your best source for eletronic music.
with exclusive interviews with Sebastian akchotĂŠ and kavinsky know Pedro winter, the mind behind ed banger records
JUSTICE and their style
the french eletronic duo best known for the noisy musics in a different approach 1
your best source for eletronic music.
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Daft Punk Sebastian Akchoté
Kavin sky
Justice
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Busy P
JUSTICE - The French duo formed by Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, is the band of a whole generation. When the two friends were still bright students in graphic design, in 2003 they made JUSTICE a place to experiment a hybrid genre between music and image, which blends pop and electronic borders, and showcases the talents of 2 fascinating passionate pop culture craftsmen, bored with hierarchy.
They met Pedro Winter who had just founded his label ED BANGER RECORDS, he immediately signs them after listening to “We Are Your Friends” which, with its joyful and vitaminenriched electro beats combined with exhilarating voices, became the hymn of a whole generation and one of the most important tracks of the year 2000, celebrating a reconciliation of pop music and the dancefloor. Editor
DAFT PUNK
Interview
Interview takes us inside robot duo`s Paris studio.
Daft Punk are the most enigmatic superstars in pop. In addition to hiding their faces at performances, in videos and in photographs, they operate largely in secrecy and keep a tight grip on biographical details in those rare instances when they grant interviews. So it’s with widened eyes that an outsider enters their work space, where even mundane objects thrum with seeming Talmudic significance. In the synthesizer room, there’s a weathered vinyl copy of Rod Stewart’s Blondes Have More Fun in one corner and a dinky JVC boombox for listening to rough mixes nearby, with a black plastic pyramid perched on top. Blu-ray copies of Tron: L’Heritage (Tron: Legacy, for which Daft Punk composed the music) and Star Wars: L’Integrale de la Saga occupy a shelf near a book of Saul Bass designs, a Walker’s Rhyming Dictionary, and an old Life Science Library volume called The Mind. Tacked to the wall is a snapshot of the Daft Punk robots standing with R2D2 and C-3PO at an Adidas advertising shoot. “This was the moment I felt we truly entered pop culture,” says Bangalter. He moves toward the room’s centerpiece: a massive modular synthesizer roughly four feet tall and six feet wide. “This is a custom system, new and handmade for us by a guy in Canada,” he says. Bolted into four dishwasher-size wooden cases are dozens of oscillators, noise generators and envelope followers; above these are Borg filters, Boogie filters, step sequencers and a vintage oscilloscope. Blinking lights, silver switches and 933 different knobs sprout from the facade within an overgrowth of red, gray and yellow cables. “With a synthesizer like this, there are so many ele-
ments affecting the sound, from room temperature to capacitors – thousands of chaotic little parameters,” Bangalter says proudly. “It’s the opposite of the sterile environment of a computer.” He heard that the Canadian producer Deadmau5 caught wind of the setup, contacted the manufacturer and “ordered the exact same one.” Over the past decade, Daft Punk’s influence has grown gargantuan – it’s hard to name another act with its fingerprints on as many bands, sounds and trends. You can hear them in the reference-dizzy dance punk of LCD Soundsystem, who made their admiration explicit on “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House”; in the Auto-Tuned bleat pop of T-Pain and his imitators (Daft Punk got to the effect before anyone but Cher thought it was cool); in the hazy loops of chillwave acts like Toro y Moi and Washed Out; in the rehabilitated easy-listening cheese of Phoenix and Chromeo; in the brash new meld of hip-hop and electronic music that Kanye West staged when he turned de Homem-Christo’s vocoder-bent voice into a chart-topping hook on “Stronger.” In 2011, backstage at Madison Square Garden after a Watch the Throne show, Jay-Z told de Homem-Christo that Daft Punk’s pyramid had been “a huge influence” on the tour. Even Disco Stu wore Bangalter’s chrome robot helmet on The Simpsons. But when Bangalter invokes the sterility of computer music with a scowl, he has in mind Daft Punk’s most direct musical descendants: the heroes of the mainstream dance takeover, all of whom are bananas for Daft Punk. David Guetta spins their tracks in Ibiza and called their debut, 1997’s Homework, “a revoluti-
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Interview
on.” Avicii has described his earliest entree to electronic music as “listening to a lot of Daft Punk, way before I knew what house music was.” Deadmau5 owes them his helmets. Skrillex has commented that seeing Daft Punk’s pyramid “changed my life.” Swedish House Mafia proclaim that “Daft Punk are our heroes in all ways possible.” All that love notwithstanding, Bangalter and de Homem-Christo are deeply ambivalent about these heirs, with their pummeling buildups and clockwork kiloton bass drops. “Today, electronic music is like an audio energy drink,” Bangalter says. “Artists are overcompensating with this aggressive, energetic, hyperstimulating music – it’s like someone shaking you. But it can’t move people on an emotional level. It’s a way to feel alive, but . . .” “It’s not deep, it’s surface,” de Homem-Christo offers. “Maybe it’s the difference between love and sex, or eroticism and pornography,” Bangalter says. As Daft Punk got deeper into making the new album, they were eager to junk old habits and proceed “from scratch,” Bangalter says. Their longtime technique of sampling funk, disco and soft-rock vinyl suddenly struck them as canned, overfamiliar. The drum machines they’d once used to propel tracks sounded rote – “autopilot,” Bangalter says. They struck upon a new plan of attack that would lead Daft Punk further away from electronic music than they’d ever gone: “We wanted to do what we used to do with machines and samplers,” Bangalter says, “but with people.”
“Everyone making
electronic music has the same tool kits and templates. [...] If everybody knows all the tricks, it’s no more magic.” – Bangalter 4
“We’re not
performers, we’re not models – it would not be enjoyable for humanity to see our features, but the robots are exciting to people.” – Homem-Christo The idea was to overhaul their sound while keeping its DNA intact, and to outpace their successors in the process. “In electronic music today, there’s an identity crisis,” Bangalter says. “You hear a song: Whose track is it? There’s no signature. Everyone making electronic music has the same tool kits and templates. You listen, and you feel like it can be done on an iPad.” He frowns. “If everybody knows all the tricks, it’s no more magic.” Bangalter shows me a little magic on the fly. He tweaks an oscillator on the massive synthesizer, and a piercing drone rings out. He drops to a knee, runs a cable from an output into an input, turns a knob a millimeter. Scratchy distortion musses the edges of the signal. He fiddles some more, and the drone flips into a hypnotic hiccup, then down into a mighty house-music thud. Bangalter beams like a kid with a chemistry set. The synthesizer is “a little bit everywhere” on the new album, he says, played by hand each time: “With this, you’ll never get what you’re getting again – there’s no Save As. It’s a playground for building a sound from the ground up.” De Homem-Christo checks the time on his phone. The plan is to go for a drink and then get dinner across town, but we’ve got some time to kill. “What do you want to do?” Bangalter asks de Homem-Christo. “Un café? Un thé? Chocolat?” “Strip club,” de Homem-Christo deadpans. By Jonah Weiner
Out Now 5
Interview
SEBASTIAN DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION But we do get to the bottom of this whole making out with himself thing. We talked to the French producer on the eve of the release of his first full length, Total about drinking buddies, hip hop influences, and of course, making out with yourself.
as humble person, but at the same time they have a big ego. Because I don’t feel like this, I wanted to show this allegory of the artist. They always say I wish I could kiss myself – so I did.
You were one of the first artists to release music on Ed How did the DJ Premier remix happen? Banger, but you are just now releasing your full length He was one of the biggest influences for me in produdebut. Why did it take so long to complete Total? cing, hip hop was very interesting to me when I starI took my time to find some different sound direction. ted. DJ Premiere and Timbaland for Missy Elliot or There is also another factor which came into the time Jay-Z, for example, was very exciting to me in the way I took to finish this album. Romain Gavras, the guy they were producing their tracks. who made the video for M.I.A. (“Born Free” video), One day Pedro (Busy P) asked if it would be possible asked me to make the soundtrack for his movie called to have a remix from him. I don’t know how. Our Day Will Come. I thought the soundtrack would take one or two months maximum for me, but in fact Did you find out if he’s a fan of your music? it took way more time to work with a lot of people. Oh, I don’t know. I’m quite sure he’s not fan, but he’s not against it too. It’s a bit early for me. I don’t have many years like him. He’s a legend in hip hop. It’s difI did the two projects at the same time. I thought it ferent. I’m a big fan directly. would be quick, but working on a movie is different. You have a lot of people around and you don’t make What is your favorite DJ Premier beat? all the things you want. It’s not as fast and quick as pro The best one is probably “New York State of Mind” he ducing for yourself. did for Nas. The other one is… umm… ah, shit. It’s So that put your album on hold?
one he did for Group Home and another for Jeru The The album art is very different from what you would Damaja. expect from an electronic album. What was the concept there? You are definitely a true fan to name drop Group The cover is kind of a joke. It’s about the artist and the Home. relationship with their ego. I also wanted to change Yeah, what he did for Group Home is incredible. a little from the general avenue of style we had, which was full of colors. Maybe I’m not the good guy for By Blake Gillespie once. I see all the artists are trying to show themselves
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Interview
An Interview with Kavinsky
We talk zombies, comics, fast cars, and video games.
Our fascination with superheroes grows out of the desire for an alter ego, a Superman to our everyday Clark Kent. Most of us fall into characters of our own creation quite often. French electronic artist Vincent Belorgey, known to the world as Kavinsky, has made a career through his alter ego. The legend of Kavinsky goes something like this: After crashing his Ferrari Testarossa, Vincent’s real-life car of choice, he dies and reappears as a zombie to create electronic music. “Nightcall,” the song that launched Kavinsky to fame largely through the Drive soundtrack, is about the zombie going to see his old girlfriend to let her know he has changed. But, the story goes, she has already moved on. How are you?
more badass than me. We make the perfect balance, except he’s a little shier, yet also more badass. He’s maybe the guy I wanted to be. OutRun is a plot line, like a story in a movie. It’s just more fun for me to make music in this abstract sort of way. Tell me about the development of OutRun. After we did “Nightcall” with Guy-Manuel of Daft Punk we decided to make a full album with some new tracks, with my friend Sebastian (a French artist who has worked with Daft Punk, Nero, and the Beastie Boys, among others) and then we found some voices for it. We wanted to take some time to then go back and revisit, so that’s why it came out a little later, you could say.
I’m fine, I was having a little bit of sun at the pool. My How did “Nightcall” make its way into the film Drive? skin is a bit red now. I’m breathing a little bit after all The song works so perfectly. the turmoil, really good to be here as always. Nicolas Winding Refn, the director of the film, contacted me because he was listening to the music in So you’re there for pleasure rather than work? his car going down Sunset Boulevard, and after that I think he began listening to it a lot. And then he asked Yes, three days left and then back to Paris. for it, and of course, me, I was really happy he chose Your new record’s name, OutRun, is a Sega reference, my music for the opening credits. correct?
I’ve read that your music is largely inspired by films Yes, it’s a tribute, you could say, to a game that I used and TV shows you watched as a kid. What were your to play a lot. favorites? How similar are you, Vincent, to the character of Kavinsky?
Yes, The Goonies, Back to the Future, of course, E.T., and then actually I like a lot of scarier movies.
We are very similar, but you could say he is a little bit
By Sophie Saint Thomas
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Interview
Justice Reveal Their Style Secrets and Favorite New Artists
After signing to pioneering French label Ed Banger Records back in the mid 2000s, Justice – aka Parisian duo Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay – set the world alight with 2006’s “We Are Your Friends”; their euphoric collaboration with Simian Mobile Disco that filled dancefloors across the globe. Two blockbuster albums followed, backed up by epic live shows and a striking aesthetic that twinned religious and rock ‘n’ roll iconography, resulting in a cult following as much for their sharp dress sense as their alternative take on electronic music. Along the way they’ve picked up a series of awards, released a documentary, and soundtracked fashion shows for the likes of Dior Homme, cementing themselves as modern-day poster boys for the Parisian dance scene. This summer, after a hiatus of five years, Justice put out new singles “Safe And Sound,” ”Randy” and “Alakazam”, which served as strong, synth-heavy reminders of the duo’s significant talent. With their third album, Woman, dropping this week, we spoke to the pair on the roof of London’s Ace Hotel on their style, their sound, and their hot tips for 2017.
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The Parisian duo speak ahead of dropping their third album, ‘Woman.’
What can we expect from your new album, Woman? Xavier de Rosnay: One of the ideas we had when we started this record was to work with the idea of gospel music. We wanted to take that and make it our own way by presenting a contemporary sci-fi version of it, as that’s another thing that we find cool. Listening to a record is an immersive experience for us and we still like to believe that some people will listen from beginning to end. Our music has one foot in victory and another in something sadder – we always say that it’s like you’ve won the war but you lost some
friends along the way. We’re never fully satisfied with a sound that’s completely dark or completely uplifting – that sounds cheesy to our ears. How do you translate your records to a live show? Gaspard Augé: We don’t really come from the dance music world and its iconography and ravey, fractal lights were never really our cup of tea, but there is something appealing in technology. We are drawn to tech as it allows you to make sounds that you couldn’t have made five or 10 years ago but we try to use it in an understated way as we don’t want our music to
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Interview
sound too futuristic, as that way it can quickly go out of date. How important is style to you? XDR: It’s what comes to us naturally. It’s all those things that you absorb when you’re a kid as well as your vision of what’s cool – this can stick with you forever. For me, confirmation of this came recently when I saw some Frank Marjerin comic books from the late 1970s or 1980s. I used to read these comics about French suburban kids and if you look at images of them now, we look exactly the same – the jackets, the shape of the trousers, and the shoes. Back in the early 2000s, everyone was wearing biker jackets but as far as I can remember, we’ve always dressed the same. Which designers and shops appeal to you? XDR: We mainly shop on eBay or on trips to Japan. Japanese vintage shops are amazing for everything – it’s like they’ve taken everything from the 1960s onwards and sorted them out neatly by decade – you can always find such amazing pieces.
“It’s all those things
that you absorb when you’re a kid as well as your vision of what’s cool – this can stick with you forever. ”
Justice style walkthrough All the eras of the duo reunited in a well known shape. How is nightlife in Paris changing? XDR: All the big parties are happening in warehouses in the suburbs of Paris – I guess it’s a worldwide movement. Clubs can seem quite exclusive and they’re expensive and these days people are maybe trying to find something a bit more authentic. People want the impression of participating in something a bit rougher and spontaneous like rave parties – it ties in with the whole 1990s revival thing. Which artists do you expect big things from in 2017? XDR: We have a friend called Surkin who releases music as Gener8ion. We started making music at about the same time and what he’s been releasing so far has been amazing – it’s a new form of electronic music. He made one track with M.I.A. but the general aesthetic is similar to the Japanese anime of Akira.
GA: There’s another new band called The Lemon Twigs who aren’t making “new” music but I really like their concept. They’re two really young brothers from Why has the Paris electro scene traditionally been so Hollywood who are obsessed with the British Invasion and they’re great at writing songs, too. strong?
– De Rosnay
XDR: I think it’s the only type of music we have in France that isn’t an imitation of something else – too often we try too hard. It’s tough to make authentic rock ‘n’ roll in France, for example, as you’ve got bands in the UK and U.S. who have been doing it for so long. But some artists such as Phoenix have found a winning formula because they manage somehow to sound very French. It’s the same with rap music – right now there’s a band called PNL from the Parisian borders and whether you like them or not, they sounds like nothing else, so they’ve managed to find their own sound.
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What were you guys thinking about when you started writing this album? What was your headspace like? XDR: It’s corny but our headspace is always about making the best music we can possibly make. GA: We knew that we were starting to make a record since 2012, since the last tour. We talked about many ideas, but we don’t arrive at the studio and know what comes next. Our mindset is always to try to make it the best we can. By Ben Olsen / Jake Boyer
Justice’s new album “Woman” is a throwback to the disco era. With more vibrant sounds, a more vibrant cover.
The second record, “Audio, Video, Disco” sounds very antique, going to progrock in terms of composion. A rusty cover to rustyfeeling sounds. The first album, † (also known as “Cross”) made a statement in eletronic music. A strong figure in the cover to a strong act.
“Back in the
“We mainly
shop on eBay or on trips to Japan.” – De Rosnay
early 2000s, everyone was wearing biker jackets but as far as I can remember, we’ve always dressed the same.” – De Rosnay 11
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Interview
BUSY P The Paris party scene setting And also Dafty Punkish talk.
Back in the early aughts, Ed Banger Records was the leading exporter of glitchy French electronic dance music and a Parisian cool-kid scene that orgiastically blended night life, fashion and art. Founded by the D.J. and musician Pedro Winter, the label helped turn acts like Justice, Uffie, Sebastian and Mr. Oizo into international figures. Since his days as a teenage party promoter and, later, as Daft Punk’s manager, Mr. Winter has cut an unmistakable, lanky and shaggy-haired silhouette on the Parisian cultural landscape. He has released 12-inch singles, compilations and remixes under the alias Busy P, and D.J.ed at spaces as varied as Berghain, the behemoth club in Berlin, and Lot Radio, a dinky lounge in Brooklyn. This month, Ed Banger put out “Ed Rec 100,” a compilation that commemorates the label’s 100th release and includes new tracks from every artist under its roof. After installing a promotional pinball machine in the storefront window of Colette, Mr. Winter spoke by telephone about the changes in the Parisian party scene, managing Daft Punk and the recent French election.
Disco graphy
Rainbow Man (2007)
Pedrophilia (2008)
You released “Genie” in February, your first single in five years. Why did you end your hiatus? My main job is to work for my artists and work behind them. At the same time, I like to go into the studio and make music using my sampler and rhythm machine. It’s true that I’ve mostly been making club music, repetitive electronic stuff. But for this one, I wanted to be a bit more ambitious. Mayer Hawthorne was in Paris for his European tour and I played him a song I was working on. He went back to Los Angeles, wrote a love song and killed it.
Still Busy (2013)
The dance scene in the United States has moved away from underground music. Has the same happened in Paris? In France, we resist pretty well to what we call the E.D.M. But the whole electronic music industry has been moved by that market. In Europe, electronic music has to be an alternative or a subculture. It has to be avant-garde or pushing the boundaries, rather than becoming a big pop market.
Genie (2017)
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“We never really speak
loudly, but, in a way, I think we are reflecting our political position by doing what we are doing.”
Beyond the music, Ed Banger and “French Touch” have always been associated with a larger sense of Parisian style. I think the link with the fashion and art world is that we have a common sense of aesthetic and love of image. The Justice boys did the music for Dior Homme; Sebastian is doing most of the music for Yves Saint Laurent. And me, I’ve been D.J.ing for Jeremy Scott for the last 10 years. I’m really respectful to the expression of contemporary art and fashion. Especially nowadays, we are living in a crazy world and art can make people think.
Would you say Ed Banger’s music has changed over the last decade? I would never regret anything we released back then, but today is another day. We were the label of the year in 2007, 2008, 2009, but trends are a cycle. The label is 14 years old now. It’s like a teenage human, where it’s a bit like an adult now. You managed Daft Punk in your early 20s. How does it feel to see them thriving so many years later? That’s amazing. I feel blessed to have worked close to them for 12 years. I owe them all of my life. They are geniuses. But also, on a personal level, it was important to prove to myself that I could create something myself. Have you ever accidentally revealed their identities? No, no, no. But it’s funny, especially in Paris, when people would see me at a concert or a party, they would understand Daft Punk was around because they recognized me.
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With the recent French election, was there any urgency to address political issues? We often get the question: “Are you political or not?” We never really speak loudly, but, in a way, I think we are reflecting our political position by doing what we are doing. D.J. Mehdi, who I was working with for more than 10 years, passed away in 2011. He was a suburb guy coming from the hip-hop side. We built Ed Banger together. We were sharing our passion for music. We didn’t need a flag to say we are for unity and mixing people together. Has the night-life scene in Paris changed over the 25 years of your involvement? It has completely changed! Me, I grew up in the gay scene of Paris, when I was 20 years old. This is where the best music, the best people and the most fun party was. When I started my own parties in 1995, it was all about bringing the young skateboarders from Paris who couldn’t get in, mixing them with the gay crowd and the fashion world. Now you have the gay crowd on one side, the techno heads on the other, the hip-hop heads on other. I’m sad. The best cocktail was when we mixed all the genres together.
Like any loving father asked to choose his favorite child, Winters couldn’t decide which artist to honor with the milestone. Instead, he asked all Ed Banger’s artists and closest friends to submit a new original, so fans get 17 fresh cuts from, among others, SebastiAn, Mr. Oizo, Breakbot, Boston Bun, a Boys Noize remix of Justice and, of course, Winters’ own musical moniker, Busy P. “I think what we managed to do with this compilation is make a little photograph of where we are at the moment,” Winters says. “All the artists are on the label, and some are friends. Some extra guests are friends of the label, but this is like a time piece, or time capsule.” It’s been a wild 15 years. Winters and his crazy, surrealist, jokester Ed Banger family have been credited by some of the biggest names in dance as direct inspirations. “Yesterday, I was with Skrillex,” he says, fresh from Coachella weekend 1, where Justice played less than 24 hours before. “I have a lot of respect for what those guys are doing here in the U.S., but it’s amazing the love and attention they are giving us. When he is telling me, ‘Oh, Pedro, you are everything. You started it all.’ I am not taking credit for it, but it’s good for the heart. Skrillex or DJ Snake, when you look at what they are doing today We don’t play stadiums. We play The Roxy [in Los Angeles] or stuff like that, but we’re still connected in a way, and I’m glad all the work we’ve been doing for 14 years is paying off.
“All I am is the guy who is putting the seed in the Earth.” me, ‘Oh, Pedro, everything you touch turns into gold,’” he says. “I’m glad you’re saying that, but that’s not real life. In real life, I release a lot of records that no one cares about. … My goal has never been to make hits or be No. 1. It’s been 14 years, and again, Coachella is a good example, because we are talking about that yesterday with Justice and Breakbot. We had a good time enjoying ourselves in our house by the pool. All I’m doing is for that, to be able to take my 15 friends, rent a house, buy the biggest guacamole, and see my friends killing it at Coachella.”
Whether they’re hits or misses, every track Winters Winters tries not to get caught up in the head rush. has released is a song he loves. He understands that “I’m never very comfortable when people are telling his reputation is built on trust, trust with the listeners, trust with his artists and trust in himself. If he can’t get behind it 100 percent, how could he expect anyone else to? And if the artist isn’t behind it fully, why bother pushing? Maybe that’s why Ed Banger has released on average seven records a year. “All I am is the guy who is putting the seed in the Earth,” he says. “The taste of the fruit, [the artists] are responsible for that. It’s exciting that after 14 years we are still excited by this, by the adventure. The compilation we are releasing, we hope has this taste of ‘Oh, hey, we are all still together.’”
“I’m never very comfortable when people are telling me, ‘Oh, Pedro, everything you touch turns into gold,’”
Of course, one very important man does not appear on the compilation. “It was hard when we lost DJ Mehdi,” By Kat Bein
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