Seth Troxler says he wants to resurrect the “anti hero” in dance music
“The 90s was about the anti-hero. It was about being a slacker and being a bit whatever, right?”
Seth Troxler. Credit: Mauricio Santana/Getty
Seth Troxler has spoken of his ambition to resurrect the idea of the “anti hero” in dance music.
The techno DJ made an appearance on the radio show Beats In Space in which he discussed his new record label, Slacker 85, and how dance music has started to be “driven by numbers and image stuff”.
Troxler pointed to the existence of a more average music consumer, or slacker, who “doesn’t have a Rolex, who doesn’t want to wear some crazy shirt, who just likes music and doesn’t shave or just doesn’t really care”.
“We grew up with the anti-hero, right? The ’90s was about the anti-hero. It was about being a slacker and being a bit whatever, right?” Troxler suggests. “That was the vibe. You didn’t want to be the cool, to be the cool person was uncool, right? The jock, all that stuff. It was like, that wasn’t cool, when I grew up. I don’t know if it was cool. And it’s cool, whatever, everybody be what you want to be, right? But I just never found those images or that kind of idea to be so cool. So then I was like, ‘Wow, there’s actually a space for music and people for that to represent.’”
He continues: “And it represents me and so many people I know so well. I wanted to open that space again because I think so much of what we do is about culturally retelling tales that inspired us for new generation. I think this place that we are, or I am from being from, there’s the originators, Jeff Mills, all these people, we grew up, all these people who invented techno or dance music, right? We’re very lucky to be around these people.”
Host Tim Sweeney, meanwhile, pointed out that Troxler couldn’t be that much of a slacker with his work ethic, to which he replied: “The thing is I’m able to get so much done because I figured out a system of laziness to do way more with less.
