Under the influence of Kraftwerk, the Belleville three, Chicago and Italian house music and the radio icons of Electrifying Mojo and his show ‘The Midnight Funk Association’ on the WBMX radio station in Chicago – Stacey Pullen has evolved as an artist of depth from the second wave. Inspired by the now legendary Music Institute, Stacey began DJing at underground parties around Detroit, only to then put it on hold three years to pursue a collegiate career in communications.

Drawn back by the music, Stacey released his ‘Ritual Beating System’ under the alter ego of Bango on the Transmat sub-label, Fragile. Similar to the innovators from the first wave, Pullen’s first release was a big sound influencing others throughout the world. The tribal percussion of that release opened the musical minds of many who have now gone on to produce their own tribalistic dance tones.

After working across many labels including Kevin Saunderson’s KMS, Eclipse, R&S, Plink Plonk, his own Black Flag and Transmat Records. Stacey’s skills have been in high demand all over the globe, throwing down funk laiden techno and house music on dance floors to scores of fanatics. To date, his travels have seen him travel across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia, one of his most favourite places to travel.

Royal caught up with Stacey a few days before departing for the Iberian peninsula for a chat discussing his latest full length release ‘Todayisthetomorrowyouwerepromisedyesterday’.


R: It’s been a while Stacey, how are you? ..and where are you?
SP: Yeah, indeed. Well I’m at home (in Detroit) at the moment, enjoying some quiet time after finishing up my new record. Just coming into my final week of my two month break, then I’m off to Spain this weekend to play.

So tell me about the new record?
It’s different, very different to what I have done in the past, but the one important thing that is the same is that it has soul and funk. Those are probably the best words to describe the album. It’s completely removed from the trademark Detroit sound yet it still has elements and influences that are from Detroit.

What was the driving influence to produce such sounds?
Well, I suppose it was just a matter of be getting back to my afro-centric roots and letting the music flow. That said, there’s tracks like ‘Vertigo’ which has an opera singer on it, which has no relation to afro-american music. So the concept there was to introduce elements that aren’t normally considered in music.

It’s not intentionally dance floor music, while some of it will work on the dancefloor, it wasn’t written with that in mind. I have alternative outlets for that style such as my Kosmic Messenger for the more straight up dancefloor, and Silent Phase takes a funkier perspective.

You spend a lot of time travelling the world on the DJ circuit. How do you find it spending a lot of time away from home, and not having the chance to write and produce music?
Well, I found that I was Djing too much and I had to take a step back and review the situation. I was in a situation where I’ve got these great ideas for tracks but I haven’t got the time to put them down, and instead I was playing everybody elses records. So now I’ve gotten back into my studio at home and worked to get everything together for this release. I’ve been in this location for a while now so I’m feeling real comfortable about it all.

Tell me about Djing how would you classify yourself?
Well, it’s probably hard to classify myself. I’m changing my style quite often, however it’s not like I’m going from playing hard house to hard techno. I have my upfront dance style and then there’s my groove style, a sound to get people right into the groove, you know let the record do the talking.

So it’s hard to classify myself really, but I play house, I play techno. I play music with funk and soul.

Now that you have finished up your new record, is there any artists you would like to work with in the future?
I like to work by myself I have difficulty working wit others, but otherwise it would be Earth, Wind and Fire. They were simply on another plane.

I like listening to old Motown, jazz, guys like Weather Control and Chick Corea, so those people would be cool to work with too.

You have artists like Carl Craig with his Innerzone Orchestra project working with people like Francisco Mora. Why do you think this has come about, working with artists who have been influential to many of the first and second wave musicians?
Well, first of all I think it’s about recognition. Earlier on, we didn’t have the name, whereas now techno and house music has respect, so I think it was just a matter of time. Like I said before I’d love to have the chance to work with some of the old Motown cats for sure. So much soul and funk.

I think also that as a musician from Detroit, we collectively have been heavily stereotyped, and we need to broaden our spectrum a little. For years everything has been science fiction, you know ‘Time Space Transmat’ and all that. While that is cool, but technology can only give you so much, and there is much, much more that we can base our musical ideas on. A lot of guys are captivated by the outer space type stuff, but that’s not me.

So what’s in the pipeline for Stacey Pullen?
Well, I’ll be back on the road again real soon. Heading your way around August or September I believe, so you know what to expect. At the same time, I’ll be giving you something a little different so it’s always fresh.

Just for fun, I’d like to finish up with a few word associations.
Derrick May – heh, a ladies man.
Kevin Saunderson – the elevator
Jeff Mills – the wizard
Detroit – home
Chicago – house music all night long
Australia – a cool place to live


Stacey Pullen’s full length album/CD ‘Todayisthetomorrowyouwerepromisedyesterday’ is now available in good record stores (online at ChaosMusic) with the first single ‘Vertigo’ also now available.

Check out the album review.