Photos: Cai Griffin @ Voena

Recently we had a bit of a chat with some of the heads behind sydney based techno label Motorik. These guys have been making big moves as of late within the australian dance music scene, bringing forward some solid releases with the likes of Jensen Interceptor, Light Year and CSMNT61. They’ve also kick started their own radio show for FBI Click on Friday afternoons, something we’d definitely assume would be brimming with on point techno music.

Notorious for their impressively well produced warehouse parties around Sydney, we found it only appropriate to touch on that scene as a whole and where it’s headed, as well as where they’re taking their label in the future.

SR: So let everyone know what you’ve been up to?

MTK: Lately we’ve been paying a lot more attention to doing right by our artists and getting behind the releases and not just doing the monthly parties; not just letting it be the sole outlet for our music. We’ve got really great artists contacting us and wanting us to release their music which is really exciting.

We’ve been putting so much work into the monthly parties for three years, and they’ll keep going but it’s time to do justice to these artists, our next chapter is making our kind of lasting contribution to Australian music scene. Definitely seems like everything’s moving along nicely. Yeah well back in the beginning, the label and the warehouse parties started out of necessity, just because we needed an outlet for our music at the time, but now that’s kind of grown into something where people that we respect are approaching us to put out their music. it never was the plan but it’s a really cool outcome.

SR: What sets your warehouse parties ahead of the others in Sydney?

MTK: I think the thing that makes ours different is we did ours out of necessity, just to have somewhere to hold our events and play our music. We didn’t invent doing parties in warehouses but it was the only thing that worked for us so that’s what we did, and from that i think we had a bit more experience in putting it all together. These days it’s definitely become more of a thing.

SR: Will the new lockout laws make warehouse parties even more of a thing?

MTK: It definitely will, but it draws more attention to the warehouse scene and that will put it at risk of being shut down. It’s great but the more people that do it, the more attention it draws to itself and that could definitely cause problems in the future.

SR: There’s always heaps drugs floating around at warehouse parties, do they have a place there?

MTK: It’ll always be there regardless of the genre. whether its techno or punk music kids are still going to get high, its just something that comes hand in hand and it’s something you can’t really avoid. We do our best to control it and make sure it doesn’t get out of hand, but it’s always going to be there.

SR: Things to look out for from you guys in the near future?

MTK: Well we have our tour coming up which is exciting, we’ve also just started up our radio show on FBI radio on friday nights called FBI Click from 4-6pm, Saturdays 4-6am & 2-4pm and Sundays 2-4am.

Another thing would be Jensens Interceptors new release ‘System Addict’ featuring Francis Xavier and a dangerous remix from Jon Convex. It’s also our 3rd birthday this weekend which is going to be huge, venue and production wise, we can’t really say too much about it other than the fact its going to be insane (tickets here).

These guys definitely sound like like they mean business and it’d be a good idea to keep tabs on them for now, there will be a lot more quality music and parties coming from these guys into the future. Be sure to check out their upcoming tour dates and go check them out, if you’re in Sydney get down to their 3rd birthday party this weekend, as mentioned above and going off what went down at their last birthday it’s something you’ll probably want to head along to.

Jensen Interceptor ‘System Addict’ Tour (remaining dates)

July 25th – Trinity Bar, Canberra
August 2nd – Déjà vu @ The Grand Hotel, Wollongong
August 22nd – Elsewhere, Gold Coast

Motorik 3 Years of XTC + NRG

July 19th – Sydney, Secret Warehouse (tickets)