NORTHMIX: Noah Pred

We caught up with Canadian, Berlin-based techno DJ Noah Pred while on a tour stop in his hometown of Victoria, BC. His recently released full length Third Culture, was nominated for a Juno and features soulful vocals from singers like Rosina Kazi from Lal, and Anna Gallien (who's known for writing the lyrics for Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker"!). While touring the world playing his music, he also manages the successful techno and house label, Thoughtless Music. Read on for some top advice from a pro.

And if you're at Movement this May in Detroit, be sure to catch him at Get Thoughtless, his label's all-day after party at the Northern Lights Lounge featuring talent like Stone Owl, Alixander III, Butane, and a whole lot more.

THUMP: So how's Victoria music-wise?
Noah: It's a smaller community but there's a strong, vibrant scene. I play here every year and it's nice to do a one two punch with Victoria and Vancouver. I actually went to my first ever raves in Victoria in the mid-90s.

What was the scene like back then?
As soon as I heard house music in its proper context, I was convinced that was how I wanted to do music. I had been playing bass and guitar in bands and writing stuff on 4-track for a while, but I was really hooked on funky stuff like Parliament, P-Funk, Sly and the Family Stone, Marvin Gaye, and always looking for where that music had evolved to. R&B at the time wasn't very compelling and rock was a bit bland, so when I heard house, I realized that's where it had evolved. It had gone underground.

What was your first rave like?
I got dragged to my first rave after a Mudhoney concert [the Subpop band] when I was 16 and was hooked instantly. We had parties at the old Salvation Army building. That was pretty epic. It fit maybe a thousand people and was this renegade space that eventually got busted more and more often. We also had renegade bush parties and there was a guy Bruce McBain who used to have this incredible asymmetrical sound systems rig with all these bass bins he'd collected over the years and it sounded like total magic. He would go to the locations days in advance and dig trenches for the cables and bury them. They were totally pro set-ups in these wild locations with old growth rain forests, crazy rock formations, and rivers. DJs would come from as far as LA and San Francisco even. It was epic.

Could you imagine playing a classic rave again?
Sure why not? Classic rave probably means something different to me than it does for some people these days. I don't know how my music would go over but I'd be down for it.

What does "classic rave" make you think of?
It has to be pretty big, like, 1,000 to 2,000 people with maybe some visual decorations but not the huge light shows that we get these days with EDM events. More focus on the music and the crowd. The DJ is still a focal point of sorts but more tucked away and less of a spectacle than it is these days. Also, a lot of people in phat pants and glow sticks. It's crazy to think that it was twenty years ago for me… TERRIFYING [laughs]!

Tell me about Third Culture and was there an intention behind it? Were you ever thinking about winning a Juno?
That wasn't my intention at all. I wanted to make something that would have relevance outside of dance floor context and had a coherent listening structure from start to finish. The process of achieving that was different than any other full length I've recorded, with the exception of my discontinued Ecocosm. Most of those were tracks I'd already finished and had fit together with a jigsaw puzzle approach. Third Culture was a lot more of an integrated experience with a wide range of material. I had to polish and finish them in a way to make them fit together better. Working with a vocalist was not a new thing, but something I hadn't done in a while.

I love the idea of embedding meaning in instrumental music but it's a lot more difficult to convey that meaning to the listener without any verbal confirmation. When you introduce a lyrical component, implicit becomes a little more explicit.

Did you write the lyrics or work together with a vocalist?
I did with the exception of "Circles & Circles" which were Rosina's from Lal. I collaborated with Anna Gallien on the opening track. Little known fact, she did the vocals on "Windowlicker."

Wow!
I think it went un-credited or she has a little note in the liner notes. She was a good friend with Richard D. James. There's some music trivia for you. She lives in Bristol right now.

Was it interesting for you to put more meaning into the vocals, did you learn things about yourself?
Definitely. I was really going through an intense emotional year. I lost my father in unexpected circumstances. I was processing how to cope with that. A lot of it is present in the songs and I'm so thankful that I had a project like that to work on, to work through a lot of that stuff. It's a time when I was just so thankful to have an outlet like music in my life. I can't imagine not having something to pour it all into.

And you've also just released Third Culture Remixed?
The remix album was a chance to expose my music again to new people and to get my friends to do their versions of my songs. I wanted to see what other people would do with the music. All the remixers like Butane, Lando, Alixander III—to name a few, had responded really well to the original album and they jumped at the chance to work on it.

Stylistically, did you find you had evolved from your last round of recordings?
I don't think I would be interested in working on music if I didn't think I was constantly evolving my approach. There's no worse feeling than being stuck in a creative rut. I have to think of it as an evolution or I wouldn't share it with anyone.

Do you look to other styles or do you pioneer your own sound?
I think it's an illusion to pretend you're not being influenced by what's going on around you. How you handle that influence is what's going to vary from person to person.

I wanted to incorporate elements of bass music with my own to create a more polished take on techno and house. I feel that I succeeded in that, but a lot of people didn't pick up on it; that element felt a bit under the radar. I slowed tempos down a bit from what I'm known for and tried to bring the vocal element into a tasteful and production serving rather way rather than dominant way.

What was it like starring in your own music video for "Circles & Circles"?
Well, it was a lot cheaper than hiring an actor [Laughs]. It's funny because Berlin is such a non-conformist city that you can walk around with a huge Mohawk, face tattoos and hundreds of piercings and nobody bats an eyelid, but I was wearing a suit and everyone was looking at me weird. It got pretty hot under there too. I love living there but I'm sure that Berlin will inevitably change in the future and some other place will become what Berlin is now.

You've had some great success over the years with your label Thoughtless Music, playing host to artists like Angel Alanis, Alland Byalo, Maceo Plex and a slew of others. Why did you start the label?
I'm a very particular person, so I'm very picky about how my music is represented. I also had some negative experiences with labels in the past. As an artist, I wanted to create a platform for other artists where I felt they would be treated the way I wanted to be treated. Also for the music to be represented with a certain level of integrity. I'm really happy with how it's evolved; it's been really rewarding to cultivate so much new talent.

Do you have any tips to share on how to run a record label?
The market is so saturated right now that it's mind-boggling. The three most important things are 1.) carve out something uniquely identifiable. I don't think people are interested in music that sounds like a hundred other labels. 2.) Don't be afraid to represent that unique element in different ways over time. The last thing people want is something static and predictable where they know what it's going to sound like without even listening to it. 3.) Evolve and develop it over time but remain consistent in your aesthetic.

If you were looking into doing it for glamour or out of boredom, I would think twice. Be sure that the music you're putting out isn't contributing to the avalanche of noise out there. It's the uniqueness that is going to get you recognized in the end.

How do you feel about DJ tool kits that are out there?
I can honestly attest that I do not use them. I can see the appeal for a lot of people but for me the whole point is to be creative with making music. As far as core song components are concerned, these are all elements where I can express myself. Using someone else's loop isn't my style of production. I understand it, and that a lot of great tracks have been made that way but we try to avoid releasing stuff on the label that is highly loop-pack based if we can discern that it is. We try to support artists that are fully capable of building their tracks from scratch. That's who we want to be working with, ideally.

Tell me about the Movement after party you're hosting.
It's our first time doing one and we have some artists in Detroit who go by Stone Owl and they made some connections for us. There's a patio with a barbecue and an outdoor sound system. We'll have two, inside and out, going 'til 4 AM. We have Alixander III from Azari & III, Butane, Transmat recording artist Rennie Foster, myself, and a number of other guys to be confirmed, along with some really talented Detroit locals supporting. Any opportunity to show what the label can do on a global platform is really exciting.

What are some tips for someone who's never been to Movement?
A lot of the good restaurants are closed for Memorial Day, The after parties are great and the taxis in Detroit are awesome because they have these huge exposed woofers in the front seats and they rock 180 BPM juke music—if you get lucky, and they give you a flat rate. It's a must-do thing, especially if you're trying to get to TV Lounge, Old Miami or any other party that's further from the Plaza.

Do you still come across pockets of different styles of music when traveling?
Fifteen years ago you'd have local pockets of stylized techno and house but broadband has dissipated geographic based scenes and homogenized things a lot. Everyone is listening to everyone else but what's really interesting is South Africa, Johannesburg has a really unique sound and scene primarily because they don't have high speed Internet! The Internet's a great equalizer, especially for dance music genres.