More than anything else, Andrew Duke loves music (and sharing it with others). An accomplished music journalist and respected DJ, Duke has also been receiving acclaim over the past few years for his own music. Duke will be in Edmonton Thursday night (July 31) performing as a very special guest for Periphery at Bistro Bienvenu. Remix recently had the chance to speak with Andrew Duke, by phone from Halifax, to discuss his musical journey.

Remix: 1987 was an early but fertile time for electronic dance music. Chat about the early years of In the Mix [Duke’s radio show].

Andrew Duke: I played things like Skinny Puppy, Severed Heads back when Nettwerk was doing all of that electro-industrial stuff. Wax Trax was another label as well. When I moved to Halifax from smalltown Nova Scotia in 1987 I basically bought every 12-inch single that came into the local record store. A lot of it I realized was not good stuff. Buying everything though, is what lead me to techno.

Rmx: What were some of your first impressions of Techno?

AD: I didn’t realize at the time how big it was; there was a lot of crossover. Kevin Saunderson remixing Wee Papa Girls, DJ Pierre making mixes for Samantha Fox. Techno has been more of a continuum for me as opposed to the first time I’d heard Nitzer Ebb or the first time I heard Scraping Foetus. It took me a while to realize, "Hey, there’s more to Detroit Techno than these initial records." There was a lot of innovation and different styles.

Rmx: In The Mix became quite successful and at one point, through syndication, had an audience of about three million listeners. But recently you have become quite respected for your own music. When did you decide to start making music? After playing and promoting a lot of music over the years, did you decide that there were ideas that you finally had to get out?

AD: No. Writing about music and doing music has always gone hand in hand. I started writing about music at age 11 in the school newspaper and making music followed soon after–using cassette decks to make extended mixes. I remember DJing high school dances and having to play cheesy stuff like Bon Jovi. So I would take the song and extend the drum part that I really liked or get rid of a cheesy vocal. Music was something I was doing for the longest time but I didn’t have the equipment to do something more polished. It wasn’t until 1987, when I moved to Halifax, that I was able to get some gear and really start doing it.

Rmx: When did you start releasing your music?

AD: In 1987 I set up a label called Digitalis, a cassette-only label. Music From the Empty Quarter, an experimental music magazine from the UK, described my stuff as "Skinny Puppy on Valium." I was very serious about Digitalis and had hand-painted covers and such. My next label, with some friends, Incognito Musique was the exact opposite of Digitalis. My friends and I would whip off commercial sounding dance music in an afternoon and then take it down to the club and have it played with all the other commercial records. We did it to poke fun at how easy it was to make commercial stuff. In 1990, I decided to take things a little more seriously and that’s when I started Cognition Audioworks.

Rmx: What do you think of the increasing popularity of Canadian artists in electronic music?

AD: It’s inspiring and it makes you happy to see how things are progressing–when people [Akufen, Mitchell Akiyama] send you their first efforts and then seeing how they have developed their art and have gotten it out to a wider audience. I’m not saying that I had a hand in that, but it’s nice to see these artists that you always believed in become internationally known. It’s inspiring to anyone making music in Canada.

Rmx: What do you like the most about making music?

AD: I think it’s always fun to get something that is in your head out to everyone so they can hear it. I think it’s fun to perform live and see that people are digging it. Whether they’re nodding their heads to it or shaking their hips, depending on what style I’m playing. The best thing about technology is that, as it moves along, I can get closer to getting the songs in my head out in audible form. It’s not there yet but it’s getting there.

For more on Andrew Duke and his music, give the Cognition Audioworks Web site a look at http://techno.ca/cognition

Catch "Frequency", with Prosper and Eli, every Saturday between 6 and 8pm on CJSR FM88. Also on CJSR FM88 this Monday, August 4^th, Prosper will be a special guest co-host with Mick Sleeper on Soul Shakedown Party as they explore the influence of dub reggae on electronic dance music.