INTERVIEW: JOACHIM GARRAUD

remixed David Guetta’s “Love is Gone’ – I got a huge response from people calling me and asking me to remix their track in the same way. This to me is extremely boring – I am happy to do a follow up remix though!"

You're also absolutely an innovator when it comes to performing live on stage. What main gear do you rely on?

"When I go on stage, I always try to give a bit of a show. I am classically trained, so I love to incorporate live instruments on stage. My main instrument is a keytar! I love it. Its an old analogue keytar – it's from 1987 and it's black. I love the idea that I am creating futuristic music whilst using old instruments from the past. It fascinates me.

"My other main piece of kit is the new DVJ 1000 from Pioneer. It's an excellent tool and a great way to help me incorporate visuals with my audio. At one gig, I had just the visual of a mouth projected on the screen, and I put the word ‘House’ on a loop and had it going over and over. It made the crowd wild! It's really very exciting."

Talking of innovation – with the release of your artist album "Invasion" you also launched a CD on Demand service offering people who bought the album to make their own design, artwork, and playlist. How did that go?

"Yes. I am very proud to be the first artist to allow people to design their own CD. They can choose their own version - if they want a black CD, or a Gold one, they can have it. They can have 1 CD or 2 CDs – or with a DVD, with an 80 page booklet - they can have anything. The idea came to me when I thought on so many occasions: You listen to an album and you only like 2-3 tracks, or you wish you had more of a booklet etc. etc.

"So you can go to my website and choose anything you want – track listing, logos, booklets, and it will be sent to you. I am very proud of this system."

Your latest album - Toolroom Knights, a mix compilation 2x CD is just out. Looking at the track list, it could be deemed a conventional remix album, so what is specifically "Joachim Garraud" in this release?

"Well, this compilation I am very proud of, as I’m the first french DJ to do this. Toolroom is my fave label ever, they have good quality tracks, and I am so happy to be on board with them. This CD mix is a proper DJ mix. I tried to do a special mix – with my own tracks and my own remixes. I programmed this compilation, and took time to mix the tracks in key, and BPM. The most Joachim part is the musicality and the tonality of the compilation.

"I also made exclusive remixes and tracks just for this album.''

No suprise Only For DJ's Magazine appointed him Best French Producer and DJ 2008 in January of this year.

  joachimgarraud.com

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