Technopodcast.com

For our third Youtubing feature we´re honoured to talk to Paul Mac, one of the UK’s true techno heroes since the mid nineties, a man with a huge discography, multiple aliases, a handful of labels, aswell as collaborative studio projects with the likes of Ben Sims. We talk to him about current favourites and classic influences as he launches his new label Tactical this week…..

How did you get into music and what’s the first track(s) that made you want to take music seriously ?

As with most people started to get into music seriously at about 13 or 14 I’m guessing. Can quite clearly remember trying to do pause button edits of Electro tracks and the like. Stuff like Cybotron , the Aldo Marin & Jerry Calliste produced tracks on Cutting were huge influences along with Cut & Paste style mixes from Double D & Steinski. For me personally Lesson 3 is the most important record I ever heard. Could go on for ages about records from back then but these are perhaps the most obvious ones.

Please tell us about your new label, what´s it all about, and forthcoming releases…

For some reason I felt it was time I did a vinyl based label again and wanted to have a fresh start rather than just carrying on with one of my older labels. So Tactical is the result of that the first release out April 22nd is by myself with a remix from Kamikaze Space Programme who is someone who’s music I have really been playing a lot of recently. The second release is from Nubian Minds who is something of a personal favorite of mine so to get him to release music for me seriously puts a smile on my face.

What’s your top three dancefloor tracks at the moment?

So much good stuff about at he moment it’s hard to just give 3 but these are all killing it right now.

What classics never leave your bag/hard drive?

Just recently some of my older re-edits have crept back into my sets as I tend to try and play edits of classics if I’m going to play classics in a normal set but these nearly always work on some level :)

What’s happening for you next, in terms of projects, gigs and releases?

A ton of stuff on the horizon as well the launch of Tactical I’ve also recently reactivated my old House pseudonym Jorge Zamacona and there’s some material forthcoming on Tardis records for that. Also a Retro House sounding EP on BoomChick plus a bunch of remixes. Have finally managed to get back in the studio with Ben Sims to get our Fokus Group project up and running properly but more on that nearer the time.

What´s your favourite track from your own back catalogue, and why?

Normally I’d say the latest ones as a producer your always trying to improve and look forward so I tend to favor my newer bits over old stuff but I do have a soft sport for these tracks. They basically mark a certain period of time or when I thought I had got a sound right or something along those lines. Generally I find it quite difficult to listen to a lot of my old stuff but still like these ones so must have done something right :)

There are lots of new producers and fans coming into techno now, what tracks should they listen to to educate themselves with history of the genre?

That’s a difficult one although it’s important to understand the roots it’s still healthy to have your own reference points or else we run the risk of getting stagnant but there’s also some very definite records people should know once they have found there way. This could be a very long list but I’ll try and keep it short

As a producer, what other producers and productions do you really admire from the technical side of things?

A lot of the older guys who have been around for a long time tend to inspire that admiration the most so guys like Luke Slater , Jeff Mills , Robert Hood , Mark Broom spring immediately to mind but I’m also digging the newer wave of people like Untold, Kamikaze Space Programme, Blawan and the like those guys have brought a much needed new edge to Techno and it’s no coincidence that where in this great creative time again when all these came along.

And finally, what track do you like that really a techno dj shouldn´t admit to liking?!

It’s a Jazz record from 1964 without question my favorite record ever made :)

More on Paul Mac

For more on Paul, Tactical and his other various projects visit his Soundcloud / Facebook / Twitter pages

Paul´s first EP on Tactical is out this week and can be heard and bought at Juno Download