 |
When godfather of French techno Laurent Garnier played in India earlier this month, he kicked up a proper storm! The Record brings you an exclusive interview with the DJ/producer.
The Record: How was the Delhi gig you played last night?
Laurent Garnier: It was great!
TR: Are we any good on the dance floor?
Garnier: People were moving, which is the good point. [Laughs] I think everywhere you go people dance differently but they were moving and it seems they had a good time.
TR: You’ve got a brand new album coming out that is said to go in a different direction than your previous work. Tell us more.
Garnier: The new album, called Cloud Making Machine, is coming out in January and there’s no techno tracks in there at all (which is different because) I’ve always been known as a techno producer. The album is part of me growing up and doing other things. It is so much more personal and it’s going to be much harder for people to listen to. Because it’s so personal it might be hard for people to understand it. I’m very happy to put it out because I believe in it a hundred percent.
TR: How does putting out such a personal album make you feel?
Garnier: It’s very scary because I know I’m going to lose a lot of the techno kids because they will not understand this album. But at the end of the day if they don’t understand the album it’s because they never understood me. As simple as that. As a DJ even though my purpose is to make people dance, I’ve always been very versatile music-wise, playing drum and bass, hip hop, reggae… I have no problem mixing everything. Of course the main thing is house and techno but if I can play bits of other things, I do it. And I do it with pleasure because I like it. But when you lose some you gain some. So I might touch people that were not too much into my music before so it’s quite an exciting time, it’s a good time.
TR: Yeah it is a good time. There’s so much music coming out now it’s hard to keep track.
Garnier: I don’t think people realise how many records come out in a week. There’s about 1000 records a week in house music and roughly the same in techno. So that’s a good 2000 records every single week, and it’s really hard for a producer or a record shop to stock all this stuff. I receive about 200 records a week. And this is only from a small part of England, bits of Germany, France and Holland. And then there’s the rest of the world.
There is huge amounts of stuff so of course the good quality drowns in the bad stuff but we are in a world where people don’t want to search anymore, they want everything to be there for them. The job of a DJ, the job of a journalist if they’re writing about music is not just to receive records and write about them, it is to go out, get to the shops and search! As a DJ I go to the shops every week, everywhere I go. I want to see what’s happening, I’m digging, I’m listening and I spend hours and hours. This is my job!
LAURENT GARNIER’S MUST-HAVE MUSIC FOR EVERY COLLECTION
Techno: Get a compilation from Derrick May on Transmat Records or Aphex Twin for a more experimental side. Also Lee Perry, a great dub reggae artist.
Hip Hop: Anything from Stones Throw Records and BBE records.
Electronic Jazz: You can’t go wrong with an album from NinjaTune Records.
Classical Jazz: A Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis – I listen to it all the time.
Pop: I’m not too much of a pop fan I’ve never been a pop fan. I like some of it but I’ve always liked the Rolling Stones more than the Beatles. The Beatles never ever talked to me. But The Stones… it’s the blues, the black influence.
Rock: You must get some Rage Against The Machine, The Liars, TV On The Radio and classics like the Sex Pistols, The Clash and Nirvana.
House or techno: It’s quite hard to just bring somebody to an album (in this genre) because it’s so diverse. But even people that don’t like the music, I’m pretty sure there’s a key to the door to open that world for them. If they like rock music bring them to Aphex Twin and from there you can go to harder techno, if they like reggae bring them to drum and bass and then from there you can go to more techno stuff, if they like hip hop, bring them to electro. There’s always a way.
You can read the rest of our feature on Laurent Garnier in the November 2004 issue of The Record Music Magazine available at your local newsagent.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
The Record has been around since 1998. Do you have every issue of your favourite magazine?
 to order back issues
Would you like to have your favourite music magazine delivered directly to
your doorstep?
|
|
