|
This interview is from our friends over at TechnoTourist.org!
Time, Space, Axis
Jeff Mills has always been a techno innovator. Exploring the balance between music, art and philosophy, every project is another milestone. In july 2001 John Osselaer asked Jeff some questions. Following is the result...
 Currently you have a project running called Time Machine. Can you tell us a bit what this is all about?
Time Machine is a fragment of taken from the story by H.G. Wells, "Time Machine". It deals with the few moments in the story whereabouts the person in the Time Machine wakes up after having traveled through time and discovers he/she is in a place that is unknown. The music is the soundtrack for the journey after he/she opens the Time Machine hatch door and goes out into whatever the [listener of the music] fantasizes. The Listeners of the lp can then log on to our web-site and relay how he/she felt while listening to the soundtrack. From these responses, I will be able to complete the journey of the story.
I thought that by exploring the possibilities of making music a interactive and communitive senses, the scale of possibilites are widen much further, much more than what I have the capacity to do myself. Simply by posing a question or situation to someone will generally generate a answer or response, this was the intention of this Time Machine. A project where the reason for the music is designed by the listeners. So, the responses have been really interesting. We'll wait a little bit longer before we'll choose the one that I'll create the soundtrack to. Should be interesting.
Every Dog Has Its Day is now out also as a compilation. There seems to be quite a lot of confusion and guessing about the title. Could you reveal a bit how people should interpret it?
The phrase is a American term that means: There will be one day in the future when all good fortune is given to you and that you must despare but, anticipate this day. "Every Dog" meaning Every person, "Has its" meaning is entitled to and "Day" meaning good fortune.
Every Dog... is probably the most melodic, stringy and calmest collection of tracks you have ever put out. What were the influences for this compilation of tracks?
Every Dog..... is mainly about life and one way to deal with it. Being optimistic and thinking positive can often remedy life's most challenging moments. In this lp, my intentions and timing of its release were to simply remind others of this. It has nothing to do with color, age, sex or whether you can dance to it or not. But, rather on a mind-to-mind level and then hopefully, into a soul-to-soul level.
You seem fascinated by the concept of time. What do you think of the way we generally perceive the notion of time?
I think that the notion that we generally perceive time may not be the only option we have on how to define its meaning and how it works. For instance, scientists believe that they understand how time works is based on the parameters of their scientific logic. But, what are the chances and possibilities that their parameters are incorrect or have been mislead due to the lack knowledge or to accept something that is not logical. Most, if not all of us live on 24 hourly sets, a day. We believe that all directions (North, South, East and West) are equal as the universe expands evenly, Up is up and down is down.
Now, if you can, erase all these beliefs from your mind.
This is why I am fascinated by time, it is the very thing we do not understand but, yet we try to make sense of it and from guessing what it it, most of us settle and build our lives. Chasing the meaning of time is resonably beyond us so, we can do nothing but wait. It is this waiting that is fascinating.
How comfortable do you feel with the increasingly accelerating pace of our society?
I believe we are somehow trying to catch up on what our ancestors knew millions of years ago. From Technology, I rarely feel the sense of a advanced society. In my life, I have never seen any man-made thing that was beyond me with the exception of movies and SFX. Most things are logical. From Art, I can feel see it alot. Often, I can feel and see the things that words can not say and numbers cannot calculate.
What kind of sociological problems do you think are linked with our current high speed, mass consumption society?
A few, that lack of appreciation, lack of true meaning, lack of prevention and a lack of discovery among many others. On the other hand, there are advantages like, the ability to digest larger amounts of information in short times, learning to concentrate and focus on what each person desires, sharpened communicative skills due to the lack of knowledge of who you are talking to and many more. In all, I think the positives outweight the negatives.
I think our moral filter will more times correct our mistakes.
You have a very well-designed website. What do you think are the main virtues and vices of the internet?
We were actually quite late in introducing our web site in comparison to other Techno Labels. The reason, I was unsure on where the whole internet phenomenon would be most applicable. Would it be better to use as something that receives or gives. Finally realizing that we would much rather give useful information, this layed the blueprints on how we builded its contents. Things like, Electronic Directory, Axis Discussion and the events section are the main reasons people visit our site and from this we plan to expand to make it even more useful.
You clearly are fascinated by the future, but you also seem to vent some concerns about it. What are your main concerns for the future of mankind?
Our future is based on the degree in which we handle today. The things that we fail to try does the greatest damage to our future, not the things we do and fail. I believe the high accelerated Technology advancements from the last decade carved in our minds the limitess amount of possibilities. Should a younger generation grow up with this thinking, we should see even larger advancements within the next 50 years.
If our current society does not want to change to prevent it from degrading what alternatives are there for people who don't want to go down that road?
I believe this is one of the virtues of humans. I think the only way to combat degarding is to consider the large amounts of dialogue between the two opposing views. There are always reasons for people reactions, as logical and twisted as they may seem, there are always reasons. If would be wise to explore, from a unbias view, each side and discover the pros and cons of each to find common goals bwtween the two views. And it is there where the dialogue should begin. Not at the end result.
To what extent is your label Tomorrow a vehicle to inform and warn people about the possible dangers in the future?
With the label Tomorrow our goal is bring different situations that might arise in our future. Perceiving the unknown in hopes to survive the unexpected. I strongly believe that as our society advances, we will discover more frequently and dealing with those discoveries must be met with a better understanding of our own limitations.
It's not my interested to be fortune teller with this project but, I do feel that it could do nothing but help us if certain questions were risen.
What can we expect from you in the future?
What, I cannot say. I suppose I have the eagerness to attempt and this fills my agenda.
Interview by
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
, july 6 2001
For more information: Axis records website. |
Techno History 
