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Was being a DJ something you always wanted to do?
Laurent Garnier: Yes it was very clear, very very clear. Not
just being a DJ, but I wanted be somebody who could give - share - my love for
music since I was a kid. And I guess I discovered later that being a DJ was the
best way to share the music I love.
How old were you?
LG: Man, I think I was about eight and I was making my parents dance in my
bedroom. And when I was 10, I said to my parents that I wanted to go to DJ
school and I wanted to learn how to be a radio DJ and stuff like that.
Who do you look up to as a DJ?
LG: When I was young, there were no examples for me to
look up to, 'cos I didn't know what DJing was all about
(then). I only discovered, (I mean) really discovered
the DJ world when I was about 18 when I moved to London.
The very first few DJs I was following, for their very
name and for what they were playing, were Mark Moore from
S-Express and another guy called Jay Strongman, who was
playing rockabilly to funk, soul, go-go and stuff like
that.
I think one of the DJs who truly caught me was Derrick May.
First time I heard Derrick I was like , "fucking hell! Wow!", this guy just
killed me. And then from that there were hundreds of other DJs I really admired
but never really followed their progress all the time. So I think Derrick was
really the one who switched on the lights for me even though I was a DJ already
(at the time).
Give us your definition of techno.
LG: Deep, emotive, kind of experimental, but it's not all
about experiments... I think it's all about deep feelings, true people who truly
devote their heart to music... funky, very emotional. That's my definition of
techno, it doesn't have to be hard at all, its more like an inner slide or an
inner trip. To me I'm a real Detroit techno lover, knowing that I can go quite
hard but it has to stay funky. It has to have the kind of funky feeling to it.
Something people can dance to?
LG: Not necessarily, because there are a lot of things I
would call techno, which are not danceable to, it's more like a mood. Yes, I
think mood is the right word and this is my very own definition. I'm pretty sure
my neighbour would have a totally different definition.
'Acid Eiffel' was a totally great track. Is there a
story behind it?
LG: It was kind of weird. When we did it we merely did it. We
did all the other tracks for choice and we needed one last track so we went into
the studio and…I don't know what happened. Shit happened.
It took us like three to four hours to get to the studio because it was busy on
the road and we tired and I don't know... something happened. When we got to the
studio we had to get everything done and we did this track. So we did it and it
took us the whole night to finish it. It was like seven in the morning and I
remember listening to (it) and we felt right there - we only did one take - and
at the end we felt right there, we looked at each other and went "fucking hell,
what happened?"
And the funny thing is, (it) was a Tuesday night and on Wednesday night I had my
normal radio show in Paris. So I rang Eric, my partner in F-Comm and said,
"we've done this track and I think its pretty awesome so check it out, just tune
in," so I played it on the radio and he rang me straight away after and he went
"Laurent, that was fucking stunning." So I said let's just try it tomorrow, and
I had my club called Wake Up and that night Derrick May was playing with us.
That night we didn't say anything to
anybody, we just played the track there. So I played the
track right till the end. At the end of the track the
whole club just looked at each other and they started
cheering and clapping. That was when I thought "oh
fucking hell we've something so strong". And Derrick
jumped at me and said "what's this track man,"
and he signed it straight away on Fragile.
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