Thump continues its excellent series on Detroit’s music and underground scene. It’s important to note the importance of youth programs in the city. With all the cuts that have happened, situations like this are more valuable than ever. This video specifically hones in on Youthville in Detroit’s New Center.
Some notable quotables from Mike Huckaby, remixer, producer, sound designer and educator:
“In Detroit, The Music Found You, Rather Than You Found It.”
You couldn’t walk down the street without being influenced by something.. you can hear the climate of Detroit in the music.
“I find myself in a fortunate position around a lot of chaos. The economy isn’t doing so well in Detroit, but the underground is taking us around the world.”
“It’s not always about reinventing the wheel. It’s about doing what you do very well to begin with.”
“Detroit Techno was the way out, and continues to be the way out.”
From Thump:
Mainstream media always makes it seem like only bad things come from Detroit: urban decay, crime, bankruptcy, D12. But as any electronic music fan knows, Detroit is also a hotbed of creativity, passion, and promise. From the 1980s—when fellows like Juan Atkins and Derrick May ingested New Wave and Kraftwerk and spit out a template for what we know today as techno—to the present day, with new blood producers like Kyle Hall, Mark Flash, and Monty Luke creating forward-thinking tracks, Detroit continues to be a source of inspiration and power in the worldwide dance arena.