Logo Interview
French two-piece Logo describe themselves as a “what’s the point duo” but that seems a little harsh on their part. Paris boys Thomas and Hugues are actually making some pretty fresh, optimism-laden electro beats. Since the release of their first EP, La Vie Moderne, last year, they’ve been on the road with Swedish band Icona Pop and the Kitsuné Club Night. And this summer saw the release of new EP Merit, a bleepy, chirpy affair with nods to ’70s sci-fi theme tunes. They’ve hit the festival circuit to hone their skills and are playing Koko tomorrow night, supporting Ed Banger boss Busy P and the amazing Carte Blanche (DJ Mehdi and Riton innit). We caught up with them ahead of their live performance to find out all about these young Parisian producers…..
So, obvious questions first, how did you both meet?
At a café, a friend introduced us. We talked about music and low-quality mp3. Then, we spent a day in Thomas’s room and made that glitchy track named “WXYZ“, our first track together. At our first live [show], the barman kicked us out after 5min. That kind of bar where you can hear some “National Geographic scientologist minimal techno shit”.
You’re currently on Kitsuné, which is well known for being both a record and a fashion label. What is it about their ethos that attracted you to sign to them?
Gildas is the founder of Roulé label with Thomas Bangalter, which released for us the best house music catalog. It’s without a doubt a main influence for us. So we thought that we would be in good hands. Moreover Kitsuné is not a specific style music label, they are very open minded and we wanted that freedom to match our wide vision of music.
How was your recent Creamfields experience?
The line-up of this festival was huge, we saw great djs and shows. Chemical Brothers, Skream & Benga, Brodinski, Rory Philipps. It was amazing. We went there like two Frenchy snubs with our boatshoes, with all that mud we damaged our shoes. Now we know that for Bestival we’ll bring real farmer boots. The English crowd is the best. Always a great pleasure to play there. And they’ve got the best music scene right now. So interesting.
In August you played Sonic Festival in Japan then, For Noise Festival in Switzerland and then Creamfields here in England. How do English crowds compare to the Japanese and Swiss ones?
Japanese crowds can be crazy as we saw at Sonic festival, they are very curious all about the French touch scene. Swiss crowd is naturally crazy, like the English but less disciplined than the Japanese one for sure.
You also do remixes and even have had support from Annie Mac with your recent Mark Ronson remix, who would be your ideal artist to tinker with?
Mark Ronson and Pharell were so good to remix, we are very proud of the result. Remixes can encourage you to make music that you would never do naturally. It was the case for the Record Collection 2012 remix and it gave us a lot of inspiration for our next tracks. Our ideal artist? We don’t really know… Metronomy can be a good answer as we loved their album; we spent our summer listening to it. But, if we would remix them, we wouldn’t turn the track into a club banger version of the original that’s for sure.
Who would you ideally like to remix you, and which track would you send to them to work on?
Canblaster is our fav remixer for sure, Justin Martin too, Para-One is a genius so it would be a good remix, and Gesaffelstein has got real style and he is a super good producer. We are very much into Julio Bashmore’s productions too. So many people actually, we still listen to a lot of stuff, we are real blog diggers, and today something very fresh seems to emerge in electronic music.
You’re playing at Club NME at KOKO alongside Carte Blanche and Busy P tomorrow. What can the crowd expect and are you planning anything a bit special?
With Ed Banger, the crowd can expect a huge party. We’ll play live and maybe some special new tracks…
Who’s your favourite artist or your favourite track at the moment? What’s your top musical tip to see out the end of summer with?
Funkin Matt feat Teki Latex – Get Loose (Canblaster Remix) is big for us. At the moment we can’t stop listening to Thomas Bangalter- What to do on Roulé. It has always been our main influence. Steppin out feat Romanthony by Tom Trago is our favorite summer track. And this Lezgo track by Justin Martin and Ardalan is a dancefloor killer track. Pulsar by Para-One and Das Glow on French label Marble is a very good track. In another style, we love this House de Racket album “Alesia” which is released on Kitsuné. And the next Joakim album on Tigersushi
If, worst came to worst, there was a zombie infection and you both managed to survive, what would you guys do? Everyone needs a zombie plan after all.
We’d invite all the zombies to play Resident Evil at our place, smoke joint on the coach, listening to Zombie by Fela Kuti, and show all the zombies how much fun we can all have together.
[They are actually going to get eaten. Fact.]
Finally, why did you guys decide to name yourself Logo? In all honesty, it’s a bit of an SEO nightmare; it makes googling you a tad on the tricky side.
Yes, it’s very difficult to find us on google, and think about making a logo when your bandname is Logo. A real nightmare. But we made it. We decided to choose that name as we wanted an international name, easily to pronounce and to remember.
PettingParty
* Logo play Koko in Camden this Friday 9th September, supporting Busy P and Carte Blanche. For more info head over to Deadly People and for tickets visit the Koko site. You can download their Mark Ronson remix for free via the soundcloud player below.
Mark Ronson & The Business Intl – Record Collection 2012 (LOGO Remix)
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