Arguably an essential chapter of modern dance music history – Mike Huckaby is a trendsetter, scholar and an unwearying advocate of Motor City. Mike is a legendary DJ and producer, who through the years has acquired an encyclopedia worth of knowledge of music and is keen on sharing it with the world. Using only his iPhone for communicating with the rest of the world, Mike gave us some brief answers about his current state of mind.

How did you come to dance music?

I live in Detroit. It found me…

You and Rick Wade were managing the legendary Detroit record store Record Time. Please tell us a little about your time at Record Time: which were your main aesthetics of running a record shop then?

The goal was to carry quality music from Detroit and abroad.

How do your years at Record Time reflect on you choosing your records today?

My style as a DJ, or what records I play has not changed.

How do you approach your DJ sets – what’s the main task you set out to yourself when playing records for the dancers?

I just basically vibe off of the energy that’s in the room. I then target certain people when I’m playing, because there is usually one person in the crowd that sets it off for everybody.

You’re known to be a really busy touring DJ, so you have a direct contact with great variety of cultures and environments. Do you have any recent positive surprises or places you really enjoyed?

I alwas enjoy Russia, Serbia, and Germany. I really love playing in Eastern Europe. It seems to be still pretty fresh there, and very underground. One party that really blew my mind was a party on the campus of Cambridge University. The promoters, who were students there, organized a gig. They told me to that I could play deep house. I really didn’t believe it, but the gig was a solid deep house event. This is really
unheard of on a university campus.

Please tell us about one club that’s really on spot and special for you at the moment?

Again, I always enjoy playing at the Panorama Bar in Berlin. Every time there has been very special. I really hate that the Wash in Serbia had to close. That was a very unique club as well.

What is the main idea behind your S Y N T H imprint?

S Y N T H is just a label for more of the techno side of things im doing. My Main label is Deep Transportaion, which is geared strictly for deep house. I really didn’t plan on S Y N T H to take over. Now is the time for me to return to more deeper styled tracks.

Will S Y N T H stay as an output for only Mike Huckaby productions?

There are other artist I’d like to release on S Y N T H, but in general, yes S Y N T H will be mainly for my own productions.

What’s in store for Mike Huckaby in 2013?

Tons of releases, remixes, sound design, touring, workshops, and Teaching at Youthville in Detroit.

Any shouts?

Special thanks to Youthville in Detroit.

Mike Huckaby will be playing in Estonia at club Kink Konk in Tartu on the 3rd of May, when deep house party series named as Horisont, celebrates it’s 3rd anniversary. See the Facebook event here.