1. Richie Hawtin became involved with Detroit techno's second wave in the early 1990s, and has been a leading exponent of minimal techno since the mid-1990s.
20 Facts About Richie Hawtin
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In 2016, Richie Hawtin launched his own technology company called PLAYdifferently, and released the MODEL 1 mixer, co-designed with Andy Rigby-Jones.
3.
Richie Hawtin was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, and at the age of nine moved with his parents to LaSalle, Ontario, a suburb of Windsor, Ontario, where he was raised before spending time in Detroit, MI.
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Richie Hawtin's father worked as a robotics technician at General Motors and was a fan of electronic music, introducing his son to Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream at an early age.
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Richie Hawtin has one brother, Matthew, who is a visual artist and ambient music DJ.
6.
Richie Hawtin was mentored by Scott "Go-Go" Gordon at The Shelter in Detroit and his early style was a mix of house music and techno.
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Richie Hawtin dropped out of the University of Windsor, where he was studying film, and Plus 8 went on to release material by artists such as Speedy J and Kenny Larkin.
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Richie Hawtin adopted his 'Plastikman' incarnation in 1993, releasing the single "Spastik" and parent album Sheet One, going on to release a number of albums and touring a live show for the next decade.
9.
Richie Hawtin was among pioneers of the Minimal techno movement that emerged in the early 1990s, where he represented a "second wave" of American producers, such as Daniel Bell, Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Kenny Larkin, and Mike Banks, associated with Detroit techno.
10.
Richie Hawtin spent part of 2002 and 2003 living in New York City, before opening a label in Berlin, Germany, where he focused on his M-nus label, developing the careers of DJ-producers such as Magda, Gaiser, Marc Houle, Hearttrob and Troy Pierce.
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In 2012, Richie Hawtin worked with Loco Dice and Ean Golden in promoting Electronic Dance Music on a tour of North American universities entitled CNTRL: Beyond EDM, which included music production seminars, lessons in the music business, and live music performances.
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In July 2015, Richie Hawtin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music Technology by the University of Huddersfield.
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Richie Hawtin composed and scored music for the XXth Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony and 1928 silent French film Brumes d'automne.
14.
Richie Hawtin released a mix CD Sounds of the Third Season with Sven Vath.
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In November 2013, Hawtin performed as Plastikman at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
16.
On December 11,2015, Richie Hawtin released a fifteen-track LP titled From My Mind To Yours to commemorate the 25 year anniversary of his record label Plus 8.
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Richie Hawtin's established his own music technology company, called PLAYdifferently, in 2016.
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Richie Hawtin co-founded Plus 8 Equities, a music technology fund along with John Acquaviva, Rishi Patel, Ben Turner and Pete Tong, where Richie Hawtin serves as chairman.
19.
In 2019, Richie Hawtin launched his CLOSER App, a tool for deconstructing the audio from his own live performances while toggling between multiple camera angles.
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Richie Hawtin has won DJ Awards' Best Techno DJ Award three times and received 17 nominations overall.