Kalamazoo Destruct: the 'Alternative' Alternative

[Ed. note: a version of this story ran in the Feb issue of West Michigan NOISE!; here is the full story, and a reminder that KD is still throwing parties/ shows almost every week... so get out and shake that moneymakah]

“I just wanna dance. Is that a crime?” –J.Lo (2002)


I admit: I thought I knew the Kalamazoo scene. But after an in-depth interview with some of the folks behind Kalamazoo Destruct—a new event series sweeping Kalamazoo, featuring a kaleidoscopic array of dance-oriented music—I discovered not only an entire enclave of music in Kalamazoo’s past and present, but the passion of the artists who make it happen.

It would be easy to call it “electronica” or even “techno,” but the deejays I spoke with, the brains of the Kalamazoo Destruct operation—Alexander Roelandt (Mr. Shed), Dustin Alexander (Baby D), and Tahif Attiek (Nunca Duerma)—are not your stereotypical “techno deejays:” the white sunglasses; the flashy outfits; the frosted hair. These are not only professional, but truly smart dudes—and not just about music. They ruminated on the history of electronica in the Kalamazoo scene and abroad; they’ve organized a series of hugely successful events that not only create an alternative party scenario to the average, rock-dominated “bar scene,” and used these events to give back to the community (the guys of KD recently discounted cover charges at a show in exchange for canned goods, which they donated to the Food Bank). They schooled me on everything from Kzoo’s warehouse-rave days to their methods of onstage mixing, and in the end, Roelandt, Alexander, and Attiek gave me an entirely new perspective on a scene I thought I knew.

On behalf of the Kalamazoo Destruct crew, Roelandt prefaced the interview by making sure we were on the same page with term usage: “When asking questions just for clarification purposes, we would rather you use the words ‘electronic music’ or ‘EDM’ instead of words like ‘electro.’ That usually refers to a specific type of electronic music and we want people to know that our shows contain all types of electronic music.” It became immediately clear to me that these guys meant business.

As well they should. All three of these guys have studied the art of mixing and have a rich array of influences—between the three of them, they list a staggering variety of artists from Detroit and Chicago house artists to P-funk to Claude Von Stroke and J Dilla—that make the Kalamazoo Destruct shows not only unique, but truly entertaining. “My grandfather gave me a large collection of music he used to listen to when he was my age,” said Attiek. “He gave me his crate of vinyl that he never listens to and I’ve been slowly working through that.” Alexander notes that
his musical career began when he played violin, guitar, and upright bass as a kid.

“Kalamazoo Destruct, as a reoccurring event, really took off in June of 2010,” explains Roelandt. “From there, Tahif and I agreed we worked well together and had the resources to throw quality events in our city. Fortunately for us, we had a lot of support from the start. It can be said that many people were waiting for this to happen in Kalamazoo. After the first couple of shows, we brought in our third member, Dustin Alexander who recently moved here from the Detroit Metro Area. Having three members [who were] into different types of music has helped us achieve our initial goal of creating a multi-genre electronic music night that appeals to a lot of people in Kalamazoo that would normally only be involved with their own cliques.”

As a result of the shows’ popularity with both fans and artists, the Kalamazoo Destruct series has fostered a growth within the local electronic “scene” which no one had anticipated. “Our initial goal was to bring a successful electronic music night to Kalamazoo, not the whole scene. Not because we didn’t want to, but because we didn’t think we had the ability to. Now we see that we can act as a catalyst to keep the scene alive with everyone’s help. It’s our future goal to keep this night alive and well as long as possible, and our even bigger goal [is] to keep the scene alive and well as long as possible,” says Alexander.

As it turns out, Kalamazoo is actually the perfect place for a thriving electronic music scene. “Kalamazoo is right in the middle [of] Detroit and Chicago, the two most important cities for electronic music,” explains Roelandt. “It’s the perfect place to combine the influences of house and techno. The thing most people don’t realize is that Kalamazoo has a rich history of electronic music. In fact, to many record collectors, ‘Kalamazoo Techno’ is known as a subgenre in its own right.

Roelandt then dives into an impressively detailed history lesson about a record label established in Kalamazoo, Black Nation Records, which would become an important part of techno history. “Black Nation Records was established in 1992 in Kalamazoo by Jay Denham after completing several original productions and remixes for Detroit’s Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May,” Roelandt said. “The records released on this Kalamazoo label gained worldwide attention, and allowed some of Black Nation’s artists to tour over the world.”

“Black Nation… spearheaded the scene, but many extremely reputable artists have come and gone through the underground scene here in Kalamazoo,” added Alexander. “Many people have tried to throw parties in Kalamazoo with some really great artists and great intentions, but they didn’t quite take off because of the volatile and ever-changing vibe of the music community here. We would really like to see a more reciprocal approach to the electronic music party scene; we’d
like to see a lot of cross influencing going on and less competition, and I think Kalamazoo is really on its way to exactly that.”

Alexander, who opened for legendary hip-hop deejay Afrika Bambaataa in January, performs on an analog system, spinning actual vinyl as opposed to a digital setup. He notes the importance of recognizing that the purpose of Kalamazoo Destruct is to unify a wide variety of artists and sounds for which “electronic music” is too broad a term: “It’s like saying ‘I like rock.’ The next question would be ‘what kind of rock?’ The same goes for electronic music… you probably wouldn’t see the same crowd at a Death Cab for Cutie show as you would for a band like Poison
or Nickelback. So what usually happens is that there are many different factions of electronic music that are just as divided as in any other broad musical form.

What Kalamazoo Destruct is trying to do is bring them all together to highlight the one thing that really does set them apart from fans of other music. They dance more, fight less, and party harder.”