Techno has Soul. If you don’t believe me, ask Detroit Techno legend, Kenny Larkin.

Kenny Larkin is regarded as one of the few standout artists of Detroit Techno’s second wave. After nearly 20 years of touring the world as a DJ, recording under monikers such as Kenny Larkin, Dark Comedy, Yenek, and Pod, and licensing tracks from his own Art Of Dance label, Kenny is still going strong with critical acclaim as he is on the verge of releasing what could be his last pure Techno album, “Keys, Strings and Tambourines”.

If you have no idea who Kenny is, and consider yourself hip and into Dance Music, read on, then go and buy his latest album, “Keys, Strings and Tambourines” (out since July 1^st) – and slap yourself with it. Techno would not be what it is today without the innovation of Detroit Techno pioneers Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Eddie “Flashin’” Fowlkes, The Electrifying Mojo (Charles Johnson), Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, and yours truly… Kenny Larkin.

These men along with a few others helped mold what is now a world-wide genre with dozens of sub-genres to date. It is ironic that the concrete jungle of Detroit could produce two such dichotomous genres – Motown Soul and Detroit Techno – each with such lasting impact. It appears that Detroit is a city adept at producing a confluence of musical styles within genres like Berry Gordy, Jr.’s polished sound of Motown Soul for the Pop masses, and Detroit Techno artists’ Techno for the soul.

Kenny Larkin’s music is no exception. In his tracks you will find elements of Techno, House, Soul, Funk, Blues, Jazz, Ambient, and… comedy...? I forgot to mention that Kenny is hilarious - I almost fell off my chair with laughter during the interview – twice. Check out his Dark Comedy LP ‘Funkfaker: Music Saves My Soul’ for a unique blend of Techno, Blues, Funk and comedy.

For now, read on hipsters, while the funniest man in Techno spins a tail of Techno, Soul, laughter… and why 99.9% of his DJ gigs are out of the country. LA2DAY's Cazembe Abena interviews:

When and how did you get into music?

I’ve always had a natural ear for music, I’ve been able to go to the keyboard and play certain things that I hear, but I’m not a musician per se… I can’t “Take it to the bridge!”

But, I’ve been able to play certain melodies. When I was in the Air Force a friend of mine had a keyboard that I was always playing around on. Then, when I left the force I was introduced to this new sort of music that was coming out, which was Detroit Techno, and I eventually took interest in it and bought a keyboard. I would play whatever I could play and capture it in a sequence. I play well enough to lay down the type of tracks that I want to lay down.

So, you’re mostly a composer?

Well… yeah… That’s another way to say it. That’s a prettier word than I would have used.

You were born and raised in Detroit?

Yeah, born and raised. Went to high school there and then went to The Air Force after high school for two years. When I came back to Detroit in ’88, the whole music thing was happening.

And when was it that Detroit Techno influenced you to start to make music?

About two years after that. A lot of people don’t know this, but I got out of the Air Force early to go back home and do stand-up comedy.

So, comedy was a passion before music?

Oh, totally... I’ve always wanted to be a comedian. The humor came from my mom. There was always laughter in the house. When I told my mom, I was surprised at what she said because normally parents say, “Stay your ass in school!"

But my mother was very supportive and said, “Go for it.” I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it. So I came home and tried to pursue that, but I also noticed that there was this club scene going on at this club called The Shelter with this DJ named Richie Hawtin... This was before Richie even started to do music. He would open up this club for the main DJ. The Techno stuff had been hitting for a while at the Music Institute, but then it started to branch out to these other clubs, so this is where Richie and I got really cool.

And what year was this?

This was ’89, ’90. We became friends and started doing music together. We would drive around town together and listen to this mix of this crazy techno stuff that we loved; it was a show that aired every Friday. Later, we came to find out that it was Derrick May’s show. Richie and I were like what is this?!

But it was hittin’!

It was hittin! So that inspired both of us to make that sort of music. We knew what House music was, but we didn’t know who Derrick was at that time. Terrence Parker had introduced me to House Music in high school, but this other weird stuff? I didn’t know what it was.

What were the tracks that were the inroads for you to this music? The stuff that really attracted you?

The weird shit from Derrick like ‘Beyond the Dance’, really stringing stuff that pulled you emotionally… ‘Strings of Life’ things like that… KMS, Kevin Saunderson, ‘Forcefield’. I was already familiar with Cybotron and Juan Atkins, who was spinning in Detroit, but a lot of people don’t know that Jeff Mills “The Wizard”, was also responsible for expanding Dance Music in Detroit. He influenced a lot of people to get into Dance Music in Detroit. He would mix Dance Music along with Hip-Hop and a whole bunch of stuff together. So we were really lucky to have all of this stuff in our backyard. Also, [The Electrifying] Mojo really helped open us up to all these styles of music. He made a lot of peoples careers and lives. He knows it now, but how could he have known it back then? You normally don’t get people… or Black people… open to so many different styles of music and play them on one radio show. I mean, he didn’t care what culture the music was coming from, he played everything from New Wave, to The J. Giels Band, to the B-52s, to Prince, to Techno – all in the same show! He was huge in encouraging people to leave their blinders off and form their own styles.

You bring up some very interesting points here. One is how most Black people and those that encounter Black culture can make the mistake of assuming that it’s monolithic, all the same. But, it’s fascinating to me that in Detroit you have soulful Motown, and then Detroit Techno. What was it that led to the open-mindedness of Black artists in Detroit? What do you think this was all about?

I don’t know. I think that when you start to try to define it you get away from the art of it. Art comes out of chaos. I think it happened by chance, by mistake, trial and error, etc., etc. There are not many chances where you are able to be around the birth of a genre of music and see it grow. For me, and Carl Craig, and Stacey Pullen these artists and DJs that I’ve mentioned were the ones who really opened our eyes artistically to different stuff. Derrick as well had a tremendous influence. I wasn’t a typical Black kid. I traveled a lot and was exposed to a lot of different types of things due to how my mother raised my brother and me.

I met Derrick in ’91 and licensed my Dark Comedy ‘War of the Worlds’ to him from my Art Of Dance label. He heard some stuff that I did under the Dark Comedy moniker and wanted to use it. Our music connection started there. And yes, Derrick was sort of a mentor for me in that he was pivotal in changing my thoughts and ideas about things. You don’t meet many people that are into so many different things and are so articulate. He’s very prolific. He’s one of my best friends. I had just left the Plus-8 record label.

So, was Dark Comedy your first moniker?

No. I had recorded under Kenny Larkin before on Plus-8… it was the cheesiest record, oh my god… it was called ‘We Shall Overcome’… I had sampled Martin Luther King… Man, it was embarrassing…

I know what you’re saying, but I’ve got to give you props for being positive...

I did one more release for Plus-8 and then that’s when I “found myself” and started doing more things that represented me.

What tracks that you created really represented your sound at this time?

The ‘War of the Worlds’ track. It was darker. That’s really when I started to get influenced more by Detroit Techno. I started listening to a lot more Detroit Techno like BST from Carl Craig who was doing some crazy stuff on Transmat Records. This also opened me up to more than just bleepy stuff and I started to get more into melody. I used to listen to Jazz when I was growing up – Jean-Luc Ponty, Michael Franks - so I had a lot to dip into and started to get more musical.

Who were the major artists that influenced you?

Michael Franks, Parliament, Kraftwerk, Cybotron… a lot of different stuff.

What does Detroit Techno mean to you? As an art form, as a genre?

Freedom. The freedom of expression through electronic means.

Did you deal with a lot of flack from the Black community saying that you guys and what you do are not soulful? That Black people are not supposed to make this sort of music?

Not me, but Kevin [Saunderson] got that more than anybody.

Because he was part of the first wave of Detroit Techno?

Yeah, and because he was the one who had the most commercial success. His Inner City group sold 8 million records. When Virgin tried to place him in a genre here in The States they didn’t know where to place him, because they didn’t understand what it was that he was doing. He experienced that stuff more than anybody. I never experienced that because I came in later and the guys before took all that. I’ve been lucky. I’ve been blessed.

Stay tuned for part 2, party people…

Story by Cazembe Abena