“People are angry all over the world, in Europe, they are angry in the USA they are angry, with all the terrorist stuff people are angry. It’s other people scared and other people get angry, after being scared, the people that are scared get angry, everybody’s angry and they’re voting on anger, somehow you have to put this into perspective these are growing pains we have to be smart and not let this affect us.” That is what in the words of Trance legend Markus Schulz said when we had the chance to interview him.
The hissing vent of the open hi-hat, the smack of the clap, metal-on-metal percussion -something wicked this way comes. Going by the name ‘Mota-Mota’, its deeper bass frequencies underpin prowling rhythms, cut with truculent synths, which are spliced in turn with ethereally warped hunting horns. This is the most out-and-out techno Dakota’s dealt in eight straight years.
Mota-Mota is the first substance to surface from his 2017 ‘The Nine Skies’ project. It sees Markus in production alliance with Dutch producer Koen Groeneveld (the man behind Slides, 1981, Baksteen and Spinnin Record’s techno imprint Abzolut). The entire reason why he created The Nine Skies Project was a way to express his own personal feelings and a way to unify people, an escape from all the turmoil in the world.
“After I finished my last album Watch The World I wanted to do something a little deeper, with all the shit that’s going on in the world, it really got to me – like I got to admit I’ve been off social media, I don’t want to be on social media telling everyone how depressed I am but the Dakota album, it was a way for me to put in perspective. It’s called ‘The Nine Skies’ project’, it’s the Nine steps to enlightenment, and as humans, we’re growing but through growing you also have these growing pains and it what we are all going through right now and so ‘The Nine Skies’ Project is kind of like trying to put into perspective and give people some hope. Everything you see is a disaster.”
We all have different ways of expressing our feelings, whether it's protesting, crying, or writing in a journal, it is a mad world out there and danger is everywhere, but if we all try to work together or try to get along. Or even help someone if they are in danger and not turn the other way.
“It doesn’t matter where you are on the Nine-steps is we all start off as lost souls and then once we get on that path to the enlightenment, where we are in the path is great but the point is we’re on the path, and there’s many people – you can see it in they’re eyes, they’re not on the path so to be on the path should be celebrated and proud of. When you see the person next to you on a bus or plane at a club, at a supermarket doesn’t matter you know where ever they are on the nine skies, the fact is they are on their way as well, it’s something that kind of unifies us.”
Markus Schulz is a musician that produces music from the heart, and plays for his devoted and loyal fans. The Nine Skies project is more than a project it’s a path to enlightenment from any demons you may be facing.
“That’s also what I wanted to do as a musician, I’m not a politicians, I’m not an activist, nothing like that, I’m a musician that’s my art, that’s what I was put on this earth for. I wanted to do something different.”
“Next step is to turn the Dakota show into an album, The Nine Skies album, so many people they’ll take an album and take it on tour and I wanted to do something different, I wanted to put together this show and then turn into an album after, like a soundtrack to ‘The Nine Skies’ project’.”
You can catch Markus Schulz performance tonight at Webster Hall and among cities spreading the ‘The Nine Skies’ project to everyone he comes in contact with.
