INTERVIEW: CLUB CHEVAL (PARIS)

Club Cheval is an electro four-piece and one of the latest signings on Brodinski’s Bromance label, adding to the steady stream of dancefloor bangers coming out of France. Besides making music, Myd and Panteros666 of Club Cheval have also had a hand in music video directing.

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You guys are releasing your single “Now U Realize” on Brodinski’s Bromance Records; so on this note, how supportive are other French electro artists in your music career?

We’re from France, and, of course, a lot of producers and DJs helped us until now. As far as we can remember, I think Teki Latex was the first to support our music in the clubs and on the internet, back in 2009, with Myd’s “Train To Bamako” track. After that, we met the Institubes guys (soon to be Marble guys), Brodinski, Ed Banger, etc. They are really supportive, in the coolest way, giving good advice, helping us with our releases, proposing some remixes, and, the most important, being totally honest with us.

Are there any peers in the French electro music scene who have helped you get further in terms of music/career?

As we said previously, Sound Pellegrino (Tekilatex & Orgasmic), Marble(Surkin, Para One, Bobmo), and Bromance (Brodinski, Gesaffelstein, etc) are the ones that helped us the most during this journey until where we at now. We also had a lot of cool interactions with the likes of Bambounou, French Fries, Maelstrom, etc. In the end we are a big big family. 

I know that you’ve said that “it’s always been hard to put into words” what your influences are, and you’ve made a mixtape (in collaboration with Dazed Digital) as a way to sum it all up; but could you please tell us a little bit more about your influences? I’m sure your fans would love to know!

We all come from different backgrounds. Sam Tiba used to be a dancehall/hiphop/old school dubstep dj six years ago, and introduced the “sounds of the ghetto” into Club Cheval. Myd is Club Cheval’s Pop Man. Pop as in popular. He knows what can reach a large but tasty audience.

Panteros666 is a drummer, was in many bands, from metal band to futuro-jazz quartets, and he’s got that deep deep belgian techno and italo disco culture. Which is mad useful for us, because rejected styles often have the best ideas.Finally, Canblaster has the weirdest combo of influences. From 90’s Terry Riley’s new jack to Ryuuchi Sakamoto‘s albums, from Dance Dance Revolution soundtracks to Detroit techno gems, he’s all about melodies, and overproduction, as you can hear it in his solo productions.

In the end, this is a weird mix of influences, but the mix of all this created Club Cheval, so we guess it’s not that weird 

Artist collectives have been taking off in recent years, especially thanks to the Internet opening things up with the likes of digital music, Kickstarter, Bandcamp, etc…how has these new tools helped bring together Club Cheval and how do you see them helping out in the future for the collective?

When we began Club Cheval, it was even the time of Myspace and blogs. Internet was already an enormous tool of distribution of the music. It was a big help to spread our music, meet people, find our audience. But it is necessary to be careful because internet is also a kind of a trap for your music : this ease of distribution can also urge to release tracks that are not finished. Soundcloud is a good example: a lot of tracks are fetuses that needs to grow ! It is not because it is easy to spread your tracks that it is also easy to please an audience.

If you had to leave home for a year, and could only bring your favourite records of all time…what would they be and why?

Prodigy – No Good. Powerful with emotion. That’s it !

What have you guys been listening to lately that have caught your ear?

Para One‘s new album is fantastic. We are huge fans of Para for a while (before Marble etc…) Now he grew up, and this album is the perfect continuity of his work.

“Now U Realize” sounds like it’s gonna be a epic electro anthem. Would you consider this sound the definitive style of your production?

It’s more the tones in the track the you will find in our next productions. Trance synths, R’n’B vibe, chopped up vocals. All of our next tracks will not be as EPIC as “Now U Realize” but this extreme way of expressing our emotions will be in all the tracks for sure.

[soundcloud url=https://soundcloud.com/bromancerecords/club-cheval-now-u-realize-1]

When putting the album together, what was one surprise or song that sounds completely different than when it first started out?

It’s too soon to talk about the album ^_^

I know that you guys are touring France and Europe this summer. What are a couple other countries you’d like to perform in that you haven’t been able to yet?

We’ve been in a lot of countries already. I think what we really are looking for now is to go ALL TOGETHER to places we have been solo. I toured Japan and South Korea with Canblaster, but we’re going back this summer with the whole crew, and that’s what we’re looking for. The US tour in January was one of the best moments of our life.

Thanks for doing this interview with us!

Thank you !