Dimitri from Paris

Written by Alessandro Gambaro on Wednesday, 02 September 2009 22:38

There are very few DJs in the music industry with the worldwide acclaim of Dimitri From Paris. His ability to rock every kind of crowd and remix the sweetest disco tunes is unsurpassable. I had the chance to meet him on a beautiful Sunday night at the SLS Hotel, just before he went to spin at Deep, Los Angeles' biggest house music party at the Vanguard. What really struck me about him was his charisma and the extraordinary music path that he took to acheive the success and fame he has experienced for the past twenty years. Get ready to be surprised by his stories: from his radio debut and becoming the soundtrack provider for Chanel and Fendi to his first album produced by Bob Sinclair and foray into the world of scoring animated films - Dimitri gets it done with style.

Alessandro Gambaro: You were born in Turkey to Greek parents, what do you remember of Istanbul – the great divide between East and West?

Dimitri: I left from there when I was 3 years old and was raised in France. I went to Istanbul with my family for summer holidays a few times. I stopped going there after I was 15, by then I wasn’t going regularly. It is not that I have any strong ties there or in Athens, actually all my family is Greek, but my father was raised in Istanbul. I don’t really have any kind of special memories. I like the place, but I haven’t been able to go back since I was 18 because of the military service. Since I was born there I have Turkish citizenship by default and I was supposed to do the military service, and because I didn’t do it if I go back there I am consider to be a defector. Because of that I can’t go back, they would put me in jail. I double checked this and I am officially considered as a defector and I would have to go for 1 year and half - not what I feel like doing right now.

AG: You moved to Paris very young, how do you remember your childhood and how did your passion for music develop?

Dimitri: My passion for music came from TV. I used to like those early American cop shows from the 70s. The one that I particularly liked was Mission Impossible, it was composed by Lalo Schifrin, one the most amazing composers of our time. I got into music through soundtracks, mostly TV Show soundtracks like Mission Impossible and The Streets of San Francisco. So basically it was kind of like jazz fusion - it was what they were doing at the time in the 70s. I didn’t know how it was called but this was what music I started to like as my own thing. My father used to listen to classical music all the time at home, which I didn’t really like, but that was the soundtrack everyday. I think I developed an ear for complex rhythms because those cop shows had really complex jazz funk themes. There was always the very simple first layer then the second layer would be very sophisticated. At the time I couldn’t tell what it was but I can tell now. So it is quite interesting because the musicians were really complex people trying to make something [simple] for the general public. They were hiding the complex stuff behind the very easy part which was the main thing. So I kind of liked this idea and it basically formed my way of enjoying music and thinking about music - which is that there are always different layers. You can stop at the first one but then you can go deeper and deeper; when you make music you can add layer after layer. That is very dear to me in every kind of art, you can see simple or you can go inside and see much more. So everything I do: a compilation or a production, I like to make accessible to everyone, if they want to get more complicated there are more complicated layers to find out. I like this idea.

AG: How did you become a DJ?

Dimitri: I just started to like music and began buying records just for myself when I was 13 or 14. The first records I bought were soundtracks, like the one made by Lalo Schifrin. Then there was John Barry because I liked the old spy thing; I loved the music of the James Bond movies and I remember the first record that I bought, it was a compilation of all the James Bond themes, it was called “James Bond in Action”. From then on I was buying soundtracks and I was getting things like James Brown and funky stuff of late 70s and early 80s. Funky stuff that was almost crossover, like in France and Italy, where you could listen to The Whispers - And the Beat Goes On everyday on the radio. My dad let me buy my first 12” and I realized that I enjoyed longer versions of the songs instead of the shorter radio versions. I enjoyed the breaks, the effects. There was this big radio station that on Saturday nights would broadcast the club hits show and they were playing the extended versions of songs and I was like WOW! Why [does] this song that I listen to have this section that I didn’t know about? I liked the idea that if you liked a song you can add more to it. You could buy the giant 45 or the maxi single so I was starting to get into that. I was basically buying those records that the DJs were playing - those gems. I wasn’t quite sure how this was done. I think I was maybe 17 or 18 at the time. I was not thinking about being a DJ but I liked the idea of making things longer and I was already editing on my cassette deck. [The records] had a 12” version with the instrumental on one side and the vocal on the other. I liked some parts of the instrumental and wondered why they were not with the vocal so I began editing the two together - it was just for me to listen to. Soon after that I went to see this concert, it was at the beginning of rap music so Sugarhill Gang was a big crossover hit on the radio everywhere in the world so I was buying those rap compilations. This “first rap concert,” wasn’t Sugarhill Gang. There were people whose names I didn’t know and it was billed as the first rap show in Paris. It was actually the first hip hop concept show where they had DJs, MCs, dancers and graffiti artists. Before that I only had a vague idea from what I read in magazines about the movement in New York. I went to see the show and I was like Wow! What’s happening!? There was Afrika Bambataa there, it was the Zulu Nation with big names. They were big at the time in Europe. New York City breakers that were famous at the time, they were there and it was quite impressive because it was the first time that I saw a DJ scratching, beat juggling and doing things like that. I said to myself, “this is what I want to do.” I was already messing with the editing stuff and these guys were doing what I did with tapes but they were doing it live. But they had two turntables and I had only one. So I remember when I went back home I took my parents turntable and I tried to hook them together but it wasn’t working, then I built my first mixer. I went to a spare parts shop where I bought two faders and I wired a cable like this but it wasn’t working, so whatever, but I was really excited with this. So that is when I started DJing and after a while I decided I wanted to become a remixer. This is what I like the best, to make those versions longer. At the time you know I was just buying a lot of records, I wasn’t DJing in any clubs. I was making mixtapes and re-edits sending them to radio stations.
Dimitri From Paris and Playboy Girls

AG: How did you know to send them to radio stations?

Dimitri: I made my first trip to New York. There was this thing called New Music Seminar (I was 19 maybe), it was a music conference with all the people in dance music talking. They had all the remixers that I was a big fan of and they were saying that in order to get noticed do remixes and send them to radio stations to get your own show. So I tried to get my own radio show to get noticed and to be a remixer, because I didn’t really want to be a Dj yet. Actually I tried to be a DJ in clubs and back then you had to be a resident DJ who played all night. I tried that and I didn’t like it because there was the owner of the club coming in every five minutes “Don’t play this, play that”, you couldn’t bring your own records you have to use the records of the club. It was really strange. I remember I was allowed to go buy records once a week, with the boss and he used to choose the records that I would have to play and put them in the rack. I wasn’t even allowed to bring my own records, it was very strange, I didn’t like it. I said forget this, I want to be a remixer. I sent in my mixtapes and I got a job at a radio station.

AG: I read that you worked at Radio 7 before moving to SkyRock and finally to Radio NRJ in 1986, you broadcasted the first House Music radio show in France. How do you remember those days?

Dimitri: It was kind of exciting because at the radio station they heard that another radio played some of the tapes that I have sent them. They told me “you are hired” right away and you are starting tomorrow. Basically I started like this and I had to talk. I wasn’t really comfortable with the idea of talking on-air, I didn’t know what to say. It was really strange that I had to talk and playing records at the same time but slowly I began to like the idea of trying to build up a program that you could listen to. I think all those years of radio taught me programming. It is one thing to mix records together and get the right mix but to do a program [that was] two, three… the first show was four hours long! When I was making tapes I could use all the time in the world to make them. But this was live and you have to make sure that people won’t change the station. So I had to be always at the top of what I could do and it really taught me how to program records. I am grateful to those years of radio because the skill that I am most proud of right now is my programming. The most important thing when you are DJing is not how you play, how you mix but it is what you program. Play the right record at the right moment and that is going to make the difference all night.

AG: Would you still work on the radio?

Dimitri: Yes and no. The thing with radio is that it took me a long time to prepare my shows, in the beginning it was twice a week then it was once a week. I remember preparing my show would take me forever. If I were to do this now it would take me more time than I could actually put into a radio show.

AG: What are the records and who are the artists that have influenced your sound?

Dimitri: The early dance music from the 80s, a lot of stuff from the Prelude label, actually my new compilation Night Dubbin is really focused on that sound that got me into dance music. So it was a lot from Prelude, Streetwise label, a lot of the early electro things. I was really into producers like Arthur Baker, François Kevorkian and Larry Levan of course. This was the type of sound that got me into DJing. Then house music came around 85-86 and I really liked it because it borrowed from that sound and also from another sound that I didn’t know about. That was the disco sound from Philadelphia from 76-77. This was something never heard in France: the only disco we knew was Bonye M, Abba, I remember I hated disco, I love it now. The disco I knew was European disco and it was pretty cheesy. I found out about black American disco, mostly Philly sound and New York sound, and I loved it. I only discovered Salsoul, which is probably the label that put out the music that I like the most, after the mid 80s because it was what originated house music. So I was like Wow! There is so much music that I don’t know about that I should be digging for. After the 90s I was digging for other sounds and sort of blending them all together.

AG: Your first album Sacrebleu was a resounding success in 1996, even winning album of the year for Mixmag. When you finished the album, did you have any idea that it would bring you notoriety?

Dimitri: Absolutely not! The funny thing about this album is: initially I was buying my records from a store called Champs Disc. It was basically one of three stores in Paris that imported music from America, they had a really good selection from UK and US. When I had my show at the big station I got them to be sponsors. Basically they used to give me the records for free and I would just say their name on the radio. I developed a good relationship with the buyer, Michel, who was a very educated guy. He used to be a DJ before me in one of the best clubs in Paris, it was called Le Palace. He was 10 years older than me and had a lot of ties with fashion people because [Champs Disc] was the most prestigious record store in Paris, it was on the Champs-Élysées and also it was the only store open everyday, including Sunday, until midnight. There was nothing else and there is nothing else like it today, it was just unique.

AG: So it is no longer open?

Dimitri: No it is closed now. There was only this store and nothing else close to it. Basically people like Karl Lagerfeld were buying from there. Michel was actually his personal shopper. He didn’t know what to buy so he used to say: “Michel make me a goodie bag every week and send it to me.” So basically he was sending this goodie bags to all the big fashion people including Lagerfeld and one day he asked him to do the soundtrack for his show. So Michel was very good with musical knowledge but he had no technical sense, so he asked me to do that with him. So we started making music for all those fashion guys, and the most famous one was Lagerfeld so we did Chanel, Fendi, whatever he was working on. At one point after few years of doing those mixtapes, Chanel asked me to make original music because they were filming the show and they had to send the video to all the shops around the world. So I had this order to make custom music for Chanel - four tracks every six months and I was totally free to do whatever I wanted. Michel would give me some ideas or some samples, movie clips. That is how the first track I am a Very Stylish Girl came up. He came with a sample that he got off of TV from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and I found some music to put it together. We had a bunch of those songs and once they were played at Chanel they were gone. So I had 20-30 songs and I would play them for a few people and they would say to me, “You should put them out”. Every song was only two minutes long because they didn’t want anything more than two minutes, so basically I extended them, I changed few things and picked out the ones I thought were the best. That is how Sacreblue came up. Then I began thinking, I had the music why not put it out? I asked a few people from the major labels and they told me, “We need things in French, this is not god for us”. So I met Chris LeFriant, aka Bob Sinclair, he would buy records at the same place [sic] so we were talking and he told me he owned his own label. I asked him,“what do you think of this?” And he said, “Yeah I like it! I want to sign it.” So he signed my first album and we were like, “whatever, let’s do it!” The rest just happened. Chris was basically living with his mom, he had his room with stacks of records. He would bring them to the record stores like 5 by 5. I liked the idea that this guy was doing something by himself.

AG: Like a small entrepreneur?

Dimitri: He is a big entrepreneur! He had a good music sense and at the same time he was not a major label from America, it was a personal relationship, it was like, “I am down with you. Let’s do it!” Then he became huge, he deserves it! The whole thing was always, let’s do it for fun. We didn’t expect anything from it, it was absolutely for fun.
Dimitri From Paris - Discoscepter

AG: I had another question about fashion, you worked also with Jean Paul Gaultier and Yves Saint Laurent.

Dimitri: Basically Michel was working with all those people, he still is. He is the most famous sound designer for all the fashion houses.

AG: What is it like to make a soundtrack for a fashion show?

Dimitri: It was not something I was so much into, Michel was. I was much more of a technical guy. It did teach me a lot, which I am very grateful for. Our collaboration taught me to be more eclectic and to look at more things and wider styles of music. He was always coming up with impossible things to mix together. I was like “Why? This is impossible.” I had to find ways to make it work and this really taught me that nothing is impossible you can always make it work. Instead of playing only house music it is good to go everywhere. I think the radio and also the fashion thing taught me not to be afraid of mixing it up. I realized that very few people do it and I am grateful that I am different; it taught me to be different.

AG: Would you still work in fashion if you had a chance?

Dimitri: It depends on who. I would have to talk to the person and see if we would get along because a lot of the fashion people, they are all over the place, there is a lot of drama going on, they say one thing and it is the opposite, they want something in between all the time. It is kind of hard to deal with them, Michel was really good in dealing with them and I never had to talk to them. So the very first time that I tried I was like: “Mmmmm”. Because I am really a music guy and they are not, which [music] is not their thing; they are trying to explain me what they want but they don’t really know what they want. It has always been crazy to deal with. If I could really get along with the person, maybe, why not. But it is not something that I am really good at. It is too much diplomacy [in fashion] and not so much music.

AG: You also did the music for the anime Tsukuyomi –Moon Phase- and mixed the soundtrack for the French luxury dessin animé Jet Groove produced by Method Films. How do you remember those experiences?

Dimitri: I don’t think Jet Groove ever came out, somebody in Russia told me that it was broadcasted on TV but yeah I did that.

AG: How did you like it?

Dimitri: I liked doing that because I love cartoons and it was designed by a guy named Monsieur Z and Stéphane Melchior, like Mr. Z. I don’t know if you know Shag, the American illustrator, he does stuff inspired by the 50s. Mr. Z is more or less the same thing. The style of the cartoon is exactly what I like: a James Bond comedy, kind of like Austin Powers in cartoon type of thing, so it was totally up my alley. I don’t think Jet Groove was supposed to be for adults, it didn’t hit the target. It would have been good for Adultswim I guess. I don’t know it came up too early or too late, Adultswim is the only channel I can imagine it could fit. It was very cartoonish but the actual subject was too mature for kids.
Dimitri From Paris & DJ Muro

AG: You worked with DJ Muro on the Superdisco Friends project, how was working with Muro? Do you have any new projects coming up with him?

Dimitri: Have you heard him live? Ohhhh honestly he is best live, he is incredible! I saw him once live and I was blown away. Then we got to meet and did stuff together and heard his mixtapes and I kind of forgot how incredible he was live. Then I saw him live six months ago and he blew me away. The thing with Muro is scared, not scared but he is uncomfortable: he does not speak any English, he is uncomfortable outside. So when we did this project my main thing was to bring him to all the people, because people have to know about him. He is incredible but it never worked out. He is kind of shy and he couldn’t travel without his sister and his brother, so it was impossible to make it work financially. Basically what I wanted to do never happened because he was too difficult. Occasionally he plays out here.

AG: Yeah he just played in New York at the APT.

Dimitri: If you get a chance to see him don’t miss it because it is really rare. He is like incredible. He is really good but he is not doing turntablism, he plays 45s like crazy stuff perfectly, every record is amazing and live its worth it.

AG: What are the artists that you admire the most at this moment?

Dimitri: Mmmmmm I don’t know. There must be someone…I think that today’s music is kind of hard to find things that are impressive. I don’t really know who to mention. I think that the person I was most impressed recently was Tom Moulton. I knew his name from all those Philadelphia records he has mixed. I was introduced to him, he was 63 at the time and he was doing remixes again. But he was doing those mixes with the same approach that he was doing like 30 years ago, which was using only what has been recorded and making it better. It always something that was dear to me but I never found anyone who would be into that. Today when you do remixes everybody is changing everything, it is kind of like a new track. A lot of times I feel it misses the point, if you got a good song and you change it you lose what is good in it, you get another good song but it is not the same. I liked the idea that someone would still do that and he really comforted me in doing things the way I want to do them. He is almost 70 now and I am 45, he is probably the person who impressed me the most. He is on his own in front of his computer, he is doing stuff like he was doing it in the 1970s, he enjoys it, he just does it because he likes it. He does not care whether he gets pay ten million or nothing. He is just a passionate person, he is a professional because he knows how to do it but not always, what I liked the most about this guy is that he does it because he loves music more than anything else in the world. And when I am old I want to be like him, I want to sitting in front of my [computer] doing that crazy stuff and be happy with it. He does not do anything groundbreaking or new, he has not invented anything. He just does good stuff - spending time making it quality. I think the whole idea of spending time to make something that has quality to it has been lost because the internet thing you click it you get it, you want it fast ok but the value of music has decreased so much because it is been made with less and less money, faster and faster for people who consume it faster and faster and in the end it is going down to almost nothing. It is not even a product, it is something you consume it once and then you move to another one. The whole concept of spending time on things and making it nice is lost. You can spend time on it but it will go well over most everyone’s head. This is something I kind of miss, so I feel close to people who are still into this kind of thing. I am hoping to hear young people who are coming up with the same approach. Lets spend time, you want it? You got to wait for it. You know in Italy you have all the Slow Food thing coming up, I would like slow music, not slow in tempo but in the making.
Dimitri From Paris like Scarface

AG: What inspires you the most when you select a record?

Dimitri: Always the people, the crowd, if I get a bad crowd I will play a bad set if I get a good crowd I will play a good one. If I get a good vibe I will play better than when I get a so and so vibe. It is always what I see in front of me. If the people are enjoying the music I am only thinking about playing something that is nice, if the people are not enjoying the music then I start to think, “what do they want?” I want that people have a good time so if they are not having a good time I am stressed to get them there. Basically I am more thinking about playing something that is effective instead of something that is interesting. So if I have to play effective then it becomes almost like a job, there is a goal to achieve to make those people happy - I need to play effective music and it has to be now. So it would change the way I play. If the people are more relaxed, they are having a great time, they are more easy going with the music and receptive to the sound. So I am going to play something that is more interesting. So it all depends on how the crowd are responding to the music.

AG: You are a globetrotter, spinning all over the world; what are the cities that you have enjoyed the most? Musically? Vibe? People?

Dimitri: I think in Tokyo they still have a particular approach with DJs, in the sense that people would go to club for the music, not necessarily for the party. If they want to party they go to a karaoke bar. They don’t care about the music [in the karoke bars] they hear cheesy songs and they drink. When they come to a club they come for the music, of course they dance, but the primarily goal is to get music so they would choose what music they want. As a DJ when you play there you get different types of focus from the crowd, which is good because they are there for the music. If the music is bad they are not going to be happy. If you play the right music for the right crowd it is going to be really enjoyable. And you know I feel that because clubs are not necessarily party places in Japan I get a better time and a better vibe. Some other places randomly can be good like that Urban Klub in Castelfranco (Italy), I don’t know but they love music.

AG: In Italy they love house music.
Dimitri: Yeah they do but they are into the harder sounds, I mean the club culture in Italy is something that I really like because people would travel three hours in the car to go hear one specific DJ, most of the time Italian DJs are the ones who they love the most. It is a good culture, it is healthy, people are going to clubs, it is always busy, but depends on the musical trend of the moment, right now it is more techno or electro - whatever. So Italy is kind of special in the club scene in Europe; Portugal can be good too at some point. Two places are never the same twice in a row which is something that keeps me challenged because I don’t know what is going to happen.

Top 5 current records:
The Jackson 5 - Forever came today (Frankie Knuckles remix)
Diana Ross - The boss (DFP remix)
Cool Million - Musiq (Morten Trust Remix)
Sunburst Band - Everyday (Cool Million remix)
Tortured Soul - Another Lover (DFP remix)

Classic Top 5:
Change- The glow of love
Carl Bean I was born this way
Harold Melvin & The blue notes - The Love I lost
Isaac Hayes - Joy
Inner Life - I'm caught up

For more information or booking http://www.dimitrifromparis.com

Visit Dimitri on Myspace http://www.myspace.com/djdimitrifromparis

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Comments (1)

|Registered |2009-09-23 15:05:53 Carmen007 - DIMITRI is the KING

Dimitri is the best in the world! How are you all going to top this one? Thanks for the interview.