PULSERADIO INTERVIEW WITH REBEKAH

Rebekah has been part of the Birmigham techno scene since 1996. While she's working on her new LP, which she'll possibly publish this summer, Rebekah is gearing up for her new party Elements, her new production-project-turned-event series.

The producer has been focusing on her roots lately, and now she wants to bring another special outing to her beloved city. In her intentions, Elements will be a newly found techno instalment that will be making waves in one of the most talked about venues in the UK, The Blackbox.

Her career has been skyrocketing in the past few years. But as quickly as success arrived, it brought with it struggles of its own, as Rebekah learned how to balance her personal and professional life, and rediscovering the sounds she first fell in love with, namely "Birmingham-influenced tough techno, dipped in acid."

Speaking with Rebekah via email, we chatted all things Elements, her hopes for the new year, her label, her early influences and her forthcoming projects.

How was Christmas for you?what did you get and where did you spend it?Christmas was a little bit of relax time in Hamburg with my boyfriend and his family, celebrating on Christmas Eve, the German way!

Is it a time that you forget about music? Do you need times like that, breaks away from the beats, in order to stay sane? For the actual day yes, but I had a gig at Uebel & Gefährlich in Hamburg on the 25th. So, I had no real rest. I'm going on holiday next week for two weeks so my chill out time will be then. I had no holiday last year, so I'm looking forward to some sea and sun.

When my bookings started taking off I had a real inclination to say yes to everything that came in at the expense of taking time outs and weekends off to catch up on sleep, but I learned the hard way very quickly that you get progressively burnt out as the months go on, and you end up doing less studio work in-between the gigs. The past year has been about finding the right balance between my personal life and music.

And now it is the new year, have or will you set any resolutions? Do you have hopes, goals and targets for 2016? No resolutions, but some goals. I have an album underway which will be finished end of March and looking for a release after the summer. This is my big project for 2016. And then maybe go back to language school and top up my German.

Tell us about the new night you have started. Why it is called Elements?Elements is a concept I have been working with for the past couple of years. It started out as a production project for a series of EPs and now has moved in to working with events. Birmingham will be the launching ground. I will be joined with fellow local promoters Dark Chambers and Jay Sirett. Between the three of us we have been partying to techno in Europe for the past few years and really love the clubs and how they build this environment that is perfect for the music we love.

That?s what we are really inspired by and would love to be able to recreate in Birmingham. Bringing all the "elements" that make this experience of techno so exciting and exhilarating. So there will be visuals, lighting, and The Blackbox already has a huge Martin Audio sound system, with plenty of sub. The DJs we are choosing are very much of the latest wave of techno artists. For our first party on 27th February we have invited Truncate.

Who is involved with the night apart from you and what do they bring to the table? As mentioned, Dark Chambers aka Patric Mclean, who I have been friends with for many years. He has been promoting parties in the city from the late '90s himself and has bags of experience. He is really the guiding force. Jay is a young lad who is working mainly on the promo side of things on the ground there, he has already been promoting nights so has experience too. Both Patric and Jay are also DJs and producers who have their own take on the genre, so it's a great combination, with different aspects being represented.

Tell us about your relationship with Birmingham and techno - they go way back, right? I have been around the Birmingham clubbing scene since 1996 and managed to get the back end of the techno glory years in the city, visiting Atomic Jam, House of God back in the day. Being able to witness all of this and being introduced to the music felt like a blessing to me. Atomic Jam at the Que Club was like nothing I had ever experienced before. The level of production, the atmosphere... I was in total awe.

The rave vibe was still well and truly alive and techno from that point on was always my biggest passion. It's also really great to come from a city that has its own sound of techno too. Surgeon and Regis really created something special and, in a funny turn of events, that sound has made a come back. There are all these young producers who draw inspiration from them and produce these noisy, loopy, analogue-driven tracks. As a DJ and producer, I'm always drawn to the harder, more aggressive techno sounds, and I do believe it?s these early influences, and maybe just something in the Birmingham water...

And you run your own label, Decoy?how challenging is that? What music and artists do you look to release there? Decoy started out as a small project for just a few releases a year and ended up growing into something a little bigger. It's massively challenging to run a label, especially with such a busy persnoal schedule. So I sometimes feel I should be more invested in it.

But I have a great label parter, Rich, who now takes care of it with me. The idea for Decoy was to have music on there that I would actually play in a set, which would be a fairly big range so not as to pigeonhole it too dramatically. It really is an idea of what we like, ranging from deep techno to industrial stuff. We don't always get it right but we stick with this form of integrity, what is true to us. The majority of the artists on the label are quite underground, maybe there'll be some more well-known remixers along the way. We have the second EP coming from Chris Page, featuring a remix from Manni Dee. It's due out mid February.

I finally have put together an EP too, which is due at the end of January, with Ansomeon remix duties. It's taken me such a long time to finish it, and this is due to the fact when it comes to picking your own music it's too easy to be distorted with self-doubt, so having Rich as a partner in the selection process has really helped. Otherwise it might've come out in 2018!

And what should people expect from you at the Elements parties, what has been turning you on musically recently, any new trends or styles emerging? I am back to playing slightly tougher with my '90s techno influences. It's been a funny 18 months or so with a lot of change happening. Doing festivals and overthinking what I am doing led me down a path of questioning what I was playing. Should I be more groovy, more trippy? These are seriously first world problems and I soon got the fuck over myself and came back to what I know and love. Birmingham-influenced tough techno, dipped in acid. I'm really at home with this style and thankfully labels like Mord are really pushing this harder sound as well.

What other plans do you have for Elements?a tour I hear, maybe? Plans are already underway for a London party. We will have more details over the next couple of months, but all I will say is the venue is a great match for the concept. We also have the second date lined up in Birmingham on the 14th May.

Finally, what do you like to do to relax and chill away from music? Crossfit! It?s hardly relaxing but it is zen-like in many ways. It gives me things to focus on other than music whilst making me stronger and healthier to carry on traveling and doing what I love.

Elements kicks off February 27th at Blackbox, The Rainbow, with Truncate. Rebekah also has a new EP, Beginnings, coming out on Decoy Records at the end of January, featuring a remix from Ansome and support coming from Clouds, Pfirter and Perc.

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