Robert Hood
As one of the founding members of the legendary Detroit techno crew Underground Resistance – alongside “Mad” Mike Banks and Jeff Mills – Robert Hood’s legacy in the electronic music world is almost peerless. As well as pioneering the minimal techno sound with his 1994 LP Minimal Nation, he’s released on techno mainstays such as Metroplex and Jeff Mills’ Axis label, set up the Hardwax label and operates seminal techno label M-Plant – through which he’s released dozens of his own records, under his own name and as Floorplan. 2013’s Paradise LP as Floorplan was a volt-face in Hood’s musical story; the soulfulness of his minimal sound given new, hot-blooded life. It's this new life that keeps him a key figure in techno today.
In his 2014 Red Bull Music Academy lecture, Hood passionately discussed his work with Underground Resistance, his Floorplan alias, the importance of hi-hats, and much more.
Hosted by Todd L. Burns Please help me in welcoming Robert Hood [applause] Robert Hood Hello. Todd L. Burns Obviously, if people think about the name Robert Hood I think the first music that comes to mind is techno, but I wanted to start where you actually maybe began with music, with hip-hop. You went under a different name for a while, not Robert Hood. What was your name and tell me a little bit about how you got into hip-hop? Robert Hood Yeah. Robert Noise was what I went by and that came from the Art of Noise and from the Bomb Squad, the production team for Public Enemy. Of course, Sugarhill Gang, but even before Sugarhill Gang, there was Dolemite. There was a guy called Blowfly when I was a kid. We used to sneak away and listen to these recordings of “adult” raps from this artist called Blowfly. That was my introduction into it. Again, with Sugarhill Gang and with Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five and Kurtis Blow... But then around the time when Run DMC came out that was when my world just shifted because of the way they arranged their music. There was no introduction. It was a departure from the way music was structured. They just came out with this blatant hard beat, and I just felt the earth shift and changed and there was this sparse, minimal production, and so hip-hop was my thing. Between that and stuff by Soft Cell, Thomas Dolby. I was just bored with the radio, Top 40 radio. The noise element, again going back to that, my thinking was why not throw the world a curveball and take kitchen utensils, for example, and use that for making your notes and your snares and your hi-hats as opposed to conventional instruments. Todd L. Burns Shall we listen to an early rap noise track? Robert Hood If I can bear it. [laughs] (music: Rob Noise – “Sins Against The Race” / applause] Robert Hood Wow. Thank you. Todd L. Burns How long has it been since you’ve heard that? Robert Hood Wow. That’s been maybe 25 years or so, and wow, that just takes me way back. I can remember recording that track. That’s the first time I met Jeff Mills and went straight off the street and I meet this guy called the Wizard. Jeff is small in stature and I’m looking for... I don’t know what I imagined. Todd L. Burns Because you’d heard him on the radio before though. Robert Hood Yeah, and I’m thinking he’s seven feet tall. I don’t know what I imagined. He’s just like the Wizard of Oz. You peek behind the curtain and there’s this... and I’m looking past him saying, “Where’s the Wizard?” And there’s this guy behind this four track editing tape, and I’m like, “OK. That can’t be him, so when is he going to come out?” I’m like, no disrespect to Jeff, but “OK, this nerdy guy here, okay, maybe he’s the Wizard.” So, it just threw me a curveball. Todd L. Burns I imagine when you saw him and how fast he was editing the tape that you were like, “Oh, actually this might be The Wizard.” Robert Hood Yeah, yeah. Watching Jeff edit tape is art. It’s like a performance. He does it so fast and so precisely. He’s like a surgeon. He’s so manic in the way he does things. It’s just... right now, flip the tape over, cut it, splice it, tape it, and it’s cut precisely. It’s just amazing. Todd L. Burns Obviously, he was on the radio. There’s Electrifying Mojo on the radio. We talked to Carl Craig yesterday on the couch and he talked quite a bit about Mojo. One of the radio shows that you always talked about though is one that was hosted by Derrick May. Robert Hood Yeah. The Electric Crazy People. Todd L. Burns What did that show sound like? Robert Hood Progressive, acid. It sounded crazy. It was just so forward thinking. I can remember recording the show and listening to it and just saying, “Wow, what is this” and just getting on the bus, going to school the next day and just... It just sounded otherworldly. I wasn’t sure exactly what to make of it. I had never heard a 303 before, and what is this they’re doing with rhythm and with sound and with this beat? What is this beat? I didn’t know what to call it. It wasn’t called techno at the time. It wasn’t called house, but I knew it as progressive music. We called it Transmat music. That’s all we knew. It’s Metroplex music. I don’t know. Todd L. Burns So, you’re listening to this. You don’t know how it’s made. Who taught you how it’s made? How did you find out about the stuff? Robert Hood I taught myself. I bought a Roland TR-505 from a pawnshop. I didn’t know how to program it, so I took it to a music store and they said, “Well, you have to get a manual and this is the basic way to program it.” Once I found out how it worked and how I could program it, I was done. I started trying to figure out... How can I make a hi-hat sing? How could I make a hi-hat sound like a reverb and what else can I do with this? That machine was my introduction into techno. Todd L. Burns You always mention the hi-hat and making it sing. Robert Hood Yes, yes. Todd L. Burns Why is the hi-hat for you so important? Robert Hood I don’t know. It’s just something about the ride cymbal and the atmosphere that a hi-hat creates. I would listen to jazz records and all funk and soul records and the hi-hat would always take you to another place. It seemed to take you to a higher atmosphere. That was what lifted... That was that extra small diminutive element that would lift you up out of where you were. Todd L. Burns I mean obviously you were doing electronic music stuff and hip-hop, and trying to fuse it together. Robert Hood Right. Todd L. Burns I mean that was the idea of Robert Noise, I suppose. Robert Hood Right. Todd L. Burns When you sent something to... Or what caught Mike Banks’s ear was the drum programming rather than the rapping. Robert Hood Right. Right. Because I didn’t want to rap. I wanted to find a rapper that could have the political lyrics of let’s say Chuck D combined with a more progressive attitude of Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest and combined also with the lyrics of Gang Starr, Guru. I couldn’t really find anybody so I decided to write it myself and perform it myself, but when I played the track to Mike, he noticed how I would make those hi-hats and snares just sort of swing and roll and the way I programmed the 505, and so that really made him pay attention. Todd L. Burns Shall we listen to Gang Starr for a minute. There’s a particular track you wanted to bring up. Robert Hood Yeah, yeah. This ... Todd L. Burns It’s called “Mass Appeal.” Robert Hood Yeah. Todd L. Burns While you’re looking for it, can you just maybe talk about why this one in particular from Gang Starr’s work? Robert Hood Yeah. “Mass Appeal.” I love Gang Starr. Gang Starr – DJ Premier, Guru – they embody what hip-hop is. The lyrics, the production, and not from a gangster rap point of view but from a storyteller’s point of view like a Langston Hughes type of jazz poetry combined with hip-hop. “Mass Appeal” for me is like my theme song, if you will. If I could rap over my music, this is what I would say. Rap to me is like battle music. It’s what I listen to before I go and DJ. It get me the mindset of going to conquer and slay a giant, and there’s nobody that can stand in my way. I am unstoppable. Also, this superstar DJ world we’re living in, I was sort of the anti-thesis to that. I didn’t want to be... I just wanted to add my two cents into the mix, into this techno game. There are those who began to look at me as, “Who is this dude? He’s not really one of us. He’s not really like us.” But I’m saying to myself, I can do this, too. As a matter of fact, I can conquer and slay giants and have an abundant career in this game, and I’m virtually unstoppable. Todd L. Burns That’s a pretty good introduction. Robert Hood All right. (music: Gang Starr – “Mass Appeal” / applause) Robert Hood Guru’s lyrics just told my story in how I felt about this whole game. There are those who are seeking so much relevance in techno and music and so much a sense of... just to have a sense of belonging and to make their mark in it that they’re selling their souls and stepping over people and looking down their noses at up-and-coming artists who are just trying to get in this game and express themselves, and so we lose ourselves when we’re just about trying to outrun the next guy, trying to outrace the next guy. Somewhere in the Bible it says that the race is not won by the swiftest or the strongest but the one who endures until the end. That’s what I’m about. Todd L. Burns Why do we take a look, I guess, before these superstar DJ days at a little portion of a video. I think it’s quite nice to see this naive kind of first moments starting out. This is from 1992. (video: Underground Resistance live) Todd L. Burns Maybe not the Underground Resistance part, but do those words still resonate for you? Robert Hood Yeah. Absolutely. Techno is a movement. It is a revolution. It’s a culture. This vehicle, this format of music that we’ve been blessed to be able to express ourselves through and create beautiful music and to beautify this world is just a blessing. It’s a privilege. Todd L. Burns Back then, I’m wondering what you were doing with those guys. Can you walk us through that video a little bit? Robert Hood Yeah, yeah. Todd L. Burns Please feel free to take a minute. Robert Hood It’s all right. I mean you caught me off guard with this whole thing. I’ve never seen myself performing with Mike and Jeff, and we were performing as more than a band. It was more than a revolution. It was more than a movement. I have so much love and admiration and respect for Jeff and Mike. This music helped to save my life and looking back at this young man this young Robert Hood, I was just unprepared for it. This music to me represents the struggle of black artists from Detroit who came from nothing. I came from Seven Mile living on the west side of Detroit and having nothing. Again, to be blessed, to be able to share this music with the world and to create and be everything that God has intended me to be creatively is humbling. I see this young 22, 23-year-old kid who’s trying to find his way and trying to say something that means something to the world. Todd L. Burns In terms of coming out of Detroit, because obviously Underground Resistance became a national and an international thing, you started touring a little bit and going to different places. One of the places that I think was instrumental in bringing you to a wider audience was New York. You guys went to New York to the CMJ Conference, wasn’t it? Robert Hood It was the New Music seminar. The first time I had been out of Detroit. Todd L. Burns Ever. Robert Hood Ever. This whole experience that year, it’s just life-changing. It was a very pivotal time in my life and just a life-changing event. Todd L. Burns We have a picture on the screen here. Can you talk about these people and what was happening when you were in New York together? [picture appears on screen] Robert Hood Yeah, yeah. Mike, he wanted his face blotted out of course. I mean ... Todd L. Burns Yeah. Of course. That’s Mike Banks. Robert Hood That’s Mike Banks. Right. Mike Clark, one of the first dudes I ever met in techno house music introduced me to the guy to the left of me, he was Agent X and introduced me to Underground Resistance. On the far left you have Franki Juncaj, one of the Members of the House. I know that guy in the middle. I can’t remember his... Todd L. Burns I’m pretty sure he had something to do with Crystal Waters, obviously. [inaudible comment from audience] Robert Hood Okay. There we go. Todd L. Burns It’s The Basement Boys. Robert Hood Okay. Todd L. Burns Thank you, Mr. Janson. Robert Hood We’ve met a gang of people. We’ve met a lot of people that ... I met Queen Latifah. She stopped us on the street and was asking us “What is all this UR business? I see folks run around with these UR shirts on. What is this? Is this a gang? Is this a movement? Are you guys terrorists? What’s going on?”
LL Cool J was... He stopped us on the street. We met Ice-T, guys from Digital Underground. We met Eazy-E. I shook hands with him. Todd L. Burns Your first time leaving Detroit, it must have been crazy having that experience meeting all these people. Robert Hood Yeah. The drive there was what I enjoyed. Todd L. Burns That’s a long drive. Robert Hood Yeah. It’s a long drive, but that’s what I enjoyed the most in the drive coming back because I felt changed. We were driving into Detroit and coming off the freeway listening to “The Whistle Song” by Frankie Knuckles on WJZZ. WJZZ played Larry Heard, Fingers Inc and all that stuff like it was nothing next to Earl Klugh and Ramsey Lewis and all that. It was just like... When I heard that, coming into Detroit is like a new day, a new sun is rising. I felt a fresh new energy like I was born again. Todd L. Burns You have a Band Aid on there. Robert Hood Yeah. Todd L. Burns What happened? Robert Hood I got shot. [laughs] Todd L. Burns You got shot right before you went to Detroit? Robert Hood I got shot before I went to the New Music Seminar working on a record store ... Todd L. Burns It really must have felt like a new day coming back. Robert Hood Yeah. That was ... Todd L. Burns You’ve survived this ... Robert Hood Exactly, exactly. Having escaped death... I can remember blood pouring out of my head and thinking, ‘This is it, I’m going to die. I haven’t really experienced life yet and here it is, I’m leaving earth.’ But to God be the Glory, I’m still here and again that whole experience traveling with Jeff and Mike and learning from them and meeting new people and traveling to New York and this whole experience of the New Music Seminar was just life-changing. Todd L. Burns A lot of people know the Underground Resistance story, so I wanted to jump ahead a little bit to when you guys grew apart and started your own things. Jeff started Axis, and you a little bit after that, I guess, started M-Plant. Robert Hood Right. Todd L. Burns Tell me about that moment of trying to find your way without these guys that you had done stuff with beforehand. Obviously, you stopped talking with them and stuff but ... Robert Hood Yeah. It’s like when Snoop Dogg left Death Row. It was just like, “Okay, there’s no more Dr. Dre. There’s no more Suge Knight and so what do I do?” I really had to really dig deep and look within myself and trust myself and believe. Trust me, I was lost. I didn’t know quite what to do here. I was ... Jeff had his career of course solidified. But my career, my position in techno music wasn’t quite as solid. Even though I came from this legendary group and there was a legacy, I still had to build my legacy. I remember feeling like Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest when A Tribe Called Quest broke up. Here you have Ali Shaheed Muhammad has a career. He went on did Lucy Pearl with Raphael Saadiq and Dan Robinson and Q-Tip was doing his thing... But my feeling was I didn’t want to be the runt of the group, and I could not be the one who just faded off in obscurity. I had to survive and I had to do more than survive. I have to thrive and show the world that I could stand on my own two feet. Todd L. Burns Was there a particular track or moment where you felt like, “Yes, now I have a sound that I can call my own?” I remember you said – Robert Hood Yeah, yeah, yeah. Todd L. Burns Go ahead, please. Robert Hood Yeah. When Jeff and I did the first release on Axis, H&M “Sleepchamber” was the track where I knew I had a voice and a sound that was completely all me. It had nothing to do with Underground Resistance. It had maybe some elements of Detroit’s essence in there, but this was my voice. I actually remember creating that track. Abdul Haqq, who used to do a lot of Transmat’s artwork, he was in my studio at the time. He’s working on something for me and I remember hitting a certain chord from the Juno 2 and saying, “Hey, this is it. This is so Detroit but I have never heard anything like it, but it’s all mine and it’s something new, it’s something fresh and original.” Todd L. Burns You obviously went on to do an album that I think a lot of people know. I think it’s worth listening to a track from it. This is from Minimal Nation and it’s called “One Touch.” (music: Robert Hood – “One Touch”) Todd L. Burns Sorry. Sorry about that. [applause] Robert Hood Thank you. Todd L. Burns Sorry about that. Minimalism, you’ve talked about it to many people for many years, but it actually wasn’t the idea of this. It wasn’t called minimalism or minimal at first. It was accessed authorized repetition? Robert Hood Access-authorized repetition. Jeff asked me to go in the studio and dig deep and to create something that was going to let the world know who I was and what I could do, so yeah, it was called AAR. The name was too long. It just didn’t fit. It wasn’t catchy enough and so Jeff and I were having this conversation about saying the minimal nation is rising. There’s this new movement called the minimal nation and that’s when we both said that’s it. We have to call this Minimal Nation. It’s funny that God when He created the earth, when the spirit of the lord moved over the waters and God said, “Let there be” and what we spoke and I what I spoke into existence, we didn’t even realized what brand new world we were creating and so yeah, listening to it, I couldn’t help just messing with the frequency and whatnot and in making the hi-hat do something else but just stand there. My whole idea with minimalism was to create rhythms inside of rhythms inside of rhythms, sort of hidden rhythms. I remember those posters back in the ‘80s where if you stared into it long enough you see a hidden picture. That was my idea was to not just create diminutive art or simple art. It was to draw, sort of like trance music. This is real trance music. I don’t know about that other stuff. This is the real deal. It was hypnotic and took you and drew you in and my thing was to not make everybody in the club go crazy with this spiritual movement but to have that one guy in the back of the room just lose it and just start to scream and almost catching the holy ghost. That was my whole focus. Todd L. Burns When you’re creating something like this where it is hypnotism, how do you know when you got it right? How do you know... After listening to it for so long, I assume it gets hard to hear it in a way especially with this type of music. Robert Hood Sometimes it’s instant. Sometimes the goose bumps or that spirit that let’s you know that’s it and sometimes it could take a few days, but you know when you have it is I could tell by the goose bumps. I could feel it by the hairs on the back of my neck raising up and, “Wow, this is it.” I know it’s real to me, so I know it’s going to be real to somebody else. Todd L. Burns Tell me a little bit about Floorplan. Obviously, minimal techno is what a lot of people know you for but especially, recently, this more housey alias has come around again. Robert Hood Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m trying to remember Floorplan’s first release, “Funky Souls.” I had always had this yearning, burning desire to do some house music. But I didn’t want to sound like Frankie Knuckles. I didn’t want to sound like Lil Louis and Inner City. I wanted to do something else, and not necessarily the garage sound. So I wanted to blend minimalism and my Robert Hood sound with the Detroit house sentiments and emotions of let’s say Blake Baxter and Chip E. without being so repetitive, but just soulful house. Todd L. Burns I think obviously people know Detroit for techno but it also has an enormous house scene. Can you talk a little bit about that scene and when you were part of it. Robert Hood My best memories are of the Music Institute. If you were blessed enough to have been at this private club, it wasn’t open to the public, you had to know somebody who knew somebody to get in and check this thing out. Late hours, three or four in the morning. It’s a juice bar. Just a black box. Todd L. Burns What is a juice bar for those who do not know? Robert Hood Well, I guess just juice instead of alcohol. No alcohol and just forward-thinking, progressive people. It wasn’t about so much of the club-club atmosphere. It’s a strobe light and just blacked-out walls and you could hear DJs, Derrick May, Blake Baxter, D-Wynn, Kevin Saunderson, of course, and DJ Overdose was one of my favorites. It was like a spiritual mood in that room. You couldn’t really see the DJ. You could see a silhouette up in the loft playing this banging house music. I remember also going to Heaven to hear Ken Collier play. That was just the best house music you could ever want to hear, the best jack tracks, and the best acid house on the planet earth and it was just... I mean this club was... I mean again, late night five or six o’clock in the morning, this was unheard of. Todd L. Burns Ken Collier is someone who I don’t think is known terribly well outside of Detroit but... Robert Hood Sadly, not. Yeah. Todd L. Burns ...everyone you talk to mentions him and says he’s... Robert Hood The godfather. He was our godfather of Detroit house music. His mixing, his blends were just flawless, and he knew when to play what. If you studied him ... Jeff has also taught me this, too. You learn how to read the crowd and how to move the crowd when the crowd is tired, when to give them a break and when it’s time for them to go to the bar. Ken Collier was who I believe taught Derrick May, and they learned from this master, a true master. Todd L. Burns With the Floorplan material, you mentioned “Funky Souls,” which you put out quite a while ago and then you came back to Floorplan a couple of years ago in earnest. Why? What was happening around that moment that you felt like I need to revive this alias of mine? Robert Hood God woke me up in the middle of the night and when I say woke me up, literally out of a deep sleep and my eyes just sprang open and God said, “I want you to put the Gospel in the music. I want you to put this message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this music,” and I’m thinking to myself, “OK. I hear you. How are the people going to receive this?” I wasn’t sure. Maybe they won’t like this. They know me for the Minimal Nation stuff, the Internal Empire stuff, the Monobox stuff, maybe a little Floorplan but ... “How are the people going to receive this?” He said, “Don’t even worry about that. You’re going to start a new movement. You’re going to bring the church to the club.” I said, “Well, OK. Alright, OK.” Immediately I went to the studio and started listening to some music, and God directly told me to go here, listen to this Aretha Franklin record, this James Cleveland record, listen to Andraé Crouch. These are all records that I grew up on. I grew up in the black church. This is music my grandmother always listened to, and so it was a natural progression. It was just in my DNA. God told me, “I want Floorplan to be the vehicle or the catalyst to bring this music out.” Todd L. Burns Why don’t we listen to one of the tracks that I guess has come out in the past couple of years? (music: Floorplan – “Never Grow Old” / applause) Robert Hood Thank you. Todd L. Burns This is the first time aside from the previous Floorplan material that you’re really working very extensively with any vocal material, I think, if I’m not mistaken. Robert Hood Yeah. Todd L. Burns Was that a challenge for you? Robert Hood It really came together so natural and organic. I cried in the studio because of how God was orchestrating my every move. It was just so supernatural. I’ve done things in the natural, but now I was stepping over into the supernatural. I was amazed at how easy it was that this came together. Todd L. Burns Aretha Franklin is the singer on that, not to give too much away. [laughs] Robert Hood Yeah, yeah. That’s just fine. Yeah. Todd L. Burns You’ve talked quite a bit about her as an inspiration in the recording that was done. It was from I guess a church on the West Coast from the ‘70s, a live thing. Robert Hood Yeah, yeah. It was Aretha Franklin backed by the Reverend James Cleveland who was acting as the musical director and choir director and at the small church in LA I believe in ‘73. I had listened to this recording, of course, growing up as a kid in Detroit, and I thought it was amazing. One of my favorite tracks was “How We Got Over.” I remember how good that record made me feel as a young kid growing up and coming out of the Civil Rights Movement after Dr. Martin Luther King had been murdered and the riots in Detroit.
Aretha Franklin and James Cleveland and the Reverend C.L. Franklin was just a huge part of Detroit not just in the Detroit but amongst Christians living and trying to survive racism in Detroit. There’s a lot of racism in the automotive industry, coming from Alabama just trying to make a better life in Detroit, and this music was what... This is what lifted us up and gave us hope. So, listening to this record and making the beats for it, it was just like a marriage. It just came together so naturally like it was just meant to be. Todd L. Burns In the track that we listened to you can hear vinyl crackle or... Robert Hood The potato chips. Yeah. The crackling. I could have gone in iTunes or whatever and pulled out a clean version but... I questioned that and I said, “Shall I leave this in here?” I said, “Yeah. That adds to the whole vibe to take the listener back into the ‘70s. I found this record in a... I think it was a pawnshop somewhere and I said, “Yeah, this is the whole essence of the record.” This potato chips is the ... That’s it. It’s got to stay. Todd L. Burns You said in the past that techno and gospel aren’t that far apart. Why is that? Robert Hood No, because listen ... I remember times at the Music Institute where it was so spiritual and the music had gotten so sparse and so repetitious. It reminded me of early Sunday morning at church when the Holy Ghost was moving and you could see mothers just falling out in the aisles and banging on tambourines and it was just the drums and maybe the bass player or just the drummer by himself. You could feel the anointing sweep through the entire church. Again, mothers and church deacons just passing out in the aisles filled with the Holy Ghost, that’s what reminds me of techno. It’s not that far apart. I mean house music takes its roots from gospel music. You can go back to Ray Charles and Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the Clark Sisters and I know where ... but yeah, it’s all tied in together. House music is derived from gospel music, disco and all that. It’s tied in. Todd L. Burns You had your own moment in 2007, I think it was, in the church where you were the one falling in the aisles in the church, I think, so to speak. I read in an interview that your wife told you it’s time to speak. Robert Hood Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don’t remember saying that, but it’s amazing that you got that. I remember that the spirit in the sanctuary was so high, and I was standing at the altar with my hands lifted up and she came behind me and put her hand on my back and told me to just open your mouth and speak, and I began to just shout, “Hallelujah, praise God,” to the top of my lungs and to speak in tongues and just things were coming out of my mouth that I didn’t realize could come out of my mouth. I didn’t know it was in me. I don’t think that it was then I was filled with the Holy Ghost, but I had a supernatural encounter, and so after that, later on, of course, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. That moment I knew I was... A prophecy which had been spoken over me... A man was at our church in Detroit and said that you’re going to preach. I was the sound man. I was at the mixer and when he pointed at me I was, “Who is he talking to?” I was the only one in that corner, and I’m looking around like, “He can’t be talking to me. He must be talking to somebody else.” Todd L. Burns Because you said you were quite shy back then. Robert Hood Yeah, yeah. I was always the one to leave church early. I would always sit in the back and never mind lift my hands or say hallelujah, praise the lord. I always want to get out of church early so I could go home and smoke. I wanted to get to my stash and start making music. [laughs] I mean I’m being real. When this minister said, “You’re going to preach,” I’m like saying, “What? Who is he talking to?” He must have this wrong. He got to be wrong.” Todd L. Burns I guess I want to touch on Monobox for a minute or two. This is something we haven’t talked about. How does it differ from Robert Hood and how does it differ from Floorplan? How would you describe it? Robert Hood I remember this book. I think I was 13. No, no 14, 15 years old. I read this book. I can’t remember the title of the book. It was about this black ominous box floating above the earth. It was an alien invasion, and for days and weeks this box floated above the earth. After a while, things started to happen. The animals began to disappear, organic life began to disappear and the box started to open up in different places. This big rectangular box and doors began to open and these other boxes began to come out of it. I don’t remember how the story ended or what happened but I remember that having such a strong impression on me like this mixer and things and sounds begin to come out of it. Monobox began as this other minimal life form, this alien life form that was coming out of Robert Hood. Todd L. Burns You mentioned minimal, and it obviously is minimal but I think it’s alien as opposed to maybe the Robert Hood stuff which has... Robert Hood Yeah. Absolutely alien. Yeah. That’s it. This alien life form that was coming out of this internal empire that was within Robert Hood. This was another dimension, another side of Robert Noise, Robert Hood, The Vision and these alien sounds began to come out. Todd L. Burns This is “Realm 02.” (music: Monobox – “Realm 02” / applause) Robert Hood Wow. Thank you. Todd L. Burns I find it quite interesting that when they’re playing, you can’t quite keep your hands off the mixer. Robert Hood I try and I can’t do it. [laughs] Yeah. A little undisciplined when it comes to that. Yeah. Todd L. Burns Do you have a lot of versions of tracks because I think at least to me it seems like you’re fiddling with it. It’s always, “Let’s make it sound different.” Or do you always have a track and then you’re like, “This is it. This is how it needs to sound.” Robert Hood Tracks like this, I’ve got about maybe seven or eight of them, seven or eight different versions and some with beats just some really sparse with the rhythm. Yeah, it was just trying to figure out which one is going to tell the story the best way to finish this book I was reading. Each track is representing a variation of how the story went, alternate ending and whatnot. But yeah, about seven or eight of these things and it’s just hard to figure out exactly where I wanted to go with this thing. Todd L. Burns Obviously, tons of artists talk about narrative in their songs and trying to tell a story. In techno, especially with a single track I think it’s a little bit harder. Is it hard for you or does it come pretty naturally? Robert Hood Sometimes it’s a struggle. Sometimes I find myself saying, “How do I tell the story of faith?” For example, with Omega, which obviously has no lyrics. Through the song titles and through the storyline, I try to give the listener an idea or a mental picture in your mind’s eye of if you just close your eyes to just what’s happening sort of the way that is Slick Rick tells a story where you can take the listener right into that world, sort of the way that Notorious B.I.G. who’s very, very good at taking you right there to what’s going on, sort of a cinematic reality in your mind so you can be right there immersed in the story. Todd L. Burns Both of those artists though of course have a lyrics to rely on. Robert Hood Right. Todd L. Burns So, I find it quite interesting that you’re able... Robert Hood The hi-hat. Todd L. Burns It’s the hi-hat? Robert Hood Yeah. Back to the hi-hats. The hi-hats, the bassline, the moodiness of the record, it takes you into this world of Detroit techno or into this world of Monobox, into the world of Floorplan and the hi-hat has always been my partner, my co-pilot to help raise that level of awareness or lower that level, to add and subtract and mathematically take you there and so for the most part, yeah, again it all came together organically and pretty easily. Sometimes there was a struggle. Todd L. Burns M-Plant is 20 years old this year. You’ve been around for even longer than that. Robert Hood Yes. Todd L. Burns How do you maintain longevity in the DJ world? I mean, it’s obviously a young person’s game. Robert Hood How can I say this without preaching? God is real in my life, and I can’t help talking about God without getting... It’s hard to talk about God’s vision and His purpose without getting passionate and all misty-eyed and whatnot because God has given me and each and every one of us the ability to defy gravity, to defy the laws of nature where it says, “OK, at 50 years old, 60 years old you’re supposed to stop.” For what? When I hold on to God’s unchanging hand and I became spiritually aware of who I am and what I can do, the Bible says in Philippians 4 and 13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” God is the source of my strength and every time I draw from the wellspring of God it gives me freshwater. The best way I can explain freshwater is, we all know what a pond is, it’s a body of water but it’s stale and there’s no new life in it. It becomes stagnant but a river flows with new water, constantly flowing with new water and so that being connected to God and staying connected to God gives me fresh water every day so I don’t have to run out of ideas and creativity. I’m always creative and I’ve got ideas and song titles and albums just on reserve. God is constantly feeding me and talking to me saying, “Hey, I want you to do this. I want you to tell the people this. I want you to tell the people that you’re going to a place where you never have to grow old. I want you to tell the people of the good news of the gospel that Jesus died for you and you don’t have to die, you can live forever. You can have everlasting life.” That’s what the album Paradise is about. It’s about everlasting life, of course. But again I’m staying young and fresh in this climate of new DJ’s. There’s new kids coming out every year, of course, but I’m still relevant and I never have to stop and slow down. Again, it goes back to being victorious, being unstoppable and creativity. You’re a writer, you’re a journalist and whoever you are as a cook, as a farmer, whatever you do, we’re created to build beautiful new things. God spoke and said, “Let there be light.” I could speak and say, “Let there be house.” Todd L. Burns Obviously, the techno world is... We talked about the roots and it’s obviously connected to that, but at the same time, I imagine the worry perhaps in your mind that there’s not a lot of religion on the dancefloor these days especially in nightclubs in Europe and hedonistic... It’s a hedonistic place. Robert Hood Yeah, yeah, yeah. Todd L. Burns Is there ever a worry in your mind about bringing this stuff up to an audience that may not care? Robert Hood No. No. Absolutely not. This is what God created me to do. Again, when the preacher said, “Hey, you’re going to preach,” he prophesized and he spoke it, so all I have to do is receive and say, “OK, God you want me to say something to this people that’s going to speak life into them.” I’m not going to speak about rims and gold teeth and hookers and smoke, I’m going to speak life into the people and so I’m going to tell them about this man called Jesus who’s real in my life and through this man called Jesus I have abundant life and we all have abundant life, but it’s about choice. My job is to say, “OK, here it is. I set the table. Now, you can either eat or starve.” There’s a saying that goes, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.” I would like for everybody in this room, everybody who’s going to see this and hear this to drink from the well of living water. Heaven 17 wrote this song called, “We’re Going to Live for a Very Long Time.” I didn’t realize that was actually a Christian record and so the lyrics are something like, “I don’t care what the world thinks. We’re going to a place where we’re never going to grow old and we’re going to live for a very long time.” Forever is a very long time. To live in heaven is beautiful. To live in hell, that’s miserable. I mean we have a choice. My job as a Christian, as a minister, as man of God is to not just serve you music but to serve you this spiritual food and say, “Here it is” and say, “You’re welcome to it. Come eat, come dine, come drink and you never have to be hungry. You’ll never have to be thirsty.” Todd L. Burns I wanted to touch on a couple more topics before we open up to questions. To go way, way back again, in addition to the music that you are making, you are also doing some illustrative work. Robert Hood Yes. Todd L. Burns I want to put a couple of things on the screen. Robert Hood OK. Todd L. Burns Can you talk about what that is? Robert Hood Yes. That’s the album cover for Members of the House. It’s a compilation for Vibe Records, Keep Believing. You have this man looking at hope, in my opinion. It’s an illustration I did. I think I was maybe 19, 20. [album artwork appears on the screen] The guys from the label, they were looking for the artwork and I said, “Hey, I might have something that might fit this concept and this title.” Todd L. Burns What were you using to illustrate back then? Is it just pen and paper? Robert Hood Graphite. Todd L. Burns Graphite. Robert Hood Yeah. Maybe a little bit charcoal but mostly graphite. Todd L. Burns You also did work with other Detroit techno people. Robert Hood Yeah. Juan Atkins. I can remember meeting Juan at... Where were we? Maybe the UN, maybe the Majestic Theater, I can’t remember. He asked me to come over and show him some of my work and we started a relationship through this meeting, and so that’s hard to look at. That’s not... This was more of a graffiti style and so ... Todd L. Burns Why is it hard to look at? [album artwork appears on screen] Robert Hood It’s so basic. When I look at that other piece, I took my time and really... But this is good for what it was for. That’s what it was for. Hype Stuff this compilation that Jeff and Mike were working on at the time and they needed some art work and so I came out with this style, this illustration. My father was an illustrator. He was a jazz musician, so it’s in my DNA. Todd L. Burns You mentioned Abdul earlier. Robert Hood Abdul Haqq. Todd L. Burns Who is he and can you talk a little bit about the stuff that he has done with his illustration work? Robert Hood Mostly Transmat album covers for Derrick May and he did some work for me for... I had a newsletter around say ‘92, ‘93 called Global Techno Power. It’s a weekly or... I’m sorry, monthly newsletter and he did graphics for me, and I did a compilation. It’s a series of compilations for Alpha Records from Japan. He did all the artwork. I remember his material, his work being surreal, very spacy and almost like poetry. It was visually equivalent to what Derrick May was creating, and so yeah, I thought this was... He was amazing. Todd L. Burns Tell me about this newsletter. Robert Hood Yeah. Todd L. Burns I’ve never heard about it before. If I were to open this up, what would I see in it? Robert Hood You’d see charts, the Top 10 list maybe, some reviews and some articles on maybe electronic equipment. Todd L. Burns You were doing all of the writing? Robert Hood Yeah. For the most part, I did everything. There was a guy, Karl Martinson, who was doing the art work. Him and I worked together. It was just basically him and myself. Todd L. Burns This was what time period are we talking? Robert Hood ‘92, ‘93. Todd L. Burns You were in Underground Resistance at that point and doing ... Robert Hood Yeah. They decided Detroit needs a newsletter. [Unintelligible], some might know him as DJ 3000. Fast Forward was the newsletter he did. I think he decided not to do it anymore so we decided that Detroit needed some kind of publication to help promote not only Underground Resistance and its artist but Detroit techno. Todd L. Burns Why was that? I mean what was the motivation behind spreading that gospel so to speak? Robert Hood I don’t know. It’s just extra propaganda to ... Every movement I guess needs a propaganda letter so that was it. Todd L. Burns Did it feel like a movement at that time? Robert Hood It did. With UR, The Punisher, X-101, X-102 it was a movement. It was like a cult. It was like ISIS at the time and we were sonically terrorizing the world, the music industry. Not that I’m promoting ISIS or nothing like that. We were kind of like the Public Enemy of techno and we were like X Clan in that whole S1W movement and so yeah, it felt like it. All of Detroit city was standing up and taking notice. Again, when we went to New York for the New Music Seminar, we’re being stopped by LL Cool J, Ice-T and everybody wants to know what is this. We were just flooding the streets with this terrorist attitude. Todd L. Burns Why don’t we go ahead and open up to questions actually? Robert Hood OK. Todd L. Burns Just a quick note, the questions should only be asked by participants. I apologize but it’s obviously for them so please if you have a question for Robert, save them until later. Does anyone have any questions? Robert Hood Alright. Audience Member Hey. Robert Hood Hey. Audience Member I’m a DJ, too. I’m really thankful for [and am] a really fan of what you do. Robert Hood Thank you. Audience Member I really like how you develop time because it seems like ... I really like when I hear music that is not rushing anything and maybe I was wondering if you could talk a bit about that. How do you develop time in what you do? Robert Hood Yeah. The pace. I decided to just gradually pace myself. Why rush to it? You’re not in a race. Gradually evolve and build and not try to outrun the other artist. Let them be them and let them be you. What God has for you is for you. What God has for me if for me, and so trying to... Again, I would compare myself sometimes to Jeff Mills. It’s hard to be in that camp and look at what he’s doing and say, “Wow. How do I keep up with that? He’s so sporadic.” He’s here one place and here the next minute, but I’m not Jeff Mills, I’m Robert Hood. It’s hard to compare myself to let’s say Kevin Saunderson or DJ Pierre or Marshall Jefferson. I have to be me, and so I go at my own pace and in keeping up with the times, I have my own universe. I have my own time system and it doesn’t operate by somebody else’s sense of time, if that makes sense to you. I had to realize who I was and what I had and the legacy that I was trying to build. I can’t base it off of somebody else’s legacy. Todd L. Burns How do you do that when you have festival set and very limited amount of time? Because I think you’re quite unique still in those situations where it doesn’t feel like you’re rushing so to speak. Robert Hood Yeah. Just supernaturally, God can suspend time. He can turn back the clock if he willed it and so being connected to God, I don’t have to comply and conform to this hour set. I can just simply speak and say, “God, inside of this hour and a half, give me more time” and it will actually seem like I have bent time and spaced it out where there’s plenty of time, if that makes sense.
Spiritually, the spirit realm is like The Matrix. It’s like we live in this matrix and then you have a red pill, you got a blue pill. I choose to live, step out of the matrix, out of this natural realm and step into reality, this spirit realm and bend time and say I have more than enough time whether it’s 45 minutes or two hours or whatever. It’s enough for me to do whatever. Audience Member Hi. Robert Hood Hi. Audience Member Thank you for taking time out and I really appreciate it. Robert Hood God bless you. Audience Member You mentioned light and the hand of God helping you along the way. I was just wondering that is the light your only source of inspiration because light cannot exist without darkness and do you ignore darkness or do you consider it as part of your process at all? Robert Hood Absolutely part of the process. Light illuminates darkness. If this room was dark and you light a candle, it’s going to illuminate this room. So darkness is absolutely necessary in order to show light. You don’t light a candle in the sunlight. It is, yes, all a part of... Again, going back to Genesis and there is darkness upon the face of the earth and the spirit of God moved across the waters and God said, “Let there be light to illuminate.” He turned on the lightbulb and lit up the world and created mankind and breathed life into each and every one of us, and so that’s what we are to do as little g’s not big G’s of God, children of God and to spread light throughout this entire world. So, yes, absolutely a part of the process. Audience Member Thank you. Robert Hood Yes. Yes, sir. Audience Member Hi. Robert Hood Hi. Audience Member I’m very honored to have you and to be able to speak to us. It’s great. We learned a lot, I guess. I’m a producer. I produce tribal house and the reason I like tribal house is because of spirituality. I want to ask how do you go about producing the spirituality on your production? How do you go about arranging it and how do you know you’ve reached that point where if someone else listened to it it’s ... Like, if I listened to it, I’m definitely going to feel the spiritual point of view. Robert Hood The first thing I do when I go into the studio is I pray and ask God to tell me what to say. “What it is that you would have me to do?” The soul houses the mind, the will and our emotions, and so I don’t want to base... When I go into the studio, I don’t want to approach it from this standpoint of my feelings so much, but moreso what God would have me to say and to anoint my hands and my mind to create something that’s going to touch people. Drums. You can go back to Africa. The African drum is communication. It’s a communication tool. It’s the telephone, and so through the drum programming I began to build a foundation and God will tell me to guide and anoint my hands to mold and shape this formless clay, so to speak, and to build up the drums and to begin to add layers of sound here and there, but first starting with the drums as the solid foundation and then building with these other materials to build this form of communication to tell the story. You know it when you feel the spirit of God moving through you. You can feel the Holy Spirit. There are other spirits in this realm, in this world, evil spirits, that’s what we want to stay away from, of course, but you can feel it, again, the goose bumps, the hair on your neck raising and saying, “Wow, this is powerful and I know this is going to effect change in this world.” Todd L. Burns Talking about the nuts and bolts for a moment. You’ve used the same setup for a very long time, if I’m not mistaken. Can you talk a little bit about what you use and how your workflow very concretely goes? You talked about drums being the base. Robert Hood Yeah, yeah. I’m old enough to remember – I don’t know if some of you remember – the SP-1200, the Akai instruments, the MPC instruments was the weapon of choice for a lot of producers. It wasn’t for me. The 303 was very prominent and still is. The 909... I had this little pocket sequencer. It’s a Yamaha QY100 or I think it was ... Do you mind pulling that up? Todd L. Burns Yeah. I think it’s a 1000 or 7000. It’s part of a series. Robert Hood Now, I’m using the 7000 or the 1000. I can’t remember, but back then around ‘90, ‘91, ‘92, I was using the small pocket version. That was my weapon of choice. That’s what I programmed all of my thoughts and movements with. For me, it wasn’t about – the one in the middle is the one I’m using [points to host's computer scree]. For me it was about just like when I have the Roland TR-505. It was about squeezing the lifeblood out of that one machine, to get it to talk and communicate. I’ve seen plenty of producers have basements full of equipment and still not being able to make a record. My thing was about being able to slay a giant with the tools that I was familiar with, and for me it was like like David and Goliath, choosing five smooth stones to kill the giant. That’s all I need. The rest of this equipment was to me cumbersome, and it got in the way. It was about subtracting. It’s about doing math and subtracting and saying, “OK, this is all I need to walk on water and to kill giants.” Todd L. Burns It’s up on the screen now. Robert Hood Yeah. Todd L. Burns This is what you’re using today. Robert Hood That’s what I use today. That and I use an Akai XR20 drum machine, a microKORG and maybe an MPC 5000 which is a monster in itself. Those are pretty much my weapons of choice. Not a lot. Todd L. Burns A minimal setup, if you will. Robert Hood A minimal setup. Todd L. Burns Are there any other questions? Over there. Audience Member Good morning. Thank you. Robert Hood Good morning. Audience Member I’m probably the guy going nuts in the back of the club listening to... Robert Hood My man. Audience Member Speaking of minimalism, is there something in music or outside music, some piece of art you see as the perfect sample of minimalism and you see as some kind of a horizon you want to reach when you make your minimal tracks? Robert Hood You know what? Beginning with Detroit, the Fist, Joe Louis’s Fist in Detroit. That says so much. When that sculpture was first unveiled, I thought, “What a joke? Why couldn’t they build a whole statue? Was the budget so low that all we could afford was a fist?” Then I began to look at that fist as a symbol of Detroit’s resilience and Detroit’s power, Detroit’s progressive attitude. It also makes me think of the Detroit Bad Boys, the Detroit Pistons and it’s sort of a bad boy aggressive nature. Joe Louis’s fist. It speaks of, to me, progression that each and every... Everybody that lives in Detroit, we’re survivors. One thing about Detroit is we’re resilient, we’re resourceful, and we know how to survive whatever comes our way. That to me is that one fist. I’m glad that they didn’t put the entire statue. Maybe that’s all we could afford. [laughs] Maybe the city was broke, but this is it. Audience Member Thank you. Todd L. Burns I was quite interested that there are so many other styles of music that you hear minimalism in. Obviously, you mentioned Run DMC earlier. Can you talk about some other tracks that aren’t techno that really embody that sort of vibe and style for you that maybe people don’t hear it in exactly that same way? Robert Hood It wasn’t so much as other forms of music. Soft Cell, “Tainted Love,” we talked about that yesterday, and I was captivated by its strip-down nakedness and how it grabbed people’s attention and records like, “Just Can’t Get Enough” by Depeche Mode, the part where it’s just the bassline and the drum, that repetition, was to me one of my first or earliest examples of what minimal was. It was about taking that one part that break and repeating it over and over in order to create this hypnotic spell and to captivate the listener and take you into... Forget about the rest of the record. I want to take you into this other world. We want to take this one part, repeat over and over, and take you somewhere else away from Depeche Mode or away from this club into a whole nother universe and another galaxy.
Records like that, records like “Dancer” by Gino Soccio, I can remember being 13, 14 years old going to basement parties. I’m too young to go to the discotheque to hear Chic and so it was about going to the basement party and to see the way that the breakdown had an effect on the dancers and what they would do and how they would react and then next just sort of reacting to this record in a whole other way. That’s what minimal was about to me. Artist like Gino Soccio, Kano, Soft Cell. Depeche Mode, that to me was diminutive art. Todd L. Burns One thing you mentioned that I found really surprising to listen to in this kind of new context was the Temptations. Robert Hood Yes. Yes, yes, yes. “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” and the bassline and the strings and when the hi-hat begins to kick in – Todd L. Burns It’s always about the hi-hat. Robert Hood It was – again, sorry. The hi-hat raised that, “OK. There’s another building element it takes you somewhere else.” Todd L. Burns Let’s listen to this with that kind of context? Robert Hood Yes. Yes. (music: The Temptations – “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” / applause) Todd L. Burns Are there any other questions? Audience Member Hi. Robert Hood Hello. Audience Member Okay. I’m not sure how I’m going to ask this question. When I am listening to you, you talked about your music and it really ... Someone who’s done some West African dance that reminds me of spirituality in the drumming that I think as African-Americans we lost in some generation, so it’s really awesome and refreshing to see an approach in drumming like that. But I guess I was just wondering if you ever looked to any West African music or African music in general for inspiration and if it’s ever informed your music or anything like that. Robert Hood I absolutely have. Yeah, yeah. Just to listen to and to get caught up in the storytelling elements of African drumming and not to try to emulate or copy it but for inspiration, to draw from that spirit and try to create that same spirit through my electronic drum programming, if that makes any sense. Yeah. Again, the drums are a communication tool. So you heard these hi-hats and this rhythm building and then falling, adding and subtracting in the repetition of it evoking a spiritual rhythm.
You could see it in the dancing of African dancers and watching them and seeing it spiritually take them into another realm. That’s what it’s all about, so yeah, I absolutely listen to aborigine drumming, West African drumming, Cuban drumming and rhythm to try to add to my formula. Thank you for that. Audience Member Awesome. I also noticed that even the sample, the vocal sample, it almost felt like a call and response that you might find in... Anyway, that was just awesome. Robert Hood Yeah. That’s true. The call and response. Just watching the way a dancer reacts and responds to this rhythm whether it be African or whether it be a dude from Detroit in that basement party. It’s the same reaction. Todd L. Burns Does anyone else have any questions? Robert Hood Yes, sir. Hello. Audience Member Hello. Robert Hood Hello. Audience Member I guess you have lots of offer for gigs. I’d like to know how do you choose your gig? Do you let your agent choose your gigs or is it... What kind of motivation do you have when you take an offer for a gig abroad? Robert Hood It’s the one that’s paying the most money, but no. [laughs] [applause] I’m kidding. I mean my agent, I mean he floods me with gigs. You have to take this gig here in LA, New York, and they just ... It’s really not a method to it. When I was about 16, 17 years old, a friend of mine said, “Robert, you’re the type of dude you’ll play records for kids at a daycare.” So, for me it’s about being able to put on some records for some people and let’s sit around and listen to some music. That’s what it’s all about for me. If my agent says, “Hey, you’re playing in Paris, you’re playing in Tel Aviv,” that’s where we’re going. I let God choose for me. Audience Member OK. Thank you. Robert Hood You’re welcome. Todd L. Burns I suppose for the participants it might be interesting to get an insight as to how you’ve gotten a relationship with your agent to the point where you trust them completely to get you to these places. Robert Hood I don’t trust anybody. [laughs] I don’t trust anybody but God. No. I’m just kidding. My agent, Oliver Way it’s been developed from a working relationship to a friendship relationship over the years, and it’s just a matter of saying, “Hey, dude, you know what we like and what we don’t like.” Todd L. Burns What do you like? What do you not like? Robert Hood We like nice hotels. We like just to be treated with respect and dignity and not to be shuffled here and there in a hurry. I’m not a diva with that kind of attitude where I have to have caviar in my dressing room and to have water at a certain temperature, and I need the core to be just like my living room at home, nothing like that. But just to respect me as a person. If I were a booking agent, I would do the same thing for anybody and say, “Hey, this is my guy. He needs adequate transportation and just the basic necessities that you would... and just honor him and revere him and respect him.” That’s it. Todd L. Burns We had Seth Troxler on the couch last year and he’s obviously also a touring DJ and he said the one thing that he wants more than anything is a clean pair of socks. Robert Hood Oh, my God. I mean he’s preaching. That’s gospel right there. Let me tell you. Clean socks and clean underwear is like gold. You know because ... I mean socks is... Todd L. Burns I feel like I touched a nerve here. [laughs] Robert Hood I just bought a pair of brand new socks yesterday and I’m like, “Socks!” It’s five to a pack. We usually get three to a pack in the States, unless you buy a big multi-pack. Todd L. Burns Everything is better in Japan. Robert Hood I don’t believe we’re talking about socks. My man is right here in his socks and they’re clean. There’s nothing like clean fresh socks. I mean it’s a sense of peace and well-being and it makes you think “OK, I can go a little bit further. I can travel to this next city because I got a fresh pair of socks. [applause] Todd L. Burns I’m glad I asked that question. Are there any other questions ... Robert Hood Socks. Todd L. Burns ... from any of the participants? Cool. Robert will be around. He’ll even be here tomorrow for the Tom Tom Club lecture, which you were talking about earlier today or yesterday. Robert Hood Yes. My daughter, she loves Tom Tom Club. We will be here and ... yeah. Todd L. Burns If you do have any questions please feel free but for now please... Thank you. Thank you, Robert Hood. Robert Hood God bless you. [applause]