All language subtitles for Never.Stop.Music.That.Resists.2017.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-TEPES

(film reel clicking)

(driving techno music)

♪ Techno city ♪

♪ Oh techno city ♪

♪ Walks upon planet ♪

♪ That modern man ♪

♪ We try to understand ♪

♪ What's the master plan ♪

♪ What's the master plan ♪

♪ Possible plan ♪

♪ What's the master plan ♪

(ethereal techno music)

- [DJ Electrifying Mojo]
When there will be no one

to blame but yourself.

The time has come and we
must take responsibility

for your own success or your own failure.

Knock down your own barriers.

Another page from the book
called the mental machine.

There will always be people
standing in your way.

There will always be people
setting up roadblocks.

There will always be
people who put barriers

in your way.

On the other hand, there
will be other people

getting out of your way
when they see you coming.

There will be other people
removing roadblocks.

- There was a DJ on the
radio named Electrifying Mojo

who was very iconic and
this was when FM radio

was in it's infancy stage.

Like in the mid-70s, they started FM

and Mojo happened to
get recruited by 107.5,

which was WGPR.

He must've came on around 1977

and there was only two
other radio stations

on the whole FM bandwidth.

And after riot state,

the government had to
make a lot more things

kind of accessible to urban or black youth

or black people period.

And so I guess this was kind
of a bone that was thrown

to black community, this radio station.

So Mojo came on and it was no format

because this was FM and it was all new.

It was like people just on the radio

doing whatever they wanted.

And Mojo was on every night, weeknight,

from 10 p.m. to three a.m.,

every weeknight, Monday through Friday.

He was off on weekends,

but he definitely had a
huge impact on Detroit

and actually, eventually,
the whole nation,

because there was no other
radio station or other DJ

in the whole country that was
doing what Mojo was doing.

- [DJ Mojo] Yes, there
will be other people

knocking down barriers.

Remember, the tallest barrier
that will ever by around you

is the barrier that you erect.

The tallest person that
will ever stand in your way

is the person that you look
at in the mirror every day.

Knock down your own barriers
and the others will disappear.

Another page from the book
called The Mental Machine.

- One thing about American radio,

everything is so separated.

You got the rock stations,
you got the urban stations.

Basically white and black stations,

country, classical,
everything is separated.

And this was the first
kind of DJ or radio station

that was played our record first

because he had that much power.

And anything he played,
especially from a new artist,

he's the one that broke Prince here.

And it was like people
thought we were from Europe

and it's like no, we from right here.

And it was like a smash success.

(upbeat keyboard-based hip hop music)

The height of the Industrial Revolution,

the height of industrial age.

I mean Detroit was a big place, man,

'cause the car industry was booming,

jobs and unions and auto
unions and things were forming.

Then when industry came to a close,

of course the city kind of went down.

I think a lot of good music

and a lot of great art and creativity

comes from depressed
and stressful situations

and I think the city of Detroit

is very instrumental in my development.

I don't think I could've
developed the same way

in any other city.

(birds chirping)

(plane roaring)

In 1980, I was 17 years
old and I met Rick Davis,

who became my partner in Cybertron.

We started a group called
Cybertron around '81.

But my most progress
happened before I even

before I met Rick,

which is the other half of Cybertron.

Before I ever, I mean I was
still a senior in high school

and this was the time when I
was sitting at home everyday.

When I got home from
school, tinkering with,

I think I had a Korg MS10 synthesizer

that I talked my Grandmom

into buying me for Christmas one year.

These days after days
and hours after hours

I was working on this Korg MS10.

It's probably the most in my entire life,

entire career, was the
most productive period.

And I brung these demos that I was making

with this Korg MS10 to class,

'cause I was taking all
music courses and everything.

And everybody in the
class loved these demos

and everybody wanted to hook up with me

because of that.

And Rick was the only one that I knew

that was working with
synthesizers and sequencers.

So like that's the guy
I want to hook up with.

But he had a record out
already called Methane Sea

and his label was called Deep Sea Records.

When we hooked up,

we made our first record made together

was called Cosmic Rain Dance

and this was around the end of 1980.

And so later on we did Alleys of Your Mind

and we released it on our own label,

which of course I got the idea from him.

And so this is what sparked the idea

to start Deep Space Records

and release this record
that we made together.

It was definitely, it was very early on

and it was definitely a new thing for me

because no one ever knew

that you could release
your own record, you know?

(hypnotic electronic music)

When I was in high school I took a class

called Future Studies because
I was always interested

in futuristic and technology
and stuff like this

so I thought this was
a cool course to take.

And basically what it was
was studying how the future

would impact society and life.

So the reference book in that class

was called Future Shock by Alvin Toffler.

One of the things that he talked about

how white collar jobs will probably

move more like work out of your home.

They call it the techno village

and then there was another
concept that he discussed

about how cities, like
Detroit and Chicago,

would grow so big that
they would eventually

become one city.

And what they called

that the Detroit Chicago
Metroplex or Metro Complex.

And so basically that's
where the name came from.

Combining two major
cities to become one city

and call it a Metroplex.

(hypnotic electronic music)

(machine humming)

Basically what you do is
that you record your music

down to two track tape.

And then we would send
the tape to get mastered.

And then what they do
is they make a lacquer

and then they make
plates from this lacquer.

They take this lacquer
and literally dip it

in liquid metal and
when the metal hardens,

the grooves are in the metal.

And they peel it off and
make stampers out of this

and it literally what it does
is it stamps the record out.

And they send it to the pressing
plant and it stamps out.

So because it's hot when they stamp that

and they need the right kind
of paper that doesn't' bleed,

the ink doesn't bleed,

I can remember this vividly.

He had to tell me what kind of paper,

so I had to go to the paper
store and buy this paper

for these labels.

And take them to the printing.

First couple of times it
wasn't the right paper

so I had to go back and
find the right paper

and then we had to print
on one side of the paper,

'cause this special paper
was glossy on one side

and flat on the other.

So you had to make sure
that it was printed

on the proper side.

So we had to go through that process,

but after a while, I became an expert

on finding the right paper and the ink.

And then I had to take them to Archer,

which is the pressing plant in Detroit.

So that's the whole process.

And after you get your
physical records made,

then because Mojo was playing the record,

we getting calls from all
the local record stores

that wanted to get the record in.

So we literally put the boxes of records

and drove to all the stores

and put records in the
stores here in Detroit.

And it was just a Detroit
record at the time

but eventually, it got popular.

And then we moved out to Cleveland

and then we got picked up
by a bigger record company

that was able to put the
records out nationwide.

(intense electronic music)

♪ Sitting in my car ♪

♪ Driving very far ♪

♪ Traveling oughta know ♪

♪ Far away from home ♪

♪ The music's playing loud ♪

♪ I'm (mumbles) ♪

♪ Stepping on the gas ♪

♪ Sending way too fast ♪

I mean let's face it.

This is the top of the pyramid

in terms of capitalism,
commercialism, sales, profits.

You know, that's, America
basically invented that almost.

So it's like by everything
here being so predicated

on selling and
commercialism and, you know,

it's just there's no
room for true innovation

because bottom line is the bottom line

and a lot of the major
companies and music companies,

it's not about the music.

It's about the bottom line.

(birds chirping)

Our second record, Cosmic Cars,

we released the record in '82.

The record, of course it was
taking off here in the city

and it was this WCHB chart based on sales.

And they also played
records based on sales.

So this chart, when our
record, Cosmic Cars came out,

we went to number one.

On that same chart that week,

Little Red Corvette by
Prince was number two

and the major labels were upset

because this little independent,
little company from nowhere

is number one.

And here is an artist that's on,

I think he was on Warner Brothers,

with all of the major resources behind it.

And here's the number two.

So this is why this
number is sitting up here

and Prince is number two,

because things are changing.

This is like a new sound come in.

But of course, the major companies,

they were really upset by that.

This is nothing that they wanted to see.

(moody electronic music)

♪ I'm driving in the back on black ♪

♪ Yeah black for sure night before ♪

♪ Guilty fate ♪

♪ To live more ♪

♪ (Mumbles) ♪

♪ Metro times ♪

♪ They smacked me ♪

♪ The shadows sometimes space ♪

After our first record,

anybody that bought that record also

was wondering like I want
to do the same thing.

Kevin and Derek and people
that were my closest friends.

When they saw the success

and girls wanted to go out with me,

they wanted the same thing.

All of my closest friends
saw this stuff firsthand,

so of course, they started making music.

So now, instead of one
record, Alleys of Your Mind,

now you got four or five
records to choose from.

People who comin' in record
store don't have a fortune.

They not gonna necessarily
buy all four or five.

So that's the first thing that happened.

And of course, that didn't
stay with just us three.

All of a sudden it just
snowballed nationwide

so you got different DJs and
producers all over the country

making records.

So eventually the
competition just expanded

and that was probably
one of the main things

that will reduce your sales right off.

And then not only

was it the competition
affecting each other's sales,

it was affecting the major
record labels sales as well.

So they thought they would
develop this concept,

this format, that when
the CD first came out

it wasn't like you could go,

like when you press a record,

you could just go the pressing plant

and press a record.

It was virtually
impossible for independent

to make an actual CD.

So they tried to kill the
independent vinyl market

with the CD.

("Clear" by Cybotron)

♪ Clear clear ♪

♪ Clear clear ♪

♪ On display ♪

♪ Clear on display ♪

♪ Clear today ♪

♪ Clear today ♪

♪ Clear your mind ♪

♪ Clear your mind ♪

♪ Clear ♪

♪ Clear ♪

(birds chirping)

- Juan had this idea when we
were just 14, 15 years old,

that he was gonna one
day have a record label

and call it Metroplex records.

He hadn't even made his first record yet

but he knew one day he was gonna do that.

And once he finally did,

I was more less his protege.

He was my friend, I was
there for whatever he needed,

but I sort of put myself
in the position of protege.

And I watched him run his record label,

go to the record pressing
plant, press the records,

design the labels and get the artwork done

and mix the record, send it
off to the pressing plant.

Everything, I watched the whole process.

So I realized it was
feasible, it was possible

to do it as well.

But at the time when I first
started trying to make music

and Juan was there as my counsel,

I got to the point where
I felt like I knew enough

that I didn't want to
be counseled anymore.

I didn't feel like waiting.

It's typical.

It happens for the mentor and the protege.

It just happens.

And that was really my motivation

to starting my own record label.

And with Juan, of course I
wasn't just going to break away,

'cause he's my friend.

So I decided to call the label Transmat

because he had made a song
called, "Night Drive."

And in the song Rick Davis
is saying in the lyrics,

time, space, transmat.

And that's where it came from.

And of all my records on the
Matrix inside the record,

it says MS1, MS2, MS3, MS4,

on and on to each record.

Well basically the MS stands
for Metroplex Subsidiary.

It is completely a tribute
to Juan that I do that.

I wouldn't imagine ever changing that.

That would be there in forever.

(ominous electronic music)

The success that Juan received so fast,

it was incredible.

The amount of records he was able to sell

and how he was able to really
inspire a complete movement,

especially in the Detroit area,

I mean without a doubt.

After Juan had so much of a
response and immediate success

and appreciation,

and no one knew his face.

They knew his music but not his face.

There was no media blitz.

There was no television interviews.

There was no music magazines
that were celebrating Juan.

It was a few small reviews

but the music was just
a magnanimous success

in the community.

And it just inspired and
fueled this thing in me

and Kevin and everybody else.

Knowing how to do it,
knowing the business,

understanding the marketing
and the strategizing

and the developing of
it, we didn't get it.

We didn't understand that part of it.

We just thought you make a
great record and you put it out.

Now the romantic part of that

is that it was the truth.

It was the absolute truth
of the matter back then.

It was always made to seem so difficult

to put your own music out
and you need a record label.

You need to go to Warner Brothers,

or you need to go to Geffen
Records or Sire Records

back at the time.

And that was our original ambitions.

But when record companies
finally did call us,

they weren't calling us
to put our records out.

They were calling us to make
other people's records better

so they could put 'em out.

We felt left out.

We felt resentment.

We felt rejected

and I think that fueled this
sort of eternal fire in us

that made us feel that we had
more to prove to ourselves

than to anybody else.

(edgy electronic music)

("Strings of Life" by Derrick May)

Today's technology makes
it very simple for anybody

to make music.

I'm not trying to take anything away

from any kind of artist period.

But it is of a totally
different nature now

than it was.

We took time to program your sounds

and to really develop your own algorithms

and to customize the keyboard to the point

where it was a signature of you.

Almost like you were
signing on a piece of paper.

This was your sound.

This was your personality.

This was your identity.

I was always a DJ as a kid
but I wasn't playing records.

When I first made my
record, I did (mumbles).

Clubs were not paying
for international DJs.

It was an ideology that
just did not exist.

So the dedication to
making the music was easy.

You just stayed home and you just worked.

I'll never forget the first
time somebody asked me

to play records.

I was in London and I got
a call from my manager

who was in Birmingham, England.

And he called me and said,

"Derrick, there's a club
down in London called Heaven

"and they want to know would
you like to play some records?"

I said, "What?

"Play records?"

I had never ever been a guest
DJ in a nightclub before.

I didn't even have a record bag.

There was no record bags.

There was no record bags.

You know?

It was a few record boxes
but there was no record bags

and there was none of that.

It didn't exist.

So the first days were incredible

and they were also distracting,

because here you were able to make money

for doing something that you truly loved

as well as making music.

But you made it ever
easier than making music.

So it just became easy money in a sense.

Fun and easy money,

which is probably one
of the biggest problems

with the DJ world now.

Most of these guys are not DJs anyway.

That's another story.

(siren blaring)

I don't travel in America.

I maybe play in America five times a year.

I play in Europe maybe 300 times a year.

That means flying back
and forth from Detroit.

Staying over extra days in Europe.

Missing time away from home.

Constantly in hotels.

Dealing with different
clubs, different promoters.

Meeting people every single week.

It's a lot of work.

And you need to love
what you do at this point

or you can't do it.

(birds chirping)

I didn't ever stop wanting to sell records

and stop wanting to look for new talent.

But I shut the record
company down in a sense

because I was disgusted
with what was happening

with the vinyl movement.

I was disgusted where record stores

were disappearing left and right.

And I felt that people
were moving too fast away

from a generation of people
that enjoy buying records,

enjoyed listening to music,

just to accommodate a group of people

that nobody knew would buy music yet.

I mean, I don't blame Mr. Napster.

I don't blame any of those people

that tried to introduce a new
format to the music industry.

I blame the music industry
for not paying attention

and laughing,

because that, once again,
we're not even part

of a major record label.

We're not even working with
major record companies.

We're not even involved with them.

But yet what they did

and the way they handled that situation

affected everybody.

It had a resounding loud big bang effect

on everyone in the music industry.

To the point where record
stores just collapsed.

The music industry just
collapsed on top of itself.

And it really was disgusting
to watch it happen.

A lot of talented people just
fell out of the business.

Lost their lives.

Musicians left and right
lost opportunities.

So it was, to watch one
level of it fall down

and another level of it slowly rise

definitely gave me the attitude

where I didn't want to be
a part of it for a while.

So it was about three to four years

that I decided to bring the label back.

And just sort of slowly developed things.

(experimental electronic music)

(bricks falling)

(machine running)

(machine beeping)

(house falling)

(wood crunching)

And why would a city like Detroit

fuel such a futuristic vision
of what music should be?

Or what it would be?

What caused that and how
are we somehow be able

to interact with the world with the music?

That is why we have this thing
that we call Detroit techno,

which has cultivated and
recultivated and recultivated

to something now that
yeah, it's outta control.

It's all over the world.

It's mutated into good and bad and ugly.

But it comes from here

and the origins of it are still here

and the people that made it are still here

and thriving and doing well.

Detroit is unique for this.

It's like a creative pool
that was left untouched.

It's this sort of, it's like a rainforest

of electronic music.

Like all the stars came
together, like click!

And here we all are together.

Now will this ever happen again?

I can't tell you (laughs).

Say la vie, huh?

(wipers wiping)

- The surroundings
definitely impact your being,

your personality.

At least in my music my
feelings going towards

like growing up in the hood

and all of Detroit became
pretty much the hood.

This dead building that's there

and nothing's gonna happen to it.

It's just gonna end up getting
worse and worse and worse.

And unless you can do something about it

then you can.

And like Derrick and Stace
and Kevin and Kenny and I

have all had these
conversations over the years

about how Detroit can be better.

And we have these grand
ideas of what could be done,

but it comes down to
that we took those ideas

of what we could do with the future

and earn money in a way
that we know how to,

which is by DJing, traveling,
running our labels and stuff.

And try to beautify Detroit in our ways

of how people perceive Detroit
from the outside (laughs).

And if my children are going
to be in Detroit as adults,

then I'd like for them to have a place

that feel like a metropolis.

It's like Chicago has been
for all my life (laughs).

Or New York and Manhattan.

Detroit has that possibility

but then we had 30 years off (laughs).

And now we've got it coming back.

(truck beeping)

(children yelling)

(futuristic electronic music)

(children laughing)

By the negative thing that's
happened by the riots,

I think something really
amazing and positive

came from it which is that Detroit

became one of the really
first black cities,

and it taught that
empowerment that you feel

that you can do your business
and be strong during it.

You feel like there's
something that's backing you up

in relation to it.

Whether it's the legacy of Motown

or whether it's just this kind of you know

that everybody around you is grinding

and they're trying to do things that are,

you know, the good people
are trying to do good things.

The bad people you trying
to stay out of the way.

(children singing)

(people chatting)

- [Man] Okay, (mumbles).

(synthesizer playing)

(dramatic orchestral music)

I started Planet E

because I needed my own
creative independence.

When I was doing music for Transmat

and learning under Derrick,

I think I learned a lot
about independence from him.

And that's how I started Planet E.

I just so happened to be
watching a documentary

on the moon landing.

As I'm watching the movie,

a radio discussion between the astronauts

and ground control.

It's like, okay, communication.

Planet Earth seemed like
it was obvious to me

but I like to be a little
vague about things.

So I just used E for Earth

and I think that it worked out

to my benefit as well,

because it let people's
imaginations go wild.

So I would get people
asking me what E meant.

If E meant a drug of if you meant Earth

or if you meant something else.

And my answer was always it means

whatever you want it to mean.

(hypnotic electronic music)

When I'm in the studio on my own

I can listen to a loop of the same thing

for eight hours, no problem.

And just makin' little tweaks
and doing little things there

to try to delve into what
I'm doing and feeling.

As the loop is playing I'm
hearing different things happen.

It can be a form of
meditation in some ways.

It just depends on if you're
listening to it clinically,

or if you're listening to it spiritually.

It is a trance, it's a meditation

that's happening when I can
get spiritually into it.

But people aren't gonna appreciate

standing in front of me for eight hours

playing the same loop (laughs).

So I have to be a little more
active about what I'm playing

and how I'm playing it to the people

so they can at least appreciate what I do.

(rhythmic repetitive electronic music)

(whistling)

Of course now after all these years

there's so many elements that

are involved in running a label

that goes far beyond what have ever

had the capacity of doing,

but you really need a big corporation

in order to do what Warner and Def Jam

and all these labels
have done over the years.

In Detroit, we've pretty much
mastered the boutique label

and everyone here in Detroit
runs their own label.

And I was fortunate to
walk into the business

at a time when Detroit records
were selling quite well

and there were some good distributors.

And we could sell a ton of records

through one or two avenues.

Of course when the sales
started decreasing,

with vinyl especially

and the file sharing thing and whatever,

it became more difficult
to navigate that path.

And with what we've
been able to do online,

it's been great because you
open people's eyes to it

and they can get to us a lot easier.

But unfortunately the numbers
aren't nearly the same

for the kind of things that we do

as when you have the record in a store

and somebody gets it and they go,

okay, this is something that's special.

I see that it's marble color vinyl.

You know, I see that these guys took time

to pay attention to it and
the music's quite interesting.

But then that you're fighting

against so many other products out there

that are being made so fast

that you can download so easily.

In many cases you can download for free.

Haven't been able to
find an optimal advantage

of selling over the internet

versus what we had been
doing with distributors.

But when you're an artist run label,

you have that commodity that
you can go out on the road.

You can sell what you do in another way.

(ethereal electronic music)

(ethereal electronic music)

The U.S. is a rock'n'roll society.

In the U.S. we had
disco (mumbles) movement

that was around the time
of, peak of disco music.

And there was never that in Europe.

I believe that it was easier for Europeans

to hear house music and techno music

and say okay, I get it,

in comparison to U.S. people.

When it was happening,
they were like, oh yeah,

this is just disco music.

You know, disco music is ah, ah, sucks.

Give me rock and roll all day long,

you know, that kind of thing.

So it's made it difficult to
have a great representation

of electronic music in the United States.

(people speaking in French)

And then as time went on
and where the DJ came in

was the DJ played the music

that was already
prerecorded for the people.

And then it became improvising on top

so whether it would be an MC

that would talk over the top of the record

or someone scratching on the record.

So then it became more of
an ownership of the style

by the DJ.

And now the way DJing
is is that many a times,

people are making new things live as a DJ

in the same way as someone
would do in the studio.

- [Man] Here?

- I think a lot of people
don't quite understand

because it's like oh well,

you're playing somebody
else's music as a DJ

but when I remix a track,

I didn't write the track,

so I'm actually playing their music.

I'm just creating something on top.

And now DJing has probably
become more of a live remix.

So maybe that's what I
should go by instead of DJ

is just remixer, you know?

'Cause I do that onstage as
well as I do that in the studio.

(upbeat electronic dance music)

♪ Hey you ♪

♪ What's your plan for tonight ♪

(driving electronic dance music)

(hypnotic electronic music)

(mysterious electronic music)

- The social history and
the atmosphere in Detroit

had always been very
different, very special

from other cities.

It was really unique that young kids

would be able to have
their own type of party,

to socialize amongst themselves.

And so for me, I started
going out regularly I suppose

by maybe the age of 11 or 12.

And my older brothers
and sisters did the same

but at different type
of levels of parties.

And my parents also did the same.

We were listening to any and everything.

It was strange.

At certain songs that would
make everybody excited.

I don't know why that was.

And some things were often
influenced by movies.

The American Gigalo was a
really influential film.

And very much connected to Detroit techno

that people wanna mention.

But that was a very influential film

and the Eyes of Laura Mars,

that was also an influential film.

So we would listen to the
soundtracks of those films

and researched to find out who made it.

Sometimes it was Giorgio Moroder,

sometimes it was some other producer

and we would play this
music at these parties.

And it was kind of shaping
a certain type of mentality.

A certain type of, we felt
that we were kind of moving

out of Detroit and out of the soul,

the very typical soul music influence

and moving up and out into
other realms of music.

And this was also reinforced by Mojo

was also doing the same on the radio.

So we thought that what we were doing

was really cutting edge.

♪ What is the DJ if he can't scratch ♪

♪ Scratch scratch ♪

(lively upbeat electronic music)

♪ What is ♪

♪ What is ♪

♪ What is ♪

♪ What is ♪

♪ What is ♪

♪ What is ♪

♪ What is a DJ if he can't scratch ♪

♪ I can do it all baby just like that ♪

(lively upbeat electronic music)

♪ Clap your hands ♪

Well for me to start running
an independent label,

it started a few years

before forming the Underground Resistance.

Tony Schrock and me, we got
together to form a label

called Full Effect Records

and that experience was bad.

So that led me to rethink the idea

of purpose of having a label

and I met Mike and got to
forming Underground Resistance.

So it didn't take very
long to get started.

Many people are connected
to the music industries.

And all these engineers
were still in the city.

We could master the record
and press the record

in our own city.

That was something that was quite special

and we thought we should
take advantage of, you know?

But once we pressed the record
and we get the copies here,

then what do we do with it?

How do we get this record to
the record shop in Germany?

Or how do we get this
record shopped in Japan?

How do we, we didn't know
anything about distribution.

So we, Mike and I took a few trips down

to speak to Juan and then
we went to Derrick's,

Derrick May's place.

And asked them how do you do that?

So they told us as much as they could,

so we said okay, where do
we find distributors from?

So what I did, I went to the library

and found a directory
of all the distributors

in the country of music,

which was about at the time,

about 500 distributors of music.

And wrote a letter to 500 distributors

and hoped that we'd get a response

from the ones that were
interested in the music

that we were making.

About 20 replied back.

(soothing electronic music)

Then I decided to leave
Underground Resistance

because of an offer to move to New York

to be a resident at a big
club called the Limelight.

This was around 1992.

That was when I started Axis Records.

And then I realized
that it wasn't one label

that I really wanted to create.

But it was actually various labels

and be more active and
not feel so confined

to one particular sound
if I had multiple labels

to work on consistently.

And so I ended up turning
to be four labels.

So the first label which was called Axis,

the first point, was to be music that

would be designed for you to think about.

For you to listen and to
you to absorb mentally.

The second label was to
be designed almost solely

for the physical aspect of it.

So really dance music and
that was called Purpose Maker.

And the third label was
dedicated to conceptual work

and that label was called Tomorrow.

Everything on this label would
be pertaining to the future

and future works and future ideas.

And then the fourth label I left open.

(dramatic electronic music)

I'm gonna try to interpret what I see

on this vinyl record here.

And so looks like the first song begins

with obviously more than one instrument.

The band, but not the full band,

meaning that that's probably
some type of introduction part.

But then about two and a half minutes in,

I see one groove,

which means that it's
probably a solo instrument

that's playing without the
backing of the orchestra.

Then it goes to a break.

It looks like a percussion
break or somethin'.

And then it breaks down
to a sole instrument,

which leads to another chorus part,

short chorus part and then
another single instrument

to another chorus part,
a little bit longer.

So it's important to know
how to read the grooves

on vinyls when there's no map.

You have to know when
things are gonna happen.

That's the important
thing when you're a DJ

because you know that
you've got about a minute

before something's gonna happen

and you can get another song in.

(lively jazz music)

♪ Who's nip are you ♪

♪ If you are not a reality ♪

♪ Whose nip are you ♪

♪ If you are not a nip ♪

♪ Whose reality are you ♪

♪ If you are not a reality ♪

♪ Whose nip are you ♪

Throughout that whole dark
time in the record industry

I decided that if my company,

if Axis is going to survive,

I need to find another
reason to make music.

I need to find other ways
to release vinyl records

or CDs or whatever.

I needed to change the parameters

in which the label functions.

And so before that
collapse really happened,

I was of course very conscious
of what people were saying

and what they were saying
about digital file sharing.

How great it was.

You could have 10,000
tracks all in one file

and you don't need to
buy anything anymore.

So I had begun to think
about what I should do.

And one thing that I did was

I had figured that we
had arrived at a point

where there were a certain
amount of collectors.

So guys, people that
loved electronic music

but loved it much more
than the average person.

The ones that would not buy one copy,

but would buy two

because they didn't want
to open the second copy.

Or people that really looked
at and read the information

on the album covers
and looked at the label

for any clue of any message or anything.

So I decided that the
label should focus more

on those type of people.

So some releases we decided not
to press thousands of units,

but only hundreds.

In some cases, only a box of 25,

and we would tell the distributor
you can only have two.

And you choose the two best people

that come into your shop
and you sell it to them.

And so we had different variations

of the quantities of
music that we were doing.

Which was making the
music even more special

and it was the bottom line
at the end of the year

that we calculated and we end
up making actually more money

doing it that way.

And we were changing the parameters

of advertising a release

but advertising the concept
of why the release exists

in the first place.

So the subject is about Orion stars.

That's a story and that
project consisted of a vinyl,

it consists of a book,

it consists of other things.

But what you're buying is not a 12 inch.

What you're buying is
actually the concept of Orion.

And so we were changing the narrative

of what an independent label should do.

(ominous music)

One project called The Sleeper Wakes,

and the Sleeper Wakes is
a science fiction story

that I wrote and each
chapter of the story,

we play out in an album form.

In one was a project about a
story called Jungle Planet.

And so in the story
there is a flat land area

which was kind of populated by animals,

but these are not your typical animals.

These were things that were
of a shape of a black cube.

This idea of rethinking what animals are

was how I used this to create this cube.

And the cube is what
we used as the format,

install the music in,

that the person buying
it would actually have.

So it's not just the music,

but you would then have
the pet from the story.

(frantic electronic music)

Another chapter is called
Emerging Crystal Universe

that will be the symbol
of the changing of time.

If you buy this album, if you
buy this unit, this record,

and view this crystal that's
embedded inside of it,

you will see the change of the universe.

(futuristic electronic music)

I'm not convinced that I'm only supposed

to do one type of thing,

or a few types of things.

I'm more convinced that I should be able

to do whatever I want at
any time, for any reason.

And I don't need to tell you or explain.

That's the freedom I think I have,

not being connected to a company or anyone

that's gonna tell me,

that's the beauty of being an independent.

And being an independent artist

and so using all the freedom that you have

to be able to do anything you want.

And so I think I'm just practicing

with the freedom that I've been given

by not signing my signature
and name on someone's contract.

And I can walk out of here
and create 18 labels tomorrow

and okay (laughs),

it's completely valid and
if I can produce the music

for 18 labels, done.

And the result of that, I don't know.

I don't care 'cause next week
I'm gonna make 24 labels.

And then I'm gonna quit the week after

and go play, be a
professional tennis player.

(ethereal futuristic music)