Summer Forest: Defining Electroclash As Tech

While England's media continue to debate whether the electro revival is hype or not, elsewhere in the world, scenes continue to develop and America is just one place where it's beginning to take hold. Artists, models and much of America's Bohemian elite from which Fischerspooner sprang have jumped aboard the trend, sparking fledgling club scenes in America's tastemaker capitals of New York and LA.

One such character embracing and pushing the sound is the wonderfully named Summer Forest, a one-time photographer's assistant to Annie Leibovitz who recently released Rise, a documentary on the New Orleans rave scene. Nowadays based in LA, she's recently compiled a mix CD, Defining Tech, which includes all the usual suspects (Miss Kittin, Felix Da Housecat, Peaches) plus several more US producers including the great Detroit Grand Pubbhas. Chatting to Skrufff's Jonty Adderley



Skrufff: How big is the electroclash presence in LA-

Summer Forest: "LA's just getting a taste of it now, though it's difficult to say. When I left New York six months ago people like Fischerspooner had crossed over from the galleries into the clubs and there was some buzz about Peaches, though it was quite underground. There's always been a small electro scene in New York but the totality of it, where you feel this change in dress sense and it's energy, is just hitting LA now. It's affecting fashion designers and gallery people and there's a whole element of performance around it."

Skrufff: Your CD's called Defining Tech whereas Electroclash is now popping up as the main label, what does the term mean to you-

Summer Forest: "I don't really care for it, to me electro has been around for a long time and it's amazing but some of the music that's being thrown in here is from everywhere- from punk, for example. I like to call what's happening now the punk rock of dance music in a way, that's how it feels to me. Ghetto tech, for example, is providing lots of it. I knew about Fischerspooner last year when I first started working on the record and at the time there wasn't a huge hype around them. Fischerspooner came to LA a year ago and there was a huge press backlash- people hated them and they were fully rejected."

Skrufff: How is LA different from New York-

Summer Forest: "What's different about is that it's so vast here with tiny pockets of things happening that you might not know about. It's a location thing, music doesn't always make its way all the way to LA, artists travel here less frequently. It's changing though, there's a lot of creativity coming out of here right now and I've heard people say LA is going through a renaissance. I hope so."

Skrufff: What does the term electroclash actually mean to you-

Summer Forest: "To me it's a term coined by Larry T in New York, he's a big New York character on the gay, drag queen scene and he was involved with a lot of parties in New York over the last 10 years. You'd always see him around New York with a whole posse of drag queens. He's had a big impact on New York's club scene. A lot of time with drag queens, they're just there but he was always connected with promoters and clubs."

Skrufff: What was your own route into raving-

Summer Forest: "I missed the first few years because I went to college in 1990 which was the first year there really were raves on the East Coast. I was in the mountains not close to any cities but I started hearing about them. In 93 I started going to parties in the Baltimore/ DC area and there was an amazing scene then. Then I started going up to New York and the clubs and started going out heavily in 1994 when I moved up. I photographed every rave I went to."

Skrufff: And you were working with Annie Liebowitch at that time-

Summer Forest: "I started working for her in 1994, as an intern (work experience/ assistant), then 6 months in, due to a fallout of people there I became a producer. I was thrown in at the deep end; as each person left, I'd st Tags

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