IN CONVERSATION WITH DAVE CLARKE

By Joiah Luminosa

With over 35 years in the industry, Dave Clarke is re-releasing “Archive One” with a distinctive, no-nonsense approach to his artistry. Whether through photography, music, or DJing, Clarke remains a unique force in the creative world. The exclusive, one-time pressing of “Archive One” and the Red Series 30th Anniversary Boxset includes the remastered “Archive One” album, Red Series colored vinyl singles, a 16-page booklet featuring rare photos, sleeve notes, and a foreword by Dave Clarke, a signed photo print, and Red Remixes colored vinyl with remixes by The Chemical Brothers, Umek, DJ Sneak, Surgeon, DJ Rush, and Robert Hood. Originally released in 1994, Dave Clarke’s “Red 2” EP is now digitally re-released, bridging the gap between past and present. This timeless EP, part of a genre-defining trilogy, underscores a pivotal era in electronic music, connecting new listeners with a techno pioneer.In this interview, we explore Clarke’s extensive musical footprint, his acclaimed trilogy, and his ventures into photography. We discuss what it means to be an artist in today’s world and how Clarke continues to shape the landscape of electronic music.

Listen/Pre-order set edition of “Archive One” here

Hello Dave and thank you for being with us today. I would love to start with your upbringing in Brighton and how that has shaped your music.

I lived in Brighton for the first 26 years of my life. I lived there for the beginning of my life. But what I will say is that the UK at that time was a really good place to live for music, because there was so much music coming in from so many different sources. A lot of it was coming in vinyl and was just down the road from London. Brighton is a Gay-friendly city, so there was a lot of cross-pollination of musical passions and culture.. I mean, Brighton is also famous for mods and all that stuff. So I grew up with Punk, Mod, Ska, Disco, and then Hip Hop. And like my first gigs, were people’s birthday parties and weddings weirdly enough. I used to DJ at a roller disco. That’s how I kind of started with DJ’ing. There were great music shops in those days. I used to work part-time in a classical music shop for a few years and was never paid any money. But I would be in there to try and get music and understand music. Looking back, I’m appreciative of my life and Brighton for its musical inspiration, better for me than living in London, I think London would have been quite intense. Brighton had a much lighter feel. This meant that you could dip your toes in so many different things in my formative years and just enjoy being part of the music scene.

What are some of your favorite clubs in Brighton that introduced you to the rave scene?

There is plenty I have in mind. I was DJing with the Jungle Brothers down there at the Zap Club. So there was a lot of that sort of stuff going on. There was a club called Coasters that had a DJ called Rory. And that was a predominantly gay nightclub. But on Thursdays, they would let all people in, and the DJ and the lighting jocks used to really look after me and sort of take me to their side and I’d end up sitting in the lighting controllers box for some of the nights, and the DJ would allow his set to be recorded on cassette and give that to me. And that was a gift. Then there was another club in the countryside in Sayers Common that I worked in, in the bar, which was like really, really cool. They let me DJ before all the people used to come in. I was like 16 or 15 at the time, I shouldn’t have been working there but you know, they were different days and we didn’t have all this digital ID and stuff. And I’ll be DJing there and actually, the guy that was the headline DJ there let me borrow his Juno synthesizer for like a month, which is a very special thing. So yeah, and then I was DJing in different nightclubs playing hip-hop, soul, house, and acid. And that’s how it all started for me in the mid 1980’s.

House disco and acid are important styles that help you shape your sound. Who are the key figures that played an important part in this journey?

There were a few DJs down in Brighton that enabled me to see, listen and understand what they were doing. There was a DJ at Downbeat (The asylum) who sadly passed away some years ago called Shem, who was a technically gifted Hip Hop DJ, that would also remix many records. Things like Shakatak, but also work with people like John Foxx, as Nation 12. And watching him, as well as some of the hip hop DJs that I saw on television sort of inspired me to start, because I thought, wow, this is something special. Then I started making music because there wasn’t that much work for me as a DJ. It went quite commercial in the late 80s and early 90s. So I started making music because I always wanted to anyway, my first single came out around 89 I think I started making music and then the local radio station, which was then Radio Brighton / Radio Sussex, started supporting me. And then John Peel picked up on my music. And the label I was doing at the time was Magnetic North and he was so very supportive of everything that I was doing. And then yeah, I always say this clearly as I don’t have an issue with saying it but I don’t believe I would have had a career without John Peel. Because he was the one that played my music and gave it attention on a national level and actually, in a way an international level because we’re spoilt now by having so many different music sources to us by doing that, but in those days John would be on different radio stations around the world. I found out he even had a regular show in The Netherlands when I was working on 3FM/ VPRO as I used one of his radio shows recorded there on my own radio show on the anniversary of his passing, the music on that Reel to Reel was so cutting edge, no surprise but a reminder that he supported underdog music fervently.

And so from this transition, you kind of like you know, started making music and that’s where you focused on creating your sound, which is very diverse. I mean, I’ve heard Archive One. They are all remastered now. And it’s kind of like this array of your musical journey, you know because it tackles different styles and different distractions. And I want to ask you, since back then how have you changed in your musical style? How have you seen this revolution in your style and in what you put out?

I don’t think I’ve had any change in my musical style at all in the fact that I believe that I’ve always represented myself. And I haven’t tried to fit in with something that’s trendy, or something big that particular year, I’ve just done my thing. So I think I’ve always kept true to myself. However, the music that I like is really, really wide and always has been. And you know, working in a classical music shop when I was younger, doing Hip Hop when I was younger, Electro, all these things are within me. And then working with lots of different artists that are Rock and Roll, Punk is also within me, it’s not difficult for me to feel like I can do it because I love all types of music. I mean, my radio show, White Noise has now been going on for almost 20 years every single week. Before that, I was on another radio show for five years, and I also do another fortnightly radio show named Saga, which is about neo-classical Goth Rock and Roll and Punk. It just flows for me, because that’s the music that I feel passionate about. I feel that the style I’ve had has always been the way that I wanted to do it, the only thing that changed was the technical ability of the machinery later on, enabling me to fulfill what I dreamt about. In the very beginning, when I was making music, there wasn’t very much memory in the machines, nor capability, although you could argue and say, that makes you a better producer because you have to use less to make more. At the same time, I’ve done a classical music album with live violin and live cello. I wouldn’t have been able to record it the way I wanted to record that even say 10 years ago. You know, technology enables me to feel more open to be able to do different things that I would always want to do anyway. So I think I’ll just stay true to myself.

That’s very interesting, because when putting out an album, one may expect a certain kind of sonic journey. So for example, if you define yourself as a techno producer or DJ people think like, oh, he’s dropping a Techno project but then you end up noticing the versatility of the project. So this is so open. I’m wondering if there were any challenges in trying to establish yourself since day one?

I always wanted to represent how I feel and who I am since day one. I’ve always done that. And if I’m doing a remix, I’m always trying to add something different or expand on what I feel are the better ideas of the track. I’ve always presented how I feel. And I don’t worry about what other people think honestly in that regard. After all, I hear a lot of people make music, and therefore that already changes what they’re going to present to the world. Sometimes, sadly, it’s music by compromise, as opposed to music by passion. I feel passion is more important. Right now we’re in an extremely commercial cycle of music. And maybe that cycle doesn’t finish for a long time. But we’re in a very commercial cycle where a large amount of Techno sounds very similar to everyone else’s and there’s nothing new being brought to the table made by many people. That’s boring. I’d rather not hear people thinking, oh, I need to sound like this. Because if I don’t, then blah, blah, blah, I’d rather hear people just making music that they feel is from the heart as opposed to what will sell or what will get an outflow from a DJ or you know, because before the internet, a lot of artists didn’t know what they were doing, but they were enjoying what they’re doing and everything was sounding different and fresh and unique. And now, so much sounds similar. So much doesn’t represent a fresh sound. For me, a large amount of Techno music that’s being made right now is ultimately very boring and predictable.

Leon Emanuel Blanck after party during PFW June 2024 by Matthew Reeves

Talking about your project “Archive One” what was the decision behind remastering these tracks? And how did you select the artist to remix it?

It’s 30 years old, so you know, no matter how well-produced music you made 30 years ago is always gonna need something freshening it up to make it sound better because it was made for vinyl in those days and a lot of the technology that was around in those days. So you know, the bass drums were very thin, the amount of bass will be a lot less than what you can do now. So that needed changing. So I felt like it was the right time for it to come out.]Also it had issues with the record label that held the rights on this which are now behind me. So yeah, it needed to come out.

Yeah, it gives an idea of this roller coaster ride you’ve been riding for all of these years. I love that the beginning of it is very cinematic, and then the trajectory goes from house to acid and then techno. No, it’s quite beautiful. It’s refreshing because, if someone shows his or her versatility in a body of work, I think that’s way more interesting. Intriguing in that sense. And what about the artists that you chose to remix the project? How was the overall process?

The interesting thing about that is that the artists chose themselves because this project has had quite a big feeling for a lot of artists. And we never asked for any remixes. I just received remixes. Because they just love the tracks so much that they sent it to me over the years and then we released them. It was artists coming to me directly with an unexpected download of a remix. And that’s been like that for the last 10 years. Then we just chose some of the strongest ones.

It makes it even more special indeed! How was working on the trilogy?

So basically, I came up with a trilogy, because in those days, I was a little bit worried that I would just have one single come out on one label and another single on another label, so I thought it would be easy to put it all together. So I said, look, if we’re going to be releasing a single, I’d like to do a series of three singles. Otherwise, they will be released all over the place. In those days, I was also recording for an Italian record label in Rome called ACV. So it’s pretty possible I could have released one record there, one record here and then it wouldn’t have had the same amount of impact unless it had just been released altogether on one record label.

Looking back, what are the things that changed compared to the Techno realm in the 90s, to today?

Well, it’s very difficult. I mean, you sort of leading me into a very antagonistic question.

I’m open to honesty.

I know but the way that I feel about Techno now is, I don’t even know why a large amount of it is called Techno, because it’s non-techno , it’s really strange to be like, like, you know, if something came off the back of Punk, and then called themselves Punk, but they weren’t Punk, it doesn’t make any sense. It’d be better if they just call themselves EDM or Trance. Because it’s not Techno, and that’s the only thing that I get upset about is like, it would have been far easier though, to just come up with a new name of I don’t know, I’m not going to come up with a new name for them. If they just would have come up with a new name for the genre, and gone and done their thing where they need to have all the lights on stage for them to dance, and have pre-recorded sets. And you know, charge a crowd differently. With energy that would have been okay. But to call it techno is insulting to the whole development of Techno. So, how has it changed? Well, first of all, the majority of techno parties are not Techno. The other thing that’s changed is the attention span an audience has. Everyone is filming the same thing. From a slightly different angle, maybe half a meter different from the other people that are filming it. And you just wonder how many people are watching that ever again? Maybe 2%. And then they all put it up on social media like, yeah, look, you’re having a great time. Look, the visuals are fucking amazing. But it’s not what it was about, and so I prefer to DJ in places where the music is the prime important factor and not social media. I don’t find that an important factor for being deep within music. That’s changed. Yeah, I mean, but change is not a bad thing. There were a lot a lot of political people that were involved in politics of equality and that’s been pushed aside now. And that’s quite a sad thing. How did this all change? It all changed with social media. I already knew that some artists within Techno loved money, more than they loved music, and wanted fame more than they wanted accomplishment. I already knew who those people were, they proved to be those people now. That’s why I never really spoke to them because I never took them seriously as an artist before. Ibiza started that whole thing of commerciality becoming almost acceptable, and that’s why we are where we are.

What I would tell is to follow your passion. That can be across the different disciplines, but it’s really about following your passion. With music, I just follow my passion, I don’t follow the crowd. I’ve never played for the crowd, I’ve always played for myself.
Dave Clarke

I understand that so much. It seems that there’s this normalization of creating a whole persona around the job where the focus goes on the visual side of it instead of the skills and artistry of it. A question comes to mind, but after all of your experience and many years, in the business, what is being an artist for you? What are the things that you would advise to people who have been following you and look up to you?

What I would tell is to follow your passion. That can be across the different disciplines, but it’s really about following your passion. With music, I just follow my passion, I don’t follow the crowd. I’ve never played for the crowd, I’ve always played for myself. With photography, I always take photos of the way that I want to be, and as an artist, that can be incredibly rewarding. But it’s also quite risky because people might not want to understand or care. But for me, I think all artists that I follow, whether it’s photography, fashion, it’s people that put together cool magazines. The people who do this, who do it from the heart, always struck a chord with me. And that’s where I think it should always be. They’re the risk-takers, they’re the ones who follow their instincts. That is something I always try and teach at school (Haarlem Conservatorium).Instinct is the first thing that is killed from a very, very young age by this industrialization of education that aids/ forces us to fit into the machine indoctrination. I believe that instinct is a very beautiful thing. It’s millions of years of evolution that’s come within us. It’s the reason why we don’t eat some fruit on a tree because we realize without even perhaps knowing it, that that’s probably dangerous. After all, maybe one of our cousins 1000 or 3000 years ago died from having that, and somehow that’s imprinted in our DNA. Instinct is very strong. And yet one of the things that’s coming through now with the way society has become is that the destruction of instincts is breeding hatred. The love of money, and power, narcissism, only me, me, me, and not thinking about everything else. I feel that art is one of the gifts that we cannot give to AI at all. Art is something we have to hold ourselves to because it’s what we do for ourselves it’s how we express reactions on what we’re doing in life. So I always try and tell people when they’re young to follow their passion and their dreams, but people are scared now they’re scared that they might get canceled.

I know you are a passionate photographer as well. How would you describe your photographic style?

I don’t know how I would describe my photographic style apart my own, monochromatic and very moody. What I don’t like is people going to a gallery and trying to describe everything to you, as if you cannot work out what you’re feeling yourself. And I always find that kills the interaction with the art. And there was one set of really beautiful Japanese woodblock art that I was thinking of buying from the 18th century. The person came up to me with no bad intentions, but the person came up to me and explained the piece of art in such a way that I just didn’t like it. I think the interpretation of art is one of the most powerful things everyone should have their vision of their interpretation of the vision of the artist. And that’s one of the most beautiful things, it’s like a sort of silent language, where you’ll touch someone’s soul in such a way where there are no words. That’s the beautiful thing about it. So I don’t describe my art, in many words, because I feel uncomfortable doing it. I just, again, once present, how I feel and how I see.

I’ve got an exhibition coming up in Amsterdam from September 26th. I can’t tell you the location now but it’s going to be in the museum district and it’s going to be for a month. There will be 40 pictures on display of portraits, landscapes, and architecture. I’m quite nervous about it in the best way, there will be two talks. The first talk will be with the gallery people and I’ll probably have to explain my art. I’m not looking forward to that at all haha , because it’s the same as music. I can describe it in a technical process, but, music just talks to me when I make it and tells you where it needs to go. It’s the same with photography. Music inspires me to take photos, and then the photos inspire me to find the soundtrack for the music. So I’m constantly going backward and forwards in this sort of beautiful symbiotic relationship, music and photography. That just really invigorates me and makes me happy because of music. I love making music, but it takes me a long time. With photography, it’s instant unless you’re unlucky, and you just missed the focus point. There’s that instant gratification, which I don’t get with music. So they both feed each other. And it’s fucking cool. This is a vision and instinct. Always instinct.

Photo by Beatrice Photography

In photography. What are the subjects that you’d like to capture the most? What are the what are the subjects that you like to capture the most?

I love harsh landscapes and natural brutalism. What I love the most is natural landscapes, it takes you out yourself, very cathartic when listening to gothic music . I also love doing city architecture, I find architecture a very, very interesting subject, how the building s interact with nature and human beings. You know, sometimes I can be in Copenhagen, and I will just go and get the subway to Ørestad and take loads of photos of some of the buildings there. And just feel inspired whilst listening to music that I’m preparing for my radio show, saga. Weirdly enough, even though I also enjoyed doing portraits, I can be quite withdrawn with people but portraits for me are interesting because I feel I’m capturing the real soul of someone in an unguarded moment. I love that.

Amazing. And in terms of music, and how you approach your productions. When you say that sometimes you look at your pictures, and you can see a reflection of the imagery and the music that you’re making in that period. For example, if there’s a period, you’re taking certain types of pictures and possibly, do you create music that reflects that imagery?

I don’t analyze it so deeply. I find that if you go deeply into self-analytical behavior, you kind of lose the instinct. It almost feels like it’s a scientific expression if you do that, and I don’t like that the only time. I like that is when I do the mixdown of a track because then it becomes like pure math and pure science. Otherwise, I feel like if you analyze it too much, you’re not listening to what it’s trying to tell you through the spirit. When I take photos, I’m not using an LCD screen at the back, holding it up unless I can’t reach for example, maybe at a concert, I’m doing it through the viewfinder, because I want that direct connection with no other disturbance. I want that direct , intimate zoned in connection. I feel like that’s my secret. It’s our secret. No one else sees that. I see that and I feel it.

It’s similar to when I’m doing music. You just let the music tell you what it needs after it gets past a certain inertia. The music always tells you what it needs to add. The same goes when I’m DJing. For me, as an artist, that’s the biggest gift that you can have as an artist, is that stuff happens without you having to think too much about it. It just happens because there’s a spiritual connection through the soul of whatever’s happening. That’s it. The funny thing is, I’m an atheist, right, so I don’t believe in how God is presented. But I do believe in spirit and connections, and almost string theory and parallel universes of how everything can connect. There’s so much that disturbs us from connecting that I don’t want that disturbance, I want the purity of the experience.

And how do you maintain that disturbance in this analytical world? Now, what are the factors that you keep in mind to just get carried away?

I’m a Virgo ascendant Virgo, so I’m super analytical. For me, this is the peace of mind that I need for my life to balance me. Because I see things before they happen. I know what people are sometimes going to say, or what’s going to happen in the future such as with the awful war in Ukraine, I saw that three and a half years before it happened due to political analysis, I can see a lot of things, not everything, I didn’t see some things, but I see a lot of things. In music, photography, and art, I refuse to be analytical about that. In my mind, I can relax, and just be really in the moment. The only other time I’ve had that was when I was learning to fly airplanes. I’d be flying airplanes, talking to air traffic control, being at peace of mind there as well, I get that when I’m with my cameras, and I’m shooting a subject or it’s a portrait and everything’s working. It’s amazing.

How do you make music?

I have more or less 1600 plugins. I just dip in dip out, and enjoy making music that’s the thing right? My computer power is immense now and I’m really happy with that. I have a top-of-the-range Mac Pro, and it just flies through everything like 28 terabytes of hard drive inside. It just does everything that I need to do so I don’t have to think about the computer limitations anymore. I love my compressors, hardware compressors and I love my speakers. I think they were designed by the guy who used to be the roadie for Led Zeppelin. I just like English designs for speakers they’re just the best for me, and I like the basic stuff that’s in my studio. That’s the stuff that inspires me because everything else is like a tool. There are a few plugins that are constants and a few soft synthesizers that I like, but I don’t own any hardware synthesizers.

After 35 years of touring, do you still get excited? Is it still a pleasurable thing for you after all these years?

I love to be at a place where the passion takes you to new places. You know, when you go to clubs, and you have this energy that comes back, it makes everything worthwhile. When people are there for the music, they don’t care too much about filming. It’s a dark environment, and people listen to the music and they understand it. If it’s a new track, they will feel the excitement together. I don’t want to play too much at festivals anymore because the commerciality got massive, once underground flag waving festivals now do advertising co-ops with Elle Magazine for example.. It’s not generally an environment where music is challenging anymore. Nowadays I tour less on purpose. I try to do one gig a week now, and what I try and do is if I go to an interesting place like Helsinki for example, I try to walk around with my headphones on and just do all the things that I never had the time to do before, which is explore. For me walking around with a backpack, camera equipment, good fucking boots, solid clothes, a credit card, and an iPad is fucking heaven. It’s like taking photos in that vibe is heaven. I love that so much and when the gig is good with honest excited interaction that makes the weekend heaven.

Who are your favorite photographers?

My favorite photographers all represent different styles, but the thing they have in common is the purity of what they’re trying to achieve. I met Jimmy Nelson two weeks ago, and his photography is so different than mine, but his approach, belief, and commitment are incredibly inspiring and of course his photos are amazing as well. So people like that are utterly inspiring to me. I adore Francesca Woodman. The first time I saw Francesca Woodman was at the Guggenheim in New York. I left with tears in my eyes. It was so powerful. You felt that she was constantly in her mind and she was in between two realms. Everything was ethereal, you knew she wasn’t comfortable here, and she wasn’t comfortable there, but the inbetween world she inhabited was so full of poetic visions.

Amsterdam opened my eyes to art and photography in a different way. There are two great photographic museums here. There’s FOAM, of course, and there’s Huis de Marseille. I recently saw Deborah Turbeville. I bought her book and it’s beautiful. And then there’s Janette Beckman and that was also especially cool because she was the photographer who did all the photos of all my favorite artists from a certain time in my life, either in Punk or Hip Hop. She just was there at the right moment, taking all these amazing photos. So I went there and I was reliving everything, staring at my album covers for ages.