Here’s a nice interview from Stereo-Nightclub for Richie Hawtin’s upcoming sold-out appearance in Montreal

As of lately, you manage to pay Montreal a visit at least once a
year. What is it about this city that makes you want to return?

Well first off, it’s always a pleasure visiting any Canadian city,
but I definitely have a bit more connection to Montreal than others.
Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time and had some amazing
experiences in Montreal, not only gigging but just walking around 
the city, hanging out with friends etc. As we all know, Montreal has
a beautiful and unique mix of Canadian and European sensibilities and
that’s always been an attraction for me. Honestly, at one point
everyone in the early Minus offices in Windsor talked deeply about
moving the whole operations to Montreal… although the winters did
turn us off a bit! Another reason to come back to the city as often
as possible (I wished it was more often) is connection I have with
the people due to a (now) long history of gigs and music. Sona,
Playground, FCMM, Mutek, Dis & Dat (amazing early Rave party), 
Narod Niki, Plastikman, in a city with a culture of music and after
hours…. To me Montreal has and continues to be a focal point in the
world of Electronic Music in North America.

Detroit fore-figures such as Carl Craig and Daniel Bell have both
graced the decks at Stereo, but this is your first time playing here;
you’re in for a treat! Since you’re on tour in support of your
forthcoming Plastikman retrospective collection entitled ‘Arkives’,
what can we expect to hear from you on November 19th? Could you 
give us a little info on some featured releases on there and why 
they were specifically chosen to be re-released?

It’s always hard to predict what I will play at any gig, whether it’s
tonight, tomorrow or in 3 weeks… As always I’m traveling with my
computers and equipment and ready to take the crowd as far as they’ll
let me, or as far as they can be pushed. As this is a tour promoting
the Plastikman ARKIVES project I’ll definitely be in the frame of
mind to take us all into that frame of mind, whether that means
playing a number of Plastikman tracks, or just bringing us all
together into that type of Plastikman atmosphere I’m not yet sure…
we’ll have to wait until we’re altogether for that! But after
spending the last 9 months putting together the ARKIVES project, I
feel very much connected to that ‘Plastikman frame of mind’… the
part of me that created those albums and that sound. ARKIVES
celebrates that sound, and the journey that Plastikman has been on
for the past 18 years, weaving it’s way between acid dance floor
stomping tracks to the more subtle and expansive side of the sound
like Consumed and Closer. At this point in my career (an early point)
and electronic music, I thought it was a good time to take a ‘brief’
look back and collect all of this material together for the first
time in order to help myself and the people around me get a fuller
perspective of where we’ve come from, where we are, and perhaps 
where we might go in this wonderful world of electronic music. 
Arkives tells my part of that story, providing the full collection 
of Plastikman music (both released and unreleased) together with a
beautiful custom book telling that story through a collection of
words, photos and archival documents.

You’ve always cared a great deal on branding and marketing your
Plus 8 and Minus imprints. What are your future plans for your labels
and where do you see yourself heading towards (musically) in the 
next few years?

I’ve always cared very deeply about everything that I’m involved with
and do not really feel that more of less time is spent branding
and/or marketing. Minus/Plus are labels that help myself and other
artists explore their own creative ideas and aspirations and where
that goes is really not up to one individual anymore, but the group
as a whole. What I do feel is that after many years of mentoring, the
current artists of Minus have now all grown into their own individual
identities and the future very much lies in their own personal
explorations and ideas and how we all bring that to the world.

Your recent Plastikman performances at Timewarp and DEMF received
rave reviews and countless praise in both the audio and visual
departments. One can’t help draw a parallel with George Lucas and the
whole THX experience. Was this something you were aiming for? Do you
intend to push this idea even further?

I’m not sure what parallel you are referring to with George Lucas,
but I will say that his first major motion picture THX 1138 has
continued to be an inspiring visual work which I find myself going
back to time and time again. On your quote ‘…the whole THX
experience’… I’ll take out the word ‘experience’ as that’s exactly
what Plastikman Live is about. The show uses a combination of sound,
light, visuals and interactivity to, what I hope, stimulate the
anticipation & imagination of the audience. Any great experience in
our lives is usually created by a number of outside stimuli that are
out of our control. With Plastikman Live I have more control than
I’ve ever had before to play with your senses, and create a moment
when all that stimuli add’s up to a sum greater than it’s parts and
gets burned into the memory fabric of your brain.

On average how many vinyls do you press for each release on Plus 8
and Minus? Have the numbers been decreasing significantly over the
past few years in light of digital downloads? Will you ever integrate
vinyl back into your DJ setup one day?

Well, never say never right? But at the moment I can see no real need
in the future to integrate vinyl back into my DJ set. I’ve always
felt a need for progression and innovation and the idea of going back
to something that I’ve already spent 20 years of my life doing feels
a little awkward. Have the average Plus 8 and Minus releases seen a
drop in overall vinyl sales, YES, without a doubt. If I had to run
the whole operation at the moment on our vinyl sales we’d have a
serious problem but we will continue to offer as many of our releases
as possible in a limited vinyl format as I see that each type of
format offers its own unique ability. Vinyl and certain physical
products can offer a different way for us to connect with them as we
cannot forget that we are physical beings living in a physical world
and that’s exactly one of the reasons we are offering the Plastikman
ARKIVES project in a custom physical Case/Book/CD configuration. As
humans we tend to more easily create an emotional connection to
something that we can actually hold and touch, Arkives is a project
that I hold very close to my heart, and I want everyone to have a
similar feeling as well.

Outside of EDM, what music do you listen?

Even when I push as far away from the central point of EDM that I am
so associated with, I still find the strongest connection to
Electronic based music. My current faves are Salem, Tristan Perisch
and Lesley Flanagin. All of whom use electronics in their music &
production but all in a different way than I would.

Do you have any parting words of wisdom / favorite quote for your
fans in Montreal?

Making music and performing are about connecting your ideas to
whatever audience is out there, both older fans and the kid who has
never heard you before. So coming back to a city where I have so much
history allows for interesting possibilities…. connecting back to
the old fans, building up anticipation of what I’ve done before, and
what I might do this time, and that creates (hopefully) a buzz to
other people out there who never seen/heard me before and together
this builds into the moment when a new strange group of people are
together, waiting for something… a moment, to relive a memory, an
escape from the world around us, to simply dance, to celebrate
electronic music, to remember an old friend, or even just to see what
this is all about…. different reasons, different people, perhaps
united for a moment within the sound track of electronic music.