07 Aug Black & White Down & Dirty: The Detroit Techno Militia Interview

Black & White Down & Dirty: The Detroit Techno Militia
By: Mark Perry

Last month, EDM World visited Base Camp 313, the home of the Detroit Techno Milita, as they were broadcasting their weekly radio show, “The Grid,” on Burstradio.net. Angie Linder, T. Linder, DJ Psycho, DJ Seoul, and Neil V spoke about how they came to be, who their heroes are, and what is coming next.

How did The Detroit Techno Militia get started?

Angie Linder: Well, it kind of started as like a little bit of an inspiration. I came up with this sweet name and then we developed everything else around it. One day at Tom’s apartment, I said, “Tom, I have this great idea…” I start a lot of our conversations this way. “Tom, I have this great idea…” and usually they’re not (laughs).
T Linder: This was a good one, though.
AL: Yeah, this was a good one. So I say, “Alright, if I start a DJ crew, it’s going to be called Detroit Techno Militia. Would you be one of my DJs?”

When was this?

A L: It was in the early 2000s. We’d all been friends for a really long time, from the mid to late 90s, I guess you’d say. We just sort of formalized it, you know. So, I said to Tom, “Would you be my DJ?” He said, “Sure,” so we started asking several of our friends.
DJ Seoul: The first proposal! (laughs)
A L: He said, “Alright, I’m going to make this logo. It’s going to be our temporary logo. It’s black and white. Down and dirty. We can use it on our website.” I bought the domain that night and we built the website in a couple of days. Then, we made our business cards and just went around town trying to convince everyone else to get on board, you know.
T L: Yeah, it was a total do-it-yourself thing.
A L: If we couldn’t do it, we learned how to do it, what we needed to do, and what to do next.
DJ Psycho: What not to do.
Neil V: Exactly!

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