Carl Craig on Detroit Techno, the Art of the Alias, and the Future of Electronic Music | Living for the City Full Interview

Carl Craig on Detroit Techno, the Art of the Alias, and the Future of Electronic Music | Living for the City Full Interview

From Living for the City by Side Stage

July 29, 2026 · 40 min · Season 1 · Episode 12

About this episode

Carl Craig discusses his influential role in Detroit techno, the significance of music aliases, and the future of electronic music.

Carl Craig is one of Detroit techno's most important architects, the producer behind Bug in the Bassbin, Landcruising, More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art, and a body of work released under so many aliases — Paperclip People, 69, Innerzone Orchestra — that the full scope of his influence is almost impossible to map. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib. In this interview, Carl traces his origin story from playing Axel F on his cousin's Sequential Circuits synthesizer to carrying 12-inches to a family reunion in Georgia where Egypt Egypt cleared the room. He talks about Electrifying Mojo, Alan Oldham's Fast Forward, and the radio that raised him, and why the homogenization of radio in the '90s was a loss the culture still hasn't recovered from. He breaks down the art of the alias, why making music under different identities freed him from genre constraints, and how Sun Ra and George Clinton got there first. Carl also reflects on why Detroit's architecture and its ruins both fed his sonic world-building, why he came back after living in London and Spain, and what it would take for electronic music — and hip hop — to find their way back underground. This…

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