekends. I asked if it was like a park and he said that there's no nice trees there; it's all concrete.

-But all that is a really good basis for musicians because very interesting music came from Detroit and Chicago even before the techno days, you know. You had Motown, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder- oh my god, you know. I don't know one record I do not like from Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder. There's so much heart in the music, pain, joy, frustration, everything. There's a human behind it. And even if they used electronical equipment- Stevie Wonder was a synthesizer freak, very much. His productions are great. It meant a lot for the black people also, over there. Finally some people who stood up and made it.

-Actually, isn't that the case with the black electronic artists? If the jazz artists was the soul and the name for an entire generation of black people in America, I think Underground Resistance and other Detroit people are really doing the same.

-Yes, but I find it very shit that in the year 2000 we have to discuss about black, white, green, yellow, whatever. That's fucking bullshit, you know. Let's talk about humans and they come in all kind of forms. You have glasses, I don't. You hear maybe better than I do but that doesn't make you better or me better. You have a different color of skin- what the fuck, you know, what the fuck? What is the problem with that?

-It's the people. Some people don't change. You can see that problem in America-

-But you see it everywhere. I see it everywhere, like in Holland, the racism, everybody pretends when they're talking to press or on the street: "No no, my best friend is black". Phhht! Suck my dick, man. And if you meet the people face to face they'll say: "Yeah, yeah, always these black people" or turkish or whatever. What the fuck? What is the fucking problem? Religion, there is nothing so violent as religion. Name any religion and it is more violent than I am or you or whatever. Government, more violent than anything else-

-It always the people I think. When you give-

-No, no, no. They make people like that. Because they-

-When you give the power to them.

-Power to the people? I'm not against that (laughter).

-(Shouts from the background) Power to the people!

-No, I mean power to few people. To persecute others.

-Yeah, but that's the only thing people want- power, in order to get laid (laughter). ?If you have power, you get pussy.

-And money.

-Yeah, but money is power and pussy, pussy, pussy...Hitler, Ronald Reagan, the Pope, it's all about fucking, you know, power.

-That's what we are always trying.

-Change your way of thinking and you probably can accomplish something.

-If people were aiming at some higher cause...

-The higher causes existence? Survival.

-I don't believe in plain survival, eating and fucking-

-But that's not survival, fucking, yeah, okay, you make children in order to survive but I don't fucking... give a fuck about children, you know, as long as I can survive and do my thing and be happy. Why do I need more? More, more, more in order to keep society going- more commercials, advertisments. Pfft!

-One of the problems with USA is cultural colonialism they are pushing. They are giving Coca-cola and Shell to everyone-

-Shell is dutch.

-Is true?

-Yes. The dutch are major imperialists, maybe you didn't know...Africa, Surinam. Some of my family is black because they are from Surinam. They were slaves for dutch propably, ages ago. Well, what the fuck. I want my money now (laughter).

-The colonialism was one of the problems and the problems didn't just cease to exist when the dutch and the british-

-...And the belgians and the french...

-They left so many problems behind and they just don't care as long as they can't get any money out of it. You can see it in the so called peace-keeping operations-

-It's to expand their power, to get more countries selling coca-cola, more countries selling shell gasoline. That's the peace mission- they don't give a fuck about these people in Yugoslavia. Africa, man, it's stolen, dried, there's nothing anymore. People die from hunger. What the fuck? Here in Holland, here in Europe and in the United States we throw every day tons of food away! You know, "I don't want it anymore"! Pprrrttt! Flush it down the toilet. What the fuck is that?!

-Some of my friends go thru garbage cans for food. They are normal people, they just can't accept that people throw so much food away. They can eat all day for little work- and police are harrassing them.

-Yes, but that's the police. The police are fucking robots, they have orders, that's the- by the way, that's what I think are the most dangerous people in the world. People who follow orders, blindly. Police, customs...name them. They are dangerous, not us.

-You can always claim that you are just following orders because someone more intelligent has set the orders-

-Or that it's just my job- I am a robot, I just do my job. What's that?

-Should we talk about electro?

-Okay. (laughter) We are going to hell anyway.

-The next stuff you'll be bringing in, will it be on some Detroit label? You were releasing on Interdimensional Transmissions earlier on...

-Yes, but not anymore.

-Why?

-Because these imperialists don't pay the artists, don't pay respects to the artists. Only out to... get laid. There is no efficiency behind it, it's only words but nothing really is happening. I don't want to blindly stare at electro or techno or just one form of music. I don't like the square mind, you know: "Ah, you are a homosexual? -pprrrt!- I put you in this thing!" "Oh, you like electro? -pprrt!- I put you there!" "You are a homosexual electro...-prrrrt!- I put you there". There we go, black, white...that's that same thing you know, there's music, there's passion for the music and there's commerce.

-I think someone said that music is really the only abstract language that everyone can understand.

-It's communication, it's my way of communicating. If I did not start to make records- I started with techno-acid stuff and good, there is progress, the music changes, that's okay- I would not be here. I would still sit in my house, hating my neighbour, whatever, and not meet the people that I'd need to meet. The people who are like me. Nobody is the same but there is always similarity in things. My vision is that if you like something and you can find it really, wow, you know, but nobody likes it, there is always five hundred other people who like that too. Now you should find them and now, how do you find them? Communication. Music, it helps a great lot. The computers, internet stuff, helps a great lot. That all works together, you can now communicate with someone from Vietnam about that stuff.

-For example, we'd find out about Hotmix on internet.

-But if you'd never heard about Hotmix, you will not find it. Also not on the internet. It's the music that does it, you hear a tune on the radio or in a club and you're "Oh my, what the fuck is this!?". You go ask the dj and it's Alden Tyrell or i-F or whatever. How can I get in contact with them? You pick up your phone, you send a fax or you take your computer and visit the website. The first contact.

-There's a radio in Finland called radio Mafia...

-Cool.

-...and it was the best radio station that was sending really underground stuff. I think everyone here knows that Tohtori Patti's Partyline one -

-Here, you're talking about the radio now. How influencial that is?

-It was very influencial. I mean, everyone was listening to that here.

-Yeah, but that's how I got into the music. Illegal radio stations, every fucking week the police came and took the transmitter but these guys, they bought a new transmitter, put it on the roof of an apartment and they transmitted again. That's how I got into music.

-Tatu: It was great that there was someone playing that music, you know, for us.

-Yeah, same thing in Holland too, it was big part of culture.

-But radio Mafia has gone downhill these days, it's more like Kiss FM now. Most of the goodies have been swept away from the good broadcast hours, John Peels show for example.

-Advertisments, sponsors, money...it's happening everywhere.

-I feel betrayed because we haven't got much to fill the gap. It's just Britney Spears and Rn'B from 9 a.m. on.

-Tatu: Actually it's quite good pop music you know, this Rn'B. Compared to 1996, the european shit, "saturday night-tam tam taa", you know.

-But R'nB, I have a big collection of Rn'B records, but from early eighties. There was some music...

-Tatu: I have to say, this kind of pop music people are doing now is also better than five years ago. Produced better.

-Kimmo: And we have pop-electro-

--like on the latest Madonna-

--french stuff...

-How about that Rn'B, not the eighties stuff but these days?

-Well, I don't buy that. It's shit! It's only produced to generate cash, to be on MTV and to get an MTV award. That's what's fucking going on. The passion for music, you only find it in the underlayers. Not anymore, like in the eighties- here's that eighties again, that inspired me- even the commercial songs in those days! If you listened to the top 40 at least twenty songs were good! Not that I would buy them but you could listen to them. Now there was somebody really making music, that was the eighties. ?But in the same eighties, like after 1985 that changed. The thing about that music was gone. Majors and money took over. That's my idea because I hardly hear a good song on the radio now.

-If you buy techno or electronic music these days you get 99% bad records in your hand. Could it be because more people have possibilities to make music these days?

-No, no, no. It's because we have no choice about music. Like you said, radio Mafia in the old days, they had the good stuff. For us that was the case too, in the Hague. They played all the good underground stuff. That is not anymore. There is no choice anymore; they call it democracy or freedom of choice - ha ha, but it is a joke, man. Freedom of choice is a fucking joke. You can choose between Sony or Phonogram but that's all you can choose. Coca cola or Pepsi cola - you have no choice!

-Your money chooses.

-You must search if you want to find quality now and that goes especially for the music business. You have to search; a lot of people are so comfortable now because we have economical progress booming, money for everyone. People are not going to search for happiness anymore- you can buy it! You can buy happiness in the shop! If you're not happy anymore you can throw it away and you can buy new happiness! Why bother, why search? Why search for quality? Why search for anything deeper? That's it.  ?That's also like I told you how that music existed with Marvin Gaye, the Detroit situation, really fucked up. That's how something like that...starts! But if you are always tended by rich parents, nice life and you start to make music, what kind of music do you think you are going to make? Britney Spears shit, techno shit, trance shit. Why should you bother, why should you look, why should you feel? No...it's better not to feel. It's better to buy and to throw away. Consume. There is nothing we can do about it except keep making the music we like.

-It was one of the happy accidents that we were living in the Turku are because at that time there was the only dedicated recordstore for this kind of music in Finland.

-That can definately help because I was so lucky that I lived in the southwest of Holland where you had that illegal radio station culture that played all the italian shit, all the american underground disco, the electro stuff, later on chicago house- great! That was my luck. If I wouldn't have lived in the north I would probably still sit in a boat or...I dont' know. ?People have certain expectations in things and that's what I fight against, you know? ?Electro; I love electro, but I also love Chicago house. I love Detroit deep house; I love it, there's so much passion in it. There's even New York house I like. I like acid. I'm an idiot! ?I like certain things, you cannot place me in a square. I make electro because I feel like it, it's my roots. I make Cocadisco; what's next? You know, maybe next thing I'll do is producing Britney Spears. Why not? Why should I not do it?

-If Britney likes you do you have any reason not to do it?

-But Britney is like very facinating because I think devil personally sent her. Really, something is not right. When you see this girl- look at it good. There's something really, really scary about it. Really, I'm very facinated by Britney Spears. Oh my god!

-Beneath the thin skin you can see all the commercialism of the american entertainment industry, embodied in one person.

-Yes, that's the devil I guess. The devil is the United States (laughter).

-It's midnight hour.

-Have you ever been to Oktoberfest? That's like the devil too. All these germans standing on beertables, singing songs...that's how Hitler got big, in the Bierstugen. All the drunk guys, he had speeches for them like "everything that's different sucks, it sucks" and all the germans went "heeyyy"!

-"More beer"!

-(laughter) That's how he started, that's facism. Drunk men and politics.

-If you give people what they want-

-No, why would I do that?

-No, what I mean is if you do give the people what they want they'll be happy and you can make loads of money. Or gain power.

-I love to make it difficult for myself, because tonight maybe you'll be very disappointed. But that's okay. In two years you will realize what has happened- that I never disappointed any freak so far. But that's always what I hate, all these expectations. That you have to do certain thing that people expect. Why should I do it? I'm not a slave. I'm like an independent unit-

-Artist? Would you call it art?

-I think it's art. The art of dance music, the art of electronical music. It is very underestimated.

-If you're doing art, it's expressing-

-Music is energy, music is power. If you don't feel the power- then it's not for you. That's my thing you know. That's power. I give that energy in that way. My communication, my pain, my frustration, my joy, my happiness. Everything is in that shit I play man! In the records I play, in the music I make; I'm convinced of what I do.

-If you know what you're doing and trust yourself there can be twenty people coming to you after gig and asking why are you playing this shit. You don't have to care about it because you know that you are right. They don't know it.

-I have this big...how do you call it, the extra protective layer on your hands? I have that on my soul now. You cannot hurt me with that because I'm definately on somekind of a mission. I don't know from who, I don't know why and I really don't care about it. But I'm convinced of one thing: I have to do this. I have to, this is the only thing I'm good at. So why do something else? ?I've had so many fucking shitjobs, man, years ago. Like what the fuck, being exploited by some fucking asshole boss for a few guilders or marks a month. Pfft! I can make the same money by sleeping all day now. So why should I become a slave of society? No way.

-It's the expectations...

-Don't expect anything, just open yourself and...enjoy the ride.

-Enjoy the music.

-Definately. That's it, that's what this is all about. ?  ?