No wonder why the world of electronic music is round like a globe. Just like the records he collects and plays for 25 years in North America and Europe, TEKNOBRAT, a franco-canadian DJ and producer, witnesses and takes a part into these cultures including disco, techno and Digital Way of Life. This music traveller has one ear in Detroit and the other in Berlin, one foot in Montreal and the other in Amsterdam.

We met him in Strasbourg (France), between two flights.

Text, Interview and Pictures: Manuel Nardin / Translation Work: Emeline Chiron. All Rights Reserved. © 2011

Where did you get this passion for electronic music?

I live in Canada but I come from Alsace, in the north-east part of France, and from the south-east part of France. Hence, I kind of have a double culture. At the beginning of the 80s, in Ottawa, my father revealed me to music, as he was a jazzman and ran a radio show. At that time, I was listening a lot of disco music from Germany and Italy. In 1984, I was interested in this kind of music but I met a crucial person. At CKCU radio station (FM 93.1), I met Elorious Cain. For 30 years, he’s been running a show called The Groove, on disco music. He is a real reference to me, my intellectual inspiration. He is a real expert in the musical, social and cultural analysis of music.

At that time, were you already a DJ?

 At that time, did you consider living from your music?

In 1991, I get my first radio show, on CKCU in Ottawa, called Planet Rave, playing every weekend. In 1997, I run this weekly show, in which I try to highlight Detroit sounds, breakbeat, jungle, and so on. That’s how I become a pioneer for techno house music in Ottawa. Meanwhile, I play in many parties and clubs. In 1997, I join CHUO radio (FM 89.1), where I lead a show called “Teknosphere”. That was an overview of electronic music, not only techno.

What’s the next step in your career?

I settle in Montreal in 1999, a rather cosmopolitan town compared with Ottawa, more open to clubbing. My job was done in Ottawa. In 2004, I release my first vinyle, “Breaks of Death”, under Ascend Recordings label, working with DJ Preach and Mateo Murphy. This album is successful, and enables me to work with great professionals from electronic music such as Carl Cox, Laurent Garnier and DJ Tiesto. I keep working between both continents, Europe and America, and play at parties in the Netherlands, Morocco (Full Moon, in Casablanca). I also create the concept of Bunkerbliss parties, where I play with various DJs, depending on my mood, inspired by Free Parties. The biggest change occurs in 2006, on a trip in Berlin.

Why Berlin?

Now, Berlin is a central location of cultures which mixes electronic music and digital arts. I can feel the same energy as in Detroit, the same sense of creation. I hold regular residencies in Berlin and work with Odrex Label. I go to Delicious Doughnuts and Suicide Circus parties, or to the Club der Visionaere: in these places, music and art keep evolving. As I share my time between both continentes, my journeys in Europe allow me to bring a bit of this digital culture in North America, where clubbing has lost its luster these last years.

Which artists keep inspiring you?

Obviously, there are many but to name a few, there are Laurent Garnier, Jeff Mills, Derrick May, Kerri Chandler and a collective called Underground Resistance. I may also be influenced by the sounds of the hip hop band from South Africa Die Antwoord, for instance.

Listen Teknobrat on Deezer