Pedro Winter Interview 
Ten years after Daft Punk announced the arrival of French Touch - the invasion of mainly beat-led and sometimes filtered electronic music that spawned hits for everyone from Air to Zdar - a new wave of music is making Paris a hotbed of creation..

Pedro Winter © Thecobrasnake

Hot on the heels of Ed Rec Vol. 1, released in France last November, the second compilation follows the same formula, introducing the upcoming babies of France's next generation of daft punks. While most of these acts are pseudo-rock, male-dominated outfits, Uffie stands alone in that she is the only girl on the Ed Banger roster. Produced by her boyfriend Feadz (also present on the compilation), this twentysomething American is causing quite a stir with her suggestive and often provoking lyrics.

Her rapping could make 2 Live Crew blush as she vocally battles through what it means to be a woman, demanding credibility and respect from her contemporaries on the way. Why shouldn't a girl get what she wants from her man? Why should she be afraid to ask for it...? She's almost like a 21st century Jane Birkin, with attitude.

Meanwhile, Pedro Winter himself now prefers to adopt a stage name for his own musical productions, referring to himself as Busy P. And the former manager of Daft Punk has indeed been very busy these last few years.

Paris Voice caught up with the busy man and tried to understand a little more about his label, his music and the new French sound.

Do you think the music on your record label represents a new French sound?

Not sure that WE are the new french sound, but for sure we're part of what's going on here. We try to bring something contemporary, we live in 2007, so we make music of today.
What are French musicians doing different to English, German or American musicians?

 We are sponges, we take influences from everybody. Not copycat, we just take the best out of what we hear.

On an international level, how does selling French music now differ to a decade ago when you started out with Daft Punk?

Daft Punk is one in a million, so it's hard to compare. No other French artist will sell as much as Daft Punk. But Daft Punk opened the doors, so now we sell more records outside of France, I'd say 80% of our business is outside of France.  

You claim (in the press release) that your record label doesn't have any specific direction in terms of style of music. What holds the choice of artists and their music together? What is the one common factor across the board?

You can love Metallica and queue to enter a Jay Z show, or you can stage dive to Beastie Boys and cry watching Jeff Mills playing with 3 turntables. I think this is the comon point here. All my artists are from different worlds, but we except each other. Accepting the other's differences makes us stronger.
 

Is the identity of the label more about a certain lifestyle than a musical style?

I'm running a music label, so music is my life. I'm Parisian, so Paris influences me. I like hip hop, rock and techno, so I can't choose and so we play all at the same time.
 

You are now making music yourself, under the guise of Busy P. What prompted this new career move?

I've been doing beats since 1998. I do it when I have time, I do it for fun. I'll do more soon... 

The Busy P single Rainbow Man sounds like Daft Punk when they were still good (sorry!). Is this a coincidence?

Rainbow Man is shit next to Daft Punk's work. I like repetitive music, nobody understood "Human After All." Me, I loved it. I like mental music, I like when funk becomes trance.  

You like DJing. You seem to play out everywhere strip clubs, clothes shops is this a reason for the success of the label, ie. you're getting direct feedback from the crowd?

like small clubs, you can feel the crowd. We now tour the world, so we can see that all the kids around the world are ready to mix all the music. Also, as a crew, we have fun behind the turntables. We ain't rock stars, but we rock for sure. Ed Rec Vol. released March 12 2007 on Ed Banger Records

http://www.edbangerrecords.com   See more photos of Pedro, Uffie and the other Ed Bangers at   http://www.thecobrasnake.com  Link exact:
http://www.thecobrasnake.com/partyphotos/parisparis/index.html