Music
Magda
born 1975 · DJ, producer
Polish-born DJ who grew up in Hamtramck, learned techno in Detroit's record stores and raves and became a star of Richie Hawtin's Minus label.
- Born
Żywiec, Poland- Birth name
- Magdalena Chojnacka
- Also known as
- Run Stop Restore · Queen of Minimal
- Detroit years
- 1986–2000s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Magdalena Chojnacka was born in Żywiec, Poland, and emigrated with her parents at nine, first to Texas and in 1986 to Hamtramck, the heart of metro Detroit's Polish community. At a rave in 1994 she heard Richie Hawtin play and decided to follow the music: she worked at the Record Time store and persuaded the bar where she worked to host a monthly techno night with residents Claude Young and Daniel Bell, who soon asked her to warm up for them. Her first DJ set came in 1996, and in 1997 Hawtin helped her land her first residency. After a short spell studying graphic design in New York, she returned to Detroit, shared a house with producer Marc Houle and, with Houle and Troy Pierce, formed Run Stop Restore on Hawtin's Minus label in 2003. Her 2006 mix She's a Dancing Machine and Fabric 49 (2009) made her a leading minimal-techno DJ; she moved to Berlin and in 2011 co-founded the label Items & Things.
Highlights
- Grew up in Hamtramck from 1986.
- Co-founded Run Stop Restore (2003) and the label Items & Things (2011).
- Mix album She's a Dancing Machine (Minus, 2006).
- Mixed Fabric 49 (2009); debut album From the Fallen Page (2010).
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Lived here · 1986–1990s
Hamtramck
The Polish-American enclave within Detroit where her family settled in 1986.
Worked here · mid-1990s
Record Time (record store)
Status being checked
Metro Detroit record store where she worked after discovering techno.