1.5.2007 Circo Loco Worldtour @ Crazy, Flex, Wien Einstellungen

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Dan Ghenacia – Past, Present, Future… and Ibiza.



Le mec Francais (the French dude) that is Dan Ghenacia found house music in San Francisco in 1992, he returned to his city of Paris with a bag of vinyl and the story began… Ghenacia first began DJing <out> in 1998, with his Sunday morning residency ‘Kwality’, held at Le Batofar, a boat on the River Seine in Paris, until 2002. With guests including Garnier, Lawson and Smagghe, it is now something of a Parisian legend…



From there Ghenacia started his own label Freak n’Chic in 2003 – a label for him and his friends – Shonky, David K, Jamie Jones etc - to release the music they wanted, when they wanted to release it.



He now DJs regularly in the UK (playing for Faith in XXX as well as Fabric, The End and Tribal etc), Italy, France, Spain… and holds a summer residency at two of the most prestigious parties in Ibiza – Circo Loco and We Love… His winter Freak n’Chic parties at Le Zebre in Paris (since 2004) are the best un-kept secret for Sunday night party people - with guests the past few months including Alex Smoke, Steve Bug, Guido Schneider and Patrick Chardronnet – as well as Freak n’Chic label-mates on rotation…



Let’s find out more…



Past… It’s all about the Kwality



Explain the Kwality parties:

Kwality was my first residency held at Le Batofar - it started in 1998 and finished in 2002, from 6am till noon – the best hours to party in Paris at this time. We had all kinds of people coming - straight, gays, fashion, normal people; a real eclectic after party. Afterwards, it was always a lot of different crews carrying on to play records in several apartments – till the Sunday night or even Monday morning.



Which DJs used to play?

I think Luke Solomon was our first guest, there was an international guest booked to every party - Ralph Lawson (who mixed the “Batofar” compilation with me), Rob Mello, Charles Webster, DJ Heather, Ewan Pearson, Kenny Hawkes, Laurent Garnier and Silicone Soul, to name a few. All the best DJs from Paris were booked and a lot of friendships started here - Jef K, Ivan Smagghe, Chloe, :Terry:, Dyed Soundorom, Shonky…



What kind of music was played?

I was very into the spacey, deep house sound, influenced by the San Francisco scene. At this time I had a record store called Traffic Records, in Paris. We used to travel all around Europe to buy records for the shop - the distribution network was not the same as today and it was important to travel to get good records.



Do you remember the first ever party?

I was one of the first DJs booked to play at Batofar and there were maybe 40 people dancing, but we knew we had to do something at this club. A few weeks later, at the first Kwality, we had over 700 people in on rotation.



Tell me about the “Kwality-Batofar” compilation:

We wanted to capture our party on CD so people could take it home with them. It was 2 CDs; one mixed by myself the other one by Ralph Lawson. We choose Ralph because he did one of the best sets ever at Kwality, so we thought it was important to invite him on the CD.



You met a lot of your Freak n’Chic label mates at Kwality, yes? Do you think you inspired them?

Yes, I met Dyed, Shonky and many others, it’s true. I’ve probably inspired them as we have a lot of taste in common. But what is sure is that it’s they who inspire me today… It’s a real pleasure to play alongside them, especially because they are really good artists. It’s also great because we are building our scene together.



Why did Kwality stop?

It was too packed, we’d had four years of really great parties and we felt like we did the best parties, so we decided it was the best moment to stop and have a really good souvenir of the place. Also, I started to be booked all around Europe and I needed to learn to play in bigger venues.





Present: Freak n’Chic…



You began Freak n’Chic as a vessel for you and your friends to release music on, yes? Why is this?

First, because I wanted to have a label to represent who we are and also because when you send a demo to a label, you can wait one year before you see your release in the shops. I wanted to change this for us.



Why is it called Freak n’Chic?

Freak n’ Chic was the party I started after the Kwality parties; I wanted to bring some chic in my party and also musically what we like and what we do is always between the two styles. We love house and techno but it’s not 100% house or techno. Somewhere in between – Freak n’Chic.



Do you get a lot of people giving you demos now?

Yes a lot, Freak n ‘Chic has been the first label to release debut releases from many artists – like Shonky or Jamie Jones for example. I will still have some debut releases as I think it’s important to give a chance when the music is good.



Tell me about the Freak n’Chic party at Le Zebre, Do you feel that it captures the vibe you had before with Kwality or is it different?

It is different. The vibe is different because the hour is different (le Zebre is from 7pm on Sunday until 1:30am)… What I like with Le Zebre is the mix of the crowd, some of them come just for have a drink on a Sunday evening, some others come at the party with no sleep from the night before; so it’s half freak/half chic. The thing in common is that the crowd is really waiting for the party… For the music, Kwality was more American and UK music, Le Zebre is more focused on the minimal German style, but the common thing is the deepness… I can’t compare either to any other party in the world and I am proud of this.





How do you feel about the Parisian clubbing scene in general? Where else do you go out in Paris? Or what do you do if you don’t party in Paris?

In my opinion the Paris scene is a real cycle. I mean some years are really good to go out and some others no. The reason is we don’t have enough clubs, so you cannot change the venue if you are tired of it, like in London for example. At the moment it’s really good with good parties happening. Apart from the clubbing Paris is a cool city, especially for the food; there’s good food everywhere. One of my favourite places is Le Café Marly - it has a view of the Louvre Pyramid





Future: Would you like a Rendez-Vous?



Explain your compilation “Rendez-Vous” – how did the idea for this come about… Do you think the release is a good representation of the style of Freak n’Chic?

After four years of Freak n’Chic, it was natural to have a compilation. CD 1 of “Rendez-Vous” is 12 exclusive un-mixed tracks with some deep tunes and some more dancefloor tracks - this is once again a representation of what we do and our style… CD2 is some tracks of the back catalogue mixed by Shonky and Dyed Soundorom. I wanted them to mix it together as they have supported me from the beginning and they know really well the productions of the label. Plus they are amazing DJs.



What is happening for you next?

This year will be very important as I start a company of booking and management for some of the artists of the label. I’ve started a sub label of Fn’C called “Micro-Fibres”, with a new artist called Marc Antona, you will hear from him very soon.



And… Ibiza… We Love Circo Loco…



Quoi?

I’ve held a residency at Circo Loco at DC10 since 2004 and We Love at Space since 2005.



How?

For Circo Loco, I came out for the weekend at the opening parties in 2002 and gave the promoters a copy of my “Batofar” compilation, they called me two days later and asked me to play the following Monday. I played; really enjoyed it and they offered me to come back for the closing party. The year after they said I could play whenever I was on the island, so I came for the opening, all of August and for the closing… The following year I took the risk to come for the whole season as I thought I might get to play every week but wasn’t sure... I did manage to play every week, so was a good move. From this I played every week in 2005, 2006 and again this year. For We Love, in 2004, I was asked to fill in last minute when Green Velvet cancelled, I played three more parties that summer and from there they gave me a residency in 2005 and 2006.



What is Circo Loco?

There is nowhere else like it on earth, it’s a very is a special place, I play what I want and the people love it - this is very unique to anywhere. The crowd is great - you can meet a billionaire dancing next to a tramp from the village and they party together.



What is We Love?

I like the global thing with We Love; it's a global party for everyone. I think inside at Space is my favourite room to play, the soundsystem is amazing and when you get the crowd right with the right music... It's crazy.



What’s happening in Ibiza this summer?

I’m returning to Ibiza in May and will again be resident at both Circo Loco and We Love… This will be my fifth year staying the whole season in Ibiza and I’m already excited.



Dan Ghenacia chart:



Housemeister “Bubblegun” / All you can beat

Housemeister revisits old house with new textures, the result is amazing



Pierre LX “Madeleine” / Initial Cut

A great deep house and minimal track by young, London based, French producer.



Shonky “Olympia” / Freak n’Chic

My favorite artist of the moment; this is probably one of Shonky’s best tracks; as always, very hypnotic.



David K “Boul de Nerf” / Freak n’Chic

David K is back on Freak n'Chic with a massive track, perfect for the peak hour.



Move D “Anne Ville” - Vicenzo remix / Liebe Detail

Groovy and techy… Nice atmosphere, as always, with this remix of Vicenzo.



Zander VT “Then and before” - Redshape mix / Memo

Sixth release from the excellent Memo label. Redshape improves Zander’s talent with a melodic techno mix.



Mikael Stavostrand feat . Big Bully “No turning back” / Mo's ferry

This track is very sexy-deep, with a nice vocal on the top



Audion “I gave you away” / Spectral Sound

Here is the new bomb by Audion. That’s it!!!



Marc Antona “Save me” / Micro-fibres

New sub-label of Freak n’Chic and new artist; watch out you gonna hear a lot about this producer very soon.



David Mariscal “Beeper” (Rendez-Vous) / Freak n'Chic

An extract from the first Fn’C compilation “Rendez-Vous” including 12 exclusives tracks by the Fn’C crew.. This is one of my favourites.





Freak n’Chic presents “Rendez-Vous” is released April 4 on Freak n’Chic.

www.freaknchic.com / www.myspace.com/freaknchic