Taking Electronic Dance Music to Both College Campuses and Clubs

For the last week, the D.J. and producer Richie Hawtin has been traveling with an unusual tour: “CNTRL: Beyond E.D.M.,” which during the day visits college campuses for discussions about the past and present of electronic dance music (E.D.M.) and at night goes to clubs to show the music in action.

Dan Cappellazzo for The New York TimesRichie Hawtin

The weather has scuttled some of the events along the way, including the tour's planned discussion component on Saturday at New York University. But the club show that night is still scheduled to go on at Webster Hall, with Mr. Hawtin and his fellow D.J.s Loco Dice and Ean Golden.

Mr. Hawtin, who grew up near Detroit and came up during the 1990s as a leading pr oponent of minimal techno - a sparse and sometimes spooky-sounding variant, as its name implies - has long been one of the electronic dance world's intellectual forces. At the start of the tour, he spoke by telephone about the motivation behind it and the rift between the new superstars of dance music and everybody else.

Q.

What's the idea behind “CNTRL,” and what do you want to accomplish with it?

A.

Many of us who have been involved in electronic music for years now have waited for the moment when America became more interested in what we are doing. We've seen spikes of interest, but it's kind of waxed and waned over the last 20 years. Over the last two or three years things have changed. Electronic music has gained a foothold in North America, and the doors are more open now than ever before. So now is the time to come and help inspire people to look deeper into electronic music and see how rich and vibrant this whole scene is.

Q.

There's a sense out there that most of the E.D.M. that is popular here, that is emptying the high schools of America into the big festivals, is only a small sliver of what's going on the genre more generally.

A.

I don't think anything's wrong with that. The music that has gained popularity in North America has been packaged and works for this marketplace. It's pop-driven. There's vocals, there's catchy melodies. Even the structure goes to the verse-chorus-verse mentality.

The generation grabbing onto this music is one of the first generations growing up without knowing a time before cellphones or the Internet or pure connectivity. These are electronic technology-based kids, and they want a soundtrack for their generation. What I feel is that that's just the tip of the iceberg. We want to show these kids that there's a while world of electronic musi c out there - not only historical, but current - that's way beyond what they're listening to right now.

Q.

Is there any personal ambition here, beyond the wish to educate and inspire?

A.

Sure, there's ambition. I've spent the last 25 years believing that electronic music is the sound of the future. I don't believe that my sound, or a lot of electronic music, is for the mainstream. But I feel that this is an incredibly diverse genre that more people need to hear. Not just kids, but people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, who might be hearing about this E.D.M. hype and wondering about it.

Q.

What are you finding in the lectures so far?

A.

The lectures give us a chance to meet the next generation of fans and D.J.s in person, and let them ask us questions. Yesterday after the lecture, a kid opened his laptop and said, “What do you think? Do  you have any advice for me?” I want to see that. When I was a kid getting into electronic music, I had a couple meetings with Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May. I was like, “Wow, these guys are incredible. They're flying around the world, but here they are just talking to me like regular guys.”

We want to bring that part back. Artists now are becoming so quickly famous, getting $200,000 a night in Vegas and going around in private jets - getting onstage, playing, leaving. They are very connected to their fans digitally. But except for punching their hands in the air when they're playing, they're not connected physically.

Q.

Someone could hear a sense of resentment in there, that the music that won the race is not the best music, not the more complex or interesting kinds of music that have been bubbling around for 20 years.

A.

When does the complex, diverse, subtle music reach the masses? Pop music is music for the masses. The electronic music that's reaching everybody right now is a different form of music than what we make. But I am very happy to see people become interested in electronic music. I never thought I would be the one breaking it in America. I can't make a song that everybody jumps around and sings. But I do feel that what I do is something worth making, worth having people listen to.

On this tour we want to show that there's a deep richness to this music, and that even when this hype is gone, there will be more fans than we had two years ago, five years ago. We want to see this music, this scene, and this whole genre continue to evolve and expand and innovate. I doesn't matter of I'm in 2000 or 1990 or today. I still feel that electronic music is and continues to be the sound of the future. I want to find ways to allow that dream to continue.