Interactivity is a word used again and again to herald the possibility of new media in today’s Age of Communication. When you are connected, you are empowered to explore a world beyond your physical reality. With the proper tools, you are able to share your ideas and express yourself, resonate with people whose minds are linked with like intentions...and a community is born. Interactive is what music is, essentially. It is meant to be shared. Before we all had our phone lines hooked up to our computers and MP3 players around our wrists, the way we interacted with music was with each other at concerts and raves. The magic of performances ranging from the most elaborate light band to the solo DJ transmitting sound energy is the source of what every kid on the dancefloor holds in their heart, bringing it back to their own home to tinker away with beats, loops, rhythms and melodies.

The embodiment of this movement of expression from real world to virtual and back again through a convergence of music and creative technology can be traced along a relatively short timeline. A few key visionaries have taken steps over the past decade to bring the power of exclusive professional tools to the hands of the people. Josh Gabriel of Mixman Technologies and Beatnik is one of them–an expert in the field of interactive music with extensive experience in digital music production, synthesis and programming.

“To me [interactive entertainment] will be like TV.... You don’t have to download anything, you just put it on and it’s there and you can enjoy it. I feel like without a doubt that’s how the Web will be. You won’t think of software as something you run, it’s a channel of entertainment.”

My first introduction to Josh and Mixman was at the 10th Annual Digital Be-In in San Francisco. With George Clinton by his side and a PC at his fingertips, he remixed that funk business live! Mixman started off as a performance piece in between acid house DJs at a club in Holland in 1989. “I made this system that had eight light beams in a big U on top of me beaming down into the photo sensors, all hooked up to an Atari computer and an Akai-S900 sampler. When I would break a lightbeam it was like playing a Mixman of today,” Gabriel elaborates. His next step was to find a way he could make this so people could play it.

A few years later, when Josh met Eric Almgren, the two started working on ways to make the idea fly. “We wanted to make a hardware device like a Walkman...Discman... Mixman...a portable remixing device where you put a cartridge in the back, remix and hear it on your headphones, do it wireless to the FM receiver and stuff like that.” Integrating the possibility with computers seemed like the way to go, so the very first version of Mixman was born for Windows 3.1. And the response? “People weren’t that into music on their computer yet. MP3s hadn’t hit yet, people didn’t have CD burners yet, people were just barely sticking CDs in their computer to play them during work, you know?” Gabriel reflects, “We were a little bit ahead of our time.”

From the origin of their production, Mixman has always incorporated the vision of highlighting underground music. Some of the first musicians to participate with Mixman–Freaky Chakra, Mephisto Odyssey, the Bass Kittens–put out the defining elements of their tracks to let people remix them. When Mixman came out with the deeper version, Studio, you could take elements from individual songs, import your own sounds, remix, record and export the final masterpiece. Mixman now offers downloadable D*Plates for users to remix artists like Missy Elliot, We, Money Mark and The Baby Namboos.

“When I go to clubs I try and think, ‘What does somebody want? What is an experience that would be cool for them?’ That’s what I am developing now, the stuff that will pop up in another year.”

On a similar path of vision, the founder of Beatnik, Thomas Dolby Robertson, was also interested in merging creativity and technology into a cohesive musical expression. Thomas began his performance career beneath the streets of Paris, playing his synthesizer-based songs in the Metro subway. His pop music video hit She Blinded Me With Science in the 80s brought him a surge of recognition and years of development work on synthesizers, audio software and computer games. As he witnessed the Web’s rise as a pre-eminent form of communication, Thomas recognized its vast potential for change. He saw that not only could the Web offer musicians and composers a new way to distribute their sound and music, but it could also offer consumers a new way to create and experience audio.

With Mixman’s focus on creative tools and Beatnik’s focus on sonifying the Web, the marriage between the two seemed like a logical progression. “Moving forward with Mixman, we really think that the Web is going to be an important place. The community is so important. Box software is going to go away eventually. We wanted to move Mixman to the Internet whatever that meant!” says Gabriel. Mixman and Beatnik’s online and real-world presence for the people allow them to get the tools, learn the skills and share their creations with each other. With Mixman’s D*Plate and Beatnik’s GrooveGram remixing content, Studio users can post their songs in a jukebox format and interact with each other on Mixman Radio. Offline, there is even a Nashville-based community radio show called Mixdown which features nothing but Mixman-made tunes!

“Mixman enabled a whole new generation of people that had no previous experience of making music make music–before they needed time, talent, equipment and money to make something happen.” Josh looks ahead toward the next levels of creative, interactive entertainment: “To me it will be like TV. In the same way you feel like you are in a funny mood you turn on a comedy channel, you feel like a drama you turn on something else. And you don’t really think too much about it. You don’t have to download anything, you just put it on and it’s there and you can enjoy it. I feel like without a doubt that’s how the Web will be. You won’t think of software as something you run, it’s a channel of entertainment. When you feel like making music you’ll turn to the Mixman channel and it will be there: an application that you can make music with, ready to go.”

As someone who is consistently immersed in the energized domain of the club world as well, Josh Gabriel is someone who is truly inspired by the excitement and potential of the music people are moving to. “Going out to clubs helps me connect with the people. It’s inspiring because [these young people] don’t have any pre-conceived notions of how things are or how they should be, how music is made or what music should be. When I go to clubs I try and think, ‘What does somebody want? What is an experience that would be cool for them?’ That’s what I am developing now, the stuff that will pop up in another year. To me it’s going to be as revolutionary as Mixman was five years ago.”

With each step, these leaders of interactive sonification bask in the vibe and spread the wealth of their vision. Step up and take the controls! They are making them for you.