*secret funlinks

Written by brev dhia

Music events flood the LA nightlife. Any day of the week, any holiday, you can find performances from countless genres of music. But beyond the media catch-alls of "rock" or "dance/DJ" are the scenes that struggle for survival. Without media support or the convenience of radio-friendliness, the viability of live music depends upon the fans who come out and the hard-working promoters who pull them.

Every few months, several hundreds of people gather in an LA warehouse for something known as Interface. They subject themselves to tinnitus-inducing sound, seizure-inducing visuals, and lasting physical distress. Aside from any drinking, mingling, or flirting, they gather to listen to music and dance. They gather to ritualistically engage the performer in a reciprocal energy exchange. The location, the international talent, the sum experience is facilitated by an entity known as Droid Behavior.

Droid Behavior exists for techno, a form of music born in Detroit. Despite its popularity overseas, techno has remained underrepresented and misunderstood in most of the US. Distinguishing the genre locally and building a scene out of nearly nothing have defined Droid Behavior’s mission for the past four years.

Techno exists for people, and it needs their engagement to survive. Droid’s network relies on those who come out to its events and collectively form an experience. Frequent their parties, and you’ll see many of the same faces, a dedicated fan base. But it didn’t happen overnight - LA had to be convinced.

The boundaries of techno are fluid. It absorbs other genres, digests them, and grows. Droid understands techno’s broad roots and uses them to pull fans from nearly every LA music scene that has been touched by techno in the past decade. By exposing regular crowds to diverse sounds, they showcase these connections and promote respect for the music and its artistry. At the same time, the pairing of genre-bending artists with more straightforward techno hooks fans and shows them that they do like the music.

Hand-to-hand street promotions and constant brand visibility play a huge role in keeping Droid and the techno scene alive, but maintenance of the community takes place online. The internet’s free and easy tools keep people plugged in.

Naturally, the online operation is decentralized - Droid’s all over the web. A quick search returns not only the website, but a Google group, MySpace pages, YouTube posts, external coverage, a podcast, a Community Wiki events calendar, a Flickr album, and involvement in other networks and forums. Droid’s accessibility and variety online encourages various levels of involvement. Whether it’s designing pages for the zine or adding links to the website, people want to get involved.

The Droid network operates across a spectrum. Fans of techno and other music who attend the events make up the bulk of the network, but promoters, DJs, and producers broaden it considerably. These connections are strongest locally but extend internationally, again thanks to the tools available online.

So other than a social network, what is Droid Behavior? It’s a production and promotion group. It’s a music label. It’s an email newsletter. It’s the hard work of Vidal and Vangelis Vargas and Mohamed Espinosa. It’s a volunteer organization. It’s a blip in the world of music and the best in West Coast techno; it’s plenty of other things. Droid Behavior is ultimately realized and understood every few months when all elements come together at Interface.