When you think of record labels nowadays, about one million labels come to mind.
Nowadays it seems every one has their own label, with their own slew of artists, with their own sound. But when you think of prominent record labels, there are some that come right to mind because everything they do and stand for, stands out. One of these labels is French Express; a group of handsome producers who also all seem to sound like they get their inspiration from a disco-tech saturated beach located on Mars. One of their producers and incredible DJs, Moon Boots, caters to this catharsis of music. His tracks somehow possess the ability to filter sunshine and warmth through the internet into our lives via headphones or speakers, force our daydreams to direct themselves to hundreds of people dancing on the beach in bathing suits, fruit cocktail at hand, heads thrown back in laughter of how incredible life is when you’re listening to the sounds of Moon Boots. After his first track that really caused a ruckus in internet land “Gopher It” many years ago, Moon Boots has done nothing short of producing and remixing excellent tracks that get stuck in your head and warm your soul down to your bones.
We sat down with Moon Boots at Action Burger, a comic book themed burger joint in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to talk about his last tour, his favorite cities to play in, and what it’s like to tour with the French Express gang.
So you just went on tour with Henry Krinkle – general overview how was it?
It was really great. We had never toured together before, just played a couple festival and club dates here and there, but we clicked right away. He’s a really humble, intelligent and talented guy. He even tried to teach me some things about astrophysics when our flight was delayed at O’Hare — I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was too tired and hungover to follow him. My only regret on that tour is that we didn’t play the east coast.
Judging from your tweets, you’re a huge fan of Detroit, you played Movement Festival over the summer, why do you like Detroit so much?
I’m not going to say it’s my favorite city or anything — I lived in Chicago for 6 years so that would be heresy — but I will say this.. between DEMF (Detroit Electronic Music Festival) and playing with Golf Clap, I’ve had some of my best gigs ever in Detroit. Also, there’s probably been been more musical talent per square mile out of Detroit than any other city, ever. Motown to techno, all kinds of house, rock, you name it. There’s definitely no bullshit there, and it pushes me to play as well as I can and feel really gratified when the crowd appreciates it.
French Express guys seem like a really happy label family, is it easy to tour // play with those guys?
Of course, we know each other’s styles and personalities so well at this point, it’s almost like we’re a band of crazy brothers from different corners of the world. Maybe that doesn’t mean it’s “easy” per se, but we have a great time together. For what it’s worth, Perseus’ thinks I’m an excellent shabbas goy.
Have you been approached by bigger labels to produce // remix for bigger pop stars? How do you differentiate who to work with?
No, not from any political stance but I haven’t been involved with the majors much. An established pop star with a mediocre song is much less interesting than a talented newcomer with a genuine hit, so you have to keep your eyes and ears open. At the same time, what really matters is what you can bring to the table creatively. I won’t remix a song unless I feel like I can do something new with it and it will reach a new audience. As for actually producing pop stars, that’s a totally different ball game. I would love the opportunity to do that but it would have to be with the right people at the right time.
What are your recent thoughts on SoundCloud monetization and will it impact bedroom producers? Where’s the next safe haven?
I really don’t know, I hope it’s still the best place for bedroom producers to be. Everyone thought Myspace was perfect six years ago, and we know what happened there. But, while it doesn’t surprise me that the majors stepped in with SoundCloud, it’s tough to see how it’ll play out. If there’s one thing that really bothers me, I don’t like when you search for something now and it gives you completely unrelated promoted results. If the site is actively discouraging you from discovering new music, including the music that you were already searching for, that’s awful. But I got my start on SoundCloud, so I hope they keep doing what they do best. And there are so many producers who have come up in the past couple years who, if you press them on ‘what’s been a big ingredient in your success’ it would be SoundCloud.
What’s your favorite city to play in?
I really don’t have an answer for that, but I do have an answer for my least favorite city and that is obviously…. just kidding, I would have to say my favorite city to play in is Chicago. I miss it and I love it. But I also love playing in Brooklyn, Denver, Vancouver, Dublin, France, the list goes on. I know this isn’t answering your question but if there’s an area I wish I was playing more it is South America.
Who is somebody of musical talent that you think we should keep our eyes and ears out for?
Marquis Hawkes, Wayward, Bob Moses. Bob Moses and I are studio neighbors so I might have a personal bias but I think they have a big year coming up!
