It’s hard to believe that French producer Douster only bounced onto the scene around two years ago with his fresh take on tropical rhythms from all over the world. His influences and taste for the globalized beat run as wide as the labels he’s released on, from Akwaaba to ZZK. After a small hiatus, he has now reappeared on the scene only to announce the launch of his new label, Bebup, with good friend Benjamin Collet and the release of a brand new (free) EP, Boom Shaka Laka, on Mad Decent’s new Jeffree’s imprint. Before he flew off to South America for a two-month long tour, we spoke on the phone about his new label, his upcoming tracks for Mixpak and his love of Hip Hop.
So you’ve been away for a while, what have you been doing?
I wasn’t doing nothing, I’ve been making a lot of music! I had a big break with the Lion King thing so I got a lot of bookings for that tropical kind of stuff and the truth is I wasn’t really producing much tropical stuff so it didn’t really make sense and I didn’t really want to stay in that vein, so I did a lot of personal projects, like with rapper friends from Chile, friends from Seattle and here in Lyon, so I’ve doing music but not releasing it. Now I have a lot of tracks that I don’t know what to do with!
So you think you were put into a box with the tropical stuff and the Lion King remix? People had got it into their head that you made a certain type of music and actually that wasn’t quite what you wanted?
Definitely. I like that music that I was doing but I wasn’t into doing it anymore, so I was spending my time searching for music I wanted to do.
So did you achieve that with this new EP for Mad Decent, is that more you? What was the thinking behind that?
I wasn’t really thinking, I was just like ‘oh yeah i should do an EP for Mad Decent’ cos it’s been a while since they said yeah just send us tracks. That was in May or June. It’s proper club music but still with that kind of tropical twist. I realised that in the US that kind of music works kind of well and I still like to play it.
And of course you’re also starting your new label Bebup. What’s the idea behind that – when did that start out?
This summer I was speaking with a close friend of mine from home in Lyon, we’ve been working together a long time, he was taking care of my bookings and management stuff and he didn’t really want to do it anymore. He came up with the idea of starting a record label to promote new music, and we didn’t really want to do a style specific label cos we like a lot of different music. It can be tricky for a label to do that cos the fan base of the label is kind of lost, but we thought we’d try it. I’ve met a few really young producers on the road and I usually say to them send me your music and sometimes I’m quite surprised at the quality of the stuff and I think why not just give them a chance.
So you want to use your position to promote younger producers that are doing good things?
Definitely. That’s how I made it to where I am now, even if it’s still kind of small. I had the help of people like Diplo who told me my music was good and tried to push my sound. If the music is good you just have to get it to the right people and then there’s no reason that it won’t work.
Your influences mix for the label runs from Clipse to Pink Floyd, it doesn’t really give us much indication of what the label’s going to be like, did you deliberately leave it open?
Yeah, we wanted to leave it open. The first release is southern Hip Hop influenced, but modern club music driven. So it fits in with the music scene right now, but with a weird twist, cos the artist, Roma, it’s his first release and he isn’t that influenced by the scene. I realised that when people start to do a few releases, their sound most of the time adapts to the scene and that’s why it’s more fun to release people who are making their first step in the scene, it’s their thing, and noone else’s.
Will you be releasing any of your own stuff?
I don’t think so. I do have a few side projects that might fit in though. The first two releases are going to be purely electronic music, and quite clubby, but then we want to release some bands.
So will the releases be just digital or will you be pressing vinyl?
We’re starting digital only for the first two, but we’re gonna do limited edition vinyl and cassettes too, if people still use cassette players. It’s gonna be like more goodies than selling it to the classic vinyl retailers.
Do you have any worries about starting a label at this point in time?
I don’t have any expectations, I’m not just doing it for the sake of doing it, I’d like people to love the music and follow it but I don’t think it’s a bad time for doing a label. I think it’s way easier than it was before. There’s a lot of competition but if you do it right, there’s no reason it shouldn’t work. You oviously need to put a lot of work in but i hope it’s worth it.
How do you think your label will stand out from other stuff out there?
Yeah that’s one of the big problems isn’t it. We really want to stay on the first release for the artist, I think it’s going to be hard but we’re going to try to always find new acts or new producers that want to give us their first EP.
Will you be looking up to any labels in particular that you think have done it right?
The ones I think of are based on the ancient model, like Warp or XL, run by people who have a specific taste but still release a wide varitey of music. This is stupid but I’m just looking to labels that release good music. Kinda like Mixpak cos you guys are releasing a lot of different styles but it’s all good music…it’s just matter of taste, but staying true to who we are and hoping the public will stay with us.
So you won’t be taking on anything you don’t like cos you think it’s a good business idea?
Definitely not. I don’t really see it as a business, we’re doing everything to make it work but the first thing is the music. nowadays you can’t just count on the music, you have to work on the visuals, the promotion, and we understand that fully but we kinda want to keep it about the music.
So you’re about to go on tour to South America again, what are you going to be doing there?
I’m going there with my friend Arcade, who’s from Argentina, we’ve planned some B2B DJ sets there focussed on Chicago house. It’s music we both like a lot. We’re trying to do some new Chicago house productions, it’s still ghetto and it’s impossible to have the same vibe as they had back then but we really like the music so we want to have fun playing it in South America basically.
You think the Argentinian crowd will like that?
I don’t really know if they want to hear it. I think so! There’s a scene there focussed on European music. And the whole Chicago sound is coming back so why not. We’re not going to play any South American influenced music out there.
When you first were there, when you linked up with ZZK , what were you playing?
Kind of the same stuff I play now, like club music, baltimore club, ghettotech, hip hop, dancehall, a bit of reggaeton. I’m a big hip hop fan from France and the US, but when i first got [to South America, where he lived for 2 years] I was like where’s the rap music ? I looked for it but there wasn’t any, there’s not really a hip hop scene but they had this cumbia bichera that was a lot like gangster rap here in France, so i was like OK, that’s what people listen to in their cars, so I started buying the CDs and messing around with the beats, doing remixes, and at that time the ZZK guys were doing the same things too. When they heard my music they were like ‘oh you’re doing exaclty what we want to do.’ But the ZZK guys are focussed on nu-cumbia and electronic kind of things, where my thing was really more like club music with cumbia influences.
So do you still listen to cumbia or has your time away changed that?
I still listen to a lot, and my wife’s from Argentina so I stay in touch with the new stuff but i’m not comfortable with the nu cumbia thing cos I usually prefer the raw stuff. I like it when it sounds raw and not well done but still has a big powerful feeling. Sometimes taking a sound out of music and trying to do it in a new fashion to make it more accessible to other types of people sort of kills the music you were using in the beginning. So I tried to not do that and if it’s not me I won’t do it.
While you’re out there will you be looking out for anyone to sign or collaborate with?
I’ll be working with a few friends from Santiago de Chile, called Zonora Point, I’ll be working with them for 2 weeks. Last time I was there I made a mixtape with them, but now one of them is really interested in doing a solo project, he’s a talented rapper but he sings too. It’s hard cos with lyrics in Spanish you can’t get to a non Spanish-speaking crowd, maybe in the US it’s easier cos there are a lot Spanish speaking people, but in Europe you can do things like the macarena or Ricky Martin kind of things and peope like it but if you do rap it doesn’t work. So we’re going to try some stuff, we’re working on an album with them too, with me as a producer, so we need to finish that. But that’s for the south amerian market cos it’s not going to fit in on my label. And there’s a few producers out there in Chile too that i want to work with too.
You’re quite comfortable producing hip hop though aren’t you, is that not what you originally started out producing?
Yeah as a teenager, I used to do straight rap productions, with samples from French rap producers. It wasn’t that bad but it was something that I was doing as a hobby. It’s something I’d like to do right now, I’d like to find some good rappers to go on the beats. The problem with hip hop is you need a good rapper if you wanna be happy with your beat.
Would you be happy if you were making straight hip hop?
I don’t know. I could be but it’s one of my problems really, I can’t be happy just producing one style of music.
Yeah cos you’ve been making dancehall riddims too, which will be released on Mixpak next year, you obviously know what you’re doing and have a love of dancehall, what’s your relationship with that?
My dancehall love came at the same time as my love for hip hop, I was like 16. My first contact with dancehall was through a DJ here in France who always played ‘Sim Simma’ [Who Am I], or Red Rat, and the whole Bam Bam riddim stuff. Then I listened to a lot of new roots, cos it was the time, like Jah Cure and Buju Banton and Sizzla, and i kinda got bored listening to it. Then I got into UK dub, steppas, some violent kind of riddims with hard sub bass and then I came back to dancehall maybe 4 or 6 years ago when I saw a new style of deejays [aka MCs] coming up. I think Vybz Kartel initiated that last big wave of dancehall artists, and I’d always liked the riddims but I was checking it once a month and then in the last 3 years I’ve really been following the productions and really liking it. I’ve always made dancehall riddims but i never really found the opportunity to do anything. I wanted to go to Jamaica and meet people and record there but I’ve never been able to. So I thought why not just start something through the internet.
If you had have gone to Jamaica, who would you have looked to work with?
Right now, it would be Jah Vinci, Popcaan, for the girls, Spice I think. Actually, I love Ryno too. I like those new singjays, with really high pitched voices, I don’t care about autotune – some people hate it but I actually like it when it’s done weird.
I read somewhere that you often play certain dancehall tracks out? Which are you favourites?
It depends but i have a few…just cos they’re edits that i did a while ago. Million stylez, ‘Miss Fatty’, that’s a big track. And a ‘Dutty Wine’ remix I did, it’s pretty hard. I had a few things like ‘Bubble Like Soup’, that’s a big one, then some old shcool stuff like ‘Pose Off’, Cutty Ranks, and the Egyptian riddim. They’re dancehall classics. When I play dancehall I don’t want to educate people I just want to make them dance.
I guess that’s really what draws together all the different strands of music that you play – dancing?
Definitley. That’s why i say i do dance music. All the music I make is meant to be danced to. Even if it’s different styles. I’ve just started to do music that isn’t dance music, and that’s hard for me, it has to be very emotional if it isn’t dance music cos I have a very simple relationship to music, I hear it, it makes me move, so I like it. I don’t really think that much about music. Now i’m starting to cos i figured it was an important part…the emotional part…
Check out Douster’s new label Bebup and his EP for Mad Decent here.
[Interview by Suze Webb]
