Stacey Pullen
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Stacey Pullen

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Detroit legend Stacey Pullen is on his way to Melbourne in April to play at Circoloco. The party is being put on by Melbourne’s Darkbeat crew along with Dave Trimboli and The Proper Kollektive to celebrate their 9th birthday. They are bringing the Ibiza party brand, Circoloco, to Australia with four international headline artists: Tania Vulcano, Stacey Pullen, M.A.N.D.Y. [Patrick] and Clive Henry. It’s all going down on Good Friday with a 12 hour party.

Circoloco started in 1999 at a little building at the end of the airport runway in Ibiza, known as DC10. Their after hours parties kicked off at the end of the well-known night Space, on a Monday morning. They pushed a forward thinking, deeper, more avant-garde sound; with the planes roaring overhead a small group of people kept the weekend going and set a vibe that continues today.

The club’s reputation grew exponentially. By 2002 big name DJs were asking to play and the international music press had picked up on Circoloco. The club rode on the rising crest of Minimal Techno’s popularity with many of the club’s residents being part of it including Luciano, Ricardo Villalobos and Loco Dice.

On the phone from his home in Detroit, Stacey Pullen is looking forward to returning to Australia again.

“Yeah I always love coming to Australia. I can probably count on three hands how many times I have been there,” he laughs. “It’s funny because I’ve been playing all of the dates for Circoloco but not the Ibiza dates. I’m sort of like one of the few DJs who play for the Circoloco brand but I haven’t really played in Ibiza. I played DC10 in 2007 but that was before I even knew about Circoloco. It was just me playing at DC10 is what I remember. It was right when the brand was taking off. Guys like Luciano were still playing there.”

After so many tours to Australia, the travel must be old hat right? “I’m alright with it. Now that we have a more direct route with the airline that I fly it’s better. Now I don’t have to go through a few connections. Now it’s only two flights and I’m there. Years ago, it used to be three flights minimum. So now I’m good with that.”

I reach Pullen in a pretty chilled mood. He has just caught up for lunch with his friend, fellow producer and DJ Seth Troxler, and he is off to the studio later that night. “You’ve got to keep working on new stuff – especially now that I’m able to do more in the last two years. Now I’m able to put music out with full force like I never did before.”

Pullen is referring to the issues he had with using his own name because of record label contracts. I sense a feeling of renewed energy and an enthusiasm to get his music out there again. “I could have still done stuff under different pseudonyms but for me to do stuff under my name is more important now,” he reflects. “There’s no longer a need to do that. Like in the old Detroit days where you used to do five or six songs under a different pseudonym, you know. Now it’s most important to put your own name out there and make that your brand.”

Does he feel the new generation snapping at his heels? “I don’t really fret about it. If anything, they look up to me as a person who has been there, understands the game, has seen the generational shift and still is able to maintain being a household name or being in the industry and still being able to adapt to the new generation. They look at that as a situation where they want to get to that level.”

There’s a sense that Pullen is passing on knowledge: “It’s good to keep that flame burning because a lot of the younger kids – not necessarily the DJs – may only know the older names.”

Everything goes in circles: “This is how I can put it. I was a teenager in the ‘80s and a lot of the music that you hear now is sort of like this ‘80s style of music that they call new disco, you know. So there’s a connection there but there is also a big generational change because of that.”

Techno never dies though. “At the end of the day techno has always been there. It never really went anywhere and it will still continue to be a driving force in music. You have different genres of house that come out but, you know, techno is techno,” he laughs. “No matter how you look at it – it may slow up on the BPMs a little but at the same time that’s what it is – techno is techno.”

So what’s lighting up Pullen’s world? “I actually just got the masters back for the next piece that I have coming out for myself and it’s sounding great.”

Other than his own releases and touring non-stop he is also working on remixes and collaborations: “I have some really good friendships going there and some good collaborations in the future. I’m sort of keeping my name still current and I’ve had a bit of success with the remixes in the last year with people wanting to hear my sound again.

“I’m constantly evolving when it comes to music. There’s so much coming out that it’s impossible to keep tabs on everything but I still try to keep up there when it comes to good music that will stand the test of time. Not just music that will be good for today and gone today, you know.”

That sense of timeless music also relates to DJ skills in Pullen’s opinion. “I was just talking with Seth and we were talking about how good it is to be able to still buy and play vinyl. You can incorporate it into your set. It’s kind of going back to the basics after all of the technology and tools that people use to play and make music. It’s good to go back to the raw stuff and to test how good of a DJ you are and how well you are able to deliver music at the right time.”

Pullen’s label, Black Flag, has a number of new artists in the works from around the world. That worldwide focus has been a recent change for Pullen: “At first I wanted to do my label as just an outlet for only my music. Then I started thinking that I love hearing good music, other than my own. So at the beginning of this year I decided that I should start entertaining the idea of releasing other peoples’ music.

“I’m still really critical about what I want to release. First of all, if I can’t play it then I don’t want to use it. I want to spread the love a little bit and I think it would be an honour for people from other places to release on a Detroit label.”

So how does Pullen maintain a healthy balance between his work and personal life? “It’s like one coin with the heads and the tails side. On the weekends I’m off being the music pioneer that I am and the other four days of the week I’m just regular Stacey Pullen who gotta pay the bills just like every other person,” he laughs. “As long as you know that, and understand that balance, then you’re able to keep going further and further. You never let that ego get to you and think you’re invincible. That’s one of the reasons that I like to stay in Detroit: it gives me that balance. There’s not that much going on here so it gives me that chance to travel and then come home to lead a normal life. That keeps me strong and focused.

“The hardest part is getting to the airport and going through security,” he laughs. “That’s the most tiresome part that you can do without!”

Stacey Pullen [USA] plays Circoloco alongside Tania Vulcano [ESP], Clive Henry [UK] and M.A.N.D.Y [GER] at Billboard The Venue for Darkbeat’s 9th birthday celebration on Friday April 6.

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