Fedde le Grand interview
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Fedde le Grand Interview at Matter London/MN2S night on 11th September 2009
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HC. So Fedde le Grand or Fedde le Grande?
FLG. Well Fedde le Grand but the French say Feddé (pronounced Feddai) but I don't really mind. As long as they don’t say La Grande!
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Would your passport name be Fedde de Groot?
No actually it is Fedde le Grand, A lot of people do think
that it’s de Groot (meaning le Grand in Dutch) but no le Grand is
actually my name.
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What is it that makes you the most proud to be Dutch?
Well most Dutch people are no nonsense and really down to earth and not
too complicated. Being down to earth is the good part of being Dutch.
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What’s your favourite festival in Holland?
Can I say more than one? (ok let’s say two!) Ok I really like Mysteryland as a big festival and Loveland as a more small intimate festival.
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You say that America, Hungary and Australia are your favourite countries to play in, so where does Holland fit in?
For such a small country we have an enormous amount of
festivals and clubs, and at one period I was fed up with the Dutch
crowd. Compare it to food, eating the same thing every day gets boring.
You become picky when you have so much and as an artist you become picky
too. I like to choose where I play and I like to feel a good vibe from
the crowd. Dutch can be a little bit spoilt because there is so much
high quality stuff out there. At the moment house is really the main
thing which is very positive.
Also on an organisation level in Holland the competition is big and the
organisation is extremely good, but the Dutch tend to stick to what they
know without exploring different genres of music or DJ’s than the one’s
they already know.
For me it all comes down to the crowd. All the things I did this summer
in Holland were really good though so that gives me a positive feeling
for the future.
For example, Mysteryland was crazy; people were responding really nicely
and clapping hands. I’ll be playing again in Hollland on New Year’s Eve
in Eindhoven for Extrema so I’m looking forward to see how that will
turn out.
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What’s your most embarrassing song on your ipod?
I only have two at moment and they’re not embarrassing! Although I like disco which is a bit cheesy, but I like it.
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Why does Holland produce so many good DJ’s, other than it’s in the water?
(laughs) Did anyone give that reason? (yeah, you did in an interview!) I did!!?? (laughs again)
Well we have a long history of dance music in Holland, it first started
with the trance guys being successful, then the progressive guys and
now house which is quite funny when you think about it.
The trance guys started to have a lot of success so people were like -
oh it’s a way to get across the borders and develop further afield. For
bands it’s extremely hard, almost impossible to build up an
international notoriety other than in Belgium or Germany. However with
dance music, artists proved you could go global and I think that appeals
to a lot of young people. That’s why they get involved with dance
music. But the other thing is now there are so many kids and young
people producing so the competition is really high and you really have
to stand out if you want to break through.
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The Black eyed peas joined you at sensation in Amsterdam
and during the TMF awards in Rotterdam they told the crowd that you
were there favourite DJ, so are there any plans to record or do a remix
for them?
I did one with Will-I-am, that’s on my album actually, I also started a
remix for them on “I got a feeling” track, but I just haven’t had time
to finish it. But they asked me again to do another track and if all
goes well, I should have enough time to finish it.
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Your new single “Let me be Real” seems to differ from your usual genre, what were your influences for this single?
The first influence was from Cashiers track, I made 10 different
versions and this is the one I liked the most. There is a little bit
taken from everywhere. It’s true that it’s slightly different to what I
usually do, but I think in general people will be surprised with the
album because it really goes from funky stuff to underground house and
to something like “Let me be real” and pretty much everything in
between.
To be honest, today if you have one thing that works you are told to
just repeat as much as possible because then we can sell, sell, sell!
But I hate this mentality, as it then becomes conforming music and what
people expect. I never do the same thing as it kills creativity.
Especially an artist album as to my opinion an artist album should be a
creative outlet of an artist. I think a lot of things turn into selling
machines that’s what I definitely didn't want to do. For me, the most
important is to be happy with my music and to enjoy it, and not told how
I should do it according to what sells the best at that moment of time.
I think the album is quite diverse and that’s why this single is quite different.
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Are you looking to surprise people with your album?
To be honest I did the album because it was my boys dream and to be
really honest if no one buys it doesn’t matter that much to me. Don’t
get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being commercial, but I think a
track get’s commercial for 2 reasons: It’s really good and stands out,
or it’s just it’s just conform to the standard. I'd rather take a bigger
risk and maybe be less successful from a selling point of view, but
really happy with what I do. That’s why the album is so different. I'm
really extremely happy with it and in my opinion its real genuine good
music.
I have always enjoyed Groove Armada, Basement Jaxx and Faithless, they
went from left to right as well, and I think that’s what being an artist
in general is about. It’s not about what you do it’s about being
creative and not being some kind of repetitive machine. In general it’s
stupid to imitate yourself but that’s just my opinion.
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Are you still learning?
I think you always are, I’ll find new plug-ins or inspiration or new
sounds and I immediately want to do everything all over again. In my
head it creates so many new possibilities. Of course you can't do
everything over and over again! If it was up to me, I could work on a
track for years and years to come. But it’s also good to say this is
what I represent and stand for in this current time frame. But anyway
the things I want to change are technical minor stuff. It’s almost like a
painter; his work is almost never finished.
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If FLG wasn’t a DJ, what would he be? A ball room dancer?
A what?? (Laughs!) no, no, no! Well you did ball room dancing when you were a kid didn’t you ?!
(Laughs again) OK, yes, yes that’s true. For my
parents I had to do three things, play a sport, and play a musical
instrument and ball room dancing.
I think I’d do something creative maybe more in visual way. My father is
physiotherapist and my mother a painter and sculptor; I was always more
interested in arts like my mother. I used to draw a lot but I lost
interest because of music so I suppose I would be a painter.
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So you obviously get your creative side from your mother?
Yes, at 28yrs old, with no money I had to move back in
with my parents, my mother continued to support my interest in music
whilst my father would ask me if I wanted to take over his practice.
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When you’re not remixing, producing or performing, what
are you doing and how do you fit your girlfriend into your tight
schedule?
(Ha....) well I actually almost don’t,
it’s kind of hard especially now as I’m extremely busy, But she has
flexible working hours and she works for herself so she makes it
possible to see each other.
Other than that I just really enjoy normal stuff. I like to eat at home
because I'm always eating out. I like to eat typical Dutch food like a
dish called Stamppot zuurkool met spek; with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes
and bacon. I never eat it that much anymore of course, but I ate it a
lot when I was young.
I rent videos, and do geeky stuff like playing on the play station and
inviting friends over. I do simple things that you miss whilst on tour.
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We all know what the women think of the man you are (of who?) of you! What the women think of you! (No, I don’t know...), oh come on you know what we think of you! So, did your girlfriend buy you that t-shirt I love my Girlfriend?
(Laughs!) I know, it’s a funny T-shirt, quite shocking! She did buy it for me, but it actually says I love my girlfriends with an S. Are you sure she didn’t cross the s out? No, no, no it says I love my girlfriends!
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What’s your favourite track on your album?
For me that would be “Let me be real”, a personal favourite is also the
one I did with Rob from stereo mc’s. We had them live once on a flamingo
nights playing new stuff and I think they’re amazing! He’s such an
extremely nice talented and friendly guy. It fits in with one of my boy
dreams, working with my personal legend even though young kids might not
actually know them.
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You first created Sneakerz with ErickE, and you then
left Sneakerz to create Flamingo recordings, when do the Flamingo nights
take place in Holland?
We always do one in summer, at Bloomingdale, one during
ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event), and we had our own stage at Mystery Land
the last two years. We only do 3 or 4 a year in Holland.
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Your final words?
The most important thing that I wanted to say is what I was saying about
the album. I don’t want to get caught up in a repetitive style. And
it’s also important for the crowd not to always go for the obvious stuff
and to keep an open mind.
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Fedde Le Grand new album "Output" out now
www.feddelegrand.com
(Interview by EBH/Holland Clubbing)
