Lord Willing: In Conversation With Luke Hess And His fabric Promo Mix

It's not easy to make an impression in a City with such a strong history in the Techno scene, however Detroit based Luke Hess managed this back in the mid-2000s, propelling his name to rank among the City's legends such as Juan Atkins, Robert Hood & Derrick May with his reverent, deeply atmospheric take on the House & Techno crossover. Originally introduced to Techno through the underground warehouse parties Detroit hosted through the 1990s, Hess began his career as a DJ before being deciding to start producing, combining his talents as an engineer and mathematician with an appreciation of sound design. From here he has gone on to release records with a plethora of world renowned labels such as Echocord, Kontramusik, FXHE & Planet E. With a performance in Farringdon alongside Kyle Hall & Craig Richards scheduled for the 25th January, we caught up with Hess to talk about live setups, working as an electrical engineer and the future plans for his DeepLabs imprint. Download: Luke Hess fabric Promo Mix So first off, how are things? What did you get up to over New Years? All is well, thank you! Spent a nice Detroit New Years with Omar S. in the studio. Right now I'm in Whitefish, Montana visiting family friends and snowboarding near Glacier National Park. I was a big fan of the first of DeepLabs' 'Warehouse Sessions' from last year – any word on when we can expect to see Vol.2? It was exciting to expose some new artists and to have the EP so well received! At the moment I'm collecting demos for Warehouse Sessions Vol.2. It took me a full year and half to collect the right music for Vol.1 - I'm in no hurry to release Vol.2 - it's just a matter of receiving very strong music that I feel fits well together and represents my personal Detroit style of techno. What are your plans for the label more generally? I believe I am right in saying you have a collaborative 12” with Gez Varley of LFO & Steve O'Sullivan due out sometime this year. How did you first hook up with these two producers? My major goal for DeepLabs is releasing quality music with a message hope that inspires and strengthens the Detroit community as well as the electronic community. Of course I'd like the frequency of the release schedule to increase, but not at the expense of the quality of the music. The first release for DeepLabs in 2014 will be a collaboration between Gez Varley & myself and another collaboration between Steve O'Sullivan and myself. I respect these artists a great deal for their past work and I thought a collaboration with original stems and recordings would work better than a remix EP. I simply asked Gez and Steve if they would be up for a project & was super excited that they were both interested to work with me. I hope to continue our relationship for future projects. You're playing live here on the 25th January - when was the last time you played the club? Anyone you are particular looking forward to seeing this time round? The last time I played at fabric was May 2009. I'm completely thrilled to be back!!! It's going to be a fun night kicking it with Kyle and playing some of the new music I've been working on in the studio. I believe I am right in saying you use a fair bit of analogue gear for composition, is the same true of your live setup? This is true - I'm very inspired by analog gear in the studio. However, in a LIVE set environment I feel like less is more - my current set up is simply a MIDI controller and laptop using Ableton Live playing all original recorded analog stems, field recordings, and edits of my own tracks. I usually spend time recording and preparing new analog stems and sounds before a LIVE performance and organizing the layout to give me enough options for feeling out the crowd. I've seen many LIVE performances since first going to parties in 95' in Detroit and it seems that LIVE artists that have a plan and stay focused instead of nerding out with too much gear or too many stems seem to translate the best for the crowd. However, I would like to integrate some simple and effective analog gear in the future and I plan to do this in my LIVE sets after my third album comes out. Field recordings are quite an important part of your productions as well – what is the most unexpected thing to have happened during a recording session? I think the most unexpected thing that ever happened to me while field recording was when I was trying to capture the sound of ice cracking... I tried recording the sound at the edge of the ice, but the depth of the cracking wasn't loud enough. So, I stepped further and further out into the ice to record the loudest cracking possible and ended up falling through up to my waist... Even though I was prepared for this sort of thing with the clothing I had - it was still a pretty raw experience. But I got the recording that I wanted out of it! I heard that you worked in the army as an electrical engineer – is this still ongoing or is music the focus full-time these days? This is correct - I'm still working full time as an electrical engineer for the Army. It might be possible for me at this point to make a decent living with music alone, however, I enjoy the freedom of not relying on music or gigging for a living. A separate career grants me the freedom to stay far removed from the "hype" side of the music industry, I don't have to concern myself with the frequency of my releases over the thoughtfulness of the product, and I also have the ability to create music that speaks to me personally instead of following trends. However, I'm not opposed to doing music full time. If the Lord chooses to use me in the techno community then I believe the opportunity will present itself as long as I stay focused and consistent with what I love to do. Lord willing, I'll always make music and influence the community for the better - regardless if I do it for a living or not. Working as a DJ, you still manage to find time to go clubbing just for recreation these days? Do you miss the underground feel to warehouse parties in Detroit in the mid 90s or is it still possible to find events with a similar atmosphere in the city? There are still moments where I'll go out to enjoy an artist that I respect or support friends in and out of Detroit for sure. The beauty of the warehouse party is the artistic integrity of the event. Every warehouse event was built from the ground up - so the night was a blank canvas - and this vibe usually influenced the artist to push boundaries instead of pleasing the crowd or playing what they thought people wanted to hear. In my opinion, underground music is a reflection of the artist or the DJ's personality and should have a profound effect on people and give them a unique experience. A techno party is not the platform to regurgitate monthly DJ charts. It is possible to create the beauty of warehouse atmosphere in the club, some promoters do this very well by booking artists that compliment each other, decorating a certain way, or curating the night with specific concept in mind. I believe if a promoter has a goal in mind to leave a lasting impact on those attending and not just make money then special care must be taken to do so. Finally, what can we expect to hear next from Luke Hess? Any interesting new projects in the works? This is my busiest year yet! I have many new remixes in the works for Dolly, Prime Numbers, We Play House, among others and I plan to release new solo works, collaborations, and EP's on FXHE, DeepLabs, Finale Sessions, and a couple other labels I can't mention at the moment until everything is complete.. I have a new project in the works with my brother Jeff Hess as "Select", which I believe is some of my most conceptual and beautiful work. I've also started work on my third album, which I plan to release in 2015, with a new LIVE show to support it. Looking forward to playing a lot of this new material at fabric!!!