Whether you agree or disagree with the opinions of the Mau5, his recent interview with Bill Werde (the editorial director of Billboard) at the FutureSound conference in San Francisco earlier this month, raised some valid points.
Specifically he spoke on how the driving forces of the scene have transitioned from stylistic traditional dj to artist production driven; All communicated through well thought and seemingly eloquent responses.
Today it’s more artist driven and more about the producer and the artist as opposed to the guy who can just string some tunes together. It’s no longer a technological feat to know how to play a song at the same speed as another song and do that…which is good!
Rather than chalk this up as a shot at traditional DJ’s, Zimmerman was rather stating a simple truth, an inevitable evolution directly correlated with the development of technology.
We have moved beyond the days of record shop releases. Music is mass distributed and production software is easily obtainable and affordable. EDM is flourishing because of the rise in talented production and at the end of the day, we the people of the scene are constantly searching for something new.
Werde went on to ask Zimmerman if he felt protective of the EDM scene. The mau5, sporting an “I <3 Haters” cap candidly responded, “Burn all electronic music down, I don’t care. At the end of the day, scenes don’t evolve. Scenes are scenes. They’re there and then they’re not.”
Zimmerman did decide to make an example of DJ Sneak, as have many artists lately. Sneak has been publicly ostracized on numerous occasions recently for his consistent rants of negativity toward the current state of house music.
“We’re talking about this guy who comes in today, 20 years later, and says “fuck all this shit, this isn’t real house music”… You can’t drag that on and superimpose that on to what’s been moved and changed… Dude, do you go down to a river and beat your clothes on a rock and hate me because I use a washing machine?”
While at times Zimmerman may be highly controversial and opinionated, his genuine point of view on the realism of EDM may tend to be overlooked. I may not agree with everything he says, but this Billboard interview is a perfect example of an intelligent stance on the industry.
Watch the full interview below.
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