Sep 6, 2010

Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team: interview

Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team

Sobota se nam blizi jako namydleny blesk. A Vibrator se chysta radne oslavit sve 2. vyroci v eteru Radia 1, a to ve fungl nove zrekonstruovane Roxy. Nasimi hosty budou francouzsti Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team, plus domaci mlada krev - Dmit.ry & Mutuju.

V pulce srpna jsme vyzpovidali Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team a nas rozhovor byl prave dnes zverejnen na Techno.cz. Lide ctete!

ENG: And the original interview comes right after the click. Read Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team interview now!

It seems that your shows in clubs are really crazy. What was the craziest gig you played?

Our favorite shows aren't necessarily the most "crazy" ones. Whenever our old friends come to the show to party with us it's guaranteed to be an amazing vibe. This summer we've had amazing gigs in Montreal and Tokyo where all of our friends came through and people were wilding out.

Tell us about the best place you played at?

I think our last show in Sydney was the best. We were really inspired, we played an awesome set, the venue was great and once again lots of australian friends of ours were in the house. We could play really obscure unreleased stuff and people would go crazy. Then at some point we dropped some old TTC jams and they just went nuts. I also had an amazing time in Chicago recently. The place was not packed, but the vibe we were getting was just unforgettable. People were dancing with each other, vibing, they all had a smile on their face, it's like the hometown of house music was accepting us as a part of its big musical family.

And the worst?

Recently in Perth, Australia. We got booked at the venue and then at the last minute for some reason they decided to move us from one party to another, and that new party was just full of Dim Mak kids who only played super hard banging electro and silly bootlegs. There were two floors, they put us in the basement and basically we played in front of no one. We decided to leave half an hour before the end of our set because it made no sense, our only audience was Litterally the barman. But it's not really anyone's fault, we just ended up playing at the wrong party.

How do you reminisce about your TTC band period?

We're very proud of what we have achieved with TTC... we often discuss it and we feel that TTC was always very much underestimated and  we experimented with and originated a lot of the popular styles and trends in hiphop and electronic music that are blowing up nowadays. Touring and recording with TTC was amazing and it's an immense part of who we are, but it was also exhausting and there were plenty of time when it (especially the touring part) felt more like a day job than a real passion or something that would help us progress in our career. TTC's not totally over and we might tour again someday, but for that to happen we would need to make sure that we have the right people surrounding us, and that the tour happens in excellent financial conditions because we're tired of going around the world in a little van full of people shouting at each other for no reason, sleeping in shitty hotels and playing in front of people who don't understand our music. I dont want to sound like a diva but we did exactly that for 6 years non stop between 2002 and 2008. We payed our dues, now if we tour again we need to take it to the next level.

Teki, we can say, you are elder statesman of french dance scene, you are the man behind Institubes label. What exactly was your role there?

I founded institubes 7 years ago alongside Tacteel and Jean René Etienne who is now the CEO. I'm still one of the main investors.

Before many years, when I was watching pictures of Paris, there was Ed Banger mania and it seemed, you´ve been there quite often. What is you relationship with this group and how did you like media madness around this camp?

The media madness was a bit blown out of proportion because of the social networks (and particularty myspace)'s magnifying glass, but it was just a bunch of parisian guys having fun. We were around when Edbanger started, approximately at the same time as Institubes, we have a lot of respect for Pedro and we've been friends with most of these guys for a really long time before the label even existed. Mr Flash, who was Edbanger's first release, produced the first TTC album a couple of years before going solo. Feadz and Tacteel used to be in a group together. The Justice boys were working at the same distribution company that hosted TTC and the early institubes records. I was in a short movie with mehdi... etc. They're a great label but unfortunately and probably unwillingly they have given birth to a certain "sound" that got badly replicated, which kind of trapped the french scene in its own  "distorted/hard" stereotypes for the last few years. There's plenty of stuff on ed banger that doesnt have that "sound" though.

Sébastien Léger, your French fellow, told us recently, that French electronic scene is crap these days. What´s your opinion. Do you agree?

No it's not right. There's plenty of little labels and kids on the verge of blowing up. There's a label called Youngunz with French Fries, Bambounou, Manaré aka Riot Kid, and there's a crew called Club Cheval with our next Sound Pellegrino release Panteros666, myd, sam tiba and the excellent Canblaster who is probably the next french superstar. Brodinski is about to become one of the biggest european DJs of his generation. Noob is blowing up. Douster is making big moves, Momma's boy too. There's a crew called Get The Curse making beautiful things happen in the more minimal scene, on a poppier side there's kids like Art Nouveau working in the shadow... The older cats are still here making great music. I think the french scene is quite healthy. Maybe there's less superficial marketing and irrelevant myspace pictures than there was a few years ago to document it but it's way more healthy this way.

Describe your sound in three words...

Sparse futuristic house

Tell us the story behind launch of Sound Pellegrino imprint...

We wanted to have a tool to put out records that we loved quickly and experiment with digital distribution. We wanted a fresh start. New label new artists new sound new ways of putting the music out there.

You´ve recently toured USA and Asia. Tell us some stories, which experiences did you tako of it?

The USA is finally ready for our sound, we need to keep pushing it there and it's gonna be big. Japan is still the most awesome place in the universe and people go crazy over the Sound Pellegrino movement. Our friend Big O who runs the amazing and super famous clothing brand Phenomenon designed 4 Sound Pellegrino polos just for orgasmic and i, as a surprise gift when we came to play Tokyo. Can you imagine that? He couldn't even ask for the original graphic files because he wanted to keep it a surprise, but they look perfect, like something you would buy from his shop, except there's only gonna be 4 copies in the universe. That's like the best gift i ever received in my life.

What next in Sound Pellgrino catalogue?

Dinosaurs With Guns remixes and a single by Panteros666 which sound like an amazing mix between fun/silly tropical house and dark, melodic and occult GABBER


Both Institubes and Sound Pellegrino brought new names&sound on the scene. Which artists are of fire now and definitely worth checking?

Harvard bass and Douster are blowing up in a major way. We love the UK scene labels that are on the fringe, like Nightslugs and Numbers. The US scene too, with LOL Boys and dubbel dutch. On the deeper side, Wolf and Lamb and Soulclap are about to become major players internationally. There's an amazing dude out of bulgaria called Kink. Other than that, all the new french kids we mentioned in the answer to that other question.

What´s next for you musicwise? Do you ever have time for your own output?

We're actively thinking about dropping some original music by the Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team (orgasmic and i) soon. We don't wanna rush it, we want to make sure we come up with something original that really represents us, our hip hop influences, our fascination for house music, and our taste for experimentation. I think our remixes for L-Vis 1990 and Mikix The Cat are good examples of the direction we are taking.

As far as we know, your gig at Roxy is the very first in Czech republic. Have you been here before?

We did a TTC gig at Roxy in 2001 or 2002! I think it was a Big Dada tour. All i remember is that there was a skateboard and bmx ramp installed inside of the club. Also i think the place had just been flooded... it's very blurred.

What comes to your mind when you hear abour our country?

I don't know... goulash? that's what we ate last time we were in Praha i think. And hot girls of course.

You will at Roxy right after its redesign. What makes club a good place?

There's no rule. I love big clubs with mezzanines where you can feel that you're the master of the universe, but i also love small sweaty clubs where people dance on the tables. Decoration needs to be on point and tasteful, and there needs to be little corners where kids can hide and do dirty stuff to each other.

What can we expect from you in Roxy? Do you plan something special?

We always keep a good 80% of our sets improvised, if not the whole thing. We will build on the reaction of the audience so if the audience is good, the show will be great.

What are you into, while not in the studio or club?

TV shows, currently Mad Men, True Blood and The Shield...and good restaurants. Please take us to a nice restaurant in Praha!
words: Ondrej Golis & Tvyks

VIBRATOR presents SOUND PELLEGRINO THERMAL TEAM (Paris, F) > 11/09/2010 @ ROXY Club, Praha: Join the Facebook Event


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