detroit.dance live – vol. 020 : T.Linder + Interview

17.03.2021

This week’s guest mix is by the one and only T.Linder of Detroit Techno Militia. He has been in the music industry for over 20 years, is known for his infectious energy, and always bringing the heat during his sets. He also b2bs often with DJ Seoul as DTM 2×4, and I was able to have DJ Seoul answer a question for the interview below as well, after their recent DTM 2×4 set for techno-club. net.

He has played places like Movement Electronic Music Festival and Charivari Music Festival in Detroit, Even Furthur Festival in Wisconsin, Tresor in Berlin, Pact Festival in the Netherlands, and has done multiple tours in regions around the world.

In his interview, we talk about things like the reason he started DJing, his streaming partnership with techno-club. net, how he sorts his records, the energy that he and he & DJ Seoul bring to the table, positive changes that he has experienced over quarantine, getting nervous before sets, advice for other DJs, what his late grandfather would think of him if he saw him now, and more.

Each mix will exclusively premiere on Deep Space Radio at noon on Wednesday – and then be available on the detroit.dance SoundCloud as per usual at 3:13pm EST.

Be sure to check out his mix, on SoundCloud now – it is a special 2 hour set! I hope you enjoy.

detroit.dance: What do you do outside of music?

T.Linder: I am a graphic designer, I went to U of M for fine arts, and I was in commercial art for years… but mostly what I do now is music-related.

detroit.dance: What are your hobbies?

T.Linder: I have gotten into working out, I have a great dog. 

detroit.dance: What are some of your memorable moments or accomplishments so far from being a part of Detroit Techno Militia?

T.Linder: I think the best part of Detroit Techno Militia is that we were able to bring together a bunch of artists, a bunch of individuals from all different backgrounds. So I always say it’s kind of the X- Men of techno. All the DJs, all the performers, all the artists that we have all come from a different musical background, we all have different musical tastes… and somehow we’re able to shape that into this thing that we do for DTM. My favorite part is being able to play with any of those other performers at the same time. Me and Bill, we do the DTM 2×4… but I’ve also done that performance with Neil V,  and I’ve also done it with darkcube, where we just vibe off each other and work together. One of the special performances that we’ve been able to put together is the DTM 5×5 – five of our artists on five turntables, vibing off each other. It’s all off the cuff, it’s all improvised, it’s all live – there’s nothing planned… and it’s contained insanity. That’s what I love about music, it’s the danger zone, you know, we’re all hanging by a thread. It’s all vinyl records on turntables, and one of those records could skip and making it all work. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but a lot of times it does. And that’s the beauty of it.

detroit.dance: Detroit Techno Militia streams on techno-club. net every other Friday, talk a little about that – your experience with streaming and how it all works so people can tune in. 

T.Linder:  I love performing in front of an audience. Playing in my own studio or playing on an internet broadcast or video feed or whatever, to me it’s very different than playing in front of an audience. I really want the clubs to open back up so I won’t get nervous. During a stream is the only time I get nervous because I know people are listening to every little bit, and looking at the way I am in my headphones. The technology, outside of the DJ shit, is one of the things that makes me nervous because for example the feed can shut off. This hasn’t happened with techno-club, but with other ones that I’ve done. We used to do a broadcast from here, and we’d be playing, and 20 minutes into it I’d hear, “Hey, the feed cut off about 15 minutes ago, and we got knocked off of Facebook, we got knocked off of YouTube” or whatever. That’s one of those things that I can’t control. I’m great with turntables and a mixer, but when it comes to the cable going out to the internet, it’s such a variable that I’m not used to. I can’t wait for the clubs to open again. So I can stop getting nervous before shows.

I think it was October 2020 when we started going live on techno-club. We were contacted by a friend of ours, Cisco Ferreira, he’s one of the producers that I’ve been watching for my whole career. I have so much respect for the guy. He called us up about a year ago in March of 2020, and he said, “Hey, we’re talking about doing this thing. Are you down?” We said, “Yeah, we’re down.” Because we had no idea when any clubs were going to open up again. I was honored to be asked.

To tune in, you go to techno-club. net and you have to register first. It’s a pay-per-view type thing and the money goes directly to the DJs. You pick a plan, and you get a certain amount of minutes. You can watch awesome DJs from all around the world, the top tier talent. We stream every other Friday, so the next one is this Friday March 19th from 6-9pm EST.

detroit.dance: This is a question for both you, and you and DJ Seoul as DTM 2×4 – A lot of people including myself love the energy that you bring to a set. Was it always like that for you or did it change over time? 

T. Linder: For me, it was always kind of like that. I always loved seeing DJs who cared more about the music they were playing than the people on the dance floor. One of the DJs who really shaped both Bill and I’s way of DJing was DJ Eclipse, aka Greg Montgomery, rest his soul. I’ve never seen a DJ play like him. Always working the crowd. He was a great DJ and such a great showman. He played this party where I first saw him, some show at Timbo’s…

DJ Seoul: Maybe the one I did? It was a Rampage – Linda G was there, Tim Baker, Twonz, Greg and me.

T.Linder: Was that at Timbo’s?

DJ Seoul: Yeah.

T.Linder: That was the first time I saw Greg play. He was fucking incredible. Like, Watching him, my mouth dropped. And I said, “Okay, I want to do this.” And a couple weeks later, I found a kid who was selling a pair of turntables at U of M, bought those… I still have them. It was $350 for a pair of Gemini decks. And then I was like, “You know what, I spent all this money. This is my life now.” And that was 25 years ago. I always look back to moments like that and I try to recapture that when I play.

DJ Seoul: Yeah, most DJs look at the sound. They’re worried about the music I play, how I play it, how the sound is, etc. Greg was the first person we watched where he was worried about how he looked to the crowd, like he was putting on a show. People would stop dancing and look at him.

T.Linder: Dude, it was scary.

DJ Seoul:  First record, he’d be pouring sweat. And I’m like, “Wow, he’s so amazing.” And both of us channel him every time we play.

T.Linder: It wasn’t just watching a guy stand up there, he was scoping out the crowd with a look like he was gonna kick your ass if you weren’t dancing. He’d make eye contact with everyone in the room. It was fuckng crazy.

DJ Seoul: The part that I think about the most with him, is that there was no downtime. When you’re watching a DJ, and he finishes a mix, you’re like “Oh, that was a good mix.” And then he goes looking for his next track. You’re like, “Oh, I got 10 minutes, I’ll go get a beer and come back.” There was no downtime with him. He finished a mix and the next one was going already. You’re like, “I don’t have time to go to the bathroom or go buy a beer because he’s gonna do something amazing within seconds.” 

T.Linder: Yeah, or kick your ass.

DJ Seoul: And that’s why I always want people to not have a chance to leave the dance floor. I don’t want to give them any time to be like, “Ok, we can go chill.” If it’s a two room party. I don’t ever want to give the people the opportunity to think, “Let’s go check out the other room.” I want them to be like, “We can’t leave this room because it might get even crazier within seconds. I don’t know what’s gonna happen.” And so that’s what we try to do at all times.

T.Linder: He really shaped both of us. It’s so crazy. Luckily, before he passed, he came to a show that the me Darkcube, and Wes Vandel were doing in Ypsi. There, I was able to tell him, “Yo, man, I know I’ve never told you this, but here’s why I started.” And I spilled it to him. That was fucking over 15 years ago. Luckily, I was able to tell him what he did to direct my career. He wasn’t really playing out at the time. That’s one of the things that I’m so proud of myself for, that I was able to let him know.

DJ Seoul: He totally loved you as a DJ.

T.Linder: He didn’t have a choice!

DJ Seoul: For me, I remember that he approached me and was like, “Bro, I want you – me and you, we’re gonna start a crew.” And I said, “Me? You’re the fucking god. What do you fucking want with me?” He showed me the way. I took the energy that he gave me. Me and you [T.Linder] took that shit around the world, man. I think he’d be proud of it. Most people in Detroit give it up to Jeff Mills and Derrick May because those are the names they know. Those are the ultimate legends. But there’s the underground, deep cut heroes like Greg Montgomery…Jeff Mills and Derrick May know who he is, we know who he is, but a lot of people out there don’t know who he is. I’ve had so many ideas to put out a record or something, some kind of tribute, but there’s nothing that honors him the way he should be.

T.Linder: It’s one of those things where you have to honor someone like that through your own career. 

detroit.dance: What are some of your favorite tracks right now?

T.Linder: For me, a lot of the tracks that I really love are old. My favorite new record is The Advent’s new one on MORD Records. It’s a 12 inch and is really good, love it. Old school records, there’s one record that I love, and I’ve loved it since the first time I heard it. The artist is Fix, and the record is called Flash. It came out of Detroit on KMS. Orlando Voorn is who did it, he’s from Holland originally. It’s the ultimate techno record. It works with house music, it works with techno, it works with electro…it works with everything. It’s a P-Funk sample that he worked into a record.

detroit.dance: You probably meet a bunch of characters when you’re on the road – tell me about some of them.

T.Linder: I’ve been lucky enough to travel to a lot of places and meet a lot of really interesting and creative people all around the world. Some of my best friends come from countries that I couldn’t even find on a fucking map before I started touring. I’ve met some really, really great people that I consider some of my closest friends. Now I have friends from Australia, Tunisia,  and Italy…people that I never would have met before. I really cherish my friendships with them, they’re people that I know more than a lot of people in my family. I see my boys from Tunisia more than I see my cousins that live three miles away from my home. That’s one of the greatest things is being able to, to meet people from all different walks of life that share a common vision when it comes to music. 

detroit.dance: How do you sort your records?

T.Linder: I know the records by the color of the label and the text on the label. What I do is I usually go through them the day of the show. I don’t do it too far in advance, because for me at least it takes out some of the spontaneity of it. Let’s say I have a show at midnight. So at about four o’clock in the afternoon, I’ll go in there and I’ll go through my shit. And I’ll be like, “Okay, this will work, this will work, this will work.” I kind of base it on stuff I want to play or routines I want to try…something I think the audience will like – but I don’t really care so much about them. I care more about me trying stuff and pushing the art. So I’ll go through my stuff that way, and I have a lot of records, but I dig real quick. If I have a two hour set, I’ll take enough records for three hours. A lot of times I’ll do a six week tour in Europe or wherever, but it still comes down to the last minute where I just go boom, take, take, take, take, and then go with what I got. And I make it work on the fly.

detroit.dance: What kind of positive changes have you noticed overall during this upcoming year of quarantine?

T.Linder: We talked about playing here in the studio…it’s really forced me to get nervous before sets. I never got nervous before –  like, one time I did. I got nervous in 2002 when I played DEMF for the first time. That was the only time until I started playing here in the studio for an audience. It really has forced me to tighten up, and hopefully it translates to a live crowd. Personally, I started working out again, and I’ve lost 50 pounds since last April. I built a little gym in my basement, which pretty much consists of some bricks and a couple dumbbells and shit. It’s like Rocky IV down there.

detroit.dance: Do you have any TV show or movie recommendations?

T.Linder: Bloodsport.

detroit.dance: What is your least favorite color apple?

T.Linder: Rotten.

detroit.dance: What’s a piece of advice that you’d give to a DJ?

T.Linder: Stick to it. If this is your life, make it your life. Don’t change. Don’t change your vision based on the fads or fashion. That’s bullshit. Even if people hate it, stick to what you want. It’ll come back around. When we started Detroit Techno Militia, our style of Detroit Techno was very unpopular here in Detroit. It wasn’t “cool” to be into the style that we play – and we didn’t give a shit about it. We stuck with it. We built this thing based on the history. We stuck to our guns and we did what we love.

detroit.dance: What are your plans for 2021?

T.Linder: Well, hopefully a lot of people get the vaccine and become immune to this shit. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to normal and do what I love traveling again. It’s been a nice break from traveling because it can kind of get strenuous, but I’m ready to get back out.

detroit.dance: What would your grandpa Larry think of you if he came to see you at a show now?

T.Linder: I think he’d be proud of me. He wouldn’t really know what the fuck is going on. But I think he’d be proud of me.

Make sure you check out T.Linder’s Destination Detroit (American Coney Island), and his Recipe by Request that will be posted on Friday (Baked Corned Beef with Sauerkraut).

Keep up with T.Linder and Detroit Techno Militia on their socials: