Vendredi Sur Mer - Basique les sessions (Live)(Video)

Electro Boogie Encounter Special with The Supermen Lovers

This time our special is with the super talented Parisian producer Guillaume Atlan (A.K.A. The Supermen Lovers), enjoy !

How was the beginning? and what are your tips for the beginners?

I started music when I was 7 years old with classical music. Then I moved to Acid Jazz- Funk in the early 90’s, I was playing clavinet and rhodes in different band. Than I came to House Music by listening to some great artists as "Chemical Brothers", "Daft Punk", "Basement Jaxx" and a lot of artistes from Chicago and Detroit. I started produced some electronic music under the name "Stan De Mareuil" on my own label "Lafessé Records". I just had a ASR10 and I did everything on it (Sample/drums/bass). Then I could buy (with the money I get from the first records) more machines as an EMU 6400/bass station novation and some other cool stuffs :)

Why did you decide to stop your previous projects and create The Supermen Lovers?

The records I did under the name "Stan De Mareuil" were based only on samples and I wanted to do another project with more real instruments as I could play piano, guitar & bass.

So I started the project "The Supermen Lovers" with the idea to do something closer to real Funk. I did several songs with always the feeling of doing "House Music" by using some little samples but with the opportunity to play real instruments and put real voices on it. So some track as "Starlight ", "Diamonds for her ", "Hard stuff" and "Family business" were born in this way.

"The Supermen Lovers" gave me also the opportunity to do some real live with it. Not DJ but to bring on stage instruments and sequencers. I played a lot in funk band before doing electronic music and I wanted to have that feeling again : play real instruments on stage. 

* Your sound is obviously influenced by the late 70's/early 80's music (like disco and funk) . Which french disco/funk albums do you think everybody should listen at least once? Which are your biggest influences? What do you listen in your home?

When I was kid I used to be a Huge fan of "Pink Floyd" then I moved to funk and disco at the age of 14. The first Funk record I heard was a « Fatback Band » album. I think the one with "Keep on stepping" in it. I discovered black music with artists as James Brown, The O’jays, The Ohio Players, Parliement and Funkadelic and many others…. Then I went to a more "White Funk" with band as " Average white band", "Rinder & Lewis", "El Coco" and some others guys… They made me go to Disco Music. After that I went to house music. And I m still fan of all artists in this period. In France there are now some great electronic artists from the "French touch" period as "Daft Punk", "Etienne de Crecy", "Alex Gopher", "Demon ", "Pepe Bradock" and label as "Roulé ", "Crydamour" " Versatile" and many others… I think everybody should listen to their albums. They are the base of the "French Touch".

Now I m listening to a lot of Nu disco, electro, and still old funk. 

* "Starlight" was a huge success, can you tell how you made it and how it impacted in your life?

I began to started on a loop with a sample in it and a drum beat I did on it. Then I found the bass line and all arrangements around as Strings and Rhodes. I was working with a few machines (That I mentioned before). The melody of the song came straight to me as I was listening to the instrumental of the track. The male voice and female voice came straight to my mind ! I will always remember that moment. Then I had to find the voice that could fit with the track. I began to record first the female vocal with Nili. then I met Mani Hoffman and he did the male voice.

The track "Starlight" became popular very fast. It was everywhere a few weeks after I released it…That was incredible. It gave me the opportunity to release my first album "The Player". Then "The Supermen Lovers" became as famous as the "Starlight" and I could begin to produce a lot under this name.

* How does your creative process work? 

It depends… I can start from a beat drum or a bass line or a sample. I have no automatic process. If I have an idea which come to my head I m going to play it and build a track around it. Or I can listen to a song and hear a little detail that can be a sample…than I build a track too around it. No rules !!

What do you use to make your tracks? What is your favourite set-up to make your DJ sets and play live ?

I m still a huge fan of Analog machines. So I m using a lot of hard ware as a Mackie 32/8 to mix and DP4 ensoniq/ Alesis reverb for effects. I m not fan of soft ware for keyboards. I m using Nordlead3/Nordstage and moog. I have a gibson stander for guitar and Jaguar Fender bass for…bass. And I m doing all audio sequences on Ableton Live.

I m doing most of the time Live act and I m just moving my studio on stage ! That s heavy… but that sounds great :) I m not alone on stage. I come with a guitarist and saxophone or trombone. 

I m doing to a lot of Vocoder and I have different ones : Korg R3 and a Roland SVC 350. But I just bring the R3 on stage. The Roland is an antiquity. 

Which was your first synth an which is you favourite?

I used to be addict to ASR10 Ensoniq and EMU 6400. But now I m done with it. I m on Nord now. Nordlead/Nordstage/Nordrack !! Love what those guys are doing :)  those keyboards are really funky. But I have to say that a moog is perfect for electronic bass line. I just discovered a few months ago the Virus Indigo access… and I have to say that it rocks !

In your opinion which are the biggest differences between today's production compared to when you started?

Everything has changed. When I began to produced music I used only MIDI. Everything was more simple because you get less choices. There was only one way to produce electronic music : You use sampling machine connected in MIDI with drum station (MPC or others) and you mix all that on a mixing table with effects.

Nowadays everybody can produce music at home. I don t say that it will be good production every time but everybody can try to do it. And that is a good thing because as there are more and more producers you always have to be better.

You already worked with great artists like Rick Bailey (Delegation) and Norma Jean Wright from Chic, what's your dreams collaboration/partnership?

To work with such artists was a great experience. There are so many artists I d like to work with. That goes from Sade to Boys Noise !! Kate Bush, Conann Mockassin , Beck , AC/DC and many others… I could do remix for them and why not make a track fro them !! ;) 

How do you define your music?

Electronic funky disco Pop Music. 

*Which are your favourites places to play? 

I love all kind of venues. Small ones, big ones. I love little club where people are close to you when you play. I love big festival when you see a huge crowd banging on your music. 

In fact I love places where people are happy to hear my sounds.

*How do you think the place you live in has influenced in your music? 

What is favourite thing about Paris? And what do hate about it?

Paris is a special place. I m not sure I will have done the music I did and I m doing in another city. Paris is full of paradoxes. Full of happy people and full go edgy people. I m born in Paris, has always lived in Paris… and perhaps will die in Paris.

I know the all city ! Even when I m going far from Paris more than a week, I m always so happy to be back ! Paris is my town. Sometimes I hate it, sometimes I love it !

Anyway … I have Paris in my heart forever.

*What were the weirdest and the funniest things that ever happened on a gig?

Ouch !! yes I have one souvenir which is funny and weird. I played in 2002 for the MTV five night stand in London. The guys in backstage has put all my machines under canalisation, and some water fall on my machines. When we started the show and that I pushed the button "Play" on the MPC (Sequencer) the all mixing table Mackie 16/4 almost exploded and a big smoke came out from it. So I was playing in front of 4000 thousand people and on air on MTV Europe and I just got a hi hat going out from the Mackie… I managed to fix it in 4/5 minutes but you can imagine my feelings during this time. I felt minutes were years… After I fixed the problem by using another Mackie on stage the show has been perfect ! ;)

*What do you know about Brazilian music ? When will you come to Brazil?

I d looove to come in Brazil ! To play my music there would be so cool ! 

Those guys know how to deal with drums and percussions… We all should go one times there just to learn how to dance ;)

*What do you think about music industry piracy?

Now artists are getting their money from gigs and other stuffs like synchronisation etc… It didn’t destroyed the business, it has changed it. We have to focus on different things, to spend more time in working on our gigs etc….

For sure I d rather like that Artists still get money from records sales… But it s life and when you can not doing something else than music… you don t think about that. 

*Do you think that services like Deezer and Spotify can kill the habit of buy music?

Yes. I think that streaming is going to kill the habit of buying music. To have a song or a track in your computer or in your cloud seems to be the same things for people. And streaming is less expensive.

And more than that, it won t take any place in their computer. Everything will be on the website.

But there will be still people who will keep buying music. That is sure too….

*How do you see the popularisation of music making, especially with mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone?

Everything that is making you more creative is a good thing. 

But you have to keep in mind that you have to give good production quality to people.

*What is your motivation? 

I want to see people happy when they hear my music. I want to see them loving each others, kissing each others on my music. I want them to be someone else on a dance floor when they heard my music.

I know how to make people dance, how to make them forget their daily problems. Perhaps one day I will know how to make them cry… ;) But for the moment I m better in making them dance !

*What do you think about the music future? 

I ve always been someone optimist. I think everything is changing all the time and humans know how to adapt. Why we should think that bad things are coming..?? We have more and more artists because of the web, we have more and more kind of music, of style. 

Yes the music industry is changing. Less records sales but more concerts, more contact with fans on internet. 

Let s make music and the rest will come !

*What's next? 

There s an album remix which is coming out the 17th of november called "Alterations". It s a compilation of remix I did for other artists : Donny Hathaway, S express, Jupiter, New Order, Bart & Baker, Spiller etc… That album is also including a cover from the belgium 80’s hit "Beats of Love" from "Nacht und Nebel".

I m also mixing right now the 4th and new album for "The Supermen Lovers" . That will be released in 2015. There will be a lot of  surprise in it with great featuring ! 

I m actually doing a lot of live too and the next gig is in Paris the 15th of November at the Social Club.

I ve just signed on my new label "Word Up Records" 2 artists : Natty Fensie, a belgium girl who is singing too on the new TSL album. There s a new EP coming out soon for her. And  a french band called "Leonard",their first single will be out soon with a remix from "Ness".

The Supermen Lovers | Facebook
Supermen Lovers (@SupermenLovers) | Twitter
The Supermen Lovers - Soundcloud

Giorgio Moroder - Extended Interview (RAM Deluxe Edition)

Cyclist's Electro Boogie Encounter Special

This time our special is with the talented Canadian producer Mark Penner (A.K.A. Cyclist). With releases on Homebreakin', Continental Records, Punchout! not mentioning an array of remixes including his winner version of The Rapture’s "How Deep is Your Love", Shindu's ‘Just Go’, Heminghway's "Ace Neptune" and more recently Drop Out Orchestra's "Tough Love" (just to name a few) . Check out our interview and have fun with his new mixtape!

• How was the beginning? Why you decided to leave Moses Mayes and move to solo carer? and what are your tips for the beginners?

I spent 10 or 11 years playing guitar in Moses Mayes. We got to do a lot of cool things... Released 3 albums, toured across Canada and the US and opened for people like James Brown, Herbie Hancock and Kool & the Gang. I learned a lot from playing in that band.

 I started Cyclist while I was still in the band but it quickly became my priority. In 2011 I moved from Winnipeg to Vancouver so that's when I left the band.

A tip for beginners: learn piano.

• Which are the biggest differences in playing in a band and play solo? 

When you play solo you don't have to rely on anyone but yourself. There's no band members not showing up for a writing session or disagreeing with you on how a song should sound. But you're on your own and have to do everything! It's a lot of work.

• Your sound is obviously influenced by the late 70's/early 80's music (like disco, funk and proto-house) . Which are your biggest influences? 

I love synth based music from 80's boogie funk to new wave to 70's jazz fusion. I love four on the floor beats... Disco and house. And I love RnB and soul vocals. Put them all together and you have my favourite music. 

• How do you think the place you live in has influenced in your music? 

Well my interest in funk, disco and dance music definitely happened in spite of growing up in Winnipeg not because of it. Living in Vancouver I got a lot more into house music because disco wasn't as well received when I played out. I'm living in Toronto now and there's a healthy love for disco and nudisco and a bit of a community of producers and DJs too so I've been able to really delve deep into disco. 

• How does your creative process work? 

Usually I'll start jamming to a drum sample... Maybe a disco break, something with a good groove. I'll jam a bassline or synth chords.. Or lately I've been writing parts on guitar and then re-creating them on synth just because I write faster on guitar. It's all just jamming until I have enough ideas down that I can start editing together an arrangement. From there it's getting the mix right and adding the sprinkles.

• How do you define your music?

Usually I just say nu-disco or if it's someone who doesn't know what that is I say disco or indie dance.

• What are your dreams? Your motivation? 

Touring around the world and buying recording gear

• What do you use to make your tracks? 

At the moment I'm mostly working in the box using ableton... Slowly rebuilding my gear collection.

• What is your favourite set-up to make your DJ sets?

 I use Serato mainly but I always have a USB ready as back up in case I need to hop on some CDJs. I do the occasional vinyl set at a local gig for fun.

• Which are your favourite places to play? 

At a monthly disco party I have with A Digital Needle called Beam Me Up here in Toronto... The crowd is very diverse and always ready to get down. 

• What were the weirdest and the funniest things that ever happened on a gig?

 I played a gay bar in Seattle this past summer. There was a full on orgy right next to the DJ booth. It's amazing how quickly a 4 or 5 dude orgy becomes normal with the right surroundings... They had eased me into it with nudie pics on the TVs and then a male stripper, haha.. Wait a sec, not the orgy, they didn't ease me into the orgy, just watching it... Not that I was watching! Maybe I'll shut up now. 

• I know you already came to Brazil. What do you know about Brazilian music? 

I got to see a group of percussionists, I think it was about 30-40 people... Some big drums, some smaller hand drums or tambourines. I can't remember what you call that type of group but it was great. 

I also heard a lot of Baile Funk in the clubs but I didn't ever make it to a real Baile Funk party.

• When will you come back to Brazil?

As soon as I get booked! ;)

• What do you think about the music future? 

I'm always optimistic about all things music. The future looks great from where I'm standing.

• What's next? 

I'm wrapping up a remix for Rogue Vogue, working on a new tune with Maiko Watson and I'm about to launch a new label with Karl Kling of RAC called MANI/PEDI Records. 

Cyclistmusic.com

Cyclist Soundcloud

Cyclist Twitter

Cyclist Facebook

Booking inquiries:
Sarah Hansson - Europe
sarah@holographicpeople.com

Grant Paley - North America
grant@paquinentertainment.com

tracklist:


1. The Willow Band - Willow Man
2. Richard Rossa - Party Zone
3. Phantom Slasher - Backwards is the best way forward, baby
4. Sweet Daddy Floyd - I just can't help myself (re-edit)
5. Pleasure - Joyous (DJ Harvey Edit)
6. Family Plann - Shake it up (Belabouche Edit)
7. Joutro Mundo - Body Heat
8. Ill Advised - Hurt Me
9. Tugboat Edits - Happy People
10. First Choice - Let no man put asunder (Ron Hardy Edit)
11. DJ Apt One & Venice Beach - Socket
12. Todd Terje - Q

Electro Boogie Encounter Special with Justin Winks (Casio Social Club)

Almost 2 weeks ago I met Justin Winks (Casio Social Club/ Mullet Records) and we had a chat in Electro Boogie Headquarter. Here you can find the interview we made and a gift he's giving to us, a special edit of Casio Social Club's remix for Drop Out Orchestra's All The Time We Need.

• How was the beginning? and what are your tips for the beginners?

Hey Caio... firstly it's great to finally meet you in person!

Ok for me, the beginning was full of mixed emotions - on the one hand I was really excited to be 'finally' making music but on the other hand I was anxious and frustrated because I really wanted to get my music out there.

My main tip for beginners is simply to have fun and do not try and copy other producers too much... just have fun and gravitate towards a sound that you have fun with, because you could be doing this for quite a few years!

• Which are your biggest influences?

My biggest influences are the music from the late 70s to late 80s. For me this was the best decade because there was amazing Funk, Soul, Boogie, Disco, Hip Hop and House. These were the most influential years for me.

• How does your creative process work?

Ok my productions normally start with a simple groove, so drums and bass first, and then I build the keys, pads and melody lines. Then I arrange the track over 5/6 minutes and then work on the vocal.

• How do you define your music?

Umm, good question - as you know I have many influences but I try and bring them all together into a melting pot of 'Casio Social Club' sound, so I think 'Electro Cosmic Boogie Disco' would be the best description hahaha.

• What are your dreams? Your motivation?

My dream is to simply make a living out of producing music, dj'ing and running my record label 'Mullet Records'. And my motivation is to simply touch peoples hearts with my music.

• Which are your favourite places to play?

I love playing in South America - the people are so warm and friendly here. Also with you guys it's not about what sunglasses you're wearing... it's about feeling the music and having a great time... this is what Dance Music is all about!

• What were the weirdest and the funniest things that ever happened on a gig?

Haha well sometimes people just want something from me... for example an item of clothing that I'm wearing. This tends to happen when I'm wearing either a Mullet Records or Casio Social Club t-shirt when I'm playing... I need to start taking a selection of t-shirts with me when I play... because nobody is having mine! haha :o)

• What do you use to make your tracks? What do you take with you on the stage?

I'm a huge fan of Reason and Logic but Reason is the number one for me. Reason allows me to work very quickly and Reason 6.5 is an incredible piece of software. I have some old 80s synths too but to be honest nearly all of my productions have been made using Reason.
In the beginning I spent a whole year just working in Reason, making my own custom patches that would help give me my own individual sound. I still use the same patches now, for example most of my tracks use my own custom bass sound that I created using Reason's Subtractor synth... the Subtractor is an awesome beast!

• How do you see the popularisation of music making, especially with mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone?

Personally I think it's difficult to work on small devices like iPhone's and iPads. I think maybe these devices and their apps are about having fun and working on basic grooves and then transporting them to your studio computer to finish. Personally I like the power of a proper studio computer with a nice big screen and a proper keyboard and mouse.

• And what do you think about the future of music?

We're living in very strange times at the moment - technology is moving so fast and sometimes I feel it's difficult to keep up with that. But it's also very exciting too as the possibilities seem to be endless. There are little constraints now as we can have a huuuuuge recording desk with an infinite amount of channels on our laptop or even iPad... this was unimaginable 15 ears ago.
So creatively I think that 'music' is in a good place right now but the 'music industry' is in a not so good place right now.

• What do think about the "deep house wave"?

Haha well you're talking a guy that has been into Deep House since the late 80s, so it's nothing new to me. In the beginning you had Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson, The Burrell Brothers etc. In the 90s we had Glen Underground, Ron Trent, Wamdue Kids and Chris Brann. In the 2000's we had Kerri Chandler and Dennis Ferrer etc etc. So to me it's nothing new at all. Dance Music just likes to be fashionable and the Press just like to write about what they think is the latest coolest music fashion. A lot of this Deep House thing has been sensationalized by the press anyway. I like a lot of the new Deep House music... but you can tell who's making it with their heart and who's making it just to be fashionable!

• How do you think the place you live in has influenced in your music?

Umm, well as you know the UK has been very strong for Dance Music for many years. We have had amazing Dance Music record shops, magazines and radio stations, so it's been very accessible for me. Also I now live in the countryside and I get a lot of inspiration from the beauty of nature... for me, it doesn't get much better than that!

• As label owner what do you think about music industry piracy?

How long have you got? Do you really want me to write a 10,000 word essay on how piracy is killing the music industry and how it's suffocating everyone involved from producers, mastering engineers, designers and photographers! Right now the music industry is totally screwed and that's because of what's being allowed to happen on the internet. If a producer wants to give their music away for free then that's absolutely fine... they can give it away on their own Soundcloud or Facebook page at their own discretion. But at the moment anyone can give anyone else's music away for free and the people that operate these illegal torrent sites do not care about anyone apart from themselves... they do not care about the artist that sat there for days/weeks/months to produce the track and they do not care about the record label that put the release together and the cost of bringing that release to the public.
These people are just very ignorant and totally out for themselves. I hope that one day the internet is a kinder place that outlaws this unlawful behavior, because I know so many talented music producers, engineers, designers, managers etc that are quitting the industry because they can no longer earn a living from it. This is such a shame and I only hope that one day we live in a kinder internet World!

• Do you think that services like Deezer, Spotify and Google Play Music can kill the habit of buy music?

I think that there is room in this World for both 'buying' sites and 'streaming' sites. This way people have the choice, and choice is a good thing... and both ways the artist and label get paid, which is and excellent thing! :o)

• Which was your first synth? Was it a Casio?

Haha yeah my beloved Casio VL-Tone. Lots of people had Casio keyboard as kids and this is the reason why I chose the name 'Casio Social Club'. I also love and collect olskool Casio watches too.

• You had a mullet in the 80's?

Haha yeah everyone at my school had one. We all wanted to look like Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Wham, Howard Jones and Kajagoogoo... hahaha happy days! :o)

• Recently you released a compilation of your remastered remixes, what are your tips to get a fat mix?

Ooh another good question - well firstly your soundcard and monitors are very important, try and buy the best you possibly can.
Secondly go online and read/watch some online tutorials on how to mixdown. There are some great tutorials on Youtube about understanding the sonics of frequency range dynamics and this really is the key to a good mixdown.
And thirdly, understanding the importance of compression is invaluable... particularly when it comes to Dance Music.
Mullet Records offers a great mastering service called 'Mullet Mastering' and we offer a very competitive digital mastering service to both beginners and professionals - contact mulletrecords@gmail.com

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Buy Casio Social Club: The Remix Collection Part One

Azari & III - Interview and Performance on Channel 4 Album Chart Show 2012 (Video)

The Popopopops - Hypnotise Me (Video) + Interview

1-How The Popopopos begun? and what are your tips for the beginners ?

We started the band when we were in high school 6 years ago. At the beginning we did it for fun, we just wanted to play and make the people dance. We loved playing gigs and it was a good way to have nice party with our friends in some randoms bars in rennes.
The idea at the beginning is to do it seriously but without thinking you gonna be a rockstar so you keep doing stuff that you like and have pleasure doing it! But for the beginners our tips is also to work hard and try to rehearse a lot, at least twice a week with the entire band. If you start working on your computer and never rehearse you gonna be a dj, or a producer which can be cool, but you never gonna be rock band!

2-Which are your biggest influences?

We all have very different influences. We were not best friends when we started the band, and we didn't want to do a revival of AC/DC or something like that. So we all try to bring our own stuff into the band. For Example I listen to some Hip Hop, and on the album there's gonna be a song a bit hip hop mixed with a Poppy chorus. But there is two bands that we all really like it's Foals and Whitest Boy Alive.

3-How your creative process work ?

It's always changing, it depends who's inspired and when. But mostly Victor and I work together on songs, we come with some ideas sometimes it's just some chords and a vocal line, and sometime it's an entire finished song. Then we work alot we the band trying to play it together, we add stuff and we see if it works with only the four of us and our instruments. 

4-In the last decade we saw a boom of awesome french new acts.What do you think about it? And How do you think the place you live in have influenced in your music ?

It's really cool and we hope it will continue. The live has always been the main thing. We did the band for it and we love doing gigs. That's also why it took us so long to record our first album. We needed time to find the right sound. For us it's really different being in studio. a We try do do something different thant in live. We don't wanna be playing our album with tones of samples and protools shit in live. We try to arrange the songs if needed so it can be different, but it works with the Live.

5-Now the cliche question, why The Popopopops? 

Because NTM. It's a famous french Rap Band, and there's a song called "seine saint denis style" where they say "à base de Popopopop et pour le Hip Hop je développe". We thought it was cool to be a Rock band with an Hip-Hop name kind of.

6-Why do you compose songs in english? Have you ever tried to make a song in French?

It's natural for us because all our influences are english and american, and the language fits with the music that we do. I write the lyrics and its nice to do it in english because you can write crazy stuff that an english speaker won't never say. Even if it's wrong sometimes it can be really interesting. We tried some stuff in french but it's much harder. But someday we'll do something somehow..

7-What do you think about music future ?

We'are trying not to think about it!

8--What are your dreams ? Your motivation ?

If we could keep playing music and keep earning our life by doing gigs for a really long time it would be a dream! Oh, and if Beyonce or Jay-z could use one of our song to sing along it could be really motivating!

9-Which are your favorite places to play ? And your favorites to have fun ?And when we'll have a Popopopops show here in Brazil?

Our favorite places to play is those where we have fun. We love bars as well as huge venues. we'll be coming in Brazil if we have the opportunity. Maybe you could help us find some gigs? Please.
10-What were the weirdest and the funniest thing that ever happened on a gig?

The coolest thing is when people start singing along our songs during gigs. It'salways a wonderful feeling. The weirdest is maybe when drunk guys start singing Seven nation army between two songs because it's sounds a bit like our name: "po, pololpopopo po". So once we strated playing the original along it was quite fun.

11-What do you use to make your tracks? What do you take with you on the stage?

Voices, keys, guitars, drum. For the studio we add some stuff like trumpets, organs, ambient sounds or drum machines and percussions. Bit for the live we try to keep it simple. We don't have enough hands to play everything we wish we could play.

Defected Presents Dimitri From Paris Back In The House (Video Teaser) + (Interview)

 When it comes to disco Dimitri from Paris is a genuine authority; a gentleman DJ who loves an image yet eschews spectacle in favour of fastidiously executed musical selections drawing on four decades of glorious music. A global and hugely popular DJ for no other reason than he can educate and create a real party at the same time, Dimitri is a modern-day maestro who has fans that span the spectrum, from 'heads' to occasional musical thrill seekers.

"To me disco is the ultimate dance music" say Dimitri."I am very close to the true disco feel because I feel that in dance music nothing better has been done. It really is the quintessential dance music sound and I stay true to it in different forms. Disco had a vibe going on and kind of a happy feeling that I feel is a little bit lost now." 

Dimitri's latest adventure, 'Dimitri From Paris Back In The House', is a double mix release that sees the laid-back maestro fusing material from the likes of Soul Clap, Storm Queen, Miguel Campbell, Tiger & Woods and Marshall Jefferson into pitch-perfect disco-infused beatdown.

The disposability of the digital era is becoming ever more apparent, and a casual glance over the internet tells you that most people aren’t too happy about it. Anyone with more than a passing interest in the music business will no doubt have seen the vinyl-championing ‘no-one remembers their first download’ meme that’s been doing the rounds of late, and the digital vs. physical debate looks likely to rage ever fiercer.

For Dimitri From Paris though, the problem isn’t the particular medium used, but rather the lack of care that is put into the finished product. Obsessed with the details of things, care and attention are cornerstones professional outlook and values that are demonstrated in his latest endeavour, Dimitri From Paris Back In The House.

Here, we speak to the modern-day King of Disco about his views of role of format in music, his approach to the art for the remix and his enduring love of disco.

What first got you interested in pursuing a career in music?

I never really thought of making a career out of music, I was a music lover, I was buying a lot of records for my own enjoyment and I didn’t know how to actually interact with the music other than listening to it. Also I was going to a lot of concerts.  One concert was a showcase of US hip hop that had all the early old school rappers, dancers, graffiti artists, MCs and also DJs spinning the records over which they would rap, and it’s the first time I saw someone do something creative with the record which was scratching the records rhythmically, looping sections, beat juggling between one deck to the other and I was totally impressed. That was kind of like an epiphany that you could interact with the music, you could do more than just listening to it.

I remember going back home and trying to scratch on my turntable.  It was pretty horrible, but that was the starting point of me wanting to interact with the music that I loved and from then on I started making edits, mix tapes, sending those out to radio stations and I realised that other people were interested in what I was doing, and it became my job gradually from there.

What it is about disco that gets your blood pumping?

The fact that it is live. It is done by a bunch of people and you get to feel the energy from those people. There are 2 distinct sides; a quiet raw side with a rhythm section (drums, percussion, bass, keyboards and maybe guitars) and then the classical orchestra; a group of really classically trained people, usually older than the rhythm section.

The two sides getting together to play dance music is quite unique, and I feel the soul of all the people involved there. The most classic disco sound is the Philadelphia sound and that is exactly it; a group of younger people from the ghetto areas of town and another group of older people, slightly more educated, coming from different paths with a really long dedication in music behind them. They would get together and it would work, there would be someone in the middle directing all this, usually the arrangers or the producers, and they would make those guys play dance music which would end up being on a disco, and I believe it kept influencing dance music years on, even though today we do use computers. They infuse some kind of a groove, a way of doing things that is still replicated and emulated in a lot of different forms of current dance and house music, so for me it really is the blueprint and the mother of all things dance.

Do you think that modern-day producers can really complete with the amount of time and money that used to spent on creating music?

It is true today that there isn’t as much production budget in music as there used to be decades ago, but it’s not necessarily bad. The point isn’t to try to recreate exactly what was done years ago; it’s great to be inspired by it and find new, more modern ways, of doing it, and not having a budget actually forces you to be more creative. In a way it can be positive as long as you’re not lazing out and making things really quick without much thought which sometimes you can hear in too much music today. But if you actually spend time, and you have a love for what you do, you will always be able to turn out something that’s good artistically.

What has changed since you mixed your first In The House compilation?

What has changed is the economy of music, it’s been going down gradually for the past 15 years. Now everything is digital pretty much; people do not feel the urge to own something that’s physical as they are happy to have tonnes of music in their digital devices. Music has become the air you breathe, the water you drink; you don’t think that much about it anymore. It’s lost a lot of that value whereas before you would save money to buy a record and when you’d get the record you’ll just hold it in your hands and look at it while you listened to it. I feel that this has been almost completely lost, but I am still trying to give the people who want something to hold to, something to look at and something to read. It’s important that music keeps some kind of value, not necessarily monetary value, but effective value. I think it’s important to carry on with physical objects that actually enclose the music that we love.

How long have you been collecting vinyl? Do you think it’s something you’ll ever stop doing?

For about 30 years, and you have to remember that 30 years ago you could only buy music on vinyl, so it wasn’t a choice to be cool or not to be cool; I wanted music, I had to buy vinyl. Today you have the choice to buy vinyl and it’s kind of a niche market, as oppose to the whole digital thing. I do not buy vinyl if I can find it digitally, but I still buy CDs.

If there’s something that I really like I will store it for archive purposes. Of course I’ve kept all my vinyl from the past 30 years, but even though there are still a few things that I’m looking for like some older disco tracks. I’m not an obsessive vinyl collector, because I have so much and so much more that I haven’t even explored that I feel like I should rather concentrate on what I have rather than just stacking up, obsessively, new things. So I don’t buy vinyl so much, but I still use my collection; everyday I will digitise something, everyday I will try to pull out something I haven’t used, so it’s a real asset to have all this music at your fingertips. It could be in any form though; it could be digital, it could be vinyl, as long as you contain it, as long as you take care of it.

As a music professional, it’s the music that matters, not what it’s recorded on to. If you want to enjoy the music more on vinyl I totally understand that there is the need to hold on to something so both are valid. I don’t like the debate, vinyl against digital, where one is better than the other. What really matters in the end is the music; if the music is good and you want to hear it then that’s all you need to do.

You have quite a fastidious attention to detail, where do you think this comes from?

I am very much of a detail person. I enjoy things that are not just one dimensional; you can go back at them and every time you look at them (or hear them if it’s a piece of music) you notice something new. So when I set up to create something – like this compilation – there is a piece of music, the packaging, the artwork; there are many things involved and it’s very important for me that in all those things everyone can find their tiny little thing that they prefer. The point is that you won’t spot them necessarily all at once. Every time you go back at it you might hear something new, you might see something you bypass, and it makes the whole thing more interesting. In the long run, details make everything richer and that’s why I love them so much. 

So you’ve just mixed your Back In The House compilation... tell us about some of the on there that really stand out for you…

When I do a compilation it’s not a question of finding hits and putting them together so that one track would stand out more than the other, or people would relate to it or know it. I’m trying to get a musical programme that flows nicely from the beginning to the end, however, there are still a few things in there that, personally, stand out because they’re from producers or artists that I think have their own and unique sound.

Among them is Poolside. It’s a duo from California, and they have that total Californian sound, almost surf and beach boy, to their music which is made with very strong elements of house music and I haven’t heard anyone mixing it so perfectly before. Also in there are a few older tracks; one of the records I like from the past that I think sounds super-fresh today is MURKS’s ‘Pain’ under their Fury alias. I found it amazing that it sounds so current when the track is a good 20 years old. Also I very much like Storm Queen and Morgan Geist, I have two tracks from him on the compilation and the way it is produced, the vocals of Damian Scott, give it a very unique atmosphere and that is something that stands out for me.

Finally there is a disco track in there that is very dear to me because I did this remix a few years ago. It was commissioned and I wanted to try to get a release of it and it was really hard to make it happen and finally with the help of everyone at Defected we made it and I’m really proud to have Dan Hartman featuring Aleita Holloway ‘Relight My Fire’ on the compilation because it has been a true labour of love to make it happen. Its right at the end of mix CD 2 and it’s kind of unmixed. If you’re a DJ out there wanting to play it, I made sure that you could.

As well as the musical aspects, you’re always heavily involved in the artwork on your projects… tell us about the idea behind the Back In The House design…

Every time I do a musical project it is also very important for me to have a hand in the designing and the packaging of it. It has to make sense with the music and also with my universe as a person and as an artist. So I always work with people that can build up off my ideas and in this particular case I worked with designer Juan Kelly, a true and very good disco DJ, but also a great graphic designer and on the photography side I was very happy to work with Jamie Baker who also worked on the first ‘In The House’ compilation. I came up with this idea that I wanted the whole project to look like a 60’s American Thing kind of inspired by the TV show Madmen  of which I’m a big fan. Since I never had the occasion to do such a design I felt it was a good thing with the Back In The House to do the original 50s style.

How has the transition from vinyl to CD to currently laptop been for you and how has this altered your sets?

As a person I love vinyl, the object, something that I can hold on to, look at, read, listen to, but as a professional vinyl has been a tool, and this tool, to play music, has been superseded, first by CDs and now by digital files played off digital devices like laptops. I think this is progress in the sense that when I was only able to carry 80 to 100 vinyls in a record box, I can now have unlimited access to a huge music library and for me it’s much better the wider choices, the wider spread I have of music, the better for me. So it wasn’t difficult as a DJ, the only difficult thing was to digitise a lot of the vinyl or get copies that were clean enough to stand the test with the squeaky clean digital files. Once that was done I really enjoyed playing of CDs and I enjoy playing off digital software now because it actually allows me to do more and to be more creative than I was with just playing vinyl on two turntables.

In the past you’ve done remixes for major labels… did you feel there was any pressure to deliver a certain style or were you always allowed to do your own thing?

It looks like the major labels still act like they were doing 20 years ago by throwing like 20 things on the wall and trying to see which one sticks and concentrating on that. In the case of remixes I was always free to do what I wanted, they would use it or not but that was as still is the way they do things. Now, major labels can get like 10 to 20 remixes and instead of choosing the right remix for the right track they would just get everything they can and just throw it out there and see what happens. I think the best current example is Lana Del Ray; how many remixes have been done of her? I’ve totally lost count, it’s as if they’re not really interested in the result, just the quantity.

You’ve re-edited some ‘classic’ tracks in the past by some very high profile artists. How do you approach these – do you look to respectively tweak the parts you like or go for an all out change?

Every time I’ve set up to do a remix I think it’s essential that I don’t destroy the spirit or the memories the listeners have of a particular song, so I will be extremely cautious in remixing it, preserving all the elements and retaining the spirit. In the case of disco songs this means keeping all of the original recordings; not replaying the drums, not changing acoustic for electronic, everything I add I added in a way that you shouldn’t be able to notice it much, and that’s how I see remixing. I shouldn’t be taking the forefront, the forefront is the song. I should be on the background making it better than what it is, taking it to another area, like from a radio mix, taking it to the clubs with a more DJ-friendly mix. But I would never try to replace the original artist.I’m just the remixer, the producer, and I’m here to give my best to make the sound the best possible way in a direction that I’ve been asked to do it.

Tell us a bit about the difference between the two mixes on the compilation…

The compilation has 2 CDs; one CD is a live recording that was done at the Horse & Groom where Defected hosted one of their regular Thursday night parties in London and I really wanted to try and capture what was happening in a small and cosy intimate space with also the sound of the crowd reacting to the music. I’m not happy with live recordings unless you can hear them in context and that means with the crowd that was there that particular day. The other mix is a more traditional studio mix. I also love studio mixes because it allows me to do much more tweaks to make it as detailed and as flawless as I can so that it is a continuous flow of music that you can enjoy and it doesn’t have the urgency or the bumps of the live thing, so they can be good for a few different situations.

What are some of your favourite places to DJ? What is it about them that appeals to you?

The best place to play would be any place where the crowd is open-minded and is up for a party, where they don’t expect you to be following some kind of rule or some kind of style. That could happen anywhere but lately I’ve found going back to London I got the same vibe I was having there maybe 15, 20 years ago but with a completely new generation of people. I always liked in England how people would react to the music and how music would always be very important to most of them and I can still feel that the new generation has carried that on from the older ones and its very inspiring that in this day of age this still happens.

Another place that I’ve always enjoyed playing at, I’ve been playing at for like twice a year for the past 15, 20 years, would be Tokyo and Japan in general where the people who go to clubs would have quite a different approach from the rest of the world; they would go to a club to see a DJ as they would go to a concert to see a band or an artist so they’re very focussed on the artist and they usually have a very precise knowledge of the artist’s background. They really know it all about you and react really cheerfully and very emotionally to the music, so it’s a blessing for a DJ to have such a captive crowd.

Dimitri From Pairs Back In The House is out 27^th August – listen & pre-order from iTunes