David Guetta Interview - Interview with David Guetta

Walking by the Cameo on Saturday night during WMC, it's easy to see that F*** Me I'm Famous was a major event of the week. Throngs of people were huddled for blocks on both sides of the street as the fire marshals controlled entry to the club where David Guetta rocked the decks. The response is typical of the warm reception David has received on his first US tour preparing for the Ultra release of "GuettaBlaster," buoyed by the singles "Love Don't Let Me Go," The World Is Mine," and "Stay." With a new CD coming out in Europe, we can expect to see a lot of David Guetta for years to come.

DJ Ron Slomowicz:It's been quite a busy week for you, what have you been up to?
David Guetta: I don't know anymore. There was that amazing Swedish Mafia party last night with really incredible music. I played Nocturnal yesterday, which was really good also. I played the Subliminal party at Space. Tonight I have Ultra and I think what's going to be the party of the week – F*** Me I'm Famous at Cameo

RS: Where did that name F*** Me I'm Famous come from?
David Guetta: My wife is in the number one PR firm in France and we were promoting clubs and we had this very successful famous celebrity club called Libon Douche. The club had two floors, one was like a music arena and the other floor was really all about celebrities. It became really, really successful and it became really crazy, and at some point I thought that was just ridiculous.

I was also starting this big night in Ibiza and at the time it was all run by British people with American and UK DJs then. When we were giving out the flyers saying that we were French DJs they were almost laughing. I had to come up with an idea that was kind of provocative so we made those t-shirts and gave them to the best-looking people that said "F*** Me I'm Famous" and everybody was like 'oh what is this, this is so funny.' Then we came and said this is a party, and all the best people came. So it's like a mix between my night people going crazy about music and the more kind of glamorous crowd that is brought along by my wife.

RS: Thinking of glamorous people, I know that you had a chance run-in with Oakenfold and that's how you got signed in the US, tell us about that.
David Guetta: Yes, that's a really funny story. I was playing a festival in England and we had the same driver as Paul. "The World is Mine" was being played on the radio there and he said "Oh I love this track, is that Depeche Mode?" And I said "No, this is my track." "Oh you made a remix of Depeche Mode" "No, no, Paul, this is my track." He was like wow, really? This is really good, can I have that? He didn't really know a lot about me. He had heard my name but he was living in America now. So I gave him the CD with my production and he started to bang it. He was sending eMails like 'my God, I played your tracks and they work so well, this is really good.' Then when I came with "Love Don't Let Me Go" which has been a good success here, he said let's sign it together with Ultra and they decided to release the album in America, so I'm really happy with that.

RS: I heard you just did a really big tour in the US, how did you like playing in United States cities?
David Guetta: This was such a great surprise for me. I was really coming low profile, expecting very little, and it was amazing everywhere I went. Everybody has always told me that dance music is not strong in America, it's a Europe thing but everywhere I played was packed. People with hands in the air, crazy and everybody knew about my tracks, knew about me. I didn't know that people knew about me here and it was such a great surprise. There was such a warm welcome and I'm really happy about it.

RS: You're touring a lot around the world because now you have this album "Guetta Blaster" and you have a new album coming as well.
David Guetta: Yes, well it's kind of strange because "Guetta Blaster" was a very big success in Europe and it's now being released in America, but meanwhile I'm coming with a new one. This new one is due in July for Europe and maybe August for the rest of the world and July for Europe. So it's kind of strange because I have two albums to promote at the same time, but it's OK.

RS: On Guetta Blaster you have several vocalists, how do you choose the singers for your songs? 

David Guetta: I make a song first and then depending on the vibe, I choose the voice. It's difficult to explain. Chris Willis, for example, is one of the best singers I've met. He's very powerful and very emotional. Sometimes I need something a little more rock and roll so I go more for JD Davis who has a kind of big game attitude. Sometimes I need somebody with a very fragile voice, then I can take maybe a girl that has this kind of teenage feeling in her voice. So it all depends on the feeling I want to give, but Chris Willis definitely is my man.

RS: The mash up of "Love Don't Let Me Go" with Tocadisco and The Egg. What was your reaction when you first heard it?
David Guetta: We made it.

RS: Where did the idea come from?
David Guetta: It's the same chords. We heard it was the same chords so we just put the voice on the track and were like wow, this is magic. I make a lot of bootlegs and mash-ups just for myself, but I don't release them. It's just that now everybody has access to music because of the net so when you're a DJ and you want to be special and you need to do your own stuff. So that's what I did and as a favor, I gave it a few friends – Erick Morillo, Deep Dish and Pete Tong last year at WMC and it just became huge. So one day I was playing in London and the guys from The Egg came and they had never heard the track. I said hey, wait a minute, I'm going to show you something. I played the mashup and everyone was singing along. They were like OK, maybe we should do something with that and we decided that we were going to release it. It's been in the top three everywhere and a very big record.

RS: What your song in the Conference this year?
David Guetta: I have no idea. It is a little bit strange. There's so much going on now that you can't say like ten years ago that there's one track that everybody plays. I don't know, there's a lot of great tracks and I can't say what is the song of the Winter Music Conference. Do you have any idea about what it is?

RS: Everyone's said something different.
David Guetta: That's what I'm saying, we all love different songs.

RS: You said before about how French DJs weren't taken seriously, do you think that's changed over time?
David Guetta: Oh of course! Since then we've had Daft Punk and all the guys like Bob Sinclar and me.

RS: When you're in the studio do you work with Logic or Nuendo?
David Guetta: Unfortunately I don't find one that can do everything. I use ProTools for recording, mixing, and editing. I use Logic when I need a groovy bassline because it has the best groove quantization, and I use more and more Ableton Live. Ableton Live is almost the one but there is a problem with the midi quantize so I need to go back and forth with Logic, which is kind of a pain in the ass, but it's OK.

RS: Is there anything you'd like to say to all your fans?
David Guetta: Well if they're my fans, it's just to say thank you.

RS: How about the American audience hearing about you for the first time?
David Guetta: This is what is incredible. I'm so happy about how American people have welcomed me. I was really nervous about starting to work on this territory and it's been incredible, really good.