3 rules that all Parisians are following, unfortunately.
First one is, everything is overrated, because you know, I deserve better than this.
Second rule, I came by all that stuff before you did, it was better before.
Third thing, if it's outside of Peripherique, then I don't even want to hear about it.
Paris is known for its cafes, Paris is known for its bars, Paris is not known as a clubbing
city, I mean, it's not what Paris is.
The French scene totally collapsed, because people didn't stick together.
All generations, even five years ago, it was not possible to ask someone to take a cab
to go to a party.
I think the media, all of a sudden a few years ago, started really to speak about how Paris
is dying, because it doesn't let its artists express themselves.
I think the New York Times even wrote a report saying that it's the worst city to party
in Europe.
It's a really really tiny city actually, it's really concentrated if you think about it.
People live very close to one another.
Once you put a sound system, you're going to get the whole neighborhood complaining
and the police shutting the club down.
It's Paris, people have to complain all the time about something.
We cannot recreate what was done in Berlin, we cannot recreate what was done in London.
I think what the Parisian touch would be, making this a bit more chic, a bit more sophisticated.
Paris is like a museum, you've got a center of the city and if you want to make very free
and interesting stuff, you have to go in the suburbs.
We're on the circle road, it's Periferic.
If you're inside, you're Parisian, if you're outside, it's the rest of the world.
I'm kind of hoping Parisians will stop thinking that way.
I traveled a lot, I've lived in Berlin, I've lived in Prague, I worked in Zurich, I lived
in New York.
I saw the party scene in all these different cities, it's nice to bring to one city what
you think is the best of all these different cities.
I don't know how he does it and how he finds those places, but he always comes up with
something you've never seen before.
Sometimes I just ride around my scooter, go out of the city, go into the suburbs, find
a warehouse or find a small space and do something.
I'm bored when I go to a party, there's a DJ playing and I'm just in a square with
like everyone else dancing, after a while you're looking for something else.
So this is actually a congress center and when we saw this place we said no, forget
a congress center, we'll never do a warehouse party in a congress center, but you'll see
by yourself the place is massive, it's like real warehouse feel, very industrial so we
loved it.
On the escalator you're already seeing the stuff, hearing the loud music that's coming
from upstairs and then arriving in this huge room which is a main party room.
My party starts before going to the club, it starts by looking for it, it starts by
going on Google map to see where it is and that's where a party starts.
So if you already know the place, it's not as fun, what's the fun is going to someplace
undiscovered, you have no idea where it is, 24 hours before the party and that's a whole
fun.
Depending on the space I organize the party, the music, everything depending on the space,
the space defines the whole thing.
Dinard showed that it was possible to make something different happen outside of the
club circuit.
Paris scene is very elitist, usually you go to some place, you have a bounce where he
says if you can go in or not, we're the other way around, we say if you're aware of the
party, then come, if you don't know where it is, it means you're not curious to know
about these alternative events.
What really killed the French scene was clubbing in Paris, drugs, police, dirty club managers
and the bad energy on the musical scene.
There was this very heavy feeling that stole the freedom out of everyone.
When you go clubbing for the first time, you want to feel part of something new, something
in the making.
You're aware at the end of the cycle with electronic music so after a while you need something new.
Everything is happening again and now it's kind of cool.
New clubs have opened, it's evolving, on Sundays now there's sometimes five or six parties.
There's a party happening on the side of the river.
Most of the people who started to fill in these parties were just people a bit tired
of partying always in the same location at night and when this new option came in they
were like okay, let's focus on the Sunday afternoon.
For years there was nothing on Sunday actually, but really for ten years we were really bored
so we had to go in Berlin always to really have fun and three years ago there was a couple
like Selina and Giorgio, they organized a party, a Sunday afternoon party called Sunday.
I was a resident DJ in New York for Sunday afternoon events and I'm like wait a minute
everybody's going out on Sunday afternoon in New York and I don't see why they shouldn't
be going out in Paris.
This music was only possible in clubs, not much people were doing parties like in warehouse
or special locations, finally this is possible and also partying during the day time I think
is quite new and enjoyable.
Paris right now you have a lot of outside clubs parties, you have a big big big one.
It's called Concrete, it's a party on a boat, I think it's the perfect showing of what's
happening in Paris right now.
Actually the little story is that I was in an other party called Sunday just at 100
meters from here and I saw that place and I was like wow, I really have to make a party
here and so I tried to find the owner of the boat and we had a little appointment with
him and he was like yeah but we want to make a rave party with Techno and I said no no no
it's not Techno, it's Disco with Livegroup and the first one it was like the Total War
like 2000 people, one of the best parties in Paris since a long time.
Concrete started about a year ago, started last summer, they called us up like hey listen
guys, well we found a spot to do a great party, only problem is that it's next to you, we're
going to be neighbors, you can't find whatever you know, you have great lineups and it's
going great.
And before that everybody was like yeah but there is no scene in Paris, the people are
really boring but when I was going to Berlin I saw like French people from Paris they
were there so there was a scene and when they started to organize that party it was like
yeah but like every Sunday there was like 1000 people coming, I think it was really
the start of everything.
For me Concrete is the best party in town, you get in on Sunday morning at 7 o'clock
and somehow it's impossible to leave.
The energy that comes from it, I think it's never happening in Paris, I think that kind
of energy is giving people hope to you know to become part of it.
And a lot of people on this bridge like coming for take pictures of the crowd and I think
they don't really understand what happened here, like a party with techno in day.
In the past when you were going to a party you had two kind of parties like the musical
parties and the party people parties, in that kind of music parties people were you know
so intense about the music that they forgot about dancing and the other side of Paris
were the party people you know they were dancing don't taking care so much about music.
Brits today reach a point where it makes that two people and it's concrete.
One year ago I was with a suit and with a tie and working as a business engineer and
now I'm just talking about music like all day long.
I feel that I'm creating something in Paris because I was waiting for it and I was waiting
for someone to do it and I'm doing it.
If you want to have a real exchange if you want to build a scene you've got to have the
people talking together, inspiring each other, you've got to get to know their personality
a little bit more.
That builds some pretty strong bonds and is pretty motivating to get some good work done.
I've invited everyone that's just been knocking on my door to stay very open and to meet the
people, listen to their music, argue about music, even just having a laugh together.
In Paris we are a small community of people who are doing techno and we think that Demantid
is a really small family who is doing really good techno and who is giving advices and
in anything everyone to produce and just sharing ideas.
Now we're going to go to the other room, we're going to hit some stuff.
I think it's interesting not to stay in a main debate.
It's just a way of having this human thing happening because on Facebook or during parties
it doesn't happen, new ideas, new people, listen to some music, see what happens.
Okay, let's see who's選擇ing afterwards.
If people start to think about moving their studios, workshops outside Paris, it's a
big leap forward. We're going to this place called Syrah, an old factory. It's been transformed
into an amazing art place with rave parties going on. Syrah is run by a guy called Anatole.
Anatole is a guy that likes to have his dreams come true, I guess. Exuberant and romantic
dreamer that kind of made one of our dreams come true there. We have an 18 artist in this
beautiful building which is over 40,000 square feet. Just the sheer scale of this building
is amazing for artists because your production takes on a whole new scale in itself. Your
ideas become bigger, your dreams become bigger. The idea is to have all the studios around
the big communal space. Downstairs we have the biggest floor, which is the floor that
was used up to now mainly for events. Minimal, techno, electronic music events and stuff.
As you can see, it's a pretty enormous space, I think 13,000 square feet, all in one go,
which is very rare and very large for Paris. I'm in Berlin, in New York, in London, but
here in Paris, these are spaces that you can't really find. Also in this space, there's a
lot of funny little things that can happen. This is the old lift. The old lift, which
didn't work, so we turned it into a kind of mobile kind of sitting room, which was a fun
little project. Whenever there's an event, people just don't tend to see it. There's
a lot of things hidden behind doors and stuff, spaces that you wouldn't expect.
Music's happened in here. There's maybe stuff that we can really talk about. It's embarrassing
if I'm over, so watch this. Then you just arrive in here and have this crazy mix and
a mash of wood and stuff like that, so it's kind of a playhouse. I myself, as the president
of my agency, I spend the whole of my time here in the building. This is my apartment
and this is where I get my ideas, I relax, I play and stuff.
Suburbs have a bad image here. The north area of Paris, where Anyer is and this building
is, is generally considered as being quite unsafe. The government doesn't do much about
these areas. With the events we've had here, we've gotten a lot of people to come over
from Paris, to cross the river, to cross the périphérique, the ring road around Paris,
which is kind of like an iron curtain. People's versions never go further than the périphérique
and stuff, but it's kind of gently changing at that moment. I think our project would
be better to just throw the government and the mayor what could happen in these kind
of areas and these kind of big abandoned buildings, because there's so many abandoned
buildings around Paris and even in central Paris, they're just, they're just not being
used and stuff and it's just such a shame, such a waste, you know, so many people are
looking for space.
For me, it's the only way of living. I don't want to live in a tiny little studio in Paris,
you know, I don't want to do that.
There will be more and more warehouse parties, private parties, about new, by new promoters,
by the new generation, the party will take place in the suburbs of Paris and I think
it's the future. I think the clubs of the Centre of Paris, they will have to find new
ideas if they want to survive.
We have a lot of things to say in Paris. We are known in all the world as followers,
but we've never been the creator of something, you know. Right now, maybe it's time for us
to take that chance to, you know, to be on the map.
We are trying to change the mentality. If the music is good, the song system is cool,
if you are cool, you will have fun.
It's a scene that's just beginning, we're in the cocoon of something new and I'm pretty
confident it's going to be extremely interesting.
We'll just try to be on the map the way we are and we'll need to make some progress.
