This is how the ’90s was described for a person in the comment section of an electric indigo video. And this is maybe what it should have been for most of the people that lived in that moment, either in Berlin, Chicago, Detroit, or wherever there was an electronic music night club. A few days ago, I had the opportunity to talk with Susanne Kirchmayr, and throughout the whole conversation, I felt identified with our career beginning stories. she started as an enthusiast of what was called back in the day black music – hip hop, jazz, groove, disco, funk – and she would play music on the radio in Vienna. One day, by scavaging in the record store, she found discovered a 1991 single by the Chicago artist Dj Rush from Saber Records (sub-label of Trax Records – referring to the name given to techno in that time: Beat Trax). She immediately fell in love with its sounds. It was provocative for someone who was used to hip hop or disco. She presented it to the radio where she worked, but unfortunately, they didn’t see the same qualities that she saw, calling it nazi music, because of its marchy pace.
Later, underground resistance enlightened her, but this time it wasn’t only because of its musical capabilities. it was about the message. ur were a group of 3 DJs – Jeff Mills, Mad Mike Banks, and Robert Hoods – from revolution for a change label, and they were often considered “the Public Enemy of techno“. She had the opportunity to meet them and, in a conversation, Mike Banks said “techno for us is a fusion and inspiration from combining George Clinton (funk musician) and Kraftwerk.
From the incomprehensiveness of Vienna radio to gathering friends that would support her new phase in her career was DJ Hell – he was the bridge to the German techno scene and for her first time experiencing the producing methods of techno. she Dj’ed for the first time in Ultraworld club in Munich – “now that I think about it, maybe I wasn’t prepared for it, but in that time I ran out of money; I was constantly hitchhiking for gigs and didn’t have anywhere to practice but the club. The same applies to production. I didn’t know anything about it and back in the day, there wasn’t the accessibility that you have today. I was constantly trying to absorb as much information as possible of all the drum machines and digital devices used”. She showed us her first track made in her room with DJ hell (Wolkenkratzer was the b-side of the Ultraworld ep. vol. 1).
In 1993, she moved to Berlin, “the mecca of techno. this phenomenon happened because, after the fall of the wall, there was a lot of space for Berliners to use and create art “. She was apart of the Mayday in Berlin rave:” It was a huge rave that might have thrown techno into the mainstream level”. she would find herself being signed to a label based in New York called Experimental and from there the release of a new track was on sight – “No Headroom”. ” Me and him (a guy from the label) started to produce together in my room and released it”. is that how easy things were? this is something that I am constantly asking myself when producing “how much effort should I give to my pieces?”. sometimes I don’t even finish them because everything just seems saturated. I don’t know what is the production level of her, but it sounded very easy for her, which is not for me.
In 1997, she was already a busy DJ – “I started to have 3 to 4 gigs in the same week. sometimes in different cities, sometimes even in different continents. I started to become saturated because of all the time spent djing. I couldn’t find time to produce. i also started to feel pressure from more and more people because of the fact of being a woman. they all wanted me to have an opinion about it”. She decided to open that window by creating female:pressure in the same here – a network for gender equality.
By the end of the conversation, and after the explanation of her contemporaneous work, which is based on experimental music and composing for short-films, my idea of one’s artistic career changed. I am not saying that previously I had a deranged view towards the way artistic careers should flow, but was certainly like Susanne’s career. She was never prepared to do whatever came in front of her. She didn’t have the material to practice her djing skills, but she managed to be one of the icons of that era, by practicing in front of a crowd. She didn’t have music production gear as well, but she was labeled and had her tracks running around berlin. I thought one’s career should be supported with a cohesive and solid background in art doing. With her testimonial, my perspective changed to a more free and open. We don’t have to be Macgyver of electronic music to become one. The learning process takes time, patience, dedication, mixed with a little bit of luck and a sense of opportunism.