After hitting a creative wall in the early 2000s, new tech enticed Steve O’Sullivan back to his minimal techno roots. Danny Turner grills the producer about his path to re-assimilation

Initially influenced by Underground Resistance founder Robert Hood, techno mainstay Steve O’Sullivan’s slowly evolving, minimal club tracks have been a prescient component of his sound for three decades, on releases under his own name and versatile aliases including The Wise Caucasian and Blue Spirit. O’Sullivan has released music on numerous labels, including his own Mosaic, Bluetrain and Green, the latter of which recently showcased his signature take on raw, minimal techno via the compilation Green Trax, charting releases from ’95-99. Meanwhile, lockdown has seen O’Sullivan rejuvenated with a new 20-track collaboration taking shape for early summer release.

What appealed to you about making minimal techno over other subgenres?

“I’d say my biggest influence was probably Robert Hood who simplified his sound down to its bare essentials. Even now I don’t think he’s put a shit track out, which is always a sign of a good artist. In those early days I was listening to a lot of Chicago stuff from Beneath Records, which was basically just drum tracks, and if you listen to my music you can hear that all over them. I think that minimalism is the key to my music and the sound is really what it’s all about. The production is as important as the musical ideas, including this whole idea of making music out of nothing and not overkilling it with huge chord progressions or cheesy snare rolls.”

You were a big fan of the Street Sounds compilations back in the day…

“I grew up on those. It was the precursor to what we’re listening to nowadays – that whole electro sound with drum machines, which I was obsessed with more than anything else. When I was about 16, a music store opened in my local high street and it had a little Roland TR-505 drum machine. They showed me a demo of it, so I saved my money up and bought it six months later for about £150. That was all I had for a year. I was just making various tracks with it, so you can imagine how difficult that was [laughs].”