Currently residing in Berlin, a relative stone’s throw from her home town of Zywiec in Poland considering the nomadic existence of her childhood, Magda seems to have finally found a city that mirrors her own attitude to life - no restrictions and certainly no compromise. It’s a philosophy that also flows through Magda’s music particularly during her after hour sets. The ability to guide her audience through the dark recesses of contemporary minimalism before delivering them back safely into the light means her name is never far from the lips of discerning clubbers and fellow
DJs alike.
Her family left Zywiec for Texas in 1984 when she was nine before finally settling in Detroit in 1986. All this traveling around from one starkly contrasting environment to another, taught her to deal with new challenges and to adapt to new situations pretty quickly, lessons that have subsequently helped her deal with the often hectic life of a touring DJ. Always the outsider, the concept of ‘home’ was never as straightforward as it is for some. Sometimes though, home isn't a physical location, it’s a state of mind and when she first turned up at a warehouse party a couple of blocks from where she’d grown up in the tough district of Hamtramck, she knew she’d found it. This initial foray into the Detroit underground culminated in the mind-blowing experience that was Spastik - Richie Hawtin’s first Plastikman PA. She was hooked.
Within a few months, armed with a cheap pair of belt drive turntables and an unquenchable thirst for vinyl, she’d moved from one side of the shop counter to the other at the influential Record Time store and had also persuaded the bar where she worked to put on a monthly techno night with Claude Young and Daniel Bell. Her enthusiasm was totally infectious and they soon asked her to warm up for them. In conversation it’s clear to see how much the lack of attitude and unconditional support from Bell in particular has shaped Magda’s own way of doing things.
Then, inspired by her mother’s ‘dark and surreal’ art she decided to study Graphic Design in New York state but soon realized music was the most natural medium for her self expression. Nevertheless, this abstract influence can still be found in her music production, juxtaposing as she does warm, thick swathes of sound with jagged little hi hat patterns, sometimes lazy, sometimes clinical but always purposeful and expressive.
On returning to Detroit she met Richie Hawtin at one of the legendary Hot Box parties where a mutual friend introduced her. It was the first of what turned out to be a couple of chaotic encounters that eventually led to the invitation of a gig at Hawtin’s 13 Below night. It was there she first met Marc Houle. Their off-beat humor quickly developed into an unshakeable friendship and Magda was soon lodging with Marc in Windsor where their musical symbiosis started laying the foundations for 2003’s Run Stop Restore project together with Troy Pierce.
By this time she’d already cut her teeth on the main stage, regularly performing at the System raves in Detroit and as part of the Women on Wax collective. Things don’t always go according to plan though, and by 1999 Magda was pretty much fed up with the ‘scene politics’ that seemed directly at odds with the feelings she’d first encountered. She took a step back, followed her heart and immersed herself in the minimal sounds scuttling out of Germany in particular (i.e Brinkmann, Perlon, Kompakt). The resulting bootleg CD mix - Fact and Friction - won her a new set of admirers and consolidated her growing relationship with Hawtin, opening for him at the millennium celebration EPOK and also forming part of an enviable line up at the Plus 8 ten year anniversary party From Our Minds To Yours. Since then she has become his sole choice as opening DJ, accompanying him on both European and Stateside tours.
The new millennium brought a host of new digital technology with it, most notably Final Scratch and when she wasn’t on the road she could be found wiling away the hours transferring Hawtin’s vast record collection into the digital domain. At the time there were only about ten DJs using Final Scratch and while others regarded it with suspicion, Magda was quick to see the potential, re-editing her favorite tracks to further enhance the distinctive flavor of her sets. She shies away slightly from the ubiquitous ‘minimal’ tag, citing Chicago Jack and Acid as equally significant ingredients in her sound but whichever way you look at it, she is part of a movement that is rapidly redefining electronic dance music as we know it. Turntables, laptops, samplers and efx units now clutter her DJ booth as the wall between traditional DJing and ‘on the fly’ production starts to crumble.
And so, the Minus train rumbles on, forging a relentless path through new, uncharted territory. Magda however, remains refreshingly free from the burden of expectation. Genuinely surprised by the trajectory her life has taken yet deeply aware of the responsibility she has to her growing army of fans, she faces the future with the same wide-eyed, ‘devil may care’ attitude that has always accompanied her from city to city, from airport to airport, from disco to disco. A lonely existence? For some maybe but Magda knows more than most that home is where the heart is.
Hi dear... I told you that i couldn't find my mac adapter at the end of the party. Hope you found that, did you ? At the end of the party we were a bit tired and maybe you took both yours and mine.... except the adapter ..... yesterday i found your tracktor vinyl. i have that. secured.
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