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It’s another Heineken event, and this time around, we’ve got talents from France and Canada. First, we have the man who has been spinning and stirring up the Chicago House madness in Japan, DJ Marshall (Marshall Boardman) was originally from Canada, but packed his bag to seek adventures here in our field – Asia. While Oscar, which includes David Hachour and Florent Sabaton, have met each other since when they were just 12, mixing up chemistry with their two crazy minds to result to most beautiful ‘Portrait Robot’. As we all sit down with these gurus, HKClubbing.com finds out what it’s like to be them.
D: David Hachour from Oscar
F: Florent Sabaton from Oscar
M: DJ Marshall
A: Alyson for HKClubbing.com
A: Thanks for staying with us here on HKClubbing.com and it’s still Alyson. I am here sitting with three amazing dudes who are in Hong Kong, ready to get the show started for us, so can I please ask them to introduce themselves?
F: Hi, I’m Florent from Oscar, and I’m the producer of Oscar.
D: Hi, I’m David Hachour from Oscar too. I am DJ and producer.
M: And I’m Marshall, DJ from Japan.
A: Alright, nice to have you all here! Now I know that this is a Heineken event, which they have competitions all around the world, finding new talents. So what do you think of the idea to have bedroom DJs to come on stage and get to win?
M: I think it’s good, gives new people a chance to show what they do. And expose new talents.
A: Alright! What have you been doing since you arrived then?
F: A lot of taxis… a lot of planes… and we’ve just arrived, and we haven’t (slept) in two days…
A: Hahaha! Still hanging?
F: Yeah…
A: How about Marshall?
M: I went to the Peak, and saw the view last night. It’s gorgeous! It was a bit cloudy, but I got to see the skyline and the ocean…
A: So you got the chance to look around.
M: Yeah, a little bit, walking around Hong Kong today.
A: Have you ever been to Hong Kong before then?
M: Nah, it’s my first time. It’s a really exciting city, a cosmopolitan I think. It’s beautiful.
A: Now I’ve got some individual questions for each of you. Let’s go for Marshall first, yeah?
M: Okay.
A: I know that you actually left Korea for Japan, when it was 1999. With only like a few hundred dollars in your pocket, and you didn’t have a contract at all! How did you do that? I mean, what gives you the guts to just go?
M: That was really tough, but um… yeah… (giggles) I had some hard times at first, but um… that’s what I wanted to do, and I put my heart into it, so I could do it. I made it, took a long time until now… starting from scratch.
A: So how did you survive through all that?
M: Umm… Just umm… I saved up a lot of money, so that was a good base for me. And then I just started working, trying to contracts as a DJ, and expose myself, and I was really hungry, so I guess that helped me get through that.
A: So after going through all of those, and building up your own reputation… tell us how successful you are!
M: How successful I am? (Giggles) Umm… I think I’m in a good position, my party Solid is getting a lot of attention in Tokyo and we’re doing it in Seoul, Korea every month, so it’s in Tokyo and Seoul, and I hope to expand to another city in Asia, maybe like Shanghai, and I’m really happy I have the opportunity to travel around Asia as play. I went to China two weeks ago, I did a three-day tour in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, and now I’m in Hong Kong. I mean, to me, that’s being successful. I’m happy!
A: And I also know that you have your own record company. Tell us more about your own kinda music.
M: I’m really into I guess, the new kind of Chicago House, and to me it’s like the real underground house right now. It’s really fun music, and DJs like Mark Farina, DJ Heather, they’re pushing this kinda music, it’s kind of new music in Tokyo, I think, speaking about exposure. You’ll hear it tonight!
A: Now I’ve got some more questions for Oscar! I know that you actually met when you were twelve. Don’t you get sick of each other??
F: (LOL) Not yet!
D: (LOL) We work together in the weekdays, but we don’t see each other so much in the weekends.
A: Haha! So it’s like every relationship, you can’t see each other too much! Ok, this question is for David. I know that before you become a house DJ, you used to organize hip-hop events!
D: I started in 87 in Paris, it’s really underground, with Graffiti artists and DJs. It was a time when hip-hop was really popular. It was an interesting time for hip-hop music.
A: So how did it come about from hip-hop to what you play now?
D: I went to London, and I started to listen to lots of drum’n bass, because hip-hop and drum’n bass share the same tempo, then onto house music. Then I came to New York, and I listened to a lot of electronic music… so that’s how it came about. And that’s the change of style evolved.
A: Alright. Now this one is for Florent. I’m not sure about this, but I just heard that you actually studied accounting before you started doing what you do now. That’s gotta be helpful with your bank accounts now!!
F: Yep! Because we make our own company, our record label. It was necessary to have someone who knows about the business.
A: That’s really true. I also know that your latest record is called ‘Portrait Robot’. Tell us more about the brand new album!
D: The brand new album! We’ll show you! (Taking out the album from their bags)
F: So this one is the second album, and it’s also more personal. The first album had many collaborations with different artists. This is one is more centered, and based on the special atmosphere we wanted to create for this album. So on the pictures, it shows them in the way of a police picture style… This is actually the Japanese version of this album, it’s different from the French one… We had to change a little bit of the picture, rearrange the pictures.
D: For music, we wanted to show the faces of the people behind it, even though we played with the pictures, we wanted to show the different person who composed this album.
A: So it’s hard to go to a supermarket without having people asking for your autograph!
D: (LOL)
F: (LOL) (Nodding)
A: Now this is a question for all of you. If I asked you to just pick one song, that represent your music. Which one is it gonna be?
D: Very difficult… ‘The Architects Of Fear’… because… it’s a mix of everything… a mix of Cuban rhythm, it’s house beat… there’s techno… and also different things on the record. It’s a fusion of all our influences. Techno, house, hip-hop…
F: My choice would be ‘Real’, the track named ‘Real’.
M: I’m not a producer, I’m a DJ, so I’ll have to put like a record I choose. I don’t know… which record would it be… Um… maybe an old house record ‘Can You Feel It’ by MR. Fingers. I like that kind of vibe, so it represents how I feel about house music. I think so.
A: Influential wise, who do you look up to?
M: I like a lot of old hip-hop, A Tribe Called Quest… Gangsta, Kid Rock, Silk Smooth…House music I like Mark Farina, Derek Carter, DJ Heather… That’s about it… those are my influences.
D: Ahhh… Prince… lots of funky stuff… lots of style… lots of different favorite artists… difficult to say.
A: That’s ok! Now I know that you all play live really well. So what do you think is the key element to a successful gig?
M: Get lots of rest, drink lots of water. Stay sober!
D: When the public is curious, and when they can take the change of different music directions, can’t really just keep it to one style, it gets boring…
F: We like it when we can reach in from techno house to rock music… and everything.
A: Cool! Last question! Tell us about the plans for the rest of the year!
D: We will play many days to promote the album, in Paris, and also reaches to Berlin in September, we will play another festival in Caribbean in December.
M: I’d like to expand my party Solid to a number of cities in Asia, like maybe Shanghai, Tokyo, and Seoul will be the third city. And I wanna help my friend relaunch his record label called Bombay records in Asia… so that’s my plans.
A: Good luck to all of you! |
