Marc Acardipane
German producer/DJ Marc Acardipane is a man of many aliases. Chief among them is the Mover, under which he creates weighty, deceptively simple electronic music that sits at the intersection of hardcore and techno. No matter the name, he’s weathered the peaks and valleys of an over 30-year career. That career began in 1989 when he and Thorsten Lambart founded the label and electronic music group Planet Core Productions (PCP). At the peak of the hardcore scene in the ’90s, Acardipane tracks “Stereo Murder” (as Marshall Masters) and “Six Million Ways to Die” (as Turbulence) played in clubs all over the Netherlands. Then, in 2003, he teamed up with Scooter for a remix of the 1997 track “I Like It Loud,” which hit the Top 40 charts in Austria, Germany and Hungary. Recognized by some as one of electronic music’s most unsung heroes, Acardipane’s popularity has continued to wax and wane in the years since. Following the newly mastered reissue of 2002’s Frontal Frustrations and his latest release as The Mover, Undetected Act from the Gloom Chamber, Acardipane may finally get his proper due.
Speaking at the Red Bull Music Academy Berlin 2018, Acardipane recalled the early years of PCP, hardcore techno and his many aliases and reflected on his creative approach and the lessons learned from excess and the music industry.
Hosted by Vivian Host Won’t you join me in welcoming Marc Acardipane? [applause] So, the first track I played when everyone was filtering in here was by PCP [Planet Core Productions] and it was called “We Are From Frankfurt.” I think we should tell people a little bit about growing up in Frankfurt. It’s gonna recur a lot in this conversation and is a pretty important part of your identity. Tell me a little bit about the neighborhood that you grew up in and what kind of stuff you were up to when you were a teenager, let’s say 15 or 16. Marc Acardipane I start really early with the music when I was eight, learning classic guitar and when I was 12, also electronic guitar. 16… Vivian Host Just put the mic closer to your mouth. Marc Acardipane I hang around in bunkers because then you can play loud music, was interested in football, and then by 16 I start also buying drum machines, synthesizers. Vivian Host What was the impetus to start buying drum machines and synthesizers? Who had you heard that had one that made you want one? Marc Acardipane Actually, my teacher for electronic guitar, he was playing in a really bad punk band. He got the 808, he got the [JBL] MS-20, an 8-track recorder and I really liked that. But the major thing was because all my members from the band didn’t wanna go the way [I did]: “Live from the music or die.” I wanted to do that, they don’t. Then I thought, “Okay, with electronic music I need nobody.” Vivian Host And you also thought at that time or shortly after that electronic music was sort of the future of rock music in a way. Like rock music was getting to be, I don’t know, this old dinosaur and electronic music was a place that you could put those same vibes. Marc Acardipane It’s a generation thing but this comes a little later. When I was 16, there was no techno. Techno came out 18, 19, 20 when I was like that. Of course that was the new generation, rock & roll was over, so I see techno as the rock & roll of today, definitely. Vivian Host So there was music that was hard and made with synthesizers and stuff. Stuff like Belgian New Beat and EBM that you got onto at some point before techno, right? Marc Acardipane Yeah, I was in Majorca and there was a girl and everybody thought she’s my sister and everybody, the others thought I’m her brother but we never met actually and then we met and she gave me Front 242 Official Version which is a Belgian record, it’s kind of electro body music, really nice sounds, electronic. I didn’t like the groove, I was more into the Detroit techno stuff which was more groovy but I didn’t like the sounds of Detroit. It was not hard enough for me. So, that was the idea maybe to mix something out of that. Because we were really in the hip-hop scene at the beginning, but we mixed up breakbeats with techno sounds and rap and all the hip-hop crews – we play on battles – they thought we are totally mad because we [didn’t] fit in there. And then one day, you look in the mirror, you say, “OK, I’m white and I’m not coming from Compton, so we need our own street music in Frankfurt,” and that’s how hardcore techno was born. Vivian Host So, what were some of your favorite hip-hop artists back in those days? Marc Acardipane N.W.A. I got all the records, I have also the World Class Wreckin’ Cru with Dre, I got the first 12”, “The Dope Man” from N.W.A, and of course Public Enemy, the first record I have. Run DMC. We are based in Frankfurt, we had all the Americans there so that’s why there was a really strong hip-hop scene. Vivian Host I think we can hear echoes of that same vibe that’s in those records that you mentioned… Marc Acardipane Definitely. Vivian Host Later on when we hear your music. What were the first clubs that you were going out to? I mean, there were some pretty famous clubs in Frankfurt. A place called Dorian Gray and then I guess a little later, place called The Omen. Were those places that you would’ve been going or you were only in hip-hop shows? Marc Acardipane No, in the beginning at the Dorian Gray it was Friday, it was called the techno club. They played more electro body music, which I don’t like except Front 242. And later, The Omen came later, I think ’91 when the whole techno movement starts. Before Omen was also more commercial clubs. I didn’t go to hip-hop parties, only when we played there. Too much trouble there. Vivian Host I don’t know, you don’t seem a stranger to trouble [laughter]. We’ll get to that later. Marc Acardipane You say that. Vivian Host This club Dorian Gray was kind of crazy because it was at the airport for one thing and it had a Richard Long soundsystem, so a very famous guy built the soundsystem. I was watching some videos and it looked more like a little bit fancy and more like a discotheque but also quite developed for that time in the late ’80s. Did you like it there? Marc Acardipane That’s true. Yeah, of course, but I came more later so the usual Frankfurt techno weekend starts on a Friday at The Omen with Sven Väth. Then you hang out until 12 o’clock in the morning, then you try to stay awake until six, seven in the evening, then you go to bed. At four o’clock you get picked up and then we go to the Dorian Gray because at six DJ Dag took over and then it goes until 12 in the morning. Then you hang out in the park when the weather is good, whatever, then in the evening, we had this other club called XS which was a chill-out club. We have some tea and then later you go home and that was the Frankfurt weekend. Vivian Host Sounds pretty tight. Did you get all the guys that were in your hip-hop crew with you, did you take them over with you to the techno side? Marc Acardipane We were already techno. I don’t know how we’d be in this... I don’t know, it was an accident. I was never planning that we play on hip-hop battles. We know a lot of hip-hop people from Frankfurt, of course. They hang out in our office. We also did a label, Dope on Plastic, with them together. Vivian Host I’m just wondering because… Marc Acardipane There was no techno parties, so the first year we playe – I don’t know if somebody knows here, Nine Inch Nails, KFMDM (Nine Inch Nails was an American group) - we played support for them, real concerts. The real [techno] parties started in ’91. Then, all of the sudden we played there. Vivian Host I wanna show video number one. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the subtitles but I think it will be fun to watch anyways. (video: PCP interview filmed inside Music Hall in Frankfurt, January 1990) All right, that was a video of yourself and your partner in Planet Core Productions, Thorsten Lambert, from January 1990 on German TV and I’m sorry we don’t have the subtitles. But you’re talking about how techno is the future, you’re kind of over rock & roll ’cause it’s like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin – it’s not really possible to go further for you with that music. You said that punk was destructive but techno is telling us about the future, which I thought was a really interesting sentiment. The other interesting thing that happens in there, what club is that? Do you remember? Marc Acardipane The Music Hall in Frankfurt, we rented it to check some tracks. That’s why nobody’s there. Vivian Host So, you’re playing to this club with no one in it but what you said is that you rented out the club just so you could go play the tracks and hear them.
Speaker: Marc Acardipane Yep. Vivian Host And I guess see if they were gonna work to release. Marc Acardipane Exactly, yeah. White labels from DAT and stuff like that. Vivian Host At this time, 1990, were you already DJing out in clubs? Marc Acardipane No, this starts more in ’91. We also were not so much DJs in the beginning, we were more a live act. In the beginning we were FBI – which was Free Base International – then later PCP. Vivian Host Yeah, I guess I was wondering if when you finally made a record, that you gave to a local DJ? You’re going through this process where you’re testing out your records and you’re seeing is this any good, does this need a better kick, is this strong enough to work in a club? I was wondering that and I was also wondering what peoples’ reaction in Frankfurt was to maybe the first release on PCP. Marc Acardipane The first release was played by DJ Dag in the Dorian Gray [club] but much funnier story is PCP 006 which was “We Have Arrived,” the first distorted track ever, which is also on Wikipedia. When we played the first time live, the sound engineer run to me, he say, “You’re destroying my PA,” but he didn’t know that the whole track was already distorted. Nobody heard that before. It was also in the Music Hall, it was the big rave from Sven, was the first rave in Frankfurt where we played out. Vivian Host This is Sven Väth that you’re talking about. Marc Acardipane Sven Väth. You know him? [laughter] One of the biggest DJs in the world, still. Vivian Host So, Sven Väth was supportive of you guys when you started. Marc Acardipane Yeah. His first interview on MTV, he had our member jacket on. There was only I think 11 jackets with the PCP. It was the same that N.W.A had. He did his first interview on MTV with it. He was with us in the crew, yeah. Vivian Host How did you meet Sven Väth for the first time or become friends with him? Marc Acardipane We were really wasted after a party and I was in the restaurant and he sits in front of me, it was four o’clock in the morning. I was telling him, “You’re a great DJ, but the music you produce with the other guys,” because he’s not a producer, “it sucks.” I invited him to my studio and two weeks later, he came. I think nobody ever say that to him before because it’s more like everybody licked his ass. Vivian Host So he came to the studio. Did you guys make some stuff together? Marc Acardipane A few tracks, yeah, for my compilation Frankfurt Trax, which was on CBS at that time. Vivian Host There was this series, Frankfurt Trax, that you were mentioning which were these very dense compilations – 10 tunes, 12 tunes – that were really pushing this sound that you were developing. But one of the notable things about these compilations is that a lot of the tracks were produced by you guys under different names. Marc Acardipane Exactly. Nearly every track on this compilation is produced by me. Later, when we had some artists, there was a few. I mean, we always tried to [make it] Ttat people really believe that all these artists exist. In my head, they exist. We had this little program on the Atari where you can make phantom pictures, so that’s how we create our artists. Then there were things happen, like one magazine doesn’t believe [us]. And then there was a guy in Italy, he pick us up from the airport and I look at him and I say to Thorsten, my partner, “Do we know him?” He looked exactly like Ace The Space (that’s a track we’ll hear later). We put him a beard on, give him the record, make a picture, and send it to the press. [laughter] Vivian Host Can we actually show photo number six? OK, so… Marc Acardipane That’s Ace there on the right. Vivian Host Bottom right. That’s Ace the Space. Marc Acardipane [points to left] That’s Nasty Django, Lil’ Pepe Castro, and this is his father, it’s T-Bone Castro. They’re from Cuba and this is Marshall Masters. We had this name long before Eminem, from ’90s. But really funny is you can’t do girls with this program, so that’s why we didn’t have any female artists. You see T-Bone nose is a dick. Really [laughs]. Vivian Host OK [laughter], so this program... That’s good. It was funny. I like it. This program was actually something people were using to make mugshots, right? Like criminal mock-ups. Marc Acardipane I think so. I don’t know. I think so. Vivian Host I think that you told me that you made nearly all of these characters almost in one night. You were having a wild night with… Marc Acardipane It’s called the Night Where It was Bright. Vivian Host Why is it called that? Marc Acardipane I don’t think I tell this here. Vivian Host OK, so you can ask Marc later what happened but you and Thorsten, your partner in PCP, stayed up all night long on this computer. Marc Acardipane Exactly. Vivian Host Making all these different characters. Marc Acardipane On the old Atari ST. Vivian Host And they all have different personalities for you, right? Marc Acardipane Yep. Vivian Host Can you just talk a little bit more about what kind of tunes those different people we saw make? Marc Acardipane It came after a while. First, you produce the track and then we sit down, “OK, what fits?” But then after a while.. It’s like T-Bone Castro, for example – his 909, the closed hi-hat is broke. All the tracks is with a open hi-hat [laughter]. Nasty Django, it was more like the dirty, young style. It was not like I sit down and do it, but for me it was freedom. Because, I don’t know, I do also The Mover. The Mover is really kind of depressive, dark but I’m not everyday like that. One day, I’m happy; one day, I’m not happy. That’s all the characters come off. Marshall Masters is more like ravey, party. Ace the Space is a gangster – that’s why his first track is “9mm Is A Classic.” We get also these nice shirts with “Ace The Space. What’s the rude boy number?” With the 9mm on the back. It was a great seller. Vivian Host Maybe we should actually hear “9mm” so you can hear what it sounds like. This is actually the first record I ever bought. It was a big record in Los Angeles where I’m from. This is by Ace the Space, “9mm Is A Classic.” (music: Ace The Space – “9mm Is A Classic” / applause) Hell yeah. So, this may be obvious to some people but what is that noise that we’re hearing in the beginning of that tune? Marc Acardipane You mean the synth? Vivian Host Yeah. Marc Acardipane That’s the famous “Mentasm” hoover sound coming from the MKS-50 or the Juno 2 [ed. - It was actually Juno 1] by Roland. Vivian Host So, kind of made popular by Joey Beltram. Marc Acardipane Exactly, Joey was the first one. When I heard the track, I said, “He’s an alien. Where did he get that sound from?” This is maybe a thing that you guys don’t have anymore today, there are coming sounds you heard them somewhere all the time. But with us, we heard sounds that you never heard before in the beginning. I remember when I heard “Mentasm” in the club, it was unbelievable when it hits and then the second track was “The Dominator” from Human Resource and then we came with the street version, “9mm Is A Classic.” Vivian Host Something else is happening in this record with the sample, which is from a pretty famous hip-hop record by the 45 King. We can hear a little bit of that. (music: 45 King - “The 900 Number (Acapella)”) You really worked that record for Ace The Space. Marc Acardipane The funny thing, I don’t know if there’s a track with a beat because I only know the acapella. We had only the record with acapella but I never heard the track to it. Is there a track? Vivian Host Yeah, there is a track. Marc Acardipane Never heard that one. Vivian Host Back then, obviously there were a lot of hip-hop records that came with acapellas, so sampling… Marc Acardipane Every record on the B-side was always the acapella. Vivian Host It’s so different now, the hip-hop artists kind of gathered that they don’t want their stuff sampled anymore. But back then… Marc Acardipane Nobody cares. Even Chuck D., I remember he was saying in an interview, “Everybody can sample our stuff,” because hip-hop is based on samples so why they should complain if somebody else sample it. I never had any trouble and I sample a lot. Vivian Host Well, you’re one of the lucky ones then. So, what did you have in your studio back in 1989? Marc Acardipane ’89… Vivian Host What were all these early PCP tracks made on? Marc Acardipane In the beginning, it was only the [Emu] Emax, emulator sampler with a half megabyte of sampling time. It’s a lot. And a 909, that’s it. And a cheap Roland mixer. And two effects. But they were not mine – so it was not my 909, not my mixer and not my effects but the sampler was mine. Vivian Host Who did these other things belong to? Marc Acardipane The 909, I don’t remember. The other one was from a guy from a metal band. He was a drummer in a metal band and he quit with them and he had a studio and he had no use for it, so he put it in my apartment. Vivian Host I ask because we were talking before about how a lot of your tracks have become these huge hits and they’re so effective and people still love them to this day and sing along to them and they’re still considered such classics but actually, there’s very few elements in most of them. Marc Acardipane That’s true, less is more. Because she told me yesterday that a lot of you ask for mixing and talk about that yesterday. 80% of a good mix is the selection of the sounds. If you have too much, the biggest mixer in the world can do nothing with it. I worked with Jimmy Douglass, you know this guy? He’s mixed Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliott and all that stuff. He got 500 platinum records. He mixed one to three tracks of mine and they sound worse than my demos. It cost me a lot, but I learned a lot because I did wrong with the sounds and then I fixed it and then it sounds good. When I listen today to my old songs and why they sound good, we didn’t thought about that… or I didn’t thought about that in the past. You had not so much options, so if the sound doesn’t fit, you look for a new one until it fits and then it fits. That’s the most important. Vivian Host So what you’re saying is rather than slapping an EQ on something… Marc Acardipane Exactly. Vivian Host And being like, this doesn’t fit, let me try to take out this frequency or let me move this around, you didn’t have that option so you’re just like, “Boom, let me just make a new sound.” Marc Acardipane Exactly. Like the first mixer, you got treble, bass, and that’s it. So, OK, you also have to say that the analog synths have a much nicer curve than plugins, of course. When you look at a Moog and you look at it on analyzer without EQing, you get a nice low end, not too much and not a lot of shit. From the plugins, they have a lot of low shit, a lot of high frequency so you have to [EQ it] out. But a lot of people do too much. They put on the sound 10 plugins and maybe also experience that in the end, you put all 10 off and it sounds better than before. So, you need a good basement. Sh-t in, sh-t out. And also, “We fix it in the mix. Oh yeah, it’s not mastered.” I hear that so much when people play me tracks. “It’s not mastered.” When it doesn’t sound good un-mastered, it also will not sound great when it’s mastered. Vivian Host We were also talking about how, of course you ended up trying out these different mixers and mastering people, some of whom were quite famous and worked on big pop records and Major Lazer and all this. But in the beginning, all these tracks that we’re gonna hear for the next while, you were doing everything yourself. I think that there’s a lot of your style, the PCP style, that has to do with the way that you chose to mix the songs or the sounds that you chose to use. You weren’t necessarily jumping all over the place. You had sounds that you liked, you had a mixing style that you liked, that was different than a lot of the records that were coming out at that time. Marc Acardipane Exactly, yeah. Vivian Host Can you talk a little bit about what was on your mind back then? Granted, you didn’t know as much as you know now probably but... Marc Acardipane When I remember today, I had a lot of compressors but from the view from today, I had no idea how they work. I always tried to have different things than the others have which means if everybody got the Mackie board so I don’t have a Mackie board. Because that’s also part of your sound. The most thing for me important is pre-amps: distortion, saturation, third harmonic. That’s your sound. Even if you take a plugin synthesizer and put it to a nice pre-amp it will sound ten times better than before. Even if you have them both there, you don’t hear much of a difference but as soon as the kick comes in, everything but the pre-amp stands in front. My mixer is my sound. I got it back. Three months ago. Because I was also on the digital way then but it’s good. Now I have both but I can’t live without the analog. Vivian Host A lot of your sound in those days was coming from the limited pieces of gear that you had but also the way that you used those pieces. You didn’t want to have... Nobody wanted to have the same sound as... Even if everybody had a 909, everybody was trying to work in the 909 to not... Marc Acardipane That’s your drums and it’s so easy on the mixer, was one to eight is your drums. It’s always your drums. Your snare is your 909. Maybe 808, patch it. Nowadays, there’s too much options. Everybody from us have folders with millions of snare samples. Do you wanna sit there [makes snare sounds] Better create your own. There’s a guy, he’s pretty young and we talk a lot together and he was saying one good thing after I introduced him to the old-school production; he was saying, “Man, back in those days, you all had the same stuff but you all sound different. Now, there’s so many options and they all sound the same.” Which is a big problem I see. Vivian Host In a minute, I want to talk more about the ethos too because I think that was part of it, as everybody had a very strong kind of feeling about what their style was, what their ethics were, what their commitment was to the music that they were making and what they were trying to say. But before we do that, we have an MPC here and I think that you can actually illustrate this point about what your tunes are composed of or at least the early stuff. Marc Acardipane I played my whole life with the MPC. I start with the 3000 – the same that Dr. Dre have, my hero. Always when I play live – and I have here the 16 pads – I see the simplicity of my songs. This is one of the biggest hits in hardcore history. It got a kick [plays kick]; it’s from the 909. It’s got the tom [plays tom]. Got the crash [plays crash]. A vocal sample [plays sample]. And the melody [plays the melody]. All together, it sounds like this [plays track]. That’s all [laughter / applause] Because our brain – I don’t know if somebody ever told you – can only fix four elements at the same time which is the rhythm section, normally two instruments and the singing. OK, we don’t have singing here. Everything more is confusing and a lot of people do too much. They say, “Layer the synth 10 times.” Why? Look for a good one. You know? Also back in the days, you don’t have 20 reverbs. You had maybe two and a delay. You take one sound and everything sounds like completely with a nice room. Today, it’s too much and then it sounds like shit. Vivian Host Do you have another song on there you wanna play for us? Marc Acardipane I have a lot. What do you wanna hear? Vivian Host OK, that one was “Stereo Murder” that we just heard. Right? Marc Acardipane [scrolls through MPC banks] You wanna hear another one with a hip-hop sample? [plays song] That’s it, and the vocal. Also one of the hits still in the Netherlands, played since, I don’t know, 25 years on every hardcore party and then the whole audience sing it, “Ain’t no party like an alcoholic party.” You have the acapella? Vivian Host No. Marc Acardipane It’s from Tha Alkaholiks. I don’t know if you know, from New York [From Los Angeles]. Vivian Host Hip-hop group. Marc Acardipane I even put them in the publishing, so I also never get stressed. I don’t know if they ever heard the track but at least we tried to get them some money. Vivian Host So, what was people’s reaction in the beginning when you were making this music that had all these hip-hop samples and it was super fast and super tough? ’Cause I understand, you said it to me a couple times that people sort of considered you the gangsters or the hooligans of techno. Marc Acardipane Yeah, that’s true. Vivian Host Tell me more about it. Marc Acardipane Hardcore was really negative for the people. We always get disses. In the beginning, they like it but then not so much anymore. I don’t know because everybody try to get his style or the labels they had to put down to the people. Even the people don’t wanna hear that. Because in my experience, also today the young generation always want to have energy music. They wanna have hard music, they want rave. They don’t want, I don’t know, boring music and there was ’94, ’95, a lot of boring music, so everybody tried to diss us. I don’t know. Don’t book us. That’s how I came to Holland. I think it was ’96. Everybody split up in Germany with the sounds. Before, it was all techno and one was harder, one was softer. But then came all these styles and this was the beginning of the end, I would say. Vivian Host We’ll get a little bit more to your career in Holland for a minute because your music ended up becoming so big there, being affiliated with a culture called gabber. But… PCP starts in 1989. Actually, we need to talk about “We Have Arrived” [by] Mescalinum United, which is one of your first big tunes and is the reason your music starts getting to New York City, where you find these people that are kindred spirits in a way. People like Lenny Dee, Frankie Bones, Adam X, also hip-hop guys who have become ravers, techno guys. Marc Acardipane Yeah, I met Lenny from New York on the wasted party I told you guys before where I talked to Sven Väth the first time. It was raining outside, we all leave the club, nobody was there anymore and there’s sitting these two guys. One was Lenny Dee from New York, the other guy was from N-Joi from London who mixed later The Prodigy’s “Firestarter.” He was a techno artist at that point and then we go to the car and I thought, “Hey wasn’t that the guys who play in the other club?” and Thorsten said, “Yeah, I think so.” “What are they doing here in the rain?” We go there and nobody told them which hotel they are in, so they sit there and we take them home and Lenny saw the studio and he said, “Can you play something?” I play him “We Have Arrived” and he listened to this track, I don’t know six hours, really, and then he gave me money and said, “Man, I wanna release that in America.” This became then the first record on his label, Industrial Strength, and we released it also in Germany, so it was a sub-license for him. For us, it was really good because in Germany it’s always like that: If somebody from America play it, it’s much cooler than if we play it. Typical Germany. In Holland, it’s different. To become known or respected in Holland, you take a few years. I had the hit of the year in Holland, ’96, and I was not even invited to get my Grammy… or not Grammy, they call it different, I don’t know. I saw it in a magazine a year later. They sent it then to me. Now they love me, but there’s a big difference. Germany’s always like, “Yeah, yeah.” That’s why it was a good thing that Lenny came to Germany and play our music. I remember on a Mayday, he played all our white labels and all the German DJs [were like] “Oh, what is that?” I say, “You have them.” They all had them but they never listened to them. This was the problem. Lenny helped us a lot at that point. Vivian Host I guess your music had a huge influence on those guys. Frankie Bones said that you made the perfect music for playing in warehouse parties in New York and he felt like your music, I’m paraphrasing here, but basically was the music of the apocalypse. He heard it, he felt that it was very dystopian and he loved that about it. I guess that fit New York in those times because New York was still quite destroyed and there were empty warehouses around. Marc Acardipane I played there only once, ’96, at Lenny’s party which the police interrupt us and close the party down. Vivian Host Oh, that’s interesting. As big of a hip-hop fan as you were, you didn’t actually go to New York until later. Marc Acardipane No. Vivian Host So what else can you tell me about this Mescalinum United track, “We Have Arrived.” Why was it called “We Have Arrived?” Marc Acardipane I think I had the feeling, or we had the feeling at that time, that this is the sound we’re going for. Before it was a lot of testing and it was all good records, but “We Have Arrived” was like when I did it, I know that’s it. From that point we go. Vivian Host So this was kind of your opening statement to everybody? Watch out. Marc Acardipane And it was released on a white record without name, without nothing. Do this today. It’s not so easy. Vivian Host But that helps create the mystique around it. Marc Acardipane Yeah. Vivian Host All right, let’s hear it. This is Mescalinum United with “We Have Arrived.” (music: Mescalinum United – “We Have Arrived” / applause) Marc Acardipane And like the distorted sound was also like an accident because back in the days when you had like a cheap mixer it had not much headroom. So you always come to this point where everything was distorted, but it sounds shit. So you go down, do it again, do it again. But at that point I thought, “Well, I leave it like that.” And you hear also the reverse cut is all done with tape. Real, cut it. Vivian Host Can you explain a little bit more about that? Marc Acardipane Tape? Yeah, two-track tape? And then… Vivian Host But what did you actually do? Marc Acardipane Turned it around and then it’s reversed. Or you also do the arrangements, but before you record, you have to... That you don’t have a problem later with the reverbs, because I just heard the track before we edit it and it’s really funny because at the drop, it stops and then the reverb sounds off and then the kick comes back in. And so this was the editing point that it gets that impact when the whole thing comes back. Vivian Host Did you use a lot of tape edits in those days? Marc Acardipane Yes. For all the reverse cuts. I liked that. I heard it from Detroit and so we also get a machine. Vivian Host Who are some people that were making music around this time that you also liked besides hip-hop people? Like who were some people within the electronic music realm that you thought were… Marc Acardipane Underground Resistance from Detroit, Richie Hawtin, Canada. Detroit. Vivian Host Close enough. Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Marc Acardipane Joey Beltram, of course. Cisco [Ferreira] and [his group] The Advent, Aphex Twin. Yeah. Vivian Host Yeah, actually you met, I guess, Aphex Twin at around this time because he ends up remixing this record of yours maybe a year later or something. Marc Acardipane I was with the guy when we bought the DAT machine for Richard (Aphex Twin) in Belgium and send it to him. And then this label R&S asked me who I would like to remix this track [“We Have Arrived”]. I say, “OK Richard.” But we met after in England when we played together. He really did two remixes; he normally only do one, but he liked it so much. And he also, he say in the magazine, the B-side of “We Have Arrived” is the best track ever made. And when Richard say this, this is like, “Wow!” you know? Because Richard was god in Germany. The Mover not. And England was the other way around because when I played the first time in London, I was that big on the flyer [makes size gesture] and he like that [makes small size gesture]. And I said, “What?” So he got the same problem like me. When you come from Germany, nobody cares. He comes from London [ed. - from Cornwall], nobody cares. But in the rest of the world, Aphex Twin was like huge. I mean until today. Vivian Host Yeah. If you listen to his early tracks, you can definitely hear the influence of the hardcore sound for sure. Maybe we should listen to a little bit of the B-side of “We Have Arrived.” Marc Acardipane You got it. Vivian Host Which is called “Reflections of 2017.” So already back in 1990, 1991, you were thinking about the year 2017. Marc Acardipane There’s also a funny story. Vivian Host OK, let’s hear it first and then we’ll hear… Marc Acardipane Because the track is normally completely different. It’s with the Oberheim, it’s a keyboard. Then something happens. I don’t know. It got the hanging in the sound and I leave it and record it to the end and did some reverse cuts and that’s it. But normally, the synth plays something totally different, so you can never make that. That’s what I also like in the analog. You never know what happens. You know, you’re on the wrong MIDI channel or something, I don’t know. And you will hear – it’s a really weird sound, but that’s Richard’s favorite. Vivian Host OK. Will you point out when the weird sound happens? Just point at it? So… (music: The Mover – “Reflections of 2017” / applause) Marc Acardipane And here you can hear like how I try to be different. I mean, take any synth and try to copy that sound. It’s not so easy. Vivian Host Yeah, I guess you had the help of the synths sometimes doing what they wanted as well, right? Marc Acardipane Yes. Vivian Host Late at night in the studio, what’s going on. Marc Acardipane Or the [Pilldriver] “Apocalypse Never.” Vivian Host I don’t have that one. Marc Acardipane There’s also, I don’t know, there’s a track that Nina plays – Nina Kraviz is playing at the moment and there was also a really stupid story. I was sitting like that in the studio [lounges] and I had the keyboard was, like, here. It’s downstairs. Here was the computer and I had a sound, also in the Oberheim, same synth like that. And I had no idea. And I was sitting like this, I was a little bit tired. And then I fall from the table over the keyboard like [makes motion] and I said, “Wow, that sounds cool.” And then I played a whole track with the elbow, and this is really true. And that’s the track that Nina plays now since couple of months always at the closing track [laughs]. Vivian Host Wild man. So that song that we heard, “Reflections of 2017” is under The Mover alias. And The Mover was actually your nickname in Frankfurt. Why were you called that? Marc Acardipane Because I moved things. I born in April and things that… How do you say in English? You have people say, “Oh, you cannot. You cannot do that.” I can. When I went ’96 to Holland, I say, “OK, I go there and be the number one,” and everybody was like, “Ha, ha, ha.” One year later, I was. Or like ’92 I said, “Oh, in one year techno parties will be in big halls in Germany. Frankfurt Festhalle, Dortmund Westfallenhalle.” And the journalists like, “Ha, ha. Never.” One year later, it was. So we always have to believe in things if they happen or not. You know there’s also things that doesn’t happen. But if you put like before, “Oh no, this will never happen.” It will never happen. And this is with all things in life, not in music. If you’re saying, “Yeah, I want to become a big star.” But then say, “No, I never make it.” You’ll never make it. You know? Believe in yourself. Vivian Host So going back to the 2017 part and The Move. The Mover is, for me anyway, your darker and trippier alias. A little bit different than the guy who’s like let’s all get drunk and whatever. Like it seems more introspective and it seems more… Marc Acardipane It’s me, yeah. Vivian Host Dark. Marc Acardipane It’s the most me. Vivian Host Tell me a little bit about what this idea of 2017 you had was back in those days or why this number? Why this year? Marc Acardipane Over about two years, I had dreams and episodes five times a week and it was all happening in 2017. So it has nothing to do with the music actually or that I was planning something to do with the world, the future. But we still here. Vivian Host So what were the dreams specifically? Were they something apocalyptic or dark about the year 2017? Marc Acardipane I don’t want to tell. Vivian Host OK. But you were putting the idea into this music of what you were seeing in your mind? Marc Acardipane Yeah. Vivian Host Interesting. Alright, fair enough. We can just listen to the records… Marc Acardipane I never told nobody. I think there’s only two people I told in my whole life. And it’s Thorsten, my partne, and Shawn, my longtime music partner also. Vivian Host So when after you start putting out this music, like what were the first big huge raves that you were playing as PCP? Marc Acardipane I think the really first big was Hellraiser. Vivian Host What year would that have been? Marc Acardipane Mayday or Hellraiser? Vivian Host I don’t know. What year was it in? Marc Acardipane ’93. I think they were both in ’93, but I don’t know which comes first. Hellraiser is in Holland, in Amsterdam. Big huge hall. Really famous. And Mayday. Where was it? In Dortmund. We had the fight. That’s why you’re asking me, huh? Vivian Host No, I was just wondering when you realized that this music that you were making was getting really big and I think the experience of going to play. You know, like maybe you’re playing around Frankfurt or something. But this experience of going to a rave and being like, “Oh, there’s thousands of people who love my music,” is a huge… Marc Acardipane I think it was in Holland because Holland had so many raves. They put like, I don’t know, ten posters in the city and then in the evening, there was 10,000 people. And in Germany we only had the Mayday once a year and there was like 10 - 12,000 with a big campaign and Holland’s a lot smaller than Germany. I think it was in Holland, yeah. Vivian Host But you’re right that I do want to show the video of Mayday. So we’re gonna play a video of Mayday, which was a pretty legendary early rave here in Germany. It happened in Dortmund, but was actually put on by the Low Spirit crew, who are from Berlin, who are sort of headed up by WestBam, like one of the first big DJs of this scene, and his brother. And there’s kind of a rivalry between German cities, right? Or there was back in those days. Was there already a rivalry when you went to play the rave? Marc Acardipane Of course. And after… You know, there was Low Spirit and they had a lot of commercial acts. So WestBam he was okay. We had no problem with him. But they had also like Marusha, Mark ‘Oh was really commercial. They were in the charts, so they always want to have their artists shining. And on this rave also Moby played and also Lenny Dee. And they cut off Moby’s sound. Prodigy was also there, I think. Yeah, The Prodigy was also there, but it was before they became big or really big. Yeah, they tried to do the same with us, but then there starts a fight on stage because we were planned for 15 minutes. We asked for 20 and they cut [us] at minute 11 when we play “9mm Is A Classic,” which was ’93 hit of the year in Germany, because they don’t want that we are shining there. And Moby destroys his keyboard. I will not destroy my keyboard. And with Lenny, they put out all the high frequencies during his DJ [set]. With Jeff Mills they were all cool because he was with them [in their camp], but Lenny not. And the party [was] called the Judgement Day… [For] real huh? And then we did the track was called “Low Spirit Suck My Cock,” which was on Thunderdome and sold 180,000 copies and since this day Low Spirit hate us of course. That’s how we became big in Holland also – because they try that we not play anymore in Germany and they had big influences. And then we became big in Holland. where the Thunderdome comes from. Vivian Host You guys were pretty good at doing hardcore diss tracks. There comes the hip-hop thing. Didn’t you do a diss track against these guys that did this rave hit called “Who is Elvis?” Marc Acardipane Oh yeah. Vivian Host OK, so there’s a song called “Who is Elvis?” and it sort of rips off this song by LA Style. Marc Acardipane No, no. Vivian Host In a way. Marc Acardipane No, there was AMV, which was the first German techno distributor and I worked there every Thursday, not for money. I go to the shops and check that all the techno records are in the right position. And my partner (my ex-partner Thorsten), he also worked there a little bit so. And then we had this record called “Who is Elvis?,” which became a chart hit, so it was good for the distribution – and the distribution owner, his name is Alex Azary. And then the guy who did the track give it to another label (because there was at that time more handshake deals) and so we were really pissed off. So we did the record called “Friends of Alex” and instead of “Who is Elvis?” we say “Fick dich doch mal” which means like, “F-ck you.” And we were selling out in all 35,000 copies. We were three times on the position to hit the charts, but they didn’t let us in because of the word “f-ck.” At that time, it was not cool to use that. Nowadays it doesn’t matter anymore. And now, it’s a legendary track. It’s really funny because we didn’t do the sample. It was, I record a rapper and he had to do it over and over again. And after I say, “Now you do it the tenth time,” he say “Eh, fick dich doch mal!” and I cut it from there. [laughs] Vivian Host But having an MC with you as a live act was a really important part of your show, I think, as PCP and even later on. Marc Acardipane PCP we had two, and then later on with Ultimate MC from Trinidad. Yeah, I met him in Trinidad. Vivian Host Who were the MCs in PCP? Marc Acardipane Thorsten, my ex-partner, and Pan. They were from the early beginning, but there’s also like an act. It’s not only MC. I don’t want to call them real MCs. It’s psychos. Vivian Host OK, well let’s play video number two. This is PCP live at Mayday from April 30th, 1993. (video: PCP live at Mayday, April 30th, 1993) We can actually play video number three too. So that’s earlier on. You guys only played for 15 minutes, 17 minutes. Marc Acardipane I think nine or 11 or something. Vivian Host You can see it in this video number three, you can see you guys kind of getting told to stop and then it starts. (video: PCP live at Mayday, April 30th, 1993) So what happened there? They just cut you off and just went… Marc Acardipane Yeah, we have two other videos from the other side from GTO, these guys from England. And you’ll see that Röttger Williams, the boss of, or he was the boss of, Low Spirit, he came to the engineer and said [makes cutting sound] and then he ran away. So there was like... How do you say in this in English? There’s not the stairs. It’s like that [makes movement] with the… Vivian Host A ladder? Marc Acardipane Yeah, exactly. So he was away and then the guy cut off and then we throw the guy from the stage. It was really high and then the security want to get us. And then my fighting teacher was on stage. He was in front of me. And he had some chuckos [ed. – Nunchucks] and Lenny’s friend took the chuckos and put it on the ladder so the security cannot come up. And on the other side, the other DJ starts already, but nobody cares. So everybody’s stay in front like, “PCP!” Vivian Host Wow. That’s like the opposite of a peace, love, unity and respect, huh? Marc Acardipane They didn’t respect us. Vivian Host Yeah, it was a different time then. I mean there was a lot of... Especially with the hardcore scene, you guys were up against a lot of people I think because this kind of music was often dissed by people as too hard, too fast, too crazy. Right? Am I wrong? Marc Acardipane Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Vivian Host I mean, I think that you guys already came with this attitude, but did you always feel like you were having to fight against someone to get the respect that you deserve? Marc Acardipane No, no, no. Definitely not. I’m a vegan. I’m a really nice guy, but like that, if you want to f-ck with us, you know? I mean this was disrespect when we have 15 minutes and they cut us at 11 when we played the hit of the year in Germany. It was not that we were over the time. This was on purpose what they did. And this I don’t like, you know, that we always fail. Vivian Host So is there at this time, was there something like this is what guys from Frankfurt are like and this is what guys from Berlin are like? Did people have a different image in the scene? Marc Acardipane No, not really. I mean, there was like Tanith, for example. We didn’t have any problem with Tanith or some other guys from... But it was also way back. There was always a problem also with the hip-hop between Berlin and Frankfurt. I dunno why it comes from. With Low Spirit, this was only because they were commercial and we don’t like that. They had this whole starting with the fake. You know, Marusha, she was everywhere and she not really can sing and she try. Somebody else was singing the record, so it was fake. We don’t like that because you have to be real in the music. And I think maybe also the track you play first from the video, it’s called “Konstablerwache,” which is a drug seller place in Frankfurt and when you go there and the people say, “Psst, psst how much you need?” So we took that and make, “How fast do you need?” And that’s why in German when you ask, “How much you want it?” And people scream out, “800.” “OK, I give you 800 BPMs.” And so normal people maybe, I don’t know, it’s too hard for them. We found it… I found it funny. Sven played it in the radio and on the next day it comes from every car in Frankfurt when you go outside because everybody knows this, “Psst, psst how much you need?” Vivian Host Yeah, you guys were amazing at figuring out how to make a hook, whether it was… Marc Acardipane And this track is done in 20 minutes because there was a journalist there and he say, “How long you need for a track?” “20 minutes.” And then I did this track. And then I cleaned the studio and then I heard that Sven was on the radio. So I drove there and say, “Come on, play it.” And then he fall from the table. He loves it so much. Vivian Host Yeah, I mean it’s kind of amazing. So there’s all these samples that people can grab onto and like identify the tracks. Even if they’re not DJs, they can know, “Oh, this is the track where it says ‘nine millimeters.’” “This is the track where it does this.” But also writing these very simple lines that people can actually sing along to I think was a real strength of all of this music that you did in the ’90s. Marc Acardipane I think it’s a talent. Yeah. Vivian Host I actually have video number four just to illustrate this point. This is from Rome in 2005, but it’s people singing along to your track like sort of acapella. (video: The Mover live in Rome, 2005) Marc Acardipane Amazing party. Because the organizers thought there’s coming three to 500 [people], he had two security guys. And then 5,000 people show up. It was Lory D and me. It was a big stadium for horses. This was in the hall of the place. We were all happy that nothing happened because the promoter was really in fear that if there’s some fights or whatever, but everything was peaceful. Like me. Vivian Host So peaceful. Lory D, of course, being a hardcore techno legend from Italy. From Rome. Yeah, I mean there’s more high-budget, beautiful photos I could show from later from these... Like Thunderdome later on and these bigger raves. But I kind of like these old ones ’cause it gives me the feeling of what it was actually like to be there with your head shaking around ’cause it’s so loud. Anyway, what song are they singing in that video? Marc Acardipane That’s “Into Wasteland” by The Mover, which was in Rome the first techno track that ever became big. Lory D was like what Sven Väth was for Frankfurt or WestBam for Berlin, Lory D is for Rome. And this is the track where everything started. And I didn’t know that when I played the first time there. I was like, do they sing the song? And I put the fader down and I hear that they sing it. Vivian Host Is this one of your favorite songs that you’ve made as The Mover? Marc Acardipane One of the three, yeah definitely. I really love that song. You’ve got nice atmosphere and nice emotion. Vivian Host OK, let’s hear a little bit of it in its actual original state. Now that you’ve heard it sung acapella. (music: The Mover – “Into The Wasteland” / applause) So that was “Into The Wasteland” by the Mover. What were you using to make that? Marc Acardipane I think that was two Oberheim synths, the 909 and that’s it. An 808. But I think it was a sample, the snare is 808. But it’s also really simple. And it’s funny on this track because in a way it’s kind of commercial, but it’s not. You know what I mean? If you put like the drums away, put a guitar in and let the guy from Coldplay sing over it, it can be a radio hit, you know? [laughter] Vivian Host How much did you think about that at a certain point, because by ’93, ’94, you’re playing everywhere in these giant raves. People are playing your songs on the radio. Like depending on what country you’re from, hardcore is a very underground or niche music, but actually in Germany, Holland, Belgium, and maybe Italy, it’s like giant. It became giant. So were you thinking at some point about how much these tracks were going to sell? Marc Acardipane No, never. I mean, we had some things on our label. If we sell under 3,000, we stop the label. But we never had to do it. At this time, the sales were really good. But we had also labels where in front we only press 500 to keep them cool. But we never thought about sales at that time. Also you made enough money for everything. We also… we didn’t have to play or DJ or live. You could live from the sales. Nowadays, no. Vivian Host I think that you guys did some cool stuff in the marketing, though. Of having these different aliases and having different... You had different labels at one point. So people, rather than putting everything under your own name, you had a lot of different things that people could buy into that seemed like they were buying all different people or all different things. Marc Acardipane Yeah. Yeah. I think at that time it was great. Nowadays, it would be really difficult to do that. Or you want to have 80 Instagram accounts and Facebook accounts. I think you’d go mad because the focus is not there today. Like back in the days, you produce a record, you press it, you do some white labels, you send it to the shop. He’d give it to some DJs. They play it, they get a good reaction. You sell it to the shop. The people come to the shop. They order with you. Then you have a hit record. But nowadays, you don’t have that anymore. For example, you go to a techno club and you say, “Oh wow. I like the music,” then you go on Beatport, put “techno” in and like, uhhh. One million releases this week! There’s more labels than artists on Beatport. That’s really true, and so it is confusing. And then back in the days, you’d go to your favorite record store and you say like, “Ah, that guy played last Friday there. I like his sound. What kind of music does he play?” And then you select your 100 records and then you find something. But nowadays to find a record is really hard and that’s a big difference to the past. There was also not so much. It’s too much today. It’s on the one way, it’s good that everybody with a low budget can make music, but there’s also a lot of fakers because sometimes it’s not bad that you work your ass off for one year to buy some equipment to do music. Then you really know you want to do it. Because nowadays with the correct software, everybody’s doing music and release any shit with maybe loops. It was really funny. One year ago, a friend called me and say, “Hey, check out the Beatport Top 10,” and there was seven tracks with the same shaker loop. Back in the days, we didn’t have loops. We had no presets, nothing. You maybe find out, “OK, that sound comes from that synth,” but you still have to do it. That sometimes is good for the music. Vivian Host Yeah. There was no tutorial on how to make the Hoover back in those times. Marc Acardipane No, no. There was no Facebook, no YouTube, no nothing. Vivian Host So I mean… Marc Acardipane I wish we had. Vivian Host You do? Marc Acardipane Sometimes, yeah. Vivian Host Why? Marc Acardipane Yeah, because to get, for example, from Germany to America in ’92 forget it. Today, it’s easy. In three months, you can be a world star. If everything works right on the point and you’re a little bit lucky and everything looks good. It was not possible back in the days. You know, you have to find a label. I saw now, I don’t know a couple of years ago on YouTube, there’s one track of me called Cyborg Unknown “The Year 2001” which was played in Detroit on a dance show. You have also the video? No? No. But I didn’t know at that time that they play it there. I didn’t know it was big then. I know now from YouTube, somebody recorded and put it on YouTube. Vivian Host Are you saying the Detroit New Dance Show? Marc Acardipane Yeah, it’s so funny. Then they played the track there. But we didn’t know. Vivian Host What song was it? Marc Acardipane ’91, ’92. It’s the first dance ecstasy. Vivian Host Alright, well we’ll look that up later. I didn’t get to that one. So you mentioned Thunderdome, which I think was kind of important in developing the aesthetics around hardcore. I mean, you guys already had stuff going on. There were people also in the Netherlands making this music and other places. But it really becomes that hardcore starts to have an aesthetic and a vibe. Tell me for you what Thunderdome was and this was also kind of the start of these big raves that we have now, like Mysteryland and Tomorrowland and all this stuff. Marc Acardipane That’s true. But for me, the CD was bigger [to] notice than the parties because I, just last year the Thunderdome guys asked me because they put out a book soon (or it’s out, I don’t know) and they asked me the same question. For me, it was the CD because when Thunderdome 3 came on the TV in Germany, the advertisement, it was like everything changed with this dog, with the pitbull. That was the one where they sell 180,000 copies. So it hits in the charts in Germany and from that day everybody was like, “Ooh, what is this? Hardcore? Cool.” Then it was the parties. But I think we didn’t play so much on the first Thunderdomes. Later on, when they were really big, like ’97, ’98, there I play. But before, or I dunno, maybe I don’t remember, but I don’t think so. Vivian Host So they were advertising a compilation CD of Thunderdome, which was.. Marc Acardipane They had a nice advertisement with this pitbull dog. That was their logo. Vivian Host And so you had tracks on these Thunderdome compilations… Marc Acardipane Yeah, four. I think, four. Vivian Host They were selling a lot. Marc Acardipane Yeah. It was the “Low Spirit Suck My Cock” on. The other three I don’t remember which one. Vivian Host I’m just interested in it because I feel like the Netherlands took this music and really were able to market it to a worldwide audience eventually. And also give it a sort of... Like really tie it in with kind of like horror movie aesthetics or end of the world aesthetics. Like if you look at the names of the Thunderdome compilations, they are Fuck Mellow, This is Hardcore From Hell, The Fifth Nightmare, Caught in the Web of Death. Marc Acardipane That was not us. So the Holland people really like the horror. I like aliens. Vivian Host You like what? Marc Acardipane Aliens. I don’t like horror movies at all, so. But in Holland it was so big. Like you go there and you sit in the hotel and you see a commercial advertising insurance. The kid is a gabber – which means he’s a hardcore fan – because otherwise you will not sell your insurance. And I have like school books with my picture on front of it and it was so weird for us because in Germany, hardcore was completely underground. Everybody hates it. And in Holland it was like pop music. If I come from the hotel and go in the taxi, “Hey Marc, where are you going?” because I was with ID&T then. This is the guys, the label from Thunderdome, and they put me on TV for one week, 45 minutes every night. They put the same live show so everybody knows me there. And gabber is like, they have a bald head, $3,000 training suit and [the word] gabber comes from Hebrew – it’s another language, it’s a Jewish language – and [it means] “friend.” So it’s like punk or the mods or whatever and they’re called the gabbers. So it’s not a music style. A lot of people think it’s a music style, but it’s not. So in the beginning, the hardcore was called house in Holland. And then the gabbers listened to the house, so they called gabber house. We bring the name hardcore to Holland and then... Vivian Host And then they called it hardcore, but the subculture around it was called gabber. Marc Acardipane Yeah, the gabbers listened to it. This is the same, like I don’t know if you know the group The Who, it’s a big English rock band, and they were listened to by the mods and the mods they wear long suits, driving the Vespa and they have also really short hair but the mods, The Who were not the mods so it was like the punk. There’s a lot of confusion but if you go to a Dutch guy and say gabber music he would look at you like, “What?” Because he knows, but here in Germany everybody thinks it’s a music style but it’s not. Vivian Host So I guess Holland was pretty good to you. Did you move there at some point? Marc Acardipane No, never. I always think it’s better you come somewhere and you come back. If you live there, you’re maybe not so interesting anymore. Vivian Host At what point... I mean one of the things that changed too was that in the beginning a lot of music was called house or a lot of music was called techno. All styles of electronic music and then at some point the genres, like you were mentioning it’s hard to go on Beatport and find certain things that you want because also there are things split into so many different genres. What point did you see hardcore music start to become all these different strands of hardcore? ‘Cause somehow we get, there is terrorcore, hardstyle, what else? Marc Acardipane Hardstyle is completely different. So there was a time in like 2003 where I say goodbye to hardcore, and then the hardcore goes really bad and then there comes another style, which was hardstyle, which sounds a little bit like in the beginning of hardcore and became also a style, then this get bored and then they come with the rawstyle. But in the beginning in my time there was the rave hardcore, that’s what we did. Then there was the terror, which became, if you ask today, Drokz he’s really the famous terror DJ, the “Low Spirit Suck My Cock” he says everything starts with that, when we did this track. We did it on 220 bpm, only for fun. Then it became a style, but I never was a hard terror DJ. There’s certain styles also with breakbeats, I don’t know how they call that… Breakcore? Yeah, breakcore. but I’m not a friend of all these styles. For me it’s all techno. Vivian Host Who was doing the terror? Dutch people? Marc Acardipane A lot, French, English, American, Australian. Nasenbluten. Vivian Host Oh yeah, Nasenbluten from Australia. So you weren’t making like 220 bpm. Marc Acardipane No, I did this one record, and that is all. For me, there must always be a groove. I like to make the people dance. You also can dance on 220, but maybe only for three minutes. Vivian Host Only long enough to do the live show, as we saw. I want to play something else from another one of your aliases. This one is from Pilldriver. What’s up with Pilldriver? Marc Acardipane Also a track that Nina supports in the moment. I did it in ’95, I had an A-side, and I needed a B-side, and I had not much time, and I thought, “OK, let’s do a kick, filter it, put some delay on,” and it was actually the first recording, so actually the whole track took seven minutes. Nobody cares about the A-side anymore because it became a huge hit like Carl Cox played it, Laurent Garnier, all the really famous techno DJs played it. And it’s only a kick drum. Vivian Host Don’t mind if I do. This is Pilldriver with “Pitchhiker.” (music: Pilldriver – “Pitchiker” / applause) Marc Acardipane There’s no edits, no automation, nothing. Just one recording, with one 909 kick, with delay, preamps, EQs. Vivian Host So that was from 1997. Marc Acardipane Five. Vivian Host ’95? Marc Acardipane Yeah. Vivian Host Was that on Cold Rush? What was the theme of this label, Cold Rush? Marc Acardipane Can I say that here? [laughs]. It was Cold Rush records. The little names [Ed. – catalog numbers] was LOST, so “LOST 001,” “LOST 002.” This is 009, and the idea was, this is probably the last record before you die on an overdose in a big hall in a rave. Vivian Host That’s pretty dark, man. Marc Acardipane [laughs] I know. Vivian Host What was your life like then, at this time, around ’95, ’97? I mean, it’s interesting to me because, you know, you make this dark music, and then you play these really hard raves, and then does it become a self-fulfilling prophecy that your life becomes darker because you’re doing all of that? Marc Acardipane It’s experience. I mean, I was nearly dead two times on an overdose. So, but this is not like I sit the whole day there and be depressive. It is not. But music is all about… it was my life, only in the studio. But I stopped then with the drugs. It was ’92 or ’93, so really early. Yeah. Vivian Host But you didn’t mind making music for people that were having these experiences? Bad trips and all that. Marc Acardipane No, because back in the days you say “E is the key.” It was a step for most of the people into that music, which I understand. Nowadays it’s really dangerous because you don’t know what’s in there. When we start, there was no business around the drugs so they were clean. Until the day they were not clean, and this was the day where I nearly died, and then I make a deal with God, I say, “If I survive this night, I stop.” That was Mayday 2 in Cologne. Vivian Host So, kind of early on, into this. Marc Acardipane Yeah, four people died on this party. It was the first punch Ecstasy in the history of techno. Vivian Host Obviously that was a pretty dark experience, but you just thought, “I need to not think too much about it, I need to just keep going with this.” And keep making fun party tracks. Keep making stuff that the ravers are going to way. Marc Acardipane It’s also like, I don’t want to say like it was shit that I did that because now when I play I know how the people feel. As a DJ, you need to know how they feel. And they’re on drugs, of course. If you never took drugs or experienced anything, I don’t think you can play for them, you know. But on the other side, you also can talk to them, and tell to them about your experience that they don’t do the same mistakes. Today the mistakes can be done really, really fast. Vivian Host Yeah, I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of crazy things in your many years of throwing parties. Marc Acardipane Yeah at this party, one of these four I saw dying. I was on the bridge, and they took him out from the hall, and he was like white, soap comes out of mouth, and his girlfriend was next to him crying, and I was like, “F-ck.” I had like from the feet to the back [makes banging sound] what was in my head, and then my whole life... You know from the movie comes from the past, all your life really fast. Then in this moment, a friend touched me. He was driving us, and I said, “Put me to the trees somewhere where I can touch stones, bring me out of here.” I actually had to play there but I didn’t do it anymore. Vivian Host Nowadays people, especially club promoters, party promoters and DJs are also dealing with the same issues still, and also dealing with the issues of what people do in the club, how they act, or who’s coming to the club, should we let these people in? And I know you said that you get asked quite a bit, especially in the German press, about hardcore because there’s been a problem at some parties with neo-nazis or white power people affiliating themselves with that genre. Have you ever had to take a stand on that as a DJ, as a person playing in raves one way or the other? Marc Acardipane End of the ’90s there became a problem that political companies try to filter their people into the hardcore party with also the bald head. I didn’t play on that particular promoter’s parties because I know that. I don’t want that. Then, I don’t know, two or three years later, I was playing in Germany, my MC is black, there were 10 people put their hand up in the “Heil Hitler” thing. So we leave the stage. There were 6,000 people. I didn’t saw any security, so I thought it was better we not jump in. Then it was May and I sent an email to all the promoters in Germany, and I canceled all my bookings until December with the last sentence: “We don’t entertain neo-nazis.” Then I get like SMS, like “You f-cking n-gger friend.” Then they tried to punch me three times in the club. Vivian Host But a lot of people that you knew were playing these parties knowing that this was going on. Marc Acardipane Exactly and I was really pissed off with them because they only think about the money, and in that moment you should [band] all together because there was never anything in the hardcore scene like that. In every scene you have some stupid people, but it was never like that. But now it’s not anymore. It stops then after this, there was a big discussion, and a lot of people came later to me and said, “Wow, it was great that you done that.” In the beginning it was not so like that. There was also not the big internet thing; then there came out wrong stories because I say there was 10 people put the right hand up, and then later it was like “Marc said all people from West Germany are nazis,” which I never said. We found out. I found the 10 people, and they lived 50 kilometers from Hamburg in the north. Vivian Host But not so far from you, I guess. Marc Acardipane Exactly, and you know, the scene is small. It took a couple of months, but we found them. Vivian Host So in a long career you have to make a lot of different decisions, and one of the decisions that you made is to let a very huge German group called Scooter use one of your tracks that was a big hit already, called “I Like it Loud,” a track that you made as Marshall Masters. Tell me… Well, first of all, I want to hear the original of that song. What can you tell me about making this? Did you know already when you were making it that it was going to be a big hit? Marc Acardipane Right after, yes. We did this whole track in five hours, and I was sure it would become a hit. (music: Marshall Masters – “I Like It Loud” / applause) Vivian Host So, what happened when Scooter came calling asking to use that song. Marc Acardipane That’s funny because the story I just tell with May, where I cancel all my bookings… Two, three weeks later, Jens Thele, he’s the manager of this group – I knew him for a long time – he asked me. And then I thought, OK. It’s like [when] you split from your girlfriend and you take the key and throw it out. I thought, “If I do that, I cannot go back.” But then I thought about it for three weeks, and I say, “Ok. Do it.” Vivian Host Why did you ultimately decide to let them… Not only did they use the song, but you guys were actually in the video and connected to the song. It’s not like they just paid you for an extended sample, it was a collab. Marc Acardipane No, not a sample. I have the whole publishing... No, no, it was… I say, “OK, I want to be in the video.” Yeah, because then I also have something out of it. Otherwise everybody would think it’s their track, and it was big in the Netherlands ’97, and in Belgium ’98, we hit golden record there. It’s the most sold track ever in the hardcore. Scooter did it in 2003. Six years later, actually. Vivian Host Can we watch video number five? Marc Acardipane Oh god. (video: Scooter vs Marc Acardipane & Ultimate MC – “Maria (I Like It Loud)”) Vivian Host So that’s Scooter vs Marc Acardipane & Ultimate MC. Marc Acardipane Was their biggest hit. Vivian Host “Maria (I Like It Loud).” Marc Acardipane Still get publishing, every year. Vivian Host I bet you do. This is off an album called The Stadium Techno Experience. Became the most played dance track on Viva and MTV, and actually, a huge track at sporting events, is, I guess it’s no surprise to anyone. Even the Philadelphia Flyers used to walk out to that song at one point. It made it around the world. How do you... Marc Acardipane Tiesto though actually also covered it, was it this year, or last year? You know, DJ Tiesto. He did it also. Vivian Host So, it’s interesting to me that that video is stylized kind of like a battle. Marc Acardipane That was my idea. Vivian Host You and Scooter. Marc Acardipane Yeah, really funny, the guy who filmed it went at the end of the video, H.P. [Baxxter], the MC from Scooter, and my MC stand next to that, and the camera guy say, “I give you 500 [euro] when you hit him.” [laughs] Vivian Host But you didn’t. Marc Acardipane No, not me. My MC’s name is Dick Rules at that time. But now it’s another one. He’s from New York, and he grow up in Frankfurt. Vivian Host So, how do you feel about this now. Do you think that that was… Are you happy with that decision? I can only assume that the royalties from that were good to you? Marc Acardipane Let’s say if the other thing doesn’t happen before, I had never done that. Vivian Host What do you mean? Marc Acardipane Yeah, if this right-wing shit where I cancel my bookings doesn’t happen, I would not do that; I didn’t give them… I wouldn’t allow them to do the cover version, never. It was like a bash in the face of the scene to see, like OK, I cannot come back. There’s no way back. Vivian Host But you were kind of sick of the scene by then? Marc Acardipane Not of the scene. When nobody say anything, and everybody only look like that [makes short vision movement], it just doesn’t work. I come from Frankfurt, and in Frankfurt we grow up all together. We have, from every country in the world, nations, everybody live there peaceful together, and I don’t like that. Then, as a DJ, as an artist, you have to stand for the things, you know. Most of the Dutch DJs, they’re like from Indonesia, they’re Jewish, they’re from Africa, from whatever, and if they also have to see that, and stop to play for these kinds of promoters. I don’t say that these promoters were right wing, but they allow these people to get in, and that’s the problem. You have to be there before. If you see that, you have to stop that. And that’s like, in Frankfurt we never had this problem. Vivian Host So, did you take a break for a while at any point? It seems people like to write that they haven’t heard from you, or heard any music from you, although I know you made some tracks under the Resident E banner that are also considered some of the first, or some important hardstyle tracks. I’m curious to know what was going on in between 2004 and 2016 for you. What you were feeling about the music, what you were listening to? Marc Acardipane I think after the Scooter thing, I get a new location with a really nice studio, and I was thinking about – I remember I just told somebody here – when I was sitting there, “When was the last time I really feel good when we do music?” And it was with Shawn from Trinidad. And at that moment he called me. I didn’t hear from him for eight years, I think. And he was in London, he said, “Oh, let’s do our album.” We always had the plan to do an album electronically, really dark, but with vocals (he’s a singer) and with orchestra. That I did for six years, but it never came out. I met him in ’96 when I was working in the studio in Trinidad. It’s a really big studio where Puff Daddy recorded the B.I.G album. He was the week there before we were there, but nobody knows Puff Daddy in Germany at that time. A bit later Shawn worked with them. Then Shawn was actually an engineer there, and then one night I was sitting there and he said, “Oh, can I sing over the track?” I said, “You are a singer?” He said, “yeah, yeah.” Then he go down, and I took him to Germany. We did “I Like It Loud,” he’s the original voice. Then he left again because of his girlfriend, and then he came back in 2004. Vivian Host So you made this record, but you didn’t put it out because you didn’t like it? Marc Acardipane Yeah, it was a really strange story. We did in the beginning – we did the whole album, I liked it, it was cool. But it was not sounding like I wanted to. The feeling was right, but the mix was not sounding cool, and maybe five years later I know how to mix it good. This was where all the Americans came in and help us with the mixing, but then the whole vibe was gone. There was no emotion anymore in the tracks. We go on, and put the first versions we had, and work on them, but in the end it was a pain in the ass, and then we stop it. Vivian Host Had you moved on to producing digitally at this point, or some mix of digital and analog? Marc Acardipane Mixed up. Mixing was more digital. That’s the problem. I should have never sold my board at that time. Vivian Host Yeah, because it was also trying to do new things, right? Learn new things, do things in a different way than you had done a lot of your big hits. Marc Acardipane Yep. Vivian Host What can you tell us about working with digital coming from an analog background? Anything that you learned that you need to do digitally that you didn’t have to concern yourself with when you were just using a Moog and a 909? Marc Acardipane It’s also from EQing. I don’t know with analog, you boost 15db without problem. Digitally you can do it also, but you would not do it because you see it. Or with the graphic EQs (OK, now you can also use without graphic EQs) but that’s the point, the compression sounds weird. Nowadays there’s some okay plugins. You cannot touch anything, I don’t know. I think it was the sound. With the analog, it was much easier. Because what I say, in the beginning, the harmonic distortion, everything fits together better, everything glued to itself. It destroyed the master bus, it’s kind of a little compression there all the time if you use the right board. You don’t have this in the digital. You can do it digitally, but a lot of American mixers say, “Oh, yeah, I mix everything in the box now.” OK, what they get is recorded analog. If they get the singer recorded to a nice Neve pre-amp, and compressed with 1176, after you can go with a digital EQ on it, but if you don’t have that, you will have a hard time to get it right in the DAW. Vivian Host I want to hear something from this new record, which is called Undetected Act from the Gloom Chamber. I think you had a track that you wanted to hear from it. Marc Acardipane “Shadow Deception.” Vivian Host Why this one? Marc Acardipane I got this Moog synthesizer, and this was actually the first sound I did in it, and I know this will be the hit record on the album, and I was right. All the major DJs play it now, but I think you have to go a little bit in the middle of the track, when the break comes because before it’s only groove. Vivian Host All right, I’m going to do my best. Marc Acardipane I played it the first time in Lyon, and everybody was dancing, I was like, “Yeah. All right.” It was really funny, a big company like Dior, asked an English company to do this advertisement. And they ask a guy from Rome which tracks are cool, and one of them was mine, so they choose the one, then they go – it’s unbelievable – then they go on Soundcloud, found my track, upload it from another guy, and pay him. And release it with Dave Gahan, a one-minute video. The whole track played one minute. Vivian Host The business side of this is super crazy. Marc Acardipane I mean, there’s Discogs, you can find out who owns which track. You cannot ask somebody, and pay him money. I mean, this is completely childish.