Ahead of our first party this Saturday (22.07.2017) we fired a few questions at Guillaume Des Bois, who will be playing for us on the night. He was also kind enough to put a mix together for us. Get stuck in and see you down the front on Saturday!
Hey Guillaume! Thanks for taking some time out to answer these questions. Looks like you have a pretty busy summer this year. What has been your highlight so far?
I stopped my job last winter, which now makes me independent. It wasn’t possible for me to find enough
free time for music before that! It’s been a big step for me to change my lifestyle, my passion taking
too much space in my life.
What are you looking forward to? (other than playing in London of course.)
I don’t know yet, I’m like a kid when I travel… or maybe I just act like one all the time 🙂 I’m looking
forward to meet other people, see new countries and lifestyles… but yes definitely looking forward to
you & your friends!
So, let’s go back to the beginning. Where did your musical journey begin?
I grew up in a country where it used to be very difficult to open up to the world… I started listening to
music as a kid to fight boredom. Fortunately most of the people from my village gave me their old
records 🙂 The music was my escape from day to day life and one day, by chance, in 1994 I found
myself at a party at Le Bourget. That’s when I got a revelation for electronic music and deejaying. I
knew that I wanted to compose this way and all the music listened during these past years made
sense. Since then I’ve never stopped.
What kind of music did you grow up with?
I went through a lot of electronic influenced music growing up as a kid : hip hop, industrial music,
EBM, hard rock, punk, new beat…
The first record you bought?
I don’t remember what the first record I bought was, but I remember one of the first records I was
offered for Christmas when I was eight years old 🙂 It was the soundtrack Staying Alive, ahah.
Record bag regulars. Is there a record that never leaves your bag?
Udell – Won’t you try (instrumental)
The hottest track in your record bag at the moment?
Zmatsutsi – Mogadishu on Balearic Social, Andy Pye’s label, a really cool guy. And it’s produced by
two friends Joe : & Heidi . Joe released with Craig the second EP on Macadam Mambo Trax. This
record hasn’t gotten old and still sounds super fresh I reckon…
How did you get into DJing? Can you tell us a bit about your first gig?
I played in front of a hundred people and thirty policemen with the whole deal : batons, helmets and
shields. It was beautiful, they were all lined up very neatly and they waited until the end of my set
before getting into action!
Where do you take your inspiration from?
I dig a lot, I like to walk around and pick up a bit of everything. I trust the cover, the year it was
released, the instruments, the producers, then I try and give it a listen J But what inspires me the
most is listening to other artists I appreciate, get my mind blown. This gives me a whole new approach
and a different sensibility to my own records.
What can everyone expect when you join us in Hackney on 22nd July?
Party, have a laugh and rave on 🙂
We have to talk about the label, Macadam Mambo. How did it all begin?
I was running the programmation of a really nice bar in Paris called « Le Troisième lieu » and a friend
told me about a guy who was just starting to DJ and gave me some CDs of his. The guy was super
talented, I invited him over to play and we went along right off. We were in the same vibe and were
going in the same musical direction, only he was more into dark music and I was into colder sounds.
It blended together very well and both of us wanted to start a label.
What’s the ethos behind the label?
Having fun, but in a serious way ! Throw nice parties, not following any codes and having a blast !
Are there any upcoming releases we should be aware of?
First of there’s MMLP505, a collab with french label « Simple Music Experience » recently released,
absolute sickness… Then Jin Cromanyon’s LP will be issued in September after we released his 7 ”
last year. Later on will come an LP by Abschaum, a krautrock band from Lyon and a record by Eva
Geist, our goddess. Four really different projects and four records I can’t wait to spin…
Do you have any big plans for the future?
Having more sick parties!
Full deets on the party right here – https://www.facebook.com/events/1882298298656951/
