Reinier Zonneveld Sees the Future of Techno

As one of the leading visionaries in techno, Reinier Zonneveld is the Versace-rocking honcho that the genre has needed. Starting as a classical pianist, he pivoted after exposing himself to the underground techno scene across Europe. Still, he continues to use his classical training as part of his creative process.

"I would say more technical stuff that I always try to approach, things like percussion, and I try to get the whole track to be sort of one song together — like one big composition and not so much a tonal thing. I'm very much into the tonality of all the elements," the 33-year-old Dutch producer says about his process.

Zonneveld found his label, Filth on Acid, in 2017, allowing him to connect with newer artists and maintain the creative freedom he desires. It also allows him to control the quality of tracks released. "For all the tracks we release, every track has to be a bomb on the dance floor. Otherwise, we don't release it," he adds.

Unsurprisingly, his remix of Eli Brown's track "Believe" with Zeltak is a bumping techno track guaranteed to make the crowd go wild.

"I was just with Eli Brown recently working on a new track, and when you sit down and you know each other, the music tends to work better," he says. "I try to work in person and then just hit record and make it something nice. When you do a collaboration, there's some inspiration that you wouldn't get alone. You get a certain spark there. That's also what I'm looking for with collaborations, so I do quite a lot of them."

Techno has been on the rise recently, with acts like Peggy Gou entering the mainstream electronic music scene.

"It's really good to see the quality of techno also rising as more people getting into it," he says. "There are more people making it, and the quality of the average techno production musically has been really good. It's way better now than ten years ago — there's way more variety. You've got your trance-inspired techno stuff. You have super hard techno but also more peak-time stuff."

Of course, Zonneveld is adding his spin to the genre with his upcoming project, R², which he will premiere in Spaarnwoude, the Netherlands, on August 17. "I'm going to present the first-ever back-to-back with an AI. I designed it with a friend for the last four years who's into coding." The AI model has learned from more than 2,000 hours of Zonneveld's music. "It sort of sounds like my own music, but it's generated in real-time. It can listen to what you play and then, at the same time, move the sliders and start making music with you."
With the use of artificial intelligence still highly controversial in creative settings, Zonneveld is betting on the technology as a way to experiment with his sound.

"What I think AI will do for creative work is raise the bar of the quality exponentially of the things that you can do because you don't have to do it yourself. For music, if you use it in the right way, you're able to make things that you could never make otherwise. I think it will just make for way more interesting, more complex compositions."

As far as what else Zonneveld is working on this year, he says there's a lot more music on the way. "I'm doing a sort of release trick on my label. We do two releases per month of other artists and two releases per month of my own music. I'm basically coming every two weeks with a new track. I made a lot of new music in the six or seven weeks that it was just in the studio. It's going to build up toward a new album sometime this summer."

The new music will also showcase the evolution of his sound, which Zonneveld says will sound "a bit more extreme" this time around. '"I like to renew my sound every year," he adds.

Beyond his upcoming appearance at Ultra Music Festival on Saturday, March 23, he'll also headline the Filth on Acid showcase at M2, which is part of Ultra's Resistance takeover of the Miami Beach venue. "We'll have back-to-backs with Hi-Lo and Space 92. I've played with them before, and I also made some tracks in the studio with them. They're really good artists with a really strong sound."

His time spent in South Florida during Miami Music Week has helped him see how American attitudes to techno are changing toward techno music, especially in comparison to Europeans, who see the adopted Detriot-born genre as part of their identity.

"I think the differences are fading at the moment. It used to be a bigger difference; it was more focused on EDM. Compared to the U.S., we have more underground clubs [in Europe]. But to be honest, I think these lines are blurring a bit, and you see a lot more underground music now in the U.S. and a lot more techno."

Filth on Acid. With Reinier Zonneveld, Hi-Lo, Space 92, and Joyhauser. 10 p.m. Wednesday, March 20, at M2, 1235 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; resistancemiami.com. Tickets cost $39.95 via tickets.resistancemiami.com.

Ultra Music Festival 2024. Friday, March 22, through Sunday, March 24, at Bayfront Park, 301 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; ultramusicfestival.com. Sold out.

Check out New Times' full listing of Miami Music Week 2024 events.