Jeff Mills is one of the architects of Detroit Techno. In addition to his groundbreaking deejay techniques and musical compositions, Mills is widely known as an artist who has taken the genre and pushed it further into realms that are not usually associated with dance music. In addition to being a cofounder of Underground Resistance, he has collaborated with classical orchestras and jazz musicians, created experimental films, and has done live soundtracking of films, or his “Cinemix.” It is his work with film that will be on display this upcoming weekend, as he participates in two different events in the the ambitious Unabridged: Detroit Incoming, brought to the Bay Area by the widely respected As You Like It.

First, on Friday, March 6th, Unabridged partners with 1015 Folsom‘s Throttle to host documentary the 30-year anniversary of Jeff Mills’ Live in the Liquid Room, followed by a rare extended set from Jeff Mills and Developer (Axis Records). Then, on March 7th at The Palace of Fine Arts Theatre (in San Francisco) Mills performs a live score ‘Metropolis Metropolis‘ (2023), his second reimagining of Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou’s 1927 silent science-fiction classic (Metropolis, first released on Tresor in 2001).

You can find more information and tickets here:

https://unabridged-sf.com/event/jeff-mills-live-in-the-liquid-room-30th-anniversary/

https://unabridged-sf.com/event/jeff-mills-metropolis-metropolis-cinemix/

A+H’s Stephen Ruiz had the privilege of speaking with “The Wizard,” Jeff Mills, this week about his work, upcoming performances, and about his perspective on the future of electronic music. Below is the audio interview and edited transcript.

Stephen Ruiz: It’s just an absolute honor to meet you, and I really appreciate your time here today to talk about Metropolis. And you know, this is one of the projects that you have been involved with that has been really taking techno into places that it really hasn’t gone before. And I’m very curious, you know, those who know you, who know your background and who understand sort of where your legacy so far has sat within the framework of electronic music, techno specifically, it seems that you push yourself out further than most other artists that are out there, and I’m curious how you have been motivated to move into realms outside of just, you know, the standard audio realm, right?

Jeff Mills: Well, I mean, maybe it has something to do with how I see my position in electronic music. I mean, I’m an artist and I produce music. I’m a professional DJ for a long time. But when it comes down to productions, I think, of course, they are my releases, but I also think of them as contributions into the body of the music of a particular genre. And so I’m always thinking about what our genre could benefit from, and what should be created as an example so that others could use it as reference. Which is the reason why Metropolis, this whole project, came about. I just got tired of hearing orchestras in films. I just thought that by now electronic music is here, and it should be more present outside of the dance floors and clubs and festivals. We should begin to see it in films and in other types of art disciplines. So I just had one too many conversations about the subject and decided to do something about it. So I made this first soundtrack. I think it was 1999.

SR: So this is the second reimagining, if you will, of the SoundTracking of Metropolis as well. And I’m just curious in the first iteration of the Metropolis sound tracking, and I believe that was out on Tresor, has there been any more insight, or things that are being filtered through you as an artist that are being put into this latest iteration?

JM: Yeah. To make a long story short, I was invited and commissioned to create a soundtrack for the longest version by USA, the film company that holds the rights to the film, for a performance in Berlin just before the pandemic. I scored the music for this three hour version. We did the performance. It was successful. Then the pandemic hit, and we found ourselves all at home. I’m watching TV like everyone else, watching how the world was changing. And I thought maybe I should go back into the soundtrack. To me it was a bit outdated. Things had happened to us in the world that we were never going to go back to. So I didn’t think that soundtrack was appropriate enough. I went back into the project and renovated it and composed new music and laid it out in a way that reflected the world we were experiencing during the pandemic and after.

SR: When you talk about the pandemic, and obviously there are things politically that are afoot right now that also have resonance with the perception of a dystopian future, potentially, how much does that influence the work? Not just with your sound tracking, but also your visual art, films, documentary work? You are a multidisciplinary artist in every sense. You collaborate with classical musicians, jazz musicians. I’m curious how your own perception of political events and the modern era impacts the work you do.

JM: Yeah, sure. Whatever it is that I’m working on, there’s always some element in that subject or concept that resonates with the person. You don’t need to be educated about electronic music. Just the average person — it has to touch them in a way. That’s the thing guiding me from project to project. Whether jazz collaborations, albums, classical — there must be something in it that is much bigger than myself. Something that speaks to anyone and everyone. Hopefully they can remember that and translate it in other ways. Being on stage and improvising with musicians not knowing what we’re going to do — we do that because we want other people to think about the risk we’re taking, and maybe they’ll think about taking risks to progress things forward in their own field.

SR: And I have always found that compelling about your work. Many electronic producers plateau. It feels like you’re constantly pushing to the next logical place. The idea of improvisation — is that something you bring into live SoundTracking as well?

JM: Yeah. When I do the cinemixes, I have the body of music for the film, but it’s never really the same. I’m improvising and coming up with ideas while watching the film with the music. It’s not full improvisation, but there are times I can drift and not know what I’m going to do next. It makes it more exciting.

SR: Well, it’s a bit more of a high wire act too, because you don’t know what’s going to happen.

JM: Yeah. After a while you kind of get addicted to that. This excitement of what can I do next that they don’t notice.

SR: From a technical perspective, do you incorporate tools that sync digital audio workstation events to video triggers in these sets?

JM: Not for these cinemixes. For this film it’s not possible to modify or change it. It has to run in its original speed and I apply music to it unconnected. I have multiple CD players, but the music is not the same on each player. Each has certain things for certain reasons.

SR: That’s reminiscent of your three turntable setups. When you think about Metropolis as a film — nearly 100 years old — still relevant in its futurism and man-machine interface themes. When thinking about interactions with machines and AI, how has your philosophy impacted how you interact creatively?

JM: I’ve realized that to make the experience feel more human, it’s not what the machine does — it’s what it doesn’t do. It’s the space and silence between the notes and beats. I can delay what the machine does, speed it up. The machine is fixed. Because I’m human and humans are listening, I can speak to them in a non-musical way with silence and space. A machine will play a note the same way over and over. I can modify when you hear it and how much you hear. That’s what I’m doing with the 909. It’s not what you hear, it’s what’s happening in between it.

SR: Do you see a future merging of that human element and machines?

JM: Perhaps with AI and intelligent technology — technology you can have a conversation with. I can’t explore anything with my synthesizer now. It won’t speak back. But I can see that coming. A synthesizer that talks to me, lays out examples of what I could do, does research for conceptual storytelling. It becomes like a partner in the studio. I can see that very clearly.

SR: Jeff, you are SoundTracking Metropolis on Saturday, March the seventh at 6pm at the Palace of Fine Arts. You can find more information at unabridge-sf.com. I’m honored to have had the opportunity to talk with you. Thank you so much for your time.

JM: Thank you very much, Stephen.