When we started making techno music, 4 or 5 years ago
We mainly looked to Detroit, Chicago and the like for inspiration
And the funny thing is, now people in Detroit are looking to The Hague
This is an old remnant of the Atlantik Wall near Scheveningen
An old bunker
It's the main inspiration for what we do
A symbol for underground activities
Interviewer: Your last performance was at Noorderslag
How do you look back on that?
Noorderslag was one big circus
We're sick of the circus
Also, the circus just ended
As of today
Seriously, we're not gonna do this anymore
I want to get back to the small, spontaneous, fun parties
In basements, in squats
Just go: Guys, you have a drumcomputer?
Then play!
And then just play, instead of standing on towering stages
Cattle-market!
Yeah, with fashionable...
people that come there to be all trendy
It's all way too plastic!
There's nothing to see in techno
indeed, it's all plastic
The only plastic we want is vinyl! And nothing else.
Interviewer: Why do you think techno has turned into a circus?
Just look at last year when 2Unlimited was awarded a popmusic award
For what they have done for the Dutch recording industry
It's great that they're succesful, but...
as far as I'm concerned they haven't contributed anything
Maybe they made the cash register ring a lot
For the Dutch popmusic industry, for BUMA/STEMRA
as far as I'm concerned. And for their record label
But that's what's become the circus. Nobody's looking at the music anymore.
Or innovation. It's all make-believe. Indeed, plastic!
Plastic is the magic word.
Interviewer: Who releases your records?
Me!
Bunker Records
And Acid Planet Records.
We just do it ourselves.
And we do our own distribution as well.
We do it all ourselves.
This is the studio, bedroom and living room of Unit Moebius
Here is where all of our equipment is set up
And everybody makes their music.
Interviewer: What type of music did you make when you started?
This! [plays Unit Moebius - Panta Rhei (BUNKER 001)]
There's no comparison between what we do live to what we do in the studio
Because, especially nowadays we improvise live with the machines
Because of random factors, usually when we play live the music we would like to make is not what comes out.
We usually just go with whatever happens in the moment. And so everytime it's quite different.
But you can't compare it with what we do in the studio
Because in the studio we can create tracks
When we play live we don't play proper tracks
They're just long pieces with variations
Interviewer: How did you go about your performance at Noorderslag?
We each brought one machine
Each one a drummachine
We connected them and then we played
Interviewer: You don't know what you're going to do before you start?
Yeah, vaguely
You sort of know what gear you're bringing, but that's it.
But it didn't really work!
No, it didn't go that well
Interviewer: Why not?
Too much stress
Too much chaos!
The stage was too high
Makes us shy
I think it's awesome if you want to hear us play
But we usually perform underneath the table
Or behind some camouflage
Because there's nothing to see when it comes to techno musicians
It's not a rockshow!
It's not about the stage act, because there is no stage act!
What's interesting about watching people pushing buttons?
You just listen to the music and maybe dance, if you want to
Or not dance
Techno is anonymous music
There shouldn't be a show
And we don't feel like doing that.
Interviewer: What inspires you?
The city
It's a chaotic city, a seedy city
...especially the kids
Yeah, also seedy
But also all the garbage we see on TV
And also... We all have our roots in the alternative scene. Punk, industrial music
We used to make
That's a factor of course
My late puberty started when I was 14 or 15
I started "doom-thinking" as Van Kooten and De Bie coined the phrase
I listened to a lot of New Wave in that period
Which had an obvious influence on me
Later this "doom-thinking" turned into fits of rage
I started listening to hardcore
That lasted for a while and I started playing in a hardcore band
And this is also a bit in the vein of hardcore
Without this weird scene here in The Hague we never would have gotten as far as we have
Where else could you have crazy techno parties in squats like we do here?
You couldn't do that anywhere else in The Netherlands
Where else would you meet such weird people, except for here?
All of that is conducive
Here we can create anything we want.
We definitely consider ourselves section 8, socially.
We're not suited for normal society.
We cannot have a normal 9 to 5 job
Can't do it!
We just can't do it.
It's a complete alienation from society, from man.
Something that's developed over the years, during our whole lives, especially in our youth.
You start to think that all the things you perceive are actually not at all normal
And what's happening around you isn't right at all.
And you start to incorporate that into your music
That alienation.
We're standing in the spot which was once, until last year, the location of Muse Straat 2-c
In 1990 we squatted it with a couple of people.
That's where we experienced what it is like to live free and do whatever you want.
We threw a lot of parties
Yeah, we threw a lot of parties.
Without having the neighbours complain
Without anybody watching you
And we want to continue that lifestyle.
Interviewer: Are you succeeding?
Well, we're renting a house now, so there are neighbours that complain
But we're able to maintain that style in the way we work.
Interviewer: What kind of music did you release in those days?
If you look around, it was pretty minimalistic music.
Repetitive function
When I looked out my window I looked right at that building, you can see right behind you.
Be careful not to fall into the construction pit behind you.
That's the only thing I saw, really, this repetitiveness, that's what inspired me.
Interviewer: What do you think when you look at it now? There isn't much left, is there?
No, no...
Glad it's gone actually.
Techno did its' job!
The virus has already spread! / Demolition music!
Yeah, wherever we go...
An acid virus is spreading... I don't how it happens.
Then it gets demolished.
Then it gets demolished
Inexplicable.
We can go to another place where this also happened.
I get a bit melancholic standing here.
I'm getting a little overwhelmed.
