Desire: the Carl Craig Story
Detroit and techno. I bet most people don’t know that the birthplace of techno was actually in Detroit and the man most responsible for this was DJ and producer Carl Craig. A living legend in the techno music world.
I learned this on the documentary “Desire”, both a story of his career and a homage to Detroit, his hometown. Full of haunting images of large scale derelict buildings and ruins. Relics from Detroit's past prosperity and glory as the center of America’s automotive and industrial might.
“I’ve always loved melancholic music, and Detroit techno is melancholic. It is an improbable city, but that is the DNA of the music.”
But it was clear Craig was influenced by many types of music from heavy metal, to jazz, to classic Americana like Mitch Miller’s “Yellow Rose of Texas”. His sister said: “We grew up with so much music in our house that it’s almost inevitable that one of us was going to do something more creative than anybody else.” Which shows you the powerful influence your environment really is.
“Detroit is where techno came from.”
He took samples from everywhere. Mechanical machine sounds and obscure British bands. Enough so that he even went to London which was an even bigger influence on him and his music.
“It’s kind of like going to Evian and seeing “oh, this is where the water comes from. This is where a Guy called Gerald comes from, S’express, Baby Ford, you know, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. All this stuff that we were listening to, I was there. I was meeting these people. This was really what made me, like, super excited about it composing and being in the scene.” Techno was taking off in the UK at that time.
What made the Detroit scene work was being around other DJs & producers. “There was real camaraderie but it was also like kind of vicious competition as well.” Feels a lot like Silicon Valley and what I imagined Wall Street was like before it industrialized and scaled. Find your scene, this is what will propel you in life.
“I feel like that mentorship/sharing what you know with others makes the community stronger and more unique. Because we do share and because we care about the betterment of the next artist and the next guy.”
Carl also exemplified the power of imagination. “Because of the time that I grew up here, all the abandoned buildings and abandoned factories, it really gave me the freedom to fantasize what it would look like if we didn’t have buildings that were abandoned and look blown out. Detroit is very conducive for using imagination to build new pieces of art. I think the possibilities are endless to what you can dream up to fit into this lost metropolis.”
“Blade runner was the movie that was saying what the future was for us. As inspiration we would watch Blade Runner and listen to the Vangelis soundtrack…” They read graphic novels and watched Blaxploitation shows like Shack. “So we were building, or at least I was building a new world for myself musically, that would potentially, elevate my experiences, my American experiences.” You literally are what you consume media wise.
His famous track is desire. “When I talk about desire, I talk about my desire wasn’t just about girls. My desire was about doing what I was doing today. My desire was to get out of my parents basement and being to make music all the time. My life is making music.” His wife said: “The best way of all his music is Desire. This hunger, this joy, this happiness, this love, this beauty, it’s just….that's Carl Craig to me.” Desire, maybe the better term is drive. No one gets anywhere in life without, let alone to the top.
Thankfully Detroit is back on the rise as America reindustrializes. I can attest, having been there twice in the last year. You can feel they are getting their mojo back…..
This documentary is a great watch to show the incredible world wide cultural influence of the city and the music it spawned. “You can’t move any genre forward unless you understand where the genre came from.” A fellow DJ said of him: “his influence and desire to step outside of what other people on our genre are doing, nobody can compare to him. And 30 something years later, he is still pushing boundaries.”
There is a lesson here: take in everything you see, learn and experience, mix it into your work and life. As Carl said: “How I’ve been able to move musically over the years, is I take my influences and put it into music.
“I’m a specialist at what I do and if I don’t do it, what am I a specialist in? So I have to pursue my craft. And my craft is something that not only feeds my family, but it feeds my emotions and feeds me as an artist.”