story by Noah Levine
Techno kingpin Michael Mayer found himself in an unfamiliar position
while playing records in Belgium for a crowd of 8,000 fans last year.
Mayer, a man who's so deep into DJing that he views almost everything
around him as an element to be mixed, was struggling to engage the
crowd with his music. Of course, he was trying to play on a pair of
damaged turntables with needles that refused to stay in their groves
and a sound system suffering from feedback troubles. You see, it takes
problems of this magnitude to keep Mayer from winning people over
with the seductively minimal techno and house music that he so deftly
spins and writes. For Mayer, the art of mixing is at the heart of
things, and this keeps him close to his turntables and to music as
often as possible.
"It's like a substantial need," Mayer said while recently
talking with Chicago Innerview from the offices of Kompakt, the legendary
Cologne, Germany-based music conglomeration that he somehow finds
the time to head up between his numerous DJ gigs.
Raised in the southwest of Germany, Mayer was hooked on the idea
of DJing when he first heard someone mixing at the age of 14. After
getting his start throwing parties and spinning for his friends at
school, Mayer landed his first club job when he was 18 and really
started to view mixing as a career possibility when he moved to Cologne
in 1992.
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MAYER'S INNER VIEW
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"When I like a track it has something
very personal, very unmistakable. You have to feel the
person behind it."
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A year later Mayer was working at the Delirium record shop, where
he eventually took over the job of ordering the new music. A new branch
of the German techno scene soon formed around the music being made
and played by Mayer and by his co-workers. By 1998 the shop's name
had been changed to Kompakt and the collective's scope now included
a growing array of record labels and a distribution business that
served as a platform to launch their labels and a host of others.
While the Kompakt business ventures continue to expand with Mayer
and friends at the helm, his mind stays focused on his first love:
mixing records. Last year his schedule kept him on the road for all
but a handful of weekends, and this year he is already scheduled for
a pair of tours around Europe along with other tours around Australia,
Japan and the States.
Mayer wouldn't have it any other way. He'll play records almost anywhere
and rarely wants to put down his headphones and walk away from the
turntables. His longest set, an 11-hour marathon, ended only when
his girlfriend dragged him out of the party. Mixing things together
is the theme underlying almost everything Mayer enjoys.
When not working at Kompakt or on the road playing records, Mayer
is often busy mixing together food in his kitchen. Making sure he
has time to cook regularly is important because, to him, it is almost
a form of meditation. Just like the records in his crate, the ingredients
in his kitchen are raw elements waiting to be combined in just the
right way. Mayer loves the idea that if he and other chefs were in
identical kitchens with matching ingredients, they would still probably
create altogether different dishes.
"I cook very instinctively, I never use a cookbook," he
said.
This is the same approach he takes with him to the turntables. It's
important for Mayer to keep his sets lively and spontaneous. To Mayer,
playing the same set over and over is a lazy approach to DJing. He
said the crowd can sense when a DJ doesn't have his heart in it and
the set sounds overly mechanized. For Mayer, the art of mixing is
about communicating and keeping the crowd engaged. He wants everyone
at a show to get a sense of his excitement for the music as he melds
songs into a cohesive set.
"I always need some options to play a completely different set,"
he said. "If you play the same set you get bored and if you're
bored, you're not a good DJ."
Mayer said he always thinks about how new tracks might work in a
mix as he's hearing them for the first time. He's never listening
for a specific sound when hearing something new. A track can be dark,
minimal, cold, funky or bright. For Mayer, it's the mood and feeling
behind it that determines if it succeeds or fails. A good song can't
feel cold and needs to showcase a bit of the artist who made it. Music
works when it avoids sounding too transparent or hollow, Mayer said.
"When I like a track it has something very personal, very unmistakable.
You have to feel the person behind it," he added. "For the
most part I know exactly what I like and what I don't like. I think
my ears are pretty sharp."
Mayer's ears often lead him to the more subtle side of techno, where
acute melodies weave their way through grinding beats. However, he
never lets himself be bound to the notion of only playing songs with
a certain sound. Mayer's pop sensibilities pop up in his sets and
in his production, such as on his shuffling techno remake of Sade's
"Love is Stronger than Pride."
"I don't like this dogmatic behavior. It's more important to
make people laugh for a minute," he said.
Mayer might think of himself as a DJ first, but the original songs
he writes deserve just as much attention. His releases are sought
after by DJs worldwide. This might be because mixing is on his mind
the entire time he's locked away in the studio. Mayer approaches the
studio with the idea of a song he'd like to be able to spin and tries
to build on that notion until he arrives at a finished track.
"I produce music to fill the gaps in my record crate,"
he said. "I can't switch off my DJ mind when I'm in the studio.
In my inner eye I always see a club situation."
This is certainly evident on Touch, Mayer's debut full-length release
from last year. The album's eight tracks play off the bedrock concept
that made early house and techno work in the 1980s. He uses this foundation
to create an updated sound that completely ignores the idea that techno
and house belong as separate categories of music.
"For my album I wanted to get as close as possible to an ideal
of a techno track," Mayer said. "I took a very personal
approach to this record."
Mayer said he is looking forward to his busy tour schedule this year,
but the stops in New York and Chicago are always very special because
of the influence he draws from the musical history of both cities.
The only problem he has when playing the States is getting used to
clubs closing so much earlier than they do in Europe and other parts
of the world. Mayer said this cuts off the final hours of the night,
which are usually the best part. Still, he said Chicago's Smartbar
is the best venue he's played in the States and he's looking forward
to making another appearance.
"People in New York would die for a place like this," he
said.
Michael Mayer :: with Jake Fairley :: Smartbar :: February 24.