Julian Starke’s documentary and web series French Waves depicting the rich landscape of the electronic music scene from its birth in the 80’s to today was followed up by an inspiring intergenerational Q&A at Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.
Answering the questions where the director of the documentary Julian Starke, the up and coming French DJ Jacques and Pedro Winter, manager for Daft Punk, Justice, Pharrell and so many others but also quite a talented DJ that many of us know under the name Busy P.
Julian you are 25 years old and didn’t grow up at the time of the French Touch trend, when did you first discover the French touch music?
Julian: With justice in 2006. Back then I was a teenager and I had just discovered their tracks and their music videos and It made me go mad. It was exactly what I wanted to hear and to listen to as a teenager. And then I discovered daft punk that led me to all kinds of music.
What did you want to achieve with this kind of documentary?
Julian: I think I just want to share my passion for this music. I wanted to create a link with what was happening in the past and what is happening now. And show a vision of hope for the future.
Pedro you must have an interesting perspective as you where there from the very beginning when you met Daft Punk in 1996.
Pedro: You want me to go back to the start? Do you have 4 hours? First and most importantly, the documentary is not a work from a journalist. It’s not about the why it happened, how it happened, it’s just the point of view of a young man and in a way I feel some similarities with Julian’s passion because for me it happened like that in the early nineties when I went to my first rave in Paris. The electronic and techno scene back then in Paris could only be found in the gay clubs, so when we used to party we went to gay clubs to listen to the music we liked. And, little by little, I wanted to get involved with this music. I met Daft Punk in a record shop in Paris. We where buying our records in the same store, we became friends and I invited them to play at some parties I was doing at the time, still searching for my sexuality. I can tell you I was dressed pretty weird. And then they gained popularity and they needed someone to answer the Faxes, we didn’t have emails yet. And then I started being the manager.
I feel like in the 80’s and 90’s there was a sort of star system around the figures of the French Touch and now I feel its harder to gain that sort of fame.
Pedro: You know Daft Punk, Etienne de Crécy etc. where all hiding behind a concept. They were giving the music first. The people judged the music first and it wasn’t important for the producers to have a cute face. At that time there where no fucking followers or stuff like that. Today of course its another game but to get into that would be another two-hour talk.
But surely the techno scene had changed and has a lower entry bar and I wonder how that has impacted the creativity and the art.
Pedro: It’s still a bit early, we are living in the middle of this revolution. 1996 seems like a big change but we are still living this change. The internet revolution is as big as electricity or the printing press and its hard to say today how big the impact is going to be. The positive thing is that today anyone who has a laptop can make music, lets be happy about that. Anybody can be creative but the only thing is not everybody can be daft punk or Riton. Before, when I received music I would receive lovely messages, ‘I love you Pedro’ with a niece CD, sometimes with a naked picture and now all you receive is a Soundcloud link which is a bit boring. But I’ve discovered most of the artist I represent now through a link on Soundcloud.
What about you Jacques? You choose to keep doing just live performances and not do to much marketing right?
Jacques: I think I have a weird hair cut and when people see me once, they don’t need to see me twice, they remember me. I think it makes my carrier easier.
So you branded yourself?
Jacques: Yes but it wasn’t conscious. Although its conscious right now. I started wearing this haircut one year before I released my first EP and then I realised it was easier for me to continue having this hair cut. So maybe I’m more of an example of the sort of artist that you first see his head and only then listen to the music. I’m ok with that, the music will talk, or not, to the people who are receptive, or not. I don’t think strategy is important, it can make success come faster but it will happen anyway if it has to. I am sure my music will meet its lovers. So no I don’t think to much about marketing. But at the same time you know someone who doesn’t have Facebook cannot know me. I think the Facebook post is my interface, my format. I don’t have a single or an album I have a Facebook posts containing an event or a song or a live. And what I enjoy a lot about that is that there is a reflective aspect. People can see what I did but can also see what I think about what I did.
That’s what was interesting in the documentary, we had feedback on the artists from the artists themselves.
Julian: That is why I think it is important to have a documentary, a web series and a web site. We have tools today and they are exiting and can provide creativity.
You talk about Justice being one of your main influences why are they not in the film?
Julian: They where in studio when I was shooting. In fact, I recorded a voice over for the beginning of the movie where I talked about how I discovered electronic music though justice but then I felt that Carl was resuming the whole movement between France and the us and the us and France and between generations so I began the documentary with him. But I would have loved to have justice talk about their vision. But maybe in an other format later.
Documentary doesn’t talk about Guetta why?
Julian: I think Bob Sinclar is playing this role of mainstream music in the documentary and also I wanted to talk about the music that I love. I did send him an email but he didn’t reply.
What are you going to do next Julian?
Julian: We are going to tour a little bit and then I have a project of a fiction film on a relationship breakup. Also make great parties in Paris. But actually I want French Waves to be a project that continues living with or without me so we’ll see how things go. Maybe bring girl filmmakers and artists because they are missing a little bit.
It seems like there is more and more collaborations between film and music.
Julian: Jacques talks of his music as transversal music and in the same manner I like to talk about horizontal projects with a global idea that is translate through many different mediums; film, music, animation etc.
Pedro: Jacques music is also something very participative. He is completely crazy. If you haven’t seen him play you must come to the after party at Le Bain tonight to experience that.
Such an enticing proposition could not be refused, and indeed what an unforgettable experience it was. Jacques’s haircut is as perplexing as his performance behind the mixing tables. His music is made mainly from recording the sounds everyday objects make when you bang, scratch, throw them against each other. Not only that but most of his DJ sets are based on improvisation as he makes the music while he is performing. So, don’t be surprised if while you are dancing to one of his wild rhythms he starts banging two empty glasses together in front of a microphone to record the sound they make because you will later on be dancing on this very same tantalizing sound. Full of surprises he might also all of a sudden stand up on a table and whip out an electric guitar to add one or two harmonies to a swinging tune. Le Bain was fully packed that night and enjoying not only fantastic music but a performance of live improvisation. Not only did it require a certain amount of artful dexterity but also showed that the next generation of French Touch is creative, vibrant and original and that one can only look to the future of the electronic music scene with enthusiasm and excitement.
