I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Arnaud Rebotini to discuss his new EP, live sets vs. playing records and french bromances. Another Time, Another Place drops November 7th on Blackstrobe with remixes by Gucci Vump, The Shoes and Olivier Le Castor among others. One of the patriarchs of the french techno scene, Rebotini delivers a catchy pop hook driven EP full of a plethora of remixes to suit any discerning taste.
EARMILK: I want to start by saying congrats on the EP. I had a chance to test drive Wardance in one of my sets and it sounds great.
Arnaud Rebotini: Yeah, it's a homage to the first wave of idm and the Belgian sound with deep dark bass, dark yet groovy at the same time. The sound is really now. You can see the success of guys like Gesaffelstein or The Hacker that are really doing well with this sort of sound
EM: Another Time Another Place has a noticibly more "band" feel than All You Need Is Techno did. Was this influenced by the fact that you were simultaneously working on an upcoming Blackstrobe album?
AR: Yes and no, because my last album was really techno, I wanted to more of a vintage sound trigged by arpeggios. I don't like to make the same sound all the time so I went with something more pop and ambient. The idea started with vocoders and a 70's sound.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14fvGc3Zyds[/youtube]
EM: You've been a big proponent of producing with analog synths and drum machines. Does this stem from a love of the sound you get or is it more due to recreating the tactile feel you get performing in a band.
AR: The idea to come back to synths was after the last Blackstrobe tour. We were using analog synths on stage and it reminded me how much I love the sound. I had experimented with vst's and when I went back to analog I remembered how much I missed it and how much I missed performing live with instruments when I was young. I wanted to go back to that feel of performing live with them it's not like just putting on a record and only being involved in your set every 3 or 4 minutes it's really exciting when you're performing as a musician.
EM: It's been great to see fellow Frenchman like Para One follow your lead away from dj'ing towards live sets. Speaking of fellow Frenchman you've primarily turned to your countrymen for remixes (The Hacker, Gesaffelstein, Feadz in the past and Gucci Vump, Olivier Le Castor on Another Time Another Place) Is the scene there pretty tight knit?
AR: I'm really good friends with The Hacker, Gesaffelstein and Acid Washed. When I see Brodinski out we always have fun. All of the guys on the remixes are good friends
Arnaud Rebotini – Another Time Another Place (Gucci Vump Remix)
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EM: The EP is being released on Blackstrobe Records which to date has served as a home base for your own releases, any plans to release any other artists on it?
AR: We're planning an upcoming release for Museum, the guitar player for Blackstrobe. There's a few newcomers that you may see something from soon as well.
EM: Any touring plans after the EP releases either as Arnaud Rebotini or as Blackstrobe? Can we hope to see you in North America?
AR: I have some solo dates coming up and we're currently rehearsing for a Blackstrobe tour. Trying to do something in the U.S. coming up soon. (Click the link for tour dates)
EM: We're all looking forward to that. Thanks so much for sitting down with me.
AR: My pleasure.
Another Place, Another Time is out now on Beatport. Highly recommended.
