How would you characterize your musical style?
I would describe my style with a blend of EBM, acid techno with touches of electro clash sounds. Anything sexy and appealing, from 125bpm to 140bpm basically. I try to have my sound more or less timeless by using classic techno instruments including famous Roland drums and synth.
What genres of music most inspire you and influence your creativity?
I would say that a genre that inspired me the most would be late 80s new beat from Belgium. This stuff is too slow bpm to be played in a DJ set at least to me right now, or at least not for peak time, but it has its own raw punk sexy attitude that a love. It is also very sexy and it melts your guts from the inside. It contains crazy vocals, bass lines, and martial beat. Everything I like.
How do you choose tracks for your sets and podcasts?
I always try to think of it as a combination of several moods and entities which I want them to meet in order to organize a continues story. I don’t really think in term of genres or bpm, more in term of moods and intentions. I think when the key of two tracks is working well together, it is possible to melt very different genres, no matter what the bpm is.
How do you create atmosphere and mood during your performances?
I mean, when performing I know the kind of vibe I wanna expose, so it’s more a matter of finding the genres and the BPM which will match with the overall mood of the party. I am always very conscious and respect the other artists of the night, I basically don’t want the party AD to become a shit show just for my own entertainment and exposure. Of course I can play 140bpm acid techno for an opening, but what would be the point of it ?
What is your approach to mixing and mixing tracks in your set?
I would say I got my own way to organize my tracks into lots of files, so I know each track I played will be part of a different play list that I can follow, or not. The goal of having so much play list is that I know I can always find a story that I count on, if I don’t feel like improvising. I feel like just beat matching two tracks is not enough I want each combination of tracks having their own story, creating a third track.
How did your career as a DJ begin?
I started playing music live basically with 2 synths and a drum machine, it was kind of chaotic at the beginning, but coming from production I thought live was more meaning full. Then I really love the energy of playing live and feel the reaction of the crowd for any knobs being tweedle and any kick being mute and launch again.
What were your first gigs and how did they influence you as an artist?
My first gigs were not that good to be honest, it took me lots of time to connect with the whole music community. I mean I was rather a guy smoking pots and making music in his cave than a party goer. So I played in like bad clubs, after parties, even bars anything where I could go, I went.
What were the most significant moments in your career that shaped your development?
I would say one of my first significant moment was when I become resident from parties called Subtyl in Paris, it was huge parties back then and I really met a family.
That was my first steps in real clubs, I really needed that to grow as an artist and find my public.
Is there a particular club or festival where you performed that is particularly memorable to you?
My gig in tresor one year ago was really one for the books, liked it a lot, especially with that 3 hours set. I ended so wet at the end of the set ! Liked every minutes of it. My last set at Hoer was also something, each of these steps helped me to go further, and eventually find a new family ! For these two gigs I am really thankful to Bloody Mary to make it happen.
What equipment and software do you prefer for your performances?
For producing I only used hardware, I would say that my first piece and still one of my main piece is the elektron analog rytm, basically 70% of my drums come from there. I also use my trusty octatrack for sequencing. ( yep I am an old school guy sequencing all melodies from a sampler haha ). Concerning synth, it changes a lot but I can definitely say that novation bass station is one my standard. Adding an acid bass line and eventually few digital synths and I a good. I got more and more pieces of gear with time, but it is also a trap cause the more you had the more you can be lost in possibilities. That being said I am always up to buy new synths, especially the classics. That being said I mostly buy clones, it think it would be a nonsense to buy a 3k€ vintage synth that so barely different from a Behringer clone.
How do you work with the equipment during your performances and what technical nuances play a key role for you?
During live the octatrack is really the master, it sends all sequences and program changes to synth, and also tempo and all information. Without it I would be completely lost, I also contains all my audio parts such as vocals, soundscapes, or any long piece of audio. As I said before, Analog rytm plays drum, helped by TR6s for vintage hats and instant gratification.
What effects or techniques do you use to create a unique sound in your sets?
For my music it’s not really about a special sound design technique it’s more a matter of putting my signature bass lines and create the Munsinger mood I try to improve since years. My music is rather simpler, I don’t have any fancy production techniques, it’s all about the vibe.
How do you see electronic music evolving in the near future?
I think we will see more and more of ephemeral genres that become “the thing” for 2 years or so. What I found say is seeing so many DJs playing the music which is trend at the moment, and don’t even think about what they like and what you want to show to public as a artistic point of view. I mean nowadays in Paris, everyone is playing mental hard groove because it’s the trend. Pretty sure that all these DJs will change of direction and follow the trend in few years. Of course we need to adapt ourselves as artist but I don’t want disguise my self every two years because of the trend.
What new technologies or trends do you see as the most promising for DJing?
I would say it’s pretty similar to production, at least with my music, I don’t need fancy DJing techniques or 4 CDJs to play boring loops, 2 CDJs and a real storytelling are enough.
How do you adapt to changes in the music industry and audience during your performances?
I think we all need to adapt somehow but the challenge is to keep the first idea and first AD and to see how it can become accepted with the new rules that are imposed by the trends, then eventually adapt so that people would still appreciate it. But the main artistic message would be still the same, at least to me.
How do you usually start creating a new track or set? Where do you start?
That’s pretty good question. I think the first thing will always be a kick drum and a snare drum. Then I usually start composing bass lines which is pretty important part of my tracks. When I did it I can think about adding synth top line , pads and all drums.
But the whole mood of the track has to be defined with the bass line. If you don’t wanna dance with only kick bass and snare then you will never want to. And it’s not because you had tons of layer that it would work.
Industry preview:
Do you think it’s important for a DJ to have a unique sound or style in today’s industry?
I am not sure this is so important really, basically most of the people will follow trends rather than following their own rules unfortunately. It is also because it’s way more easier to fit in that create something new. But if you want to really make it, I would say you definitely need to create something proper to you. It’s the whole interest of the point to me. If not we are just juxebox and we play what people are waiting, but this is not art and true expression, it’s entertainment.