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NOS interview
Kidz by Colette
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Would you like to introduce yourselves
briefly? What turns you on?....
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VICTOR ....VALDEZ.... : Funk, disco, New wave…....
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DAN NEVILLE
: Rock pop, brit pop, new wave, cold
wave, punk…....
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Has there been any emulation on Internet
enabling you to make new friends or contacts?....
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Particularly
loads of MySpace friends (laughter). Not
too many at first, but when things began to move, there were contacts for
interviews, documentaries…. Then there
was this rumour made public over the net, and even on Radio FG, that we were
“the new little protégés of Daft Punk”.....
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D.N. I even had to call Guy-Man of the Dafts to
tell him I had nothing to do with it. We
even learned that our album was to appear in April 2009 and that our big title
was not on our MySpace yet. The web is just incredible…....
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When will you be making an EP?....
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Soon, but
as the present trend is for electro, and our music sounds more like funky and
disco house “VV : French touch”, it’s more difficult and will take longer.
Specially when you appear out of nowhere.....
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D.N. The crushing argument is to say that records
no longer sell because of downloading, so they want the radio format “in the
manner of”… If you believe them, you
should just stop making music…....
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Any anecdotes about your live shows ?....
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Technical
hitches or bugs; here you just have to manage as best you can. Otherwise, plenty of positive memories…....
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D.N. (laughs) except for Victor, because sometimes
we take photos after the show, like this month in Algeria with some people, and
Victor doesn’t like that too much…....
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What’s
crazy, for example in Tipaza, is that there were plenty of very good bands with
fantastic musicians, blokes playing and sweating all over their instruments,
and yet when our turn came, we set the place on fire. Not very fair, but it’s like that…....
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Tell us about your next album…....
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A superb
Frenchy surprise. We love pop and don’t
care which music is currently the trend (you find it no longer is when you go
out). Like New Old Stock as its name
indicates. Very hot, almost kitsch, on the razor’s edge… We hope to be able to
finish the album where you don’t get the impression that all the 10 or 12
titles are the same!!....
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Do all the ideas for your tracks stem from one
simple idea? Or just by chance?....
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They are
simply ideas we had in our heads. Or
sometimes by chance you hear an old track and you flash on it. You work on your sample, on the harmonies and
the melody…....
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D.N. Victor is the perfect master of the art of
“yoghurt” in English which is a great help to us in finding certain song
melodies… (laughs). His ear can rapidly
detect things to sample, so we call him “sampler man”…....
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A title can
also derive from something which happens at that moment in your life…....
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In my opinion “Please” is your craziest and
most deranged title (due to appear shortly I hope). I find it very
representative of your work. What gave
you the most pleasure during the making of this title in particular?....
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For us it’s
not the craziest title because in fact it pays tribute to the French Touch
titles dating from almost 10 years ago. “Last
Night” or “People So” for example, titles on our MySpace, are a little more
“CRAZY”. Record companies are always
repeating that ours is not a trendy sound, but it so happens that this title is
pretty often asked for by the public.
The disco-funk sound is always popular as it puts people in a party
mood. It was Victor who got his hands on
the sample we began with (a so far unexploited marvel) and then we put
everything together. So, lots of
pleasure, some testing, and also some doubts since it doesn’t follow the
present “electro” trend. But we enjoy
taking risks and don’t intend changing our style just because one must follow
the trend. We have our own sound. For your info. we are finishing another title
in the same mood…....
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Did your meeting with Guy-Manuel de Homem
Christo “DAFT PUNK” trigger off anything special in you?.......
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It was
mainly a friendly meeting. With Guy-Man
you don’t talk about music too much, you listen to it.....
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D.N. It’s true that when he told us about the origin
of “Homework”, made with very little funding, I relaxed immediately. I also
remember the shock I got when I heard them live outdoors in ....Portugal.... when he invited us. The sound was of studio quality! With beautiful and powerful infras. Not to mention the show… Moreover they are quite unpretentious guys…....
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V.V. And they are masters of their machines – and
of any machine they get their hands on too!.......
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And a final word …....
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Thanks for
the interview! See you very soon !!!....
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