Héctor Oaks (Madrid, 35 years old) was born on Via Bakalao in Spain and now his name is one of the protagonists of the new Spanish and global fever for electronics and techno. This DJ originally from the Madrid neighborhood of Tetouan, who lived for 10 years in Berlin, returned to his hometown and is a resident of one of the best electronic clubs in the world, Bassiani, located in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi.
Oaks has two seals behind him, OAKS AND KAOSand two albums: As we said AND universal fire. He started out selling tickets and handing out brochures at Madrid’s legendary Macumba club and ended up returning eight years later to be the DJ protagonist of that session. He knows that to earn the industry’s current respect he had to go abroad.
Now, his closures at mythical festivals like Monegros or Aquasella are part of the collective digital memory or are a consequence of something he calls “the theory of collective ecstasy”. This conversation took place moments before he played at one of the most important techno parties in the world, Time Warp, a historic German event also based in Madrid to which he has already been seven times: “Techno is German folklore. We have flamenco, they have techno music.”
He studied a sound engineering module at the institute and once he arrived in the German capital he worked as a sound engineer: “I practically pulled cables and loaded trucks for a year.” Oaks, who doesn’t want to reveal the origin of her stage name, went to Berlin to “study Berghain”, one of the most iconic clubs in the world and much more popular today because Rosalía titled a song on her new album with that name. He claims he went there every Sunday to listen to the best people for 12 hours. dj and learn: “I said: I will see everything I can, I will go to all the clubs and get it, I will try to play in this club sooner or later.” Accompanied by a good friend, they spent hours on the track commenting on the mixes; He soon realized his dream.
He believes that if it used to be essential to go to Berlin if you wanted to dedicate yourself to DJing, now it doesn’t matter much anymore. Of course, in universal electronics, Ibiza is still Ibiza, for Oaks a place as important as Berlin: “I didn’t think so until I went and realized that the culture rave It’s very similar. It seems even more extreme than Berlin to me because that scene doesn’t stop, you can go After every day and meet the best DJ DJing in a mansion for 12 hours. There are the best clubs in Spain.”
In an era where the concept of DJ and where “everyone has a playlist on Spotify”, ensures you feel more DJ what a producer: “I saw others who inspired me, be DJ It’s like a kind of contemporary cultural vehicle that’s accessible to a lot of people. It’s easy to understand and you don’t need to have very high technical knowledge to be able to do it. It’s a very simple way to express yourself. Of course, Oaks wants to make it clear that achieving success in this industry requires a lot of work: “You have to work hard for a long time. You are alone, now you see the recognition. I played in Holland, in France, in Poland and then in Spain. Now here people are more open, they try to welcome new people, before it was very hierarchical and those who came came. Being Spanish and making it happen was very difficult. Before everything that came from outside was considered better.”
Oaks says he only DJs with vinyl because they are objects that remind him of people, places and moments in his life. “In the old days, be DJ you needed a music library, dishes and knowing how to do it. Today it’s easier to learn and the democratization of the movement is great for everyone to appreciate and understand.” For a show he usually brings around sixty records – out of the 8,000 he has – a selection he makes without thinking too much because he has the feeling of having an automatic receiver in his head: “You know them quite well, it’s not like carrying a USB stick with the whole library with you. They are positioned for styles, rhythms and energy.” Even if you assume the technical limitations, like you can’t do it cycles (repetitions), he believes that this is where the magic of vinyl lies: “You can listen to the song from start to finish and sometimes you take risks, like the needle jumping, but it gives you that extra edge. In many art forms, limitations are what create the magic.”
Him DJ The Madrilenian believes that we are living a sort of rebirth of culture rave who left his mark in Spain with the Camino Bakalao: “I think electronic music is becoming an important part of popular music. Especially because it’s not just music, it’s a total experience. People manage to come in a different way and do things they don’t do in other places, they free themselves and dance differently.” In this sense, the importance of electronics and techno to fight oppression stands out, as in the case of the LGTBIQ collective, which has always felt very involved in this genre. For example, he puts the importance of Bassiani’s existence in a country like Georgia: “There is less freedom than here to be whoever you want and that makes every party really special. The people who live there experience absolute freedom when they go to this club; there are no rules, just respect each other, everyone can be who they want to be and no one will judge them. It doesn’t matter your age, your clothing style or anything.”
Precisely in La Ruta’s praise he wants to clarify that it was a source of inspiration for him: “It was a very important cultural movement that does not have the recognition it should have at an international level.” And he admits having studied it thoroughly: “The music that the dj It was absolutely cutting edge for its time. “When Germans, Dutch or Americans hear those songs, they go crazy.”
The collective ecstasy
Oaks believes and works in favor of the “collective ecstasy theory”, that is, bringing people into a state of ecstasy. And there we talk about his epic moments in festivals like Monegros or Aquasella, two national references of electronic music, where his videos play The line of life They got millions of views on social networks and gave him a lot of visibility. But he insists: “This can’t be achieved with just one song, it’s a succession of songs that I play. They use recognizable sounds that are stored on people’s collective hard drives. Even if they’ve never heard that specific song, they feel like they know it. They’re put in the correct order, raising the energy to give rise to collective ecstasy.”
A clear example is the boom in his mix of The line of life, the union of two songs that can only be heard live if Oaks plays it: “I listened to some Pastis sessions in the past and I knew he played this song a cappella with others. I don’t remember the exact moment it came to me, but I was DJing and the idea came to me and I saw that it had a special effect.” In his case he mixes a remix of an original song from the 1980s by Anne Clark, Poetry without wordswith the a cappella by Julio Posadas The line of life: “I often find myself putting vocals from one place with melodies from another to create a song.” And that’s where he focuses, focusing on techno-pop, that is, recording techno music with singers. One of the latest examples is his song with Alexxandra, Sandra Delaporte’s most techno project.
Time distortion
Time Warp Spain took Madrid by storm in its second edition, bringing together more than 30,000 participants on 10 and 11 October at the IFEMA exhibition center. The sound universe of techno in its many facets managed to break records, especially on Saturday, when the “no tickets” sign was put up. Some of the most important names in techno of recent years and the present participated in the programming, such as Charlotte de Witte, Richie Hawtin, Patrick Mason, Clara Cuvé and Deborah de Luca. The Time Warp concept was born in 2004 in Germany and over the course of its long history it has managed to conquer its own space as a brand based on techno and high-level production on the international scene, celebrating its thirtieth anniversary in style.
