Founder of Underground resistance

[David Liam]

#21434 |

The references of this interview are : Mad Mike „Undergound Resistance“ taken from Jockey Slut „Nobody buys me“ by Paul Benney

What is it about Detroit and good music?

It’s just a city with a lot of soul. Nobody really has a lot here, people aren’t absolutely poor here, they work hard for what they’ve got – it’s a real working blue collar town. The few chances in life that people have here to have a good time are very much appreciated.
I would say that in combination with the fact that there is absolutely nothing to do here but to either get in trouble or to do something positive. So just like with our boxers and our athletes and Motown, the whole reason that sh*t happened here is because those people chose not to be in the street and they focused on what they did and they became very good at it.
I think that’s why a lot of our techno musicians and Djs, mix engineers and the guys who master the records – they all do that and that’s all they do. There ain’t nothing else. No vacations, holidays, or sh*t like that, that sh*t don’t happen. Only holiday I ever went on is when we had a gig or when I went to jail.

How did you end up in jail?

Gangs. They try and say I shot somebody.

Did you do it?

Nahhh. They just picked me at random.

You had a record called the „Riots EP“. Do you think the LA riots changed anything?

Err. Nahh I just think the government is just going to think of more pacifiers to give poor people to pacify them. More welfare programs – it’ll be a temporary fix. In order for somebody to be rich somebody’s got to be poor. That’s the way I look at it. I’ve got kind of a dismal outlook on the way our country is run. I’d say 80% of the bums here are Vietnam veterans. You need to ask them what they think of America. I wish it could get better but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Do you think a rough urban environment creates social awareness?

Yeah. In Detroit we’ve been through the brothers killing the brothers and the senseless violence. Although it still occurs, people are a lot more aware here. They’ve realised that that’s not going to get us anywhere. To me, rioting won’t either. I understand why they rioted but we’re silent and deadly and that’s the best way.

Can techno be subversive?

My techno is. I can’t speak for anybody else’s, but mine is designed to be subversive and mind awakening. There are definate messages there through tonal communication and you can’t assess it – that’s why techno is deadlier than rap. With rap you have to vocally communicate your point but with techno you don’t.
I’m a big fan of Public Enemy – to me „Prophets of Rage“ and „Burn Hollywood“ were all warning signs of what was going to happen. And the „Riot EP“ was too. „Riot“ is a warning sign of what can happen when people try to dominate other people. The more you oppress someone the harder you make them – it’s like making a diamond. When they put the sh*t on the Vietnamese and they tried to force them into cheap labour and all that sh*t they became so hard that they couldn’t beat them. They couldn’t beat the motherf**kers because they’re so hard. They go to any lengths to win.
That’s what the governments are going to create out of the poor, the mismanaged and all that other part of society that they don’t like to deal with- they’ll create hardcore killers. I see it every day in the street, because people out here don’t give a f**k about nothing. You can’t control them.

What message is your music giving out?

The message I’m trying to give people around the world is very simple; the way the programmers control the masses is through audio and visual imagery. They play to you the kind of music that they want you to here, they show to you the films that they want you to see and you act accordingly. Detroit is coming up – we’re trying to get it together but we’ve got a lot of problems, we’ve got a lot of drugs, a lot of guns and a lot of violence – we don’t need a video to see it. They pour this sh*t down our throats – sex, violence, drugs – that’s what these kids grow up on and they act accordingly.
If we had more role models like Minister Farakhan and men like that then you would see a different style of young Black male coming from the inner city but our role models are motherf**kers who hold their dicks for a living and tell storys about sh*t they never did. If you came to Detroit you would see the effects that some of these unwise rappers are having on society here.

Who are they?

A lot of the ill informed gangsta rap – it’s bullsh*t. If you’re a gangsta, you’re in jail, you a hard motherf**ker you in jail, you don’t have to brag about sh*t because there’s nothing to brag about. Because they don’t get paid it’s as simple as that. They are inefficent – just totally inefficent to me and in the machine they don’t fit. The same guys that would sell dope to a brother would do a video and talk it to a brother. I’ve no emotion in my heart for none of them.

Gangsta rappers say they’re simply rapping about their real life experiences?

That’s bullsh*t. For most people here there is no ghetto. Yeah we got poverty but it’s a lot worse in other places in the world. I don’t think anybody should glorify being poor, broke, inefficient motherf**ker. It’s nothing to be proud of.

Where does your fascination with space come from?

From wanting to escape from here.

Do you think there is life on other planets?

Definately.

Bill Clinton has just slashed the budget for searching for life on other planets. How do you feel about that?

They already know we’re here, he doesn’t have to look for them.

Why don’t they show themselves to us?

I think we’re a little too primitive to communicate with them.

Are we progressing?

Slowly but surely.

Is world peace a possibility?

No. Before that can happen we would have to reach a point o
f evolution where materialistic things like gold don’t mean anything. Right now we’re not at that point. We can’t imagine it. Until we reach a point where our respect for our fellow man outweighs our respect for the dollar we’re f**ked.

What does Underground Resistance stand for?

Revolution for Change. It stands for the deprogramming of the programmed mind.

Why is it so important to stay underground?

It’s important for Underground Resistance to stay underground because I think it provides inspiration for others around the world to start organisations and not be controlled by the programmers. I can hear in the music over the last three years that our music is influencing people all over the world.
I like to see the effects that our music is having – I think our listeners are much informed, and very much aware of world events, nature, of respect. I think for Underground Resistance to go commercial would be like me disrespecting all the people that have
supported us over the years.

What signs of change have you seen over the years?

People are listening, people understand that they are being programmed as I travel around and hear the musical styles that are coming out of Europe now. You can hear more expression and people are letting themselves go, they’re letting their emotions and efficiency meet and create projects that are unparalleled like Aphex Twin. There’s really some good basic channels – people are starting to understand.
Juan told me ten years ago the whole point to techno, and Captain Kirk says it at the beginning of every Star Trek – “Boldly going where no man has gone before”. If we all explore together we will find what we are looking for. We will find that point of evolution where we respect ourselves more than paper money.

What do you thing of the Aphex Twin?

Well like I said, peoples music is one thing – the individual is another. I judge people by their music and I’ve always liked the Aphex Twin’s music but sometimes musicians don’t always make the best business decisions because their musicians not businessmen. For me I do street business – if you come up here and try and take my record company and control my sh*t you aint gonna do it, it aint gonna happen, you gonna get the f**k outta my place or you get hurt. That’s what happens.

You’ll never be bought out than ?

It’s impossible man – I’m an American Indian. I’m an American Indian and Black and I’ve got warriors from both sides and nobody buys me. Nobody buys me – people would be disrespecting my forefathers if they bought me.

You’re part American Indian then?

Yeah. A lot of Black people are here – it’s something that’s not talked about a lot. A lot of Black Americans from the south are interbred with American Indians. It’s just not being discovered but it’s heavy in my family. I’ve got pride – I love my background. I love it. I’m proud of what I am. I’m a goddam fool, a rebel motherf**ker who don’t give a f**k. And society’s gonna have to deal with me for years to come. Just as I’m a rebel with my business practices too. I love what I do right now. I fell like if I was going to die tomorrow my life was worth it.

Should musicians be taking more care with their business decisions?

Yes they should. If they are intelligent enough to create beautiful music then they should be capable of handling their own business affairs. A lot of musicians are lazy motherf**kers that’s why they’re musicians. They ought to take enough energy to get their business affairs in order to the best of their ability. As long as you do your best people respect you.

Will you ever stop making music?

Nah man. That’s one of my purposes on this planet. If I get killed then I’m finished. That’s the only one that would take me out if I got killed out here on the street or in some plane crash when I’m flying somewhere. Nine times out of ten a guy aint gonna get me – I’m hard to get. They tried a lot of time. My jungle awareness lefel is way up. I’ve had some problems. My roof came through on my building and the rain got on my equipment, so I’m in the process of trying to rebuild a lot of my ancient keyboards and sh*t but the landlord never fixed the roof so that’s what happened.

So only death and rain can stop you making music?

Yeah. Natural elements can take me out but no regular guy will get me so I’m kinda happy with that.

How did you get the name Mad Mike?

It was a gang tag at first and I used to drag race cars a lot so I used it there and since then I kept it.. It was my battle name. To my close friends I’m Mike but when I’m on a gig or I’m making a record I’m on a mission, and when I’m on a mission I’m Mad Mike.

What’s going to happen to techno in the future?

The majors will f**k up certain parts of it but techno is very similar to AIDS, which I have a high respect for. AIDS is a very elusive disease, very intelligent, and it’s self learning – the more and more medecines they use to try and combat it the more intelligent it becomes. Of course that’s one way of looking at it, I don’t want people thinking I love AIDS I’m just looking at it from a scientific standpoint where you have to respect it.
Any time that death is involved that’s the one thing that all men respect. Death is a motherf**ker. Death is the end of this known existence. So I think techno – and again I have all sympathy for all people with AIDS I hope I haven’t got it – to me techno is like the birth of each new baby – techno lives on. Each mind is going to hear a new sound, see a new colour, think of a different way to do something. Techno to me runs parallel to life itself. To me its an obvious music that’s going to carry us forth.
Like I said, man is very primitive, we’ve been here for millions and millions of years but we have yet to communicate with our closest neighbours – animals. Why the f**k are we going into outer space when we can’t even talk to a dogor cat yet. We are idiots. Animals communicate through tonal communication.
When man becomes smart enough not to sh*t in his own backyard, not to disrespect his fellow neighour we will be moving forward. Techno is going to carry us there. Techno will be medicine. With so – called primitive man, when someone in the tribe got sick they’d sing a song or do a chant. Western medicine zooks at that as bullsh*t “you can’t fix somebody from singing a f**king song”. That song carries an emotion, it carries that emotion through tonal communication. If that pe
rson feels that communicaton it might trigger something in him that will repair whatever the f**k is wrong with him. We disrespect things.
Think about the old sci-fi flicks – all the martians and ugly monsters and some bullsh*t from some silly motherf**kers imagination. If you wanna talk science fiction get with Star Trek – they even know that if someone looks like a monster they might be a beautiful person – it was an intelligent show and that’s why it lasted. The early Hollywood flicks depicted martians as monsters so when we go into outer space or when they do approach Earth and they want to communicate – what are we going to try to do? We are going to pull out our little guns and we’re going to shoot them instead of communicating.
I’m hoping that techno music inspires a whole new generation of kids to approach animals and future engagements with life from outer space in an intelligent manner. I just hope it inspires them to do the right thing. Don’t do what our forefathers have done for hundreds and hundreds of years before us – be scared, pull out our little weapons and shoot whatever the problem is. That’s not the solution. Shooting and pointing a gun aint sh*t.
Here we are in 1994 – you ask me are we going to have wars, and what do I think of the government – what runs the f**king world? Nuclear Weapons. It’s the balance of power it still shows that we’re cavemen – who has the biggest club.
I don’t care if you’re White or if I’m Black – when we get cut we’ve all got red blood. Environment makes colours man. If you live in Africa and you’ve got sun beating down on you you’re gonna be Black, if you live in the North Pole you need certain features to survive up there. That’s a scientific fact. These motherf**kers with this racial sh*t man – they’re cavemen. I wish I could eliminate them tomorrow with some kind of laser gun but I don’t have it right now. There’s been a lot of racial problems in Europe recently. Comment. Everytime it gets tight over in Europe the nationalists want to come out and blame all the foreigners for all their problems. It’s been happening for centuries.
We’ve got to come together as a human community. Now these same nationalists – we were supposedly attacked by another race of beings from another world – all of a sudden we would all be human. Then what army would we be the human race army. They gotta speak about sh*t like that man – because at the end of the day we all bleed red blood. I know we talked about a lot of racial issues but I’d really like to keep that sh*t away from techno.
A lot of people ask me what I feel about all these white boys making techno and I say to them, What are you talking about?
The first techno I listened to was Kraftwerk and they’re White.“ Techno to me is one music that is truly a global music. It might not only be a global music – I think it’s a galactic music. That’s why I name my sh*t „World to World“, „Galaxy to Galaxy“, „Universe to Universe“.

So you’ll be ready?

I want to be ready man, I want to prepare my brothers and sisters so that if we come into contact with intelligent lifeforms from another planet we can talk on the same level. I want to one day talk to my cat, I’ve got cats and I like to watch them because they react to different frequencies. I feel stupid because I can’t talk to them. It’s like „How far have we really come?“ We got a long way to go man.
I know what respect and pride means – it means that you keep your arsehole tight and if you don’t have no respect and you don’t have no pride you get f**ked whether it be in the arse in prison or in life. Because the sharks are out there and they will definitely f**k you.
So to all the new upcoming techno musicians – tell them to say underground – f**k selling out. What you and me are doing is a mission. You are trying to inform the readers and I’m trying to inform the listeners and that’s what brought you and me here on the phone.
We don’t think of it as that but I might not ever speak to you again and we did a mission together and it was planned long ago. That’s what’s deep – everything in our life is planned. And now you and me have talked on the phone our mission is complete.