Music
Jeff Mills
born 1963 · DJ, record producer, composer
Detroit-born techno DJ and producer, "The Wizard" of WJLB radio, who co-founded Underground Resistance before taking Detroit techno to Berlin and the world.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 63- Also known as
- The Wizard
- Detroit years
- 1963–early 1990s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Jeff Mills was born in Detroit and first made his name on the city's airwaves. In the early 1980s he appeared as a guest DJ on The Electrifying Mojo's influential show on WJLB, then got his own program as "The Wizard," known for rapid-fire cutting and mixing. He also held residencies in Detroit-area clubs and, with Anthony Srock, formed the industrial-leaning project Final Cut. In 1989 he and "Mad" Mike Banks founded Underground Resistance, a militant techno collective that tied its raw sound to the economic hardship of Reagan-era Detroit and to political change; the collective remains a pillar of the city's scene. Mills left UR in 1992, moved to New York and then to a residency at Berlin's Tresor club, and settled in Chicago, where he and fellow Detroiter Robert Hood launched Axis Records. His later work includes film scores and a residency at the Louvre, and in 2017 France admitted him to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Highlights
- "The Wizard" on Detroit's WJLB radio in the 1980s
- Co-founded Underground Resistance with "Mad" Mike Banks in 1989
- Founded Axis Records in 1992 with Robert Hood
- Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2017)