Music is my vitamin pill. I live it and breathe it —  David Guetta plays it just for t2

 

On November 24, David Guetta announced on Twitter: “This morning when I woke up, my album was number one in 25 countries including the U.S. Wow!!!!!” And last week the French DJ’s album, Listen, grabbed the #1 spot on Billboard’s dance/electronic albums chart. If that’s not enough, the lord of dance is set to return to India for the three-day Enchanted Valley Carnival (December 19-21) at Aamby Valley City. The 47-year-old two-time Grammy-winning artiste answered a few questions over email just for t2.

Welcome back to India (his first visit was in March 2012). What makes India a fascinating destination for you?

I love playing in India. Now the album is out, I’m so happy to visit this magical country again. The dance music scene has really escalated to a different extent after my debut visit and I’m very excited to see it. The Indian audience is extremely warm and they receive you very well. That’s something every artiste, of any stature, yearns for. It feels amazing to be back (in India) to perform at EVC (Enchanted Valley Carnival) for an audience that shows so much love and passion for the music.
 

Tell our readers a bit about Listen?

I just launched my sixth album. It’s more organic. It is one of my most personal and challenging albums till date. It’s completely different from anything I’ve done before. All I can say is that it’s completely song-based. There are featured artistes, of course, but none that you’d expect from me. That’s why it has taken almost three years. It’s just different. I have always been drawn to harmonies and emotional music and this album is no exception, and it is even more song-based than my last one. Where it differs is in the production styles and featured artistes. I just wanted to push myself to the max. I knew I could make beats that make people dance, so now the challenge is to create the best possible music and songs that are timeless. It just launched and reached number one on iTunes.

Being pretty much on the road, how much of your music is made in the studio and how much during travels?

You are right… I’m pretty much travelling most of the time. But this last year, I have spent chunks of time in LA or Ibiza, where I could focus on writing and producing Listen. I did it very differently this time. Nothing But The Beat (2011) was created mainly on the road. My studio was my laptop. I’d create beats and test them in clubs, then work with an artiste or writer to make the song. This time, I used more traditional methods. Focusing on the songs and then producing them with an electronic feel, as I’m a DJ first. The result, I hope, is a collection of songs that can be interpreted by anyone — from a rock band to an orchestra. It’s my most personal album yet, and that’s why this time I called it Listen because that’s what I want people to do. Dance too, of course, but listen to the words.

Most DJs have a mobile set-up during travels. What’s your set-up like? 

We make computer music; we’re the laptop generation. I have my studios in different parts of the world but I wouldn’t call them crazy studios per se. They’re only a room with some good monitors and good acoustics, and what I generally do is I plug my laptop, my MIDI controller, and my UAD (Universal Audio) card into the studio when I’m there. A lot of DJs and producers are doing the same thing now. It’s a more modern and smart approach to producing music and I love doing it this way.

There will always be a section of people who would call electronic music emotionless. What’s your message for them and how important is emotional connect in your music? 

What’s becoming the new big thing commercially is deep house, which was the most underground thing three years ago. Right now, I think the hard EDM sound is going to burn out, at least that’s what I’m seeing. I see things shifting toward the melodic, towards people like Avicii who is creating instrumental and lyrical dance music. And, of course, deep house is exploding. The super hard stuff was exciting and new, but too much of it isn’t sustainable. I think we’ll see a little less heat, and that’s okay. 

The way that I’m making my album is ultra-traditional. I’m composing with piano, guitar, acoustic instruments, and then completely at the end, when I had 100 songs, only then did I pick the best 15 or 18 and turn them into dance tracks. That’s a completely opposite process of what I used to do. It was a big challenge, but it was the right challenge. I don’t think it matters that some youngsters today experiencing an epiphany with dance music don’t appreciate its history. It’s just different now. To us it was underground, it was a subculture, it was a lifestyle… it was all of these things. But these days, it doesn’t work that way anymore. It took me 20 years to do what I do. Avicii, just a few years ago, no one knew who he was. Now he’s the biggest thing on the planet. You understand? It’s not better or worse, just totally different. 

I think my music is very melodic, it’s not three notes, a bassline, and drums. I think it’s a little more sophisticated than that. Emotion is the most important aspect for me; conveying it in a way that you can listen to at home and be moved, or be caught in a mass moment at a festival.

Ibiza has been the destination for house music for years now. What are the other locations that are coming up?

INDIA! I’m genuinely excited about coming here! Then timeout for Christmas before heading to Mexico for NYE then Brazil for a huge tour. I had a great summer in Ibiza — two packed residencies, one at Pacha and the other at Ushuaia. I also was a little crazy, and in September I flew back and forth to Vegas every weekend.
 
Collaborations. How do you go about them?

I’ve worked with so many amazing artistes. To me it’s about talent not fame. But of course, many of the most successful are so because they are talented. People like Rihanna, will.i.am, Usher. Sia, for example, was not so famous when we started working together. But Titanium showed her world-class voice and writing skills to a wider audience and now she is one of the biggest (and coolest) artistes on the planet. On this new album, she and Nicki Minaj are the only artistes I’ve collaborated with before. There are some undiscovered talents like Sam Martin, who is on Dangerous and Lovers On The Sun, to Emili Sande, John Legend, Nico & Vinz, and so many more.

A live set versus a club set, which one is more inspiring and why?

A festival is more like a concert, whereas when I play in a club, it’s a longer set. It’s really like (going) back to my roots when I was a resident DJ. When I do this kind of a festival show, it’s a lot of my own music and if I play in a club, I might try some stuff that is a little more experimental. Well, you know, when you play to 20,000 people or 50,000 people, obviously they want to hear your records. It’s more like a show, like a concert. That’s the idea. You know, kids come to see me in the same way that their parents would go to see a rock concert. Of course, I’m going to play my big hits, but I’m also going to play some new beats that are more crazy.
Right now, because it’s become such an industry, it’s more about delivering an amazing show, and it is more of an artiste statement than DJ statement. People go to see our shows in the way they would go to see a rock band. So we deliver a show that is well planned out with effects and visuals. It needs to be really perfect because you play for an hour-and-a-half or two hours, and it has to be almost a non-stop peak, whereas when you DJ for a four-hour set, it’s more like taking people on a journey, and I love doing this too. It also allows me to try out a lot of new sounds, which is very important for me in terms of inspiration, as a DJ and producer. I love both. I love being in the club at Ibiza and on stage, giving a concert. They’re both great, but I’m a DJ first, and I don’t want to go too far away from that. That’s why it’s so important for me to keep on playing in clubs because this is where I get my inspiration and this is where I can try out my new tracks. 
I don’t prepare pre-recorded mixes or anything, but you know it’s always going to be kind of the same structure at a concert. Because what I would do is always kind of remix myself to create special versions of songs. I want it to be a unique experience for people who come to see me every time. So I will never play a record that is a radio version. I want the version to be unique. I really love doing tricks, just making it unique so I don’t feel limited.

After all these years, what makes you feel alive and what makes you feel helpless?

Music is my vitamin pill. I live it and breathe it. It wakes me up in the morning, puts me to sleep at night and is with me all day. I can’t imagine my world without music. It’s the universal language; what I make comes from my heart. What I listen to… from others… stirs it. I love to make people dance; it’s a way of bringing people together regardless of religion, nationality, sexuality and belief. Even in ancient times, people would unite to a beat. Now we have the Internet and events worldwide… our frequency can be shared. I love everything about my job, about my life, except those moments where I need to be in those videos!

When you go back to playing music after a break, how do you get back on the saddle… to your “touring mindset”?

I have to explain to you how I live. I don’t do anything else other than touring or making music. A lot of people might think this is very pathetic, but it makes me very happy. I don’t watch TV, I don’t read enough books. What I do is wake up in my hotel room, and start to produce, and then when it’s evening and I take a plane, where I keep on producing, and then I arrive at a hotel… I have dinner, I go perform and then I come back. So sometimes I produce again, or sometimes my ears are tired because of the show and then I want to get my head somewhere else, so then I go to blogs and YouTube and websites for nerdy people and I try to find out about new technology and new plug-ins from brands that I love. There’s always something new.
I never go to sleep before 6am. Even If I want to, I can’t. The books that I read are manuals for plug-ins and software. I make music as I travel. Every day is a new beginning. Everybody I work with is the same. I don’t do this for the money, I don’t do it for record sales, I don’t really care about that. I just want to make music. This time around, though, I still made sketches of music on the road and made edits, but spent months in the studio too, experimenting, learning, listening, recording.

Is there any longer a difference between dance and pop music?

It depends. What I do is I use elements of my DJ culture and I make it more melodic. I try to come up with a song that can touch people even if they’re outside my community. I think we have witnessed this with hip hop in the past. Sometimes a song is so powerful that it can touch you even if you are not from the community. Crazy gangster rap records have been extremely successful and not everyone buying them was from the ghetto. In the same way, I think, if I manage to make music that is good enough on every level… and the cool DJs are playing it, also the radio, well, that’s amazing.

I always felt that our music was underrated. I felt that it should be as big as hip hop and rock. This is still a huge, fantastic, underground scene. But the bridge that I created between electronic Euro culture and American urban culture really made a difference, I think. To finally have dance music records being played on the radio in America is pretty incredible. It is like really crazy because I started as a hip hop DJ, then discovered house music and became obsessed. But also, I never stopped listening to hip hop at home. It just came back to me. It’s like destiny. Now it’s time to move on again. Dance music is the next thing for the next 10 years. There’s nothing you can do about it!

Finally, being French, what’s the secret to wooing women? 

Probably not to try too hard. The French are a little more laidback. But there are different kinds of women, so you can’t have one rule!

HIT LIST

• Sexy Chick 
• Titanium 
• Dangerous 
• Turn Me On 
• Little Bad Girl 
• Club Can’t Handle Me 
• She Wolf (Falling To Pieces)
• When Love Takes Over 
• Play Hard 
• Night Of Your Life

Guru Guetta speak

• Kids listen to everything on the Internet.
• My parents were extreme Left so everything was against the system. I was walking barefoot in the streets of Paris when I was eight. When I started to DJ they hated it, because for them, nightclubs, and all of this life, was terrible and fake.
• I want to party in space because I make alien music.
• I’m totally not a nostalgic person. I always look to the future and as much as I’ve enjoyed the ride until now and the different phases, I’m more excited about the next music.

 

Who is david guetta?

Age: 47

Born in: Paris

Albums: Just a Little More Love (2002), Guetta Blaster (2004), Pop Life (2007), One Love (2009), Nothing but the Beat (2011), Listen (2014)

Production base: He has three –– in Paris, London and Ibiza.

Awards: American Music Awards in 2012, Billboard Music Awards in 2013, Grammy Awards in 2010 and 2011, MTV Europe Music Awards in 2011 and 2014, and Teen Choice Awards in 2012 and 2013.

Followers: Has16.1 million tweeps.

DJ Magazine ranking: At present #7 but has been in the top 10 since 2007 and reached the top in 2011.

Compilation: Has been releasing them since 2003 under the title F**k Me I’m Famous.

Trivia: Earlier this year he had to cancel some gigs after his USB drive was stolen.

 

Mathures Paul

I love David Guetta because…. Tell t2@abp.in