How did a kid from rural Michigan – who lived among cows, haybales and strawberry festivals – change the face of music? As Atkins blazes into the UK, he relives his wild times at early British raves
When Juan Atkins is walking through Berlin airport, he’ll often spot someone out of the corner of his eye, approaching cautiously before plucking up the courage to ask: “Are you Juan Atkins?” But what they’re really asking the diminutive 61-year-old is: “Are you the man who created techno?” Atkins, speaking to me from his Detroit home, elaborates: “They’ll tell me, ‘Your music changed my life.’ It makes me want to cry, man.”
Despite being the genre’s ambassador and elder statesman – his first record was released in 1981 – Atkins is not slowing down. He has just got back from playing Berlin’s clubs, recently had a slot at Detroit’s Movement technofest, and this week he will hit the UK’s Houghton festival.
