image: Rolling Stone
Seth Troxler is about to tour Australia, and he’s given an interview to Henry Johnstone at Pulse Radio. When asked about the infamous Robot Heart incident, he pulls no punches:
HJ: The magic of the internet.
ST: You guys are quite magical. There was this Pulse article about me at Burning Man – I thought it was quite funny, even though it was only partially true. But I was wondering how you guys magically got the information from Burning Man to the internet so fast? That’s what astounded me.
HJ: Are you talking about the Diplo/Skrillex/Robot Heart incident?
ST: Yeah. I thought the vibe was horrible and I don’t stand for anything that Robot Heart believes in and who they are. But it was Jamie [Jones] and his friends who weren’t allowed on the bus, but he played anyway. Earlier in the night I got on the bus and the guy from Robot Heart was really rude to me…see they have a thousand DJs who that want to play there, and Craig Richards and I were like, “Yeah well we’re the ones who don’t.” And then we left, because they’re obnoxious assholes and I don’t have time for that.
Seth also has a lot to say about “Pop EDM vs the Underground”:
HJ: You’ve been quite outspoken this year in the whole ‘EDM vs underground’ debate and you believe they’re two completely different scenes. I was speaking to Sasha recently and he seems to share your view. I asked him whether or not he thought that eventually the kids in America who are into EDM will start to dig a little deeper and discover more obscure music. He wasn’t so sure. What do you think?
ST: Yeah I do think there will be a trickle down effect. Mass marketed EDM did bring in a lot of young 12 year-old kids who will hopefully one day get older and realise, wow this music fucking sucks. But they’ll also realize, OK I like dancing and I like electronic music and then they’ll find cool stuff. Or maybe they’ll find Gorgon City or whatever next level shit there is, and then hopefully give in to elitist, underground dance music [laughs].
But I do believe that our scenes are completely separate and should remain separate because our communities and end goals are completely different. To be honest I don’t think any of us want to be involved with them, even though there’s plenty of them who want to seem credible to us…but they never will be. So I’m just like, let’s stop playing games and acting like we should be involved with each other. You do your thing, we’ll do ours and we’ll call it a day. And please don’t ever mention yourselves in the context of real dance music. It would be so much better if they could just come clean and call themselves a pop act – they’re entertainers who make pop music. I didn’t get into dance music to hear it on the radio. I fucking hate the radio. The pay to play system goes against everything I stand for.
Read the entire amusing interview here.
Here’s an interview about Burning Man that Seth did with BBC’s Radio 1 in 2012.
Seth Troxler at Robot Heart in happier times, 2013
Robot Heart is led by the self absorbed-“Mr. 159 Rivington Street “, the Ketamine Lawyer and the Chiropracter. Not very inspiring. The DJ’s like Jason Swamy are cool but basically ” 159 Rivington” pimps all his ” friends” for dues. Gadflys from Google etc.round out the crowd.Only cool one is Walter.
This dude is always coming across as such a self-absorbed diva. He really needs to get over himself. Bitching and complaining about every little thing. Pontificating endlessly. Quite tiring actually.
A self-absorbed DJ? Never…
Bump bed would be more than happy to have you and your crew come party with us Seth and jamie. Tennis played in 2013 and we had a blast. playa underground.
Bump Bed is the SHIT
Haven’t been since 2012, maybe the vibe has changed, but Robot Heart has been my favorite place(s) to dance on the playa. Great sound, great music, love the mobile aspect, and the crowd always seemed to be a little older and less douchy than at other sound camps. I couldn’t care less about the cattiness between DJs.
The comment here about it being hard to get into Robot Heart was probably meant facetiously, but in 2013 it actually WAS hard to get in. The bus was surrounded by a ring of at least 50 art cars, several deep; and thousands of bikes piled up everywhere. I would estimate at least 10,000 people there dancing – or trying to, amidst the throng. Moving into the crowd close enough to see which DJ was playing was a huge challenge.
It has certainly become the place to be seen at Burning Man. Kudos to them for creating something so popular, although at the same time it is much of the “EDM tourist” crowd that the Radical Exclusion Burnier-Than-Thous love to hate.
Wow, that’s crazy. Most I ever saw dancing there was MAYBE 200 people, but then I only went late night / early morning. Only civilized place to dance during the day is Pink Mammoth.
Why do you need to ‘see’ the DJ anyway?
How else can you tell who it is? Set times are more of a “nice idea” at Burning Man than a reliable guide.
Go around to the back of the bus and ask someone getting on or off.
LOL. You think sparkle ponies know the DJ’s name?
I knew nothing of any of this scene before reading this interview. But it seems as if Seth is butthurt by Robot Heart in the same way that he likes to make those who like EDM feel.
This article made me think about all the times I tried to dance at Robot Heart and couldn’t get into it…
Yuppp =D
You’re such a fucking hack. After reading the bullshit you’ve posted in the past, I would LOVE to know what Seth actually ment by the quotes I’m sure you misrepresented.
Go fuck yourself, K?
Obviously you don’t know anything about underground music or culture.
so click on the link to the original interview.
I love how people make these bold statements and then obviously didnt read entire article or too lazy to read the original interview for context
the only quip i have is that gorgon city is not next level. it is just updated 90s style house/eurodance
Can’t read well? Just go on the internet and say nasty things so no one will notice. Deep breaths dood if this makes you that mad I’d hate to see you with a real problem.
Meant.