DEFsf: For those who don't know, describe the vibe at Solid Grooves and what kind of guy Brandon was.

Mattski: I remember him schooling me a lot about techno when I went there. He is one of the few people who used the term 'foo foo trance' back when trance was all the rage... a term I still like to use to this day.

The only day I was there during the week was shipment day and that was mad busy. Everyone knew that you needed to go to SF for the House records but Solid Grooves was good for Techno, Trax and anything coming out of Detroit or Chicago, because that was big at the time... Brandon was The Techno guy there and Harry Who was the House [guy]. Both of these cats had mad knowledge of dance music.

DEFsf: Do you think that the city of San Jose, being such a technical city, has any influence as to whether techno has eminated from there?

Lucas Rodenbush: Most definitely. My high school magnet was pretty ahead of its time -- I was studying Electronic Arts, which made me feel like I was living in the future. Reinforcements of this idea come from the fact that there were companies around like Apple, Adobe, IBM, SGI, Sun, etc. People from the South Bay are definitely technically minded.

DEFsf: What inspired you to make techno earliest on?

Chris Jackson: I think, for most us, it was the need for something besides the lazy house music that was dominating the SJ area. Something new, fresh and different. I always liked heavy, dirty and faster beats, and this was one way I could get that....make it myself. To be quite honest, I really don't know what inspired me to make techno. when I first put a studio together, it's just what came out of the gear. I never really sat down and thought to myself "Let's make some techno". I was inspired by early techno legends like Joey Beltram, Jeff Mills and Juan Atkins, but always tried to do my own thing. It's what came natural for me.

Mattski: I think it was the right time. The house DJs were left out because we did not have the culture that SF had and the crowd support they developed over the years. So djs and producers might have been more aggressive and not as happy. So I think we started developing a more aggressive sound with our house music and Techno, So we could stand out of the normal and be noticed. We understood who "JACK" was and what is it that "JACK" does. Our music was way more aggressive than any other city in the West. It was very beat driven, jackin, swinging, dark and not so happy. We also had good communication and friendships with cats from Detroit and Chicago.

Lucas Rodenbush: When I was attending Lincoln High School, a few of my friends were listening to