INTERVIEW: Digital Deviants Feb 4, 1994
- Scott Williams
NEW BRUNSWICK-- We're kickin' it at 308 George Street. Homebase. New Jersey Headquarters of premier techno DJ group, the Digital Deviants. There are no psychedelic neon signs advertising the place and there is no engraved marble corner stone to let you know that they've been there a while. In fact, until you walk through the glass door, the place doesn't look much different than the old camera store next to it. Stroll inside, however, and its "a DJ's paradise. You come in to buy a record; you get hit with fuckin' pens. You get fuckin' records broken over your head! -but good records, not no shitty shit. -Imported, fuckin' clear vinyl... from Germany!" The motley crew amuses itself; almost falling off of their bar stools.
The Digital Deviants formed back in 1990 and the band of merry pranksters has been tearing it up ever since. While traditional rock and rap have relied on MTV's mainstream muscle flex to spread the word, the techno scene has gone more the punk route, with a D.I.Y. attitude and grass roots work ethic. -- Greenpeace meets pre-Saturday Night Fever disco? Maybe not.
What's your mode of operation? "Everything we do, we offer for Satan.", 16-year old Matt G. (a.k.a. Bananas) cracks. Larry (Dayz X-1) continues, "Nah, its like, yo, the Digital Deviants? Everybody's doing their thing like regular, you know? And then we're like this is how we're doin' it. We just want to be different, yo. We're like deviants, yo. We don't do nuthin' like the way it should be done. We do it our way."
That self-reliant attitude has gained the bunch a respectable tri-state following and will grow larger when three of them tour the nation later this spring. There would be no fans, however, if not for their notorious parties. Larry tells me about their first effort, "Panic", an illegal jam thrown in a New Brunswick warehouse. "We went climbing around buildings and finally broke into one. The place was fuckin' huge. It was... Oh, I can't even explain!
Was this that toxic waste dump place? (chorus of laughter) "No, better. That was later -way later." Head Deviant, Spike, owner of Planet X Records, is a Rutgers University graduate well past the group's average age of 20 or so. He tells the crew to hip me to the "Panic" party's flyers. Larry gets beside himself, "Oh yeah, there were all sorts of drug references. We were like `come get fuckin' -trip your face off; come smoke crack." Matt clarifies, "We had fuckin' pictures of dead people on the fuckin' flyer! We had that picture of some dude- you ever see it in High Times magazine? Its a dude with like needles an' shit in his eye? You ever see it?"
Yeah, yeah! (I laugh) I actually have... Dan Clifton (Dan D.C.) paints the scene. "What it was... nobody was in the rave scene. Like nobody knew what a rave was? There wasn't even a scene yet. We were very stupid and then like one thing leads to another with Larry standing on Jersey Avenue in broad day light with a fuckin' rusty hacksaw trying to cut the padlock off the warehouse fence." Larry, Dan's older brother continues: "I don't know, it was like some incognito rave-ninja get together. So, you know, it was no surprise that eight cop cars rolled up to kick my ass, or nuthin'. It was so cold out... fuckin' cop grabbed my dick n' shit and they're like this guy ain't got no dick! `Nah, man', I said, `it's cold outside,' and he clocked me over the head with his flashlight! -All of us, the cops kicked the shit out of all of us."
Matt pipes in: "It was so cool; like before it was about raving or anything? It was all people who were just down for music. This kid, Q-Ball, from the band Kurb Jaw, he was down with it just like `cool man, this stuff's different'. We went to jail for it, but, eh, what's a little jail time amongst friends?"
After "Panic", however, the parties were planned smarter and perhaps more underground. Tired of police interception and not thrilled with throwing backyard events in the middle of the winter, the New Brunswick posse sought out more obscure locations. "A Rave Somewhere", August 1, 1992, was setup under a bridge in Edison, NJ, and then moved out of necessity. The party was almost shut down, but went on despite the threats. "I had to jump outta my bedroom window and run an hour just to get there, but it was so worth it, Dan says. "We had like 350/400 kids over the night, just dancing, going mental till 8:30 in the morning. The sun came up; it was just amazing... I had to go home and get my ass kicked by my mother, but it was sooo worth it."
That party, the success that it was, gained the Deviants recognition from the legendary Storm Rave organization. Renowned DJ, Frankie Bones put the group's name on the flyers and, in Dan D.C.'s words, "that's when we started blowing up. Not like NASA's selling out or anything..." (The reference is to the well attended parties thrown by lighting guru, Scotto. Formally located at NYC club, Shelter, NASA is currently producing "Boom '94" a rave billed for the Meadowlands arena. The Digital Deviants consider the move "the ultimate disrespect."). Larry breaks in quoting De La Soul, " -just an underground buzz, man. `We might blow up, but we won't go pop'."
In case you were feeling secure, not only the mega-promoters come under the Deviant's scrutiny. They extend their venom to the typical "rave nerd" -the club kids, those annoying pip-squeaks with the backpacks, super-baggy pants, and citrus-colored shirts. "What's this shit where you go to a rave now and you've got to worry about stepping on people's heads?", Matt snarls then Larry delivers his ultimatum, "If I ever was playing and I seen somebody sleepin' on the dance floor, dude, I'll run across the thing and fuckin' kick'em all."
Speaking of Mr. Larry Clifton, here is one serious oddball. "I spun at `Global Groove', man, and all these fuckin' home boys started kickin' rave nerds n' shit; it was phat." Later at "Rave of Hearts" (Primal Posse, NYC), Larry lit up the back room scattering the sock hatted posers and calling the bell bottoms in. "Yo, the nerds couldn't handle it! The walls were sweatin', yo! Now it seems that everyone wants some kinda hip-hop at a rave."
Dan gives props, adding, "Dayz X-1 brought hip-hop to New York, that night. Make sure that you get that down! (At the last Deviant event that I attended, Dayz again emptied the room with a totally nutty Stevie Wonder mix. Unfortunately, this time his cult following was somewhere else.) Spinning thirty-year old "Very Superstitious" at a party where records are considered "old" after four months takes some serious cojones. There's little more perverse than an artist with no admirers. However, the burnt looking 21-year old clearly thrives off of that "love my style or step the hell off" attitude, personally characterizing Deviant philosophy.
I ask the bunch: So, does that make you legends in your own minds kinda way or...?
Dan bites again: "Everybody knows we have an unconventional style, and I feel that we are the most underground group in the whole New York area. There's no more underground [crews] trying anymore. Well, the Back to Basics people; that's about it." "I guess I'm different, man. I do my parties for the music, for, like the soul aspect. Just like skate boarders? -that just soul skate.", Larry is clearly irritated by what he and Spike dub the commercial underground. "...It's not just about peace, love, n' afro grease; rave is a musical celebration that deserves respect."
Punk leaders like Jello Biafra and Joey Ramone had their day, but their scene has matured, neatly assimilated into the same orthodoxy to which they so fiercely rebelled. Similarly, and put bluntly, Generation X's sweaty flannel and Doc Marten shoes are about as obsolete as 8-bit computers. Whether the "grungies" like it our not, tomorrow's chic, if not politics also, will interface directly with today's electronic underground. In fact, guys like the Digital Deviants, computer hackers, and phone phreaks, are two steps ahead of game. They actually counter a culture that is barely out of its conceptual infancy.
Surely, these purveyors of the post-modern must be in cahoots with some elite council of extra-terrestrials. They've got to have some master plan for the course of humanity, just like the sci-fi movies, right?
All right, what's in the Deviant's immediate future? "Yo, look for our graffiti tags on yo' Momma's headboard -yeah word. And in your dog house, too!"
