Rik Davis, the other half of Cybotron

Mike Rubin, writing for Red Bull Music Academy had a rare interview with Rik Davis. Along with Juan Atkins he formed a little group called Cybotron, bringing some of the first electro and techno hits. While Juan Atkins got his (deserved) place in the spotlights, Richard always remained largely in the shadows.

Back in 1978 Davis self-released a 7 inch called “Methane Sea” with only 100 copies, still he managed to have some success with it:

He brought the finished record to the hugely influential Detroit radio personality the Electrifying Mojo, who began using it as a theme on his nightly WGPR-FM show.

(this hard to find release was actually reissued as a 12” in February 2016)

Not long after that he met up with Juan Atkins in a music class and formed Cybotron and released their first single “Alleys Of Your Mind,”

…which Davis wrote on the ARP Axxe and a sequencer with Atkins contributing handclaps. As with “Methane Sea,” Davis and Atkins received extensive airplay on Mojo’s show, and “Alleys” and its 1982 follow-up “Cosmic Cars” sold ten to fifteen thousand copies in Detroit alone.

Especially that last bit shows the importance of the Electrifying Mojo and how influential he was to Detroit.