Bob Sinclar: Disco Dreamin'

Feature, By danny corvini, 18th September, 2007

Bob Sinclar is one of the France’s most recognisable and enduring dance music producer/DJs, up there with Dimitri From Paris, Daft Punk and young guns Justice. He burst onto the scene in the late ‘90s with Gym Tonic, a controversy of the highest order. The track was apparently produced by Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, a former friend of Sinclar’s who didn’t want the track released. But Sinclar smelled a hit and released it properly and credited Bangalter as the remixer, and himself as the producer. Jane Fonda, who was sampled on the track, sued for $75,000. Maybe we will never know the whole truth behind the track, but it certainly ended up being worth it for Bob Sinclar, who continues to this day to be one the dance world’s most recognisable names, having had a massive hit with last year’s Love Generation.

Sinclar has already had an album release this year, an album of originals entitled Soundz of Freedom, and next week the Live At The Playboy Mansion! DJ mix will be afflicted upon us. Yes, it’s that Playboy!

In fact, the whole thing is quite logical. In the early days of his DJing career, Sinclar based his own image upon the male gigolo type imagery he saw in Playboy magazines. “I’m a fan of the ‘70s and ‘80s,” he says. “There were all these erotic kitsch stories. The entire erotic ethos – you don’t really get that anymore. I love the atmosphere from the ‘70s and ‘80s and ‘Bob Sinclar’ is all about that. This is how I made my persona, I wanted to imagine a character from the ‘80s. So, I used another guy and took a photo of him, who looked like a Playboy from the ‘70s. Bob Sinclar at the beginning was all about this image.”

The man behind the alter-ego is Christophe Le Friant, who at 40 is still looking very much the part of the character he created and the glammed-up house music lifestyle. Le Friant moved to LA this year – ironically – so he won’t be recognised. Playing a well-known character has its costs: “This (northern hemisphere) summer was just unbelievable because I did 30 international dates on the role, and it was very tiring,” he admits. “So, I wanted to take some rest where no one knows me at all and no one in LA knows who I am!”

He adds that “on this side of the world there is no house music,” something he is finding strange as well as a relief. “I’ve been in a few clubs and it’s completely non-existent!” he laughs. “The DJs are crap and they don’t really mix the music together. There is no atmosphere and they are still playing Put Your Hands Up For Detroit!”

Los Angeles is, of course, home of Hugh Hefner’s famed Playboy Mansion, where more things far worse than sticking your name on someone else’s record have surely happened. Le Friant has never played at Hefner’s Playboy Mansion party, but he’s been: “There are three parties every year and the biggest one is on Halloween – I would love to play that party as a DJ. You know, it’s just the most amazing party, with all the amazing girls, guests and superstars. It is a very crazy and sexy party – paradise for me!”

But Le Friant is in touch with his less clichéd straight male side, too: “Life is all about seduction, for women, men and everything. So, I would like to say I’m doing music for women and the gay community. It’s like, I know my feminine side and I like to use it for all my melodies, harmonies and I’m also looking for energy in the beat. My music is very emotional.”

The Playboy mix is – as you’d expect – a selection of chic soul grooves and seductive disco classics that pay respect to the classic Playboy era of the ‘70s and ‘80s, that Le Friant fesses up to be slightly obsessed over. But he stretches a little further musically too: “With these two CDs, I tried to do an evolution of the music I love from the period ‘73 to ’93,” he says. “You can also notice the changes in music with the development of drum machines and synthesizers.”

“I think that period of music was sexy,” he insists of the Playboy golden age. “It was all about going out, dancing and enjoying disco styles. I think it was the best period for that – the golden period for clubbing, very chic, and it was the beginning of something. Dance music today is just recycled from that period, in a way. The themes of the songs at that time were all about dancing, meeting someone and making love. But it’s coming back. Disco will never be dead because it’s all about the feeling, and people want to go out every Friday and Saturday and they’re just here to enjoy the moment and forget their everyday problems. They want to feel good and I think that’s what disco brings.”

He adds that: “This period was important for all types of music. You had Bob Marley in the late 70s (he died in 1980) who came out with all these reggae hits and, of course, it was not disco, so I find it really exciting how a lot of genres came out at this time.”

Yes, the man is a throw-back to another era, and so, you could say, is the whole Playboy Mansion CD. But Le Friant, aka Sinclar, is not just about going backwards. He says that he has moved to LA to get some sun and escape the constant attention he gets in Paris, and to record some new music of his own. “I just want to feel the vibe, the same sensation of when I made Love Generation,” he says. “I’m still going to be working with Steve Edwards, the singer on Love Generation, because the way he wrote was amazing. So, I’ll be keeping the team but finding new atmosphere. My plan is to do a new album, with maybe an East Coast or West Coast vibe. It’s just an idea at the moment.”

Bob Sinclar: Live At The Playboy Mansion is out now through EQ/Stomp.

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