Ghislain Poirier, the hip hop hacker

DJ on a mission to "get bums bouncing"

Paris 

24/03/2006 - 

The fastest gun in the West! Ghislain Poirier, a DJ, producer and committed workaholic from Quebec, has already made five albums in five years. All of them feature his trademark mix of experimental hip hop, quirky humour and electronic dub. RFI Musique hooked up with the French Canadian mixmaster before he takes this summer's festivals by storm.

Juggling the after-effects of an eight-hour flight, a six-hour time difference - not to mention a show in Amsterdam instantly followed by a second in Belgium - Ghislain Poirier is enjoying a well-deserved three-day break in Paris, before stepping behind the decks for two other shows. The Quebec-based DJ, who admits to being a total workaholic, is in the midst of a lightning European tour. "Right now, I'm attacking Quebec, the U.S., the U.K. and France all at the same time," he laughs, "And I have to say it's all going pretty well so far."

Ghislain got a major career break thanks to a set at the "Printemps de Bourges" festival in 2004, impressing music critics and the French festival crowd with his loud, pumping beats, his experimental approach and his original use of well-worn funk samples. Ghislain has always dipped in and out of a vast electronic repertoire, even incorporating dub and Afrobeat into his work. "I don't make much use of pure unadulterated machine sounds," he says, "I prefer samples that have already lived, where you've got a bit of background static. I tend not to make any attempt to clean stuff up. I like to keep things natural."

Monsieur Poirier's latest album Breakupdown (only available as an import in France) reveals the multiple facets of the Canadian mixmaster. It features abstract hip hop (in the same vein as Prefuse 73 and Dabrye), dark brooding interludes with the rapper Bean (ex-Anti Pop Consortium) and sudden bursts of hilarity. Needless to say, Ghislain Poirier's eclectic mix has not gone down too well with the purists. But he defends his multi-mix, insisting that "rap, rock, funk and folk are all musical styles which have soaked up other influences. I think that if, as a musician, you stick to playing just one sound, you end up falling into a trap. All you're doing is referencing other stuff all the time, keeping it in the same family. It's like musical incest. It gets to a point where you end up going round in circles because you've got no outside stimulation. Africa Bambaata was doing electro and hip hop 25 years ago now. The way I see it, electro and hip hop are two enemy brothers. They're made with the same machines. The only difference is in the intention. I don't think it's a serious problem people criticising stuff for not being pure. Take a look at the canine world! The most beautiful dogs are mongrels. I believe in crossbreeds - sensitive well-thought out crossbreeds like TTC."

Shaking that arse!

Ghislain Poirier is a mixmaster who has never shied away from confrontation and he admits there's nothing he enjoys more than winning the sceptics around and introducing audiences to groundbreaking new sounds. This has been the ongoing leitmotiv of his clubnights Bounce le gros ("le gros" being local Quebec slang for "arse") "The main aim is to get out there and share music that people wouldn't necessarily come across themselves," he enthuses, "to get the crowd up on their feet dancing to pounding bass. And that's what we do at Le Zoobizarre. It's this really small, really friendly place where the crowd's half French-speaking, half English-speaking. And believe me, that's pretty rare in Montreal."

Continuing with his arse-shaking concept, Ghislain has just released Bounce le remix, a compilation of non-authorised remixes (including reworkings of hits by the likes of Mary J Blige and Busta Rhymes). "The way I see it, it's good publicity for those artists," he says, "And if they don't like it they can come along and complain to me! What's the biggest risk I'm taking? That they actually like what I've done and include it on one of their own maxis. It's like what happens with computer hackers. When they attack a big bank and get caught, they get a prison sentence – or they're offered two million dollars to work on reinforcing network security!"

An advocate of downloading

Going against the grain of current attitudes in the record industry, Ghislain indulges in a moment of controversial satire on one of the interludes on Breakupdown, mocking a campaign against illegal downloading on the Internet. "I download tons of stuff," he says, "And that means I end up buying more records, because I discover new things. The major labels want to have total monopoly in the stores. The problem with that is if you've got musical tastes that go beyond the latest chart hits, you have to dig around and find your own musical gems that have been ignored by the major networks. That's exactly what downloading from the Internet allows you to do. Besides, the main way artists make a living is by getting out there and doing concerts."

Talking of making a living, the multi-talented Monsieur Poirier announces he is about to branch out in a new direction, producing his records himself, claiming that he is not totally satisfied with his current label. "I think I've reached a point where I can allow myself to do that now," he says, "The thing is, there's never an ideal label. You come to realise that if you do something yourself, OK sure you're going to end up working more but you're also going to get more out of it on a creative level. The weird thing is you end up making more money, selling less records! In April, I'm going to be bringing out my first 30- minute maxi on my own label Rebondir. It'll be a good introduction to what I'll be serving up on my next album." And the good news is that this time round both Ghislain's maxi and his new album should be available in France!

Ghislain Poirier Breakupdown (Chocolate Industries) 2005

Ludovic  Basque

Translation : Julie  Street