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Music

Silent Servant: Los Angeles, Hierarchy, and Hard Work in Techno

An interview with the Techno producer currently readying his new split with Broken English Club.

A year and a half ago, I snuck through a back door into a show that Silent Servant was DJing in Brooklyn. It was right around when I first started hearing the dark techno that Silent Servant and his cohorts of the now-defunct collective Sandwell District were making. That show kind of blew my mind, and opened my eyes to a sub-scene of underground music that I was only vaguely aware of before that. That night was also the first date of a particularly volatile relationship that I was in for a year, of which “Utopian Disaster (End),” the closing track from Silent Servant's pummeling debut full length Negative Fascination on cult noise label Hospital Productions, may be the perfect metaphor.

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These days it is just as common for Juan Mendez aka Silent Servant to be performing or DJing in a small bar or loft in LA as it is for him to be at huge dance clubs around the world. He is bringing the dark vibes of the DIY electronic/noise scene that he came up in to more mainstream dance audiences, and walking a very deliberate line between those worlds. In addition to a plethora of other projects since the 90s, Mendez previously co-ran the LA-based Historia y Violencia label with Santiago Salazar. His new record label Jealous God, which he runs with Karl O'Connor aka Regis and James Ruskin, is in his words a “reaction” to Sandwell District, where they continue to push boundaries of techno, industrial, and noise music.

The evening before this interview occurred was a late one for both myself and Mendez. I was visiting Los Angeles, and after catching a raging hardcore punk show at Los Globos in Echo Park, I ended up at a particularly sketchy rave in a warehouse in South LA with basically all of my favorite people who live in that town. I had never been to a party quite like that one, and I could tell it was nothing new for Mendez, a veteran of the LA underground music scene.

I met Mendez over a Japanese breakfast of pork belly, potatoes, and six minute eggs in little Tokyo early the next afternoon, determined to uncover new understandings into the mysterious mind behind Silent Servant.

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Silent Servant has a split 12” EP out today with Broken English Club. It is titled “Violence and Divinity” and was released by Cititrax, an imprint of Minimal Wave Records. You can listen to the track “Speed and Violence” below and purchase the record here.

NOISEY: Can you tell me about music in LA and how that’s changed since you started going to shows when you were a kid?
Juan Mendez: I think there’s always been a weird music scene in LA; it’s mutated in a lot of different ways. I used to go to Hollywood to see bands like Medicine, The Faith Healers, the Breeders, Sonic Youth. There’s always been a pretty strong club culture that was very rooted in house music from early on. There’s a lot of British expats that would play acid house or house, some Detroit techno and stuff like that. LA also had a really big culture of freestyle music. I was a little young for that, but there were weird backyard house parties. There were always old gangster dudes and cholo dudes hanging out, and it was very Egyptian Lover, Uncle Jamm’s Army, all this old electro stuff.

What’s it like now?
I think it’s pretty healthy. There’s not a lot of money in it so it’s not that competitive. People are doing it just because they’re stoked. There’s just a good mixture of things. Things are slowly starting to cross over more. You’ll see some of the punker kids go to the techno stuff, you’ll see some of the techno kids go to some of minimal synth stuff. It’s been really fun for me the past couple of years since I got back [from living in Minneapolis]. There’s a lot of decent stuff going on.

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What sort of music are you listening to?
It’s funny, I go through phases. The one band that I always talk about that I listen to a lot is a band called Crescent, they’re from Bristol in the 90s. They’re a little bit like a lost relic but there’s a few people that I know that know about it, Veronica Vasicka [of Minimal Wave Records] being one of them. I buy a lot of stuff on Bandcamp and then cycle through it. I like what Jes [Aurelius] and Nick [Nappa] are doing with all the Aescetic House stuff. Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire has a new band Wrangler that’s awesome. Depends what you're looking for as well, I follow a lot of labels. Nation [Traxx's label] is doing an excellent job, I really like Gooiland Elektro from Holland, Cititrax and Minimal Wave are always very good. Of course Downwards, L.I.E.S., Hospital Productions, Diagonal, Chondritic Sound, The Corner, Dark Entries, Token, Sonic Groove, Dias, Frozen Border, Mira, Avian, Our Circula Sound. It kind of travels a lot of genres and time periods but a lot of it is somewhat damaged. That’s kind of the way that I look at it. I really like somewhat damaged music.

Can you tell me about Jealous God, your label with Karl O'Connor [aka Regis] and James Ruskin?
The weird thing about it was it was a reaction to what we did with Sandwell District. We had a lot of volatility with that whole project with the people involved. And also trend wise, we got copied a lot after we did it because we had brought this type of imagery and this stark thing to the whole vibe of techno; it kind of became the norm.

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So Jealous God is getting away from that?
It’s just a different way to do it, basically. For me, I wanted to be able to convey the same ideas in color versus in black and white. I wanted to find a way to fuse the weirdness of techno music and other, weird middle ground stuff; stuff that’s a little more mutant, that has aspects of industrial stuff, that might have some Neue Deutsche Welle influence or basically new wave influence, that has some kind of industrial pop influence, and also a techno influence. It took a while. The first two records definitely didn’t have that, but that’s because we were kind of rushing it. Number three for me is kind of how the label should have started, but it’s all good now. I think we’re starting to figure it out.

What do you look for in a collaborator?
I don’t really like collaborating; I’ve done it but I never like it. I think there’s good ways to do that but I’m not one of those people necessarily. When I work with Karl there’s a pretty well known fact of hierarchy in how things need to be. I think that’s why our relationship has worked so long. With Sandwell District it worked, with all the labels we do now it works. I think community rule is bullshit most of the time; it doesn’t work. It can soften ideas. You can come to a nice conclusion, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. You can come to a thing where everybody’s happy, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to change something. Community rule doesn’t necessarily revolutionize things. Not that we are either, but within our own little microcosm it allows for things to progress quickly where you focus, you say this is what you’re doing and you do it.

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What does the name Silent Servant mean?
It’s just kind of how I usually operate. My dad was really big on don’t talk about it, just do it, that sort of thing. My parents moved to the States [from Guatemala] I was 2. They always worked two jobs. When I was 11 or 12 they didn’t want to leave us at home, so me and my brother used to work with them. I was basically a janitor from the age of 11 until I was 18. My parents are always like, work comes first for stability. Stability allows you to do whatever you want. That kind of runs through everything that I do. When you do a Google search on Silent Servant, there are all these religious undertones to it. But I didn’t realize it until after. In a weird way, I do have a respect for those aspects of the constructs of things. At least with religion it allowed for an establishment to exist where people could go somewhere without denomination. You can be rich, poor, whatever, but you go to this place and are all equal. In a weird way shows do that. Music culture when it’s pure and it's very focused does that for people. There’s a place that we all go, we all hang out, we all participate. But a lot of people don’t have that. It’s just like a systematic thing that happens because there’s a communal sense. The whole Silent Servant thing had a lot to do with Karl too; it talks about this hierarchy thing. I kind of always looked up to him and worked for him in a weird way. He hates when I say that but I kind of do.

Can you tell me about about performing in small scale DIY spaces as well as at much bigger clubs and venues; how do you exist and intend to exist in both of these worlds?
It’s weird. It’s been a very heavy topic for me recently. I still go to these small shows. More DIY stuff. Say Friday night, I saw you at that thing at Mata Noise event. No one really made any money, but it was awesome. The music quality was pretty high, and everybody was just dedicated to doing it because they really want to do it. In what is considered the weird techno scene, where some of us that are influenced by that stuff or are supposed to basically be of that party, if you’re playing these big super clubs every weekend, there's a disconnect. You're not seeing that, you’re not participating in that, and you're basically not really contributing to that. Not that everyone has to, but sometimes when people walk that walk, they need to talk that talk, if you’re saying that, there’s a point where you have to participate in that. That’s where the financial democratic thing comes in. Some of these places are not going to pay your Normal fee, whatever you make. You’re going to have to bite the bullet a bit. On the international DJ circuit, you get taken care of pretty well. Not everyone experiences that, but when you do, for me, I’m like okay, I feel like I need to give back because that’s some lucky shit and I need to contribute to the music scene that is helping me get to that point. When things become unsustainable, they die. When you can’t keep young kids interested and they can’t see what you’re doing, they’re not going to care anymore because they can’t see what you’re playing if you’re just playing in these super clubs. It’s just that balance that needs to happen. It’s not easy but it’s going to be more and more of a factor.

Any last comments?
I just want people to understand that there are options. Things exist outside of what you think exists, what you’re looking for is already here, you just gotta find it and go make an effort. I’m not saying that it’s all hippie and communal, but there needs to be a dedication and a participation to things. I think that’s what helps things grow. When young kids get involved and they’re stoked and try something weird, well there’s another five years of life on that. As I’ve gotten older, it’s the thing I’ve realized is really important. Giving people the options to try different things and exposing them to things. There is a weird safety in numbers and power of a group.

All his life, Reed wants money and power. Follow him on Twitter or die from lead shower.