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Interview with Rithma by Ryan Nance

With humble beginnings in the secluded surrounds of the Southern Californian town, Topanga Canyon, Etienne Stehelin, AKA Rithma, has forged a solid reputation in the underground house scene, having released over 30 12” vinyl records on labels such as Tweekin', Utensil, Deepfunk, and OM.  With a second artist album about to drop on OM Records, and having been given the go-ahead to form a live band to tour it, Rithma is set to fully realise his potential as a truly exceptional artist.  He kindly took a few moments out of his manic preparations to answer some questions and keep you wonderful readers at purehousemusic.net one step ahead of the game.


Let's begin with the topic of album/demo mix programming.  Not many djs seem to put much effort into creating a truly cohesive journey through house sounds when they do a mix.  Most of the time it just sounds like a bunch of tracks thrown together - the overall mix doesn't mesh as one.  Your demo mix ‘Two Buck Chuck' has a definite cohesive journey-feel to it, as does your first artist album, ‘Music Fiction'.  Do you feel this is an important aspect?  If so, why?

I've never considered myself a good DJ,  although the more I play out the more fun it becomes and the better the mixes get.   Years ago, I listened to the first mixtapes in headphones on the lawn at my high school.  I didn't know what a DJ was!  I thought whoever made the tape was making all those tunes all by himself.  And when I started going to raves and realized they were just playing records, I was shocked.  So when I set out to make music,  i wanted it to be how I imagined it in the beginning.   All homemade, but all different styles. Flowing from one thing to the next to the next and telling a huge story with a bunch of smaller stories.  Fiction!  Tall tales of passion.  R-Rated but violence free. Mainstream media has custom-built a society of slackers with a 3 minute attention span. (songs over 3 minutes are thrown out at mainstream radio stations).  Im trying to rebuild a society of people with 80 minute attention spans.


While we're on the topic of your album 'Music Fiction', can I just commend you on a truly magnificent piece of musical art?  It's a rollercoaster ride through an aurally emotive soundscape.  Heart-felt but filled with attitude.  You have a new album due out shortly, again on OM.  Three years on, what new life experiences will be transferred into your new work?  Can we expect a similar musical soundscape to your debut?

Well Thank you!  Im glad you like it.  As far as soundscape, im trying to do the ‘take you on a ride' thing again, but the actual songs are quite different.  Music Fiction was built during quite a dreamy and beautifully un-jaded phase of my life.  When it began, I was 22 and just moved out of my parents house, but I was still in Topanga and spending a lot of time outside, daydreaming and mountainbiking and smoking weed. Before I hit the road, life was relaxed and sweet.  So that's kind of what went into the music.   Since the release of Music Fiction I joined up with one of my best friends Andrew at Blue-Collar booking agency, and he got me on the road, big time.   In an instant, I went from daydreaming in Topanga to riding jetplanes every weekend  and partying all over the place.  Meeting TONS of people and laughing a lot, and coming home completely exhausted.  So theres a lot more of that in the new album.  A little more cynical and a lot more party.  I think ive managed to keep that certain depth to the sound,  while adding a fair bit of grit


In one of your blog entries you commented, whilst watching Lance Desardi's new house/electro/rock band Landshark play, that it was quite humorous that we as a generation had to explore house music in order to re-vitalise our interest in rock music.  I find that statement quite ironic as some of your productions can sit coherently beside jive/swing-era music such as Johnny Cash.  I read that you draw a lot of influence from yester-era artists (Miles Davis being a prominent one).  Do you, also, feel a close connection between your early influences and your own music?  If so, is there a conscious effort on your part to stay true to your early influences?


The dream on this end is slowly working into creating a fusion between many styles of music,  be it house & jazz, rock with techno,  electro blues funk soul.  I am not the kind of producer who knows exactly what hes doing, some people think Ive just got all these sounds in my head and I know how to get them out.  That's not the case. Getting sounds out of ones head is an extremely challenging thing.  It is interfacing your imagination with reality as a construct of sound, which to begin with is a very abstract medium.   So for me,  the production of sound is a big giant experiment. Trying something new every day. Like maybe today ill start by playing a guitar riff,  or maybe ill buy a kiddie synth at a garage sale and hook it up to a guitar amp.   It's all a big joke that I take very, very seriously.


I recently interviewed Jacob London, the group who first exposed me to your music (with their remix of 'Everyone's sleeping today'), and they said that today they're being influenced by genre's such as dub-step and minimal techno, and as a result their productions are getting more experimental.  You stated in an interview, perhaps in jest, that you try to be psychic in regards to where dance music is headed.  Do you see your house sound going in a new direction towards the future?  Has any current music sparked new ideas in your head for when you are in the studio?


Absolutely! I am completely SICK of traditional house music & deep house.  Its not going anywhere.  Im consistently blown away by how many things you can do with a 4/4 bassdrum.  Im not saying I wont use a 4-on-the-floor kickdrum anymore,  but these formulaic tracks must stop.  The world is waiting for something to take them out to edge city.  I'll do my best to find it.


Apparently you are in the process of getting a label of your own (Rithmica Records) up and running.  Why the need to start your own label?

Before I answer this question, lemme just say how much I love the people at Om records, sweet family & friends.  My frustration with the music biz doesn't stem from them but rather the thing as a whole,  a giant heaving throbbing organism that feeds off of the little people.  Its all going to change soon.   The music industry has a huge amount of evil karma stored up in it.  I am starting my own label “just in case” . See,  pretty soon here, the Music Industry might accidentally splooge all over its own face, and I want to be able to stand there, laughing.   Record contracts, record deals, are written the same as they were written 80 years ago,  written by fat old white men,  written specifically to fuck the artist in the ass and make the execs fatter.  So you have that, and at the same time over here you have the death of the CD.  And contrary to popular mythology,  the CD is not dying because people are downloading music. The CD is dying because it is an old, overpriced format and people are slowly catching onto that.   So instead of acting like every record label and the RIAA, scrambling around suing people and trying to save the good old CD format,   I am going to build my own little cozy back door and get as much music out into the world as I can.  Also, having total artistic freedom  will be awesome.  The music that Om puts out is most definitely “Om”, and  im looking forward to coloring outside the lines.  Check out  Rithmica  in a couple months on your favorite download site…


My final question is always the same, particularly if I'm a fan of the artist I'm interviewing.  And since I am most definitely a huge fan of your music/DJ'ing – are there any plans to tour Australia? Perhaps on the back of your new album…have you heard anything about Australia from your peers?

YES YES YES!!!!!  Ive heard nothing but amazing things about Australia and the music scene there.   Everyone whos been there comes back smiling.  I'll see you there.   I'll be more of a live act when I get there too.  If you haven't heard, I had all my records stolen some months back, and took that (and everyones screaming advice) as a sign, that rithma music needs to be live.  So far ive got me & (vocalist) Monica Brooke, singing & jamming,  but I'm in the process of building a whole new show that will include drummers, horns, live art & all kinds of other crazy stuff…..

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