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Laurent Garnier's klepto tendencies
A DJ thinking outside the box
Paris
12/05/2009 -
Laurent Garnier: It's me! Although having said that, I didn't really do too much sampling on this album. But I don't know anyone who makes music without taking inspiration from other people's - especially not DJs! Being a DJ is a bit like being a kleptomaniac, although I have to point out that our way of working is never downright theft. But we do tend to take other people's music and use it to tell our own story.
Tales of a Kleptomaniac is a fairly dark, brooding album…
I've always liked music that's a bit dark, like Detroit techno, for instance. There's something about Detroit techno that strikes a real chord with me. I guess some people never change! (Laughs) It's the same reason I prefer The Stones to The Beatles, the same reason I hate pop but love punk and the blues. That kind of music proves that there are people out there with something to say and music gives them a way of expressing their suffering. I've always said that music's essentially an outlet…
When you first started performing on the live circuit it can't have been easy to present electronic music in concert…
I started doing live shows back in 1997 and yes, in those days it was really difficult to be a DJ and create music as well, let alone play music live on stage! It was Éric Morand - the guy I ended up setting up the F. Com label with - who persuaded me not to take my turntables up on stage to avoid audiences confusing my DJ work with my concerts. Even today, there are plenty of people out there who think I just get up on stage and mix records! The interesting thing about performing live is that unlike my DJ work, where I'm alone in my box, I'm never on my own up on stage. I'm surrounded by musicians including a drummer and a violinist… I wanted to put on a real show on stage so at one point I began collaborating with this street theatre troupe who are very involved in the whole electro scene. The problem was that things got very complicated to manage live on stage and that didn't go down too well with the crowd. So I went back to basics and starting concentrating on the essential thing which is the music!
A lot of electro concerts do consist of some guy standing up on stage behind banks of computers, fiddling about with knobs and launching pre-programmed sequences. Personally, when I go to a concert I want to see something happening, something alive! I don't want to feel I'm watching exactly the same show as the night before or the one that's going to happen the night after, whether it be a rock band or an electro act. But that doesn't mean it necessarily has to be a group of musicians. Artists like The Chemical Brothers, Underworld and Kraftwerk all put on brilliant live shows.
Are there any countries you haven't visited yet as a live performer or a DJ? I was wondering whether audiences react differently to you from one country to another?
Well, I've never done a concert in Africa, that's for sure! I think there's probably a lot to discover in South America, too. An increasing number of countries are beginning to open up to electronic music now. I recently went out to the Lebanon and played in Chile and Luxembourg. French artists are travelling a lot right now and it's rare to be out on the road somewhere without bumping into one of your compatriots like Yuksek or Birdy Nam Nam… There's no doubt about it, the most receptive audiences for us right now are in Japan. Japanese fans are the most musically educated. The more way out and different the music is, the more they like it! It's incredible performing in front of a Japanese crowd!
Currently on tour in Europe
Nicolas Dambre
Translation : Julie Street
12/05/2009 -
03/08/2007 -
26/09/2006 -
04/02/2005 -
30/10/2003 -
09/07/2003 -
18/02/2000 -
