As you can see in the video above, electronic music pioneer Richie Hawtin resides in Berlin, where he continues his experiments advancing the artform of audio production. But he didn’t always live in the German techno mecca. In fact, Hawtin rose from humble beginnings in a little city that was just close enough to the action.
It might sound a little odd to folks unfamiliar with the area, but there is a Canadian city south of Detroit. Windsor, Ontario is Hawtin’s adopted hometown, a city he moved to at age nine and has called home ever since. As a youth, Hawtin would cross the border into Detroit to hit up techno parties which, no doubt, led to his love for the style and the out-of-the-box innovation he brought to it. Hawtin has never forgotten Windsor, and recently Windsor let him know that they’ve got plenty of love for him as well by presenting him with the key to the city.
Hawtin is currently on the last leg of his CNTRL: Beyond EDM tour, for which he and a handful of his contemporaries have traveled to colleges around the US and Canada, presenting educational programs on the history and evolution of electronic music by day, and throwing raucous techno parties by night. When the tour passed through Windsor for one of the final dates, Mayor Eddie Francis presented Hawtin with the key between the educational portion and Hawtin’s performance at the famed Boom Boom Room.