Joachim Garraud

“My Dad is an alien!” Cries the 6 year-old son of Joachim Garraud. Perplexed teachers question the fathers’ vocation and sanity at parent-teacher nights. Their fears are not allayed, as the French music master bites back “At home I have a space ship!” Out of context this would seem like the ramblings of a mad man, instead it is an insight into the world of a humble and creative talent.

With a career that began over a quarter of a century ago, Joachim Garraud has over time forged his name as a Dance-Hall legend. Since bursting on the scene in 1990 as a DJ, Joachim initially rose to fame through a number of notable remixes of artists such as Kylie Minogue, Moby, OMD and even Culture Club. The Frenchman is notorious for his unique sound that developed through a fusion of live music, electronic sounds and an obsession with outer space! It’s a sound that the man himself describes as “From the Future! A positive electro-techno sound’.

He has witnessed many of his songs tear up both dance floor’s and music charts, namely; ‘Acid Boy’, ‘The Rock’, ‘Love Don’t Let me go’ (with David Guetta) and ‘Street Sound’, which samples a Brisbane traffic signal! Yet it is his live shows that have created more of a storm. Garraud not only performs as a DJ, but rather incorporates live music and visual media into his sets. After spending nearly a year in development, Joachim has unleashed an enormous live show on his audience, the Joachim Garraud ‘Space Invader Show’.

“This brand new show called Invasion 2010 is a story, I’ll give you the story; Space invaders come to earth, not for war, but to share good music and to create a big party from space. How does it look like? Well it’s a big show introducing the fact that we are doing a show with an audio and video link, which I will be able to control with my fingers. Through my CDJ, I will be able to drive video content at the same time, mix audio and video at the same time and introduce some stage vocalists, one from Kuala Lumpur and one from USA. His name is Roland Clarke, who has played already with Fatboy Slim and Prodigy. I’m also going to play keyboard live on stage.”

Garraud will also be introducing a number of new tracks that will be incorporated into the ‘Space Invaders’ set. “We already have two tracks, the first is called ‘My boyfriend is a robot’ and the second track is “I’m invaded”, it gives the colour of the show. I’m very excited to do this show, starting in Australia. You will see something brand new, especially when you’re in front of this huge screen and everything is linked and synchronised, it’s the first time you will see something like this”.

The ‘Space Invaders Show’ landed on June 5th 2010, in Australia, before setting out to explore the rest of the world. “After Australia I will go to America, South America and Europe during the summer time until March 2011”. Joachim will spread his mammoth-world tour across 9 months, not purely to sip in the cultures of the world. For Garraud, one thing remains more important than spaceships and music. “I’m trying to go back home in between each country because I have a large family, I want to see my kids, so that’s why. Every time I’m off, I’m back home.”

"Mr. Garraud, your son believes you fly a real space ship"

Even though he tries to spend as much time as possible with his kids, he is still perplexed as to what their thoughts on his new show as well as his job;
“My kids? I don’t know sometimes. I have four kids, I have a large family. I have one boy who is 15, two girls who are twins - 9 years old and a little boy who is only 6 years old. So all the kids, when they come into my studio they just see what I’m doing now, preparing the show with ‘Space Invaders’. The youngest who is 6 years old – his Daddy is an alien. Last time his teacher told me ‘Mr. Garraud, your son believes you fly a real space ship’. I just say; ‘I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, but at home I have a space ship’.

It isn’t just his youngest son or his teacher who question whether Garraud really is from out of this world; “(Laughs) Well there are a lot of masks at home, alien masks. It is something crazy. I can imagine that sometimes friends of my kids come into my house and they see all these masks, all these robots and say 'What is the job of your father?'”

The Alien appearance and obsession of the French DJ/producer is nothing new. For years he’s taunted his audience with alien masks and imagery. It’s also not uncommon to see the Garraud dressed as something found on a lab bench in Roswell, lurking behind stages at festivals and springing unsuspecting DJ’s amidst the peak of a set. He’s no doubt a man with a sense of humour, but why is he so fascinated with Aliens and Space Invaders? “Well, first I chose the Space Invaders logo because it was something very linked to the music I want to promote. For example, when you are looking to my logo, there is no race, no religion, no sex; it is only happy music for happy people who want to have a big party without any substance. I’m very happy for my community because of these points, they’re just for the music!

Regarding the show, It’s all around the Space Invader theme. There are a lot of things you can talk about, you can talk about the Invasion, Aliens, space ships, robots - a lot of graphic and visual things.” It’s an insightful view into what is at first glance merely a fondness of an outdated video game. Although that’s not to rule out the presence of video games in his new show. “It’s funny, because one of the tracks I’m producing now starts with a video game introduction. It’s a classical video game, the first on earth, it was called Pong, you know you have, like, a tennis game that is black and white on the screen and the sound is “Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick”. The track starts with the original sound and video of this video game. When you have big screens, around, each 4 metres high people think they’re playing the game”.

Similar to previous songs like “Street Sound”, the sample itself was taken directly from the origin during his time out from producing tracks. “Yes, luckily I have a great collection of very old machines. I love machines. I have the first Atari, the first Omega and I have a lot of old machines so I’m able to have all these classic video games from the 80’s”.

Although Garraud has a deep affection for all things electronic, it may seem surprising that his music talents were harnessed in classical training. In his younger years, he spent 7 years attending the Academy of Music Percussion and Piano in France. So why and how did he fall into dance music? “You know, I started playing the piano when I was 7 years old and I played drums at the same time. You’re right, by chance I had this classical music education but when you are 16 years old, you stop listening to just classical music and because I was in love with machines, I told you I love the machine! But I had to have a computer and asked my parents ‘I want to have a computer at home’ and by luck they found for me the first laptop and I was very excited by the music from computer. In 1984 I started making music with the computer. It was electronic music and they were my first steps to making music. I have two loves in my life, music, and computers so if you join both, you have electronic music.”

A wise investment made by his parents in 1984. In some shape or form, the computer never left his fingers. “Exactly, when I say my laptop is my life, it’s really true because I spend more time on my laptop than I do with anybody else, for sure. For example, everything is controlled through my computer, whether visual or audio, it’s all controlled through my computer. Also with ‘Serato’, which comes from New Zealand, is an amazing product that allows you to drive audio and visuals through your CD player. You will see that it (Space Invaders Show) is something brand new and I’m sure you’re going to love it”

It seems that now more than ever his laptop is his life. After spending most of 2008 and 2009 touring and producing albums such as ‘Invasion’ (2008) and a ‘Toolroom Knights’ (2009) compilation, Joachim turned his attention to developing his new show. “Oh my god, I’ve worked on this show for 8 months now, and actually I was working 19 hours a day for one of the months just to produce the tracks. For every track, I need to have visual and video content linked to audio and what I really want to do is to have the freedom to do the show when I’m DJing. For example when you are DJing you’re playing any track that you want, so you have to fit your music with your audience so that’s why you need to have 200 or 300 tracks ready to play. That’s why I need to have the same freedom with my visual show. That’s why it is a lot of work.”

There’s a level of excitement in the tone of the Frenchman’s voice, as he’s ready to unveil the fruit of his labour to the world next month. However there is one festival looming on the horizon that is particularly important to Garraud. “My favourite festival on earth is the ‘Burning Man festival’ In USA in September. It is in the middle of Nevada. Everybody is naked for one week, (laughs) not really, but it is the biggest festival on earth for me. If by luck, if you can choose one festival to come to, you choose that one! Burning Man festival, Nevada, USA, September. Merci beaucoup, au revoir!”

Dom Bossi

Photos courtesy of Ashley Mar