Ionic Benton caught the wave of electronic music that washed over his native Luxembourg in the mid-eighties and has ridden it ever since. From organising acid house parties and DJing, to developing his own live act and touring Europe, Ionic has stayed right at the crest of that wave. His style of tribal-tinged, atmospheric minimal techno has won him a keen following - for several years he composed the official theme for Luxembourg’s e-Lake festival,  and he has worked extensively on remixes for other artists. 

Ionic’s production career took off in 1993 as part of the duo McCoy and Vektor. Their high-octane smasher “Evoluter” was released on white label and found favour with audiences around Luxembourg. Ionic’s first solo release came in 1997 on the Tri Lamb record label. His next release, on Response Audio , found support from DJ Keoki of New York. In 2005 he started his own label, Impact Audio.

His DJ and live acts have taken him around Europe many times, to Germany, The Netherlands and France, and along the way he has played alongside the likes of Miss DJax, DJ Rush, Dave Clarke and Umek. Nowadays, one of the places you are likely to catch an Ionic Benton gig is in Second Life (SL),  a virtual world with a fast-developing electronic music scene. In 2005 he opened his own club in SL – Contrast – which is now part of the United Beats sim. With his talent for creating dancefloor mayhem wherever he goes, whether he plays minimal techno, acid, or a live set, Ionic is always in great demand.

 Olaf Quintessa caught up with Ionic to talk about music, live performances, Second Life, and techno in the year 2109.

When did you first start making techno?
My very first techno track I made in 1988. I was 16 years old and I was fascinated by all the weird and new sounds that I was discovering from electronic music. At first I used a Commodore 64, but the very first finished track was done in 1988 with an Amiga 500. The Amiga was a good tool for music making.

What were your first influences?
I think it was Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre that showed me the door to today’s techno. Jean Michel Jarre was a great pioneer. I also listened to Tangerine Dream and a lot of older bands. Actually it was early electro and breakdancing that first got me curious about dance music and DJing. In the early eighties when I was about 10 years old I was in a breakdance club and we had battles and did robot dancing. Real street breakdancing!

What about when house and techno came along?
Around 1986 I started DJing, so I was playing and listening to acid house, stuff from Detroit, music from warehouse parties. It was 1988 when acid house really got started over here. My favourite tracks of that time were M.A.R.R.S “Pump up the volume” and Bomb the Bass “Beat this”. Techno was very late in coming over here.

Do you play any traditional instruments?
Well, I began playing the drums when I was 8 years old and I play all sorts of other percussion instruments. Also keyboard and didjeridoo. I played in an industrial band called BSE - Big Shit Exhibition - as a drummer.  We made strange and weird music! Some tracks we did sounded like Rammstein. I think I have a nose for grooves and beats. I feel the beats and drums in all music.

You have a live act playing techno now – What do you like about playing live?
I like to see music and people interact. Doing a live act really is my favourite thing  because it makes me very happy to see another person dancing to music I created.  The music comes straight from my brain, and I have a sort of vision of my brain in a futuristic glass thing wired to a great machine, to which other people are connected so they are connected to me too – A kind of internet, if you know what I mean!

How do you go about making your music? Do you always go for the beats first?
Mostly I start with a simple kickdrum and play around with sounds until I find what I want. But if I already have a true idea then I do exactly what I am thinking and create the sounds I have in my head.

That must be easier to do nowadays compared to using an Amiga.
Ha ha, yes!

Do you love collecting synths?
Yes , very much so. I have a lot here and I still use them. My favourite is my Korg MS50, and also the Roland JD800 that I use as a master keyboard.

What about when you do remix work for other people. Do you always try to stamp your own sound on it?
I always try not to do that, but when my friends hear what I’ve done they all say “Ahh sounds like a typical Ionic track”. Jesto Kormann, a good friend from real life (RL), says that all the time!

What do you think that “Ionic sound” is?
Well, I consider my style as modern techno with minimal influences. I think it’s forward looking, and progressive maybe... Actually I can’t explain what I sound like. I simply play what I think is good. I don’t think I fix on one style.

What producers influence you now?
Chris Liebing, Speedy J, Planetary Assault Systems – All these are inspirations. And Richie Hawtin is my god!

Tell us a bit about the record label you run with Claude Fizz, Impact Audio.
Well, we did three vinyl releases with tracks from Ming Brothers, Sigma 7 and myself and sold about 200 copies. We suffered from not having a good distributor though – They kept a lot of our records in stock and didn’t do much publicity – So we sold most of them ourselves by doing our own distribution. It was a lot of legwork! For a long time Impact stood still. SL kept me away from producing and at the moment I do more remix work for other labels. But now we’re in the process of moving to digital. We’ve been talking to a distributor in Germany to release our music through all the main portals, then we hope to have more new stuff coming out.

What got you interested in Second Life?
In 2003 I Googled the word “virtual” and I found a blog from a guy who was writing about Second Life. I was fascinated by what I read so I tried it out, but I had a terrible internet connection and I left after about two weeks. Two years later I came back again, with a better internet connection, and got really hooked! I was running around, fascinated by the whole thing and listening to live DJs. And when I saw there was the possibility to stream music into Second Life I went really mad!

What has SL changed about the way you DJ? Is there more freedom to try different styles in SL?
Yes I play stuff in SL that I don’t play in RL. I play more experimental here in SL and go deeper sometimes. It’s easier to play here because the available audience is bigger in some sense. Whatever set you play, if it’s acid for instance, some people like it and they will come. People are free to come and go here, and if they like what they hear they can stay. Often there are around 30-40 people at parties where I play but sometimes less than that, around 18-20. I don’t mind, the important thing is that some people stay and that they like what I play.

You’ve also done a live set of your own productions in Second Life.
Yes that was a really memorable night at Contrast. I did a four hour live act and we had 65 people in.

When did you decide to set up your club, Contrast?
We had our first party at Contrast in November 2005. There were a few techno clubs around back then, but not playing the kind of techno you hear now in SL. At that time it was mostly trance and commercial stuff. The first Contrast club was a complex with two castles and a futuristic, space laboratory for the main room. We had techno in the main hall, house music  in one castle and ambient music in another smaller castle! I’m dreaming of another multiple event at Contrast with several  stages in use at the same time. And I’ve recently built a new room which no one has seen yet...

There have been lots of changes at United Beats recently. You’ve said goodbye to Black Box and Session One. What’s happening at UB at the moment?
Well, there’s still Code 415 for dark minimal music. Monokultur has just come along and they are mostly minimal music. Techno and harder stuff is at Contrast. At the moment there are no plans to have any other clubs on the sim – Three is enough. No plans for any shops either - The aim with United Beats is still to have a dedicated music sim.

You've had numerous DJ residencies and played with top names like Miss DJax and Westbam. What are the most memorable parties you've played at in RL?
The E-Lake festival here in Luxembourg is always a very memorable party for me. My first appearance at E-Lake was in 1997 and I’ve played almost every year since then, mostly as a live act. It’s a free festival with a great atmosphere, good organisation and sound, and crowds of up to 25,000. Many people seem to know me there. This year Kemmi Kamachi will be DJing there with me. I’ve also played alongside Gayle San and Miss DJax at another festival, and there was also Electricity with DJ Hell. I’ve also played a lot in other countries. There was the US tour that I did...

When was the US tour? Tell us a bit more about that.
That was around 2000. We went to Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. I was featured by DJ Keoki of New York and he played some of my tracks in his promo mixes. I also worked with DJ Paul Edge. It was very interesting to play over there as the crowds were very different – They seemed to really appreciate the DJ and were into deeply examining the tracks to see what they were for. In New York I met people who were really living techno – They had their own community and were helping each other. In Europe it seemed that people listened to techno only occasionally or at parties and didn’t live it quite so intensely. That was my impression anyway, I wasn’t there long enough to know for sure. But I still think techno in the USA and techno in Europe are two different worlds.

Ok last question. What do you think music will sound like in 100 years time?
Oh good question. That’s a question I ask myself a lot. I think in 100 years time techno will be almost the same because we’re already at the stage where we can create an unlimited range of sounds. Before we had instruments made from wood and skin etc, but now with electronic music there are no limits. I mean you can put oscillators together and get a sound, but the physics of the human ear doesn’t change so there will still be the same range of sounds we can hear in 100 years. I suppose it could be that we will have deep slow beats or ultra fast ones. It’s also possible we could get a special biological chip implanted into the brain so we can communicate directly and do everything all in the head. Then we’ll get fat and not move about any more in RL! Maybe Second Life is a stepping stone towards all that...

Links

http://www.myspace.com/djionic

Discography

Ionic, “Screwdriver” : Tri Lamb (NL 1997)

CK1 (Claude Kass), “Groove me baby” / “Baltimore” : Response Audio (UK)

Ionic , “Trouble” / “The Hard Way” (Lordz of Hardstyle CD comp) : Trendline Records (DE 2004)

Sigma7 (The Ming Brothers and Ionic Benton), “Besesoo” : Impact Audio (LU 2005)

e-Lake theme productions:
Ionic,  “Time for the open air party” : OAP (LU 2001)
Ionic, “I wanna party” : O8 Hotel (BE 2002)
Ionic, “I wanna Party remix” : O8 Hotel (BE 2003)
Ionic, “10 years” : Impact Audio (LU 2005)

Remixes:
Noraj Cue, “Krasch Anthem (Ionic Remix)” : Trash Lover (DE 2007)
Cristian Paduraru, “Beatport (Ionic Benton remix)” : Ya records (LU 2008)
Cristian Paduraru, “Walk in the Light (Ionic Benton remix)” : Ya records (LU 2008)
Cell2Cell, “Meladon (Ionic Benton Remix )” : Music Worx / Musashi (BE)
Orora, “One night in Barcelona (Ionic Benton remix)” : Musashi (BE)
Electroholix , “Bangladech (Ionic Benton Remix)” : Noobish Records (LU 2009)

Upcoming:
August 2009: Roland Piers, “Mizzarella (Ionic Benton remix)”
September 2009: Ionic Benton,  “Holographic World” : Banshee Records