We are honoured to have been given the chance to conduct this short interview with one of electronic music’s most formidable artists: Laurel Halo. Her music is conceptual, experimental and award winning. Machines are the vehicle for her creative expression, the product of which references the colder side of eighties synth-pop, and partners it with the bass-heavy techno sound of the 2010s. Her resulting aesthetic is devious, dark and sublime.
As well as courting abstraction, the Michigan-born producer is right at home in the familiar setting of a club. In Wire later this month, she will be warming up for Marcel Dettmann with Call Super and Objekt as part of the techno leg of RBMA’s series of Leeds events. We had a quick word with her.
Your recent interview with Truants focussed on your live performances, but I would like to ask you about DJing. You will be doing just that when you come to Wire for one of our biggest parties in recent years. I’m interested in whether you see yourself as a party person, or if you consider your work as a DJ as part of your artistry. Do you find yourself playing party sets?
I can be a party person – I go through long phases of being a hermit and not wanting to be in clubs, because I’m already playing in clubs often enough, but it’s also good to go out and dance and soak up that energy. When DJing I want to make people actually go for it, not just step in time to the beat! Radio shows are where you can stretch out but club sets I’m basically playing what I’d want to be dancing to, unless I’m doing a warmup set in which case it’s more about setting a mood for the evening. It is all part of a process though – selecting is endless and daunting but I’m also looking forward to being in my 50s and knowing music better than I know it now. I’m always finding tracks that are inspiring me and my own craft as a musician.
Do you collect vinyl records? Is there anything intrinsically better about collecting records that digital files?
I do, although this year it’s slowed down a bit cause I had to spend money on gear so not as much could go to record shopping. I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically better about collecting records. Maybe it’s more fun to go to a record store and see what you’ll be able to dig up, but I buy lots of digital tracks too and sitting at home with my cat and plants and finding incredible music online works just fine. I guess I’m buying more LPs when record shopping because I like listening to records at home. I do enjoy picking up the thing and checking out the liner notes and artwork up close, and the rush when a cheap record turns out to be amazing or when you find something special – but none of this is essential to the actual enjoyment of listening to the music.
How does DJing compare to a live performance in terms of enjoyment? Are you able to connect with a crowd through live performances like you can with a DJ set? Is there less of a barrier between crowd and performer when DJing?
These days I enjoy DJing about the same as playing live. They’re just different things – the live set unfortunately always becomes more of an event which I don’t like, but I know the contours of my own music better. It is more relaxed and fun to DJ because there’s fewer hangups about people watching you and it being your own music.
Most of your productions are not club tools. When you make music, do you do it with a listening setting in mind? Do you enjoy the freedom of being able to make music and select music differently?
With my own music I like making music more for specific settings, like car rides, getting ready to go out with your friends, staying in and getting stoned, being in your own world on a walk in a park in the fall, or in the city during a night rain, but usually I’m not thinking ‘will this work in a club?’. It’s freeing although that’s obviously no diss on making club tracks – I love that process too, I just haven’t done it as often. I think people should be able to play what they want and not get typecast based on their releases or where they come from. Traxx is a classic DJ who can play actually whatever he wants and it will go off regardless. Scratcha and Ikonika also are incredible at switching up sounds and just effortlessly taking the audience with.
Coming from Michigan, but living in Berlin, how important is early Detroit techno to your experience as a musician? What was your most important musical influence growing up?
I grew up with that music, but in a passive way – it was on the radio, and I went to DEMF/Movement as a teenager. Of course it was eye opening and special to be able to experience Detroit techno firsthand but it wasn’t til I got to college or so that I got deeper into it. I did see Magda play there when I was young and I remembered that it was encouraging to see her up there playing in front a huge crowd, like if she’s up there doing this I could try this one day, even though I filed that thought under the pointless fantasy category for several years in my head. Maybe it is just about seeing other women up there that will encourage more young girls to go for it. Around that same time I was starting to get into Ghostly and Spectral and discovering a lot of great music from Ann Arbor too, like Matt Dear/Audion, Dabrye/JTC, although lacking social skills at the time I never had the right mindset to get properly involved. Maybe it’s a girl guy thing too, feeling intimidated to enter that scene, I’m not sure. When I got to college I started experimenting with loops and my friends would encourage me to just try out making this music that we would go out and dance to.
I see that you played in Detroit quite recently. What is the party/music scene like there at the moment? For many young people in the UK, it is hard to get a true picture of what the city is like because of their romanticisms as well as a lack of documentation.
I’m not sure if I’m qualified to speak on Detroit cause I don’t live there, but the friends that do say that the scene is getting busier and more active all the time, new venues have opened up and it’s becoming more of a city that touring artists actually go to these days, rather than just skipping it and heading straight for Chicago or New York. It seems as if it’s still a very small scene though and that for the timebeing techno is a bigger export than import.
How do you spend you time outside of music? Do you ever feel like switching off from life as a producer-DJ?
Apart from bursts of creativity I am a normal person most of the time! I read a lot, go to the gym, visit with friends, hang out with my cat, take care of my plants, go out, stay in, whatever.
You were recently released on Honest Jon’s. Was it quite an honour to become part of their roster? I consider any artist on that label to be somewhat immortalised.
It was cool they wanted to do the record yeah! I sent them the demos not expecting they’d be into it but I’m happy they were.
Finally, have you been to Leeds before? Do you like playing in the UK?
I have not! I’ve played in Liverpool, Sheffield and Manchester but never in Leeds. For the most part I really enjoy playing in the UK, audiences are open-minded, up for mutations and weird directions in sound and just dancing in general. The UK is also one of the most important sites for the evolution of electronic music in the entire world, but hey, no pressure!
Oliver Walkden
