Before there was music, percussion was a way of life. Different beats were symbolic of the different moods… “I’m a drummer, everything influences me from jazz to Indian to hip hop to classical. My music is all about looking at and living in the future, because the future is now,” says Stacey with an enigmatic twinkle in his eye, living up to his Kosmic Messenger pseudonym. The future may be where his music is headed, just like that of his Detroit peers. He also has an illustrious past, born into a family where his dad was in the Motown group The Capitals, possibly plotted Stacey’s course in life before he was ever born. He’s keen to liken the waves of electronic musicians from his home town to the previous generations who’d do-wop on the street corners until talent-scouted by Berry Gordy or one of his minions.

Stacey’s youthful interest in percussion led him through travels around the USA’s Deep South, playing the snare drum in high school and at Tennessee State University. Places like Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana taught the urban teenager a sharp fast lesson about the history of black America. It wasn’t however until he went to study communication at TSU that he discovered the whole Detroit techno movement just as it was beginning to get into first gear. “It made me realise where my destiny lay,” he say’s now. “I’d make eight hour trips home just to hear Derrick (May) and others play at the Music Institute. I’d see the guys doing their own thing, wearing t-shirts and blue jeans but running their own companies and traveling the world.”

Born in 1969, they had a couple of years on him, but when he was sixteen they were inspiration. “I’m the last of the old school” he say’s because after me came a generation gap where people now depend on MTV and the internet. “When I was younger you were influenced by your peers, your mentors, the people you grew up with…” Stacey didn’t just look on and dance, he immediately involved himself with Derrick’s Transmat label and surrounding KMS Studios. One of his remixes he did for The Prodigy was turned down, and that’s when Kosmic Messenger was born. He removed all The Prodigy’s samples and released it as ‘Soundscape’. The no nonsense four to the floor became a smash for him, opening the doors to many other endeavors.

While his other pseudonym Bango was his calling card back in 1991. It was released on Derrick’s Fragile imprint and it sent him to Amsterdam with money in his pocket. For his first record he got an advance and a plane ticket, after spending 1 year in Amsterdam (which was supposed to be 1 month), he built a solid reputation in Europe and became a household name in Detroit’s electronic music world. “Now my music is inspired by my travels, life on the road,” say’s Stacey.

His latest work has been more intelligent, more avant-garde, just check his Virgin record LP, ‘todayisthetomorrowyouwerepromisedyesterday’. “It’s not just about making people dance,” say’s Pullen. “I was listening to a lot of jazz… the true master was, Miles Davis. He was the innovator, but I was also listening to Herbie Hancock. My first jazz record I bought was a Ramsey Lewis record back in the 70s. He’s always listen to African music, thus his productions are imbued with primal percussion power, the place where melody and progressive jazz run headlong into the robots utilised by Detroit’s car industry.”

Stacey Pullen tours Australia/NZ in 5.1 surround sound stereo in May, check ITM Whatson for details.

Thurs 03 May – Wellington, Sandwiches nightclub.
Fri 04 May – Auckland. Ink nightclub
Sat 05 May – Sydney, Chinese laundry,
Fri. 11 May – Perth, AM Bar
Sat 12 – Melbourne, Miss Libertines