Over the last year and a half it’s become increasingly obvious that there’s a revolution happening in the French music scene, with multitudes of amazing new talent coming to the fore. As the eruption continues to flow thick and fast, the revolt is fronted by an increasingly notorious group of electronic artists known as the Ed Banger crew. For those not familiar with these Parisian maestros, Ed Banger records was started in 2002 by Pedro Winter AKA Busy P, a producer of cut-up electro-hop whose fame also extends to his role as manager of seminal French outfit Daft Punk, and whose roster includes the likes of DJ Mehdi, Sebastian, Uffie, and Justice to name a few. As the label’s ranks keep solidifying, and their artists continue to drop hit after hit onto international dance floors, the world can’t get enough of these French purveyors of aural pleasure.
With summer upon us, Semone Maksimovic caught up with three of Ed Banger’s finest, who in coming months will each be making their Australian performance debuts, aiding us in keeping our summer sizzling – Parisian style.
Uffie – The Sexy Minx
Flimsy tank tops, sexy short shorts, purple hi-tops, long gold chains, honey-kissed locks and an innocent smile. However, don’t let Uffie fool you; she’s also armed with a razor sharp tongue, capable of ripping any prominent male artist to shreds, leaving only lipstick traces and a baffling bar-tab in her wake. She’s part of a new generation of sexy, smart and sassy female wordsmiths, out for fun at any cost.
It’s hard to believe that Anna Catherine Hartley AKA Uffie, hadn’t picked up a mic before her debut electro smash ‘Pop the glock’. With no vocal or musical training of any kind, it was her chance meeting with DJ Feadz as a 16-year-old that led to her ultimate destiny. ‘I was organising a fashion party and Little Defile and I booked him to DJ. We just really got along and eventually he convinced me to do some vocals for him’, she explains of her almost accidental musical beginnings. ‘I have a lot of fun with the lyrics being “hardcore” or whatever, but there’ll definitely be more serious tracks on the album.’
With the rise and rise of the female rapper of late, it seems as though it could be harder for a new force to join the ranks, with many people already armed with pre-conceived ideas or pigeonholes to drop her into. But it’s something Uffie has managed to avoid without so much as a batt of her brightly made-up eyelid, as her tongue in cheek style stands firmly above the rest. ‘I think it’s a bit different for me, than it would be for say Lady Sov, as I’m really involved in the electro scene as well. But there’s definitely a much stronger female scene, that’s taking over’, she explains.
‘It’s always going to be hard as a female to speak freely, because there are so many old clichés on how women should be ladylike and what not. I have somewhat of a tomboy attitude, sure I love to dress up sexy and I have no problem saying “We are so getting laid tonight”. I’m not the type of girl to dress up and let any hot guy make his choice, I make mine. I find nothing shameful in that, it’s just a power thing and I think a lot of guys are starting to respect that.’
Busy P – The King of The CastleAny self-respecting member of the myspace music world would be well-versed as to who Busy P is, or at least be capable of making a vague connection between the name and his famous animated avatars. But what most of you might not know however, is that Busy P, aka Pedro Winter, is a much more complex character than initially meets the eye. Not only does he have a whole host of polished beats, a natural hip-hop sensibility and some exciting remixes up his sleeve, he also literally owns it when it comes to the French music industry, somehow managing to miraculously juggle a gamut of titles, including artist, producer, DJ, label owner and founder and band manager for the likes of Daft Punk, Justice and DJ Mehdi to name a few. ‘Since I was a kid, I always knew I wanted to be involved in the entertainment business. My older brother opened me up to all kinds of music, before I discovered electronic music in 1990.’ Pedro was then drawn into the club scene, sweating away night after night at clubs and raves, until during a dance induced epiphany he realised his rightful place was behind the decks DJing for the crowd. So while he was still honing his DJing skillls, he decided to start his own dance parties and in 1995 ‘Hype’ was born. ‘I wanted my parties to be different from what other clubs proposed, my parties were in small venues and you could hear house and hip-hop while the trend at the time was big house hits only. I also started making funny flyers written in Spanish’, he recalls. ‘When I look now at the line-ups we did, I’m proud. We had Daft Punk, Zdar, Bob Sinclar, Dimitri from Paris etc., more than ten years ago. I’m happy to see that all those guys are now famous and respected’, he smiles.
Pedro soon found himself giving up the nightclub scene, in order to focus full time on Daft Punk, but kept his DJing stints going on the side, for a bit of creative release. As many of today’s DJs get lazier and lazier, rapidly losing touch with their crowd, crowd interaction is the key ingredient of Pedro’s shambolic DJ sets. ‘I play with the audience, I even dance with them. We’re all here to party, the DJ too!’, he laughs. ‘Throwing records [while playing] is my thing, I love giving stuff to people. They come to support us, so I want them to leave with a souvenir!’
Justice – The Bass BanditsWith stifling beats, throbbing bass and a cart-load of ambidextrous remixes in the bag, these boys are armed and dangerous, set to floor us with their euphoric bass overloads. Justice is the result of a partnership between Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay who have become the most talked about artists on the Ed Banger roster. Their name became a catchcry shortly after their phenomenal take on Simian’s ‘We are your friends’ hit the decks in clubs all over the world to universal delight, resulting in the popularity of the remix rapidly eclipsing that of the original.
Since then, Justice have continued to show the world that they are much more than one trick ponies, slaughtering our ears with the thrilling lead up ‘Waters of Nazareth’ and presenting us with one remix after another, as they rework the likes of Daft Punk, Soulwax, Franz Ferdinand, Britney Spears, Fatboy Slim, before turning their musical wand on their own ‘Waters of Nazareth’ masterpiece.
‘When we remix, we just like to keep the vocal from the original track, then we take apart and re-do everything else. Remixing ‘Waters of Nazareth’ was really hard, we spent a lot of time on it, to get it right’, laughs Gaspard down the line from Ed Banger HQ.
However, even with all the success they’ve accrued, the continuous attention and revival from their debut hit has already come back to haunt them. ‘We’re bored of it now’, Auge admits with a laugh. ‘That track is like three years old and some people are just hearing it now. Although I do think it’s great that a track can move from the club to mainstream.’ The track’s clip also saw the boys take out a European MTV Music Award for best clip above Kanye West’s ‘Touch the sky’ which resulted in the spoilt rapper storming the stage to hijack their acceptance speech. ‘It’s funny, we were still in the US at the time. I think he’s apologised in an interview on the web now’, Auge says of the surprise attack.
Having spent most of the last two years on the road, it’s hard to believe that the boys have achieved much more than just getting to airports on time and catching up on much needed sleep; however, somehow during this time they have managed to make serious headway into their debut long player. ‘We started working on it during the week in January, between weekends around the world. It’s nearly finished; all we have to do is mix it. It’s going to sound very disco, [with] really obscure bass lines and drums.’