Inside Detroit techno’s secret hideout
Text and pictures : Brice Bossavie
Since 2002, a worldwide famous electronic collective keeps telling the story of Detroit techno music in the mystery of a big building. Underground Resistance fights for the legacy of a music born and raised in Detroit, thanks to a place that reflects its owners : deeply passionated, proud of its history, and in love with Detroit.
“No appointment, no entry. Call first”. On the door of the 300 East Grand Boulevard street in Detroit New Center, the message is clear. In front of us, a big building made of red bricks, definitely charmless. But behind the appearances, that’s a real piece of music history we are about to get into : in the hallway, we discover golden and platinum discs on the walls. On the right, two levels of stairs that bring to offices and recording studios. In front of us, a corridor leads to a big room made of wooden floor with display windows on the walls that contain pictures, vinyl records, and old electronic synthesizers. Welcome to Submerge Records, a place that serves as an office, a record studio, and the only techno museum in the world at the same time.
Behind this intriguing place, a unique electronic music collective : Underground Resistance. As its names says, you would probably never have heard of them if you’re not really into electronic music. Funded in 1990 in Detroit, Underground Resistance is a very important act in electronic music and Detroit techno history. Its funders, Jeff Mills and Mike Banks are now considered as legendary DJs : they are part of what we call the “second generation” of techno music artists. Before them, few DJ’s were already changing the electronic music history from Detroit, with what we call now techno music : a repetitive, hypnotizing, and cold music, full of basses, that makes nowadays European youngsters (Berlin especially, Paris more recently) dance until the sun rises up (or even after).
Why do music remember Underground Resistance so well? Because of its global and unique philosophy : when the movement appears in 1990, techno music needs to have a fresh new start to prosper. That’s what Jeff Mills and Mike Banks will bring to it : politic and radical positions. Usually performing live with masks to let the music be the most important thing rather than its authors, Underground Resistance is also world famous for bringing politic messages to music, with social claims, activism, and a real and pure Detroit love. Probably the main reason why they decided to create a techno museum.
Knowing the techno history
“We don’t want people to forget”. Sitting in the old chair of his office, John Collins is more than convinced when he says this sentence. Forgetting is the real fear of this Underground Resistance DJ, booker, and tour-guide of the techno museum. But forgetting what? “It’s not so hard to know the history of techno music”, he tells, “but people make assumptions, and don’t know or don’t think, that this genre has been created by African Americans. It’s important”. The fight for memory is not only a struggle for Underground Resistance : it’s a way of thinking.
In 2003, the Detroit Historical Museum organized an exhibition within its walls to tell the history of techno music, in collaboration with the Underground Resistance members. After that, the exhibition was supposed to travel the world, but for some reasons it didn’t. “This is how our idea came” remembers Collins, “we were saying to each other that there should be another permanent museum around. A techno museum in Detroit. Because it’s a Detroit thing”. Right after the exhibition, Underground Resistance decided to transfer the complete exhibition in 2003 to its office located in New Center, to make sure that the story of their music would still be told.
To visit it, Underground Resistance will ask you to respect some rules. Indeed, the techno museum is not like the others : you will need to have an appointment with Collins, so that he can give you a private tour of the place, without anyone around. The thing is that nothing apparent is indicated on the building from the outside. “If you really want to go to our museum, you’ll need to find us. Things don’t have to be too easy.” smiles Collins. The good part of this is that visiting the museum is a true unique experience, since there is anyone except you and Collins telling you lot of anecdotes about techno’s history.
The day of our visit, Chloë and her daughter Grace are doing a guided tour in the museum : during one hour and a half, John Collins goes back into his souvenirs as a Detroit DJ during the 80’s and the 90’s to tell the story of techno music in Detroit, display-windows after displays-windows. He explains her the origins of this music (Motown, funk, and even Star Wars movies), the Detroit funders (Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Eddie Fowlkes), the second generation with Underground Resistance, and bring them to the other side of the room to talk about the actual state of techno music and even the future of it with a full display window with pictures of children of the most famous Detroit techno DJs. After the visit, the two visitors leave the place while John Collins comes back to his office to tell us how important it is for him to have this museum : “People need to know the history of our music. They need to know that it was born in Detroit and nowhere else”. As Collins explains us, people tend to just party and not get their head into the history of the music they are dancing on. That’s exactly what Underground Resistance is fighting against.
A worldwide success
Inside Underground Resistance, everything is black and white. Even the cat. After taking tiny stairs to the underground of the building, we meet Kitty, the Underground Resistance’s official cat having the two colors of the collective on her fur. Today, she’s rubbing her side on Carlos Hawthorn’s legs, a young British journalist in Detroit for holidays, looking at the vinyls that we can find in the underground record store of Submerge. The fact that this British traveler made a stop in the Underground Resistance building during his travel underlines something : the international reputation of the Detroit collective.
“I know Underground Resistance very well, they are really famous in England and in Europe more generally. I even saw them live in London once” he tells us. “For every electronic music fan, this place is definitely a must-see, with the museum, the record store, and even the people who are living there. They are all major key actors in the electronic music history!”. Two days later, two other British people will ask for a visit of the museum. British people are not the only foreigners that Collins encounters during his guided tours : “We have people from the whole world who ask for visiting the museum. Lots of Europeans, such as German or French people, but also people from Japan, South America, Australia… a lot of music fans around the world know us, and have heard about the museum without us talking about it so much”. Wherever you go to party in the world, the abbreviation “UR” will ring a bell for every techno fan. You can even meet people wearing Underground Resistance clothing in European parties. The impact that the Detroit collective had on electronic music is huge : by appearing in the 90’s with their radical philosophy and their political statements, the member of Underground Resistance gave a new start to the whole genre.
Now, they have a new goal : to keep this spirit alive. And their first tool is the music : in the underground of the Submerge building, the records store displays a wide range of Detroit techno label releases. Called Submerge in Detroit, this place is the main rendezvous of Detroit electronic music. In town first, by directly selling the records, but also in the whole world by shipping all of these releases on their Internet website. And people seems to be still interested : right next to the front door of the record store, a dozen of packages are waiting to be sent to Berlin. An usual day in the life of the shop : they sell about 70% of their records outside of the USA.
Nowadays, UR DJs are older (around 40) and less excited about the musical industry than their city. John Collins doesn’t want to hear about the new Electronic Dance Music (EDM) DJs (David Guetta, Avicii, Tiesto…) sadly famous for playing pre-recorded live sets and making a lot of money with merchandising and parties rather than with records. In term of politics, they have decided to use the fame of their music to denounce less, and to promote more. “Techno music is an awesome way to show to the world that Detroit is not only made of bad things but also positive things” explains Collins. Indeed, by touring around the world under their original name (we briefly saw a DJ just coming back from Paris during our visit) the Underground Resistance team wants to make party in the Detroit way, without forgetting their roots. And this issue goes really beyond music.
A real involvement in the Detroit life
When he’s not doing DJ sets or recording music, Mike Banks, one of the legendary funder of Underground Resistance, has something else in his mind : Baseball. It is known that Detroit musicians are usually huge sports fans, so that’s not so surprising. “I usually see Mike in Detroit, and every time he meets my wife when we have a meeting, they talk about baseball non-stop. It’s really hard to stop him!” laughs Kevin Reynolds, another established Detroit DJ. The real interesting thing in this story is that this other passion is more than a hobby for him. It’s a way to help the community.
Since few years, DJ Mad Mike sometimes leaves his alias to become “coach Mike” with school kids : the legendary Detroit DJ in the world is known in town for coaching Detroit Public Schools children for free, just to help the community. That’s also what Underground Resistance is : a tool to promote Detroit people and musicians. “You always have to give back” says Collins. “This city gave us so much when we were younger that now, we have the duty to do the same with the new generations”. A large part of Detroit people are helped by Underground Resistance, in different ways. Musicians first, thanks to the lot of services that the place offers : as an example Submerge is always open to sell new Detroit techno labels in its record store. But they can also help young Detroit DJ’s just to build their career or produce music. Even if Kevin Reynolds is not new in the Detroit techno scene, he already asked Underground Resistance for help : “You really can ask them anything. As long as you seem serious, they will be really helpful. I already went to their building for lot of stuff : I remember I was having business questions or even music doubts, they were here for me each time”. The building also has two music studios that are open for other musicians from Detroit, who are not part of Underground Resistance (they usually host a jazz band there for rehearsals) but also host an internet music radio show every Friday nights, Soulful Underground, made by three local DJ’s they are friends with. “Whenever I’m playing a DJ set, I will try to put some new Detroit DJ’s music. That’s the kind of thing that is important for us to do” explains John Collins.
But Underground Resistance’s influence goes beyond music : they also help the community in very different ways, as Kevin Reynolds explains : “You can’t be a musician in Detroit, and just do music. That’s kind of a rule : since you’re bringing positivity in a town that has so many negative (and usually wrong) representations, you need to think about all the people of Detroit and not just the music fans. That’s exactly what Underground Resistance is doing since they are in town.” Every June since 2006, the collective organizes Backpack Festival, a three days event in Detroit parks with music, performances, and youth animations, in order to raise funds for the children of Detroit (the money helps to pays backpacks and school supplies for the Detroit Public School’s scholars). The recent Flint crisis also made them act : they played during two fundraising parties in Detroit at TV Lounge music club, and are about to release an informative video about the crisis on their YouTube account. All of this seems logical for them : “We won’t DJ our whole life, so we try to get involved in the community as much as we can : some of our members give music classes around, we offer internships in our building to the youngsters that wan’t to learn about business, and even better, music if they want to. You know, music is something that makes you feel good, and we want to share it with the city. Not everything is negative here” tells John Collins.
A mix of music, dance, politics, and Detroit pride : that’s what Underground Resistance is. But all of this wouldn’t be possible without this building we just visited. Located in the heart of the city, Submerge is probably one of the most important musical place in Detroit nowadays. Important, because it keeps a musical genre that was born here alive, and helps people know this story with its museum. Important also because it stimulates the whole Detroit musical scene by giving artists advices and letting some of them record music in their studios. And, finally, important, because their contribution goes way beyond music : it’s all about helping the whole Detroit community. “Our music is a gift and a tool, it helps people being more positive. That’s why the Submerge guys are so involved in town” analyses Kevin Reynolds.
Before leaving the building, we realize that we totally forgot to see something : the ten music studios that are located on the third floor. Which means that we just saw two third of the whole place. We come back to John Collins, and ask us if we can have a look at them. His answer is clear : “We never showed, and we will never show our music studios to anyone. Lot of people ask us but it’s our little secret. We are Underground Resistance, we have rules. Did you forget?”
