One of France’s freshest house talents, Shonky, flies into Bristol next month to play the city’s increasingly popular ‘underground season’ In:Motion. Shonky is part of the 24-carat line-up for Junk Department’s huge Cocoon shindig on December 10; the event, at Bristol’s Motion nightclub, also presents Basti from Tiefschwarz, Kyle Hall and Dyed Soundorom. It should provide the perfect, lime-lit opportunity to test just how far he’s come this year.
It’s been a swaggering 2011. Shonky, AKA DJ/producer Oliver Ducreux, has built impressively on the momentum generated last year through tracks Cluborama, Le Velour and Les Shonkettes – innovative 4-4 arranging slick, retro synths, feral b-lines, kooky vocals and hooky melodies in supremely tidy house and tech fashion. This year has seen a surge of exhilarating remix work for Ellen Allien, Alex Celler, Maya Jane Coles, H-Foundation and Lee Foss; the latter remixed alongside close friend Dyed Soundorom. All efforts have been well received too, much like his rapidly expanded touring commitments. Spots at everything from London underground party Creche to hotel rooftops in LA (courtesy of Culprit) and Berlin’s mighty Watergate have demonstrated the increasing influence Shonky now carries.
So how does the man feel about Bristol? “I actually played In:Motion last year” he opens. “I was in The Tunnel room with Craig Richard; it was a golden atmosphere - positive about change, no trouble, and not at all arrogant. When you travel you can only hope, at the end of the day, that the ingredients will be right on the dancefloor; it’s nice to think Bristol will be like it was last year… even better! I’m playing with Dyed this time, so we’re gonna make it extra special for people.”
And have those dancefloor ingredients been ‘right’ elsewhere on Shonky’s recent travels? People are talking widely again about global economic meltdowns, double-dip recessions and Eurozone bail-outs; such talk might feel like a million miles away from clubland but recent history teaches us about the devastating ripple effect of finance market chaos; it wasn’t long ago that club institutions like Fabric were teetering and international attendances properly contracting. What does Shonky see right now?
“It was real bad a couple of years ago but there’s always a crisis, man, and the music industry has always struggled. It’s the way of it” he offers. “I have friends who are finding it scary at the moment but you have to move on; there’s nothing you can do. I can only really comment on my situation and, for me, the gigs are going up, the fees are going up, and the hands on the dancefloor are going up. In the last few weeks I’ve had some really great gigs, with the venues full and energetic. Places like ADE, Glasgow, Kosovo even…. Over a thousand people turned up to see me in Kosovo and I was like… wow! Fuck me! If people want to party, they will find a way.”
Would Shonky say he’s still learning his craft? He started DJing in 1998, inspired by the likes of Dan Ghenacia and Ivan Smagghe playing Kwality parties at Paris’ Le Batofar club. It was only a matter of time before other key Parisian venues including La Scene and Le Rex started offering him regular work, and then promoters all over the world. His studio career, by comparison, is much shorter, opening in 2005 with the release of Let Me Ask U on Ghenacia’s Freak n’Chic imprint (a label he would eventually help run) and then advancing to tracks for Sub Static, Crosstown Rebels, Real Tone and Contexterrior; not to mention artist album Time Zero, released on Freak n’Chic in 2008.
“I will learn throughout my career” he says. “There are a lot of young artists coming through who are too confident and make music for the wrong reasons… for their image; they think they have it all right now. But electronic music is always changing and you can never know everything. All of it is an unpredictable science; you don’t totally know what you will get when you play out or release a track; you just have to have an open mind and be open to feedback. The more my profile grows the more I play and produce, so I get better skills. More people comment on what I do too and I can use that to try and improve the next things I do.”
It’s hard, that said, to pick out any negative reviews over the past two years. Could Shonky have had things any better?
“Things have been great, for sure; I am happy. It has all gone so quickly for me but I do sometimes wonder if I could have done anything more up to now” he ponders. “Moving forward I’m concentrating on releasing the music I want, when I am ready. Early in my past I put things out I feel I probably shouldn’t have.”
One of Shonky’s big priorities at the start of next year will be to launch his new label, Apollonia, with Sondorom and Ghenacia. The label is named after singer Apollonia Kotero, who starred in 1980s Prince movie Purple Rain, and promises to nod to the funky, disco-edged sounds promoted by her alluring all-girl band back in the day. An EP featuring contributions from all three founders is due first out of the blocks; it will mark new beginnings, what with Ghenacia and Shonky deciding, for a number of undisclosed reasons, to wind Freak n’ Chic up last summer.
“We’re really excited by this, I can’t tell you” Shonky admits. “We love Prince and that whole retro-funk vibe… we want to make sexy music like that but it won’t be one thing or another. Each founder will push their own agenda… so sexy deep house, sexy minimal, sexy techno… whatever. I’m working on some personal EPs for the label which reflect my move into deep house and Dan has stuff picking up on that whole West Coast house sound. There are no lines drawn, we will just see how things unfold.”
Apollonia will undoubtedly take up much of his time but what else does Shonky want to achieve next year?: “There’s nothing too special beyond the label. I want to carry on as I am, pushing out good music; getting that balance right between frequency and quality. But I am continually learning how I can be quicker in terms of making new tracks between gigs. I want to avoid too many situations where I’m juggling lots of unfinished ideas. That’s not always cool. You waste a lot of time, which makes you feel rubbish.”
What about equipment? Is Shonky keen to upgrade his studio and live act? It’s an increasingly dog-eat-dog world out there where edge and standout is super-crucial.
“To be honest with you, I’m comfortable in my skin, and with the things I have in place around me” he explains. “I love my MPC-3000 [Akai sequencer, sampler, synthesizer]. Phil Weeks recommended it to me long ago; it’s been around since the mid-1990s and drives a lot of my sound. I do use bits of new technology but like nostalgia. There’s a unique feeling you get from using some of that older equipment. There’s a familiarity that inspires great ideas.”
It’s amazing to think that Shonky’s career path once pointed in completely another direction. He was, at one time, heading towards sober, straight-laced employment in finance and mathematics. “It goes to show how radically things can change” he laughs. “My education pointed me that way but I’m not one to sit back and enjoy the ride, even now. I’m one of those people who when they’re interested in something goes all out to get it. I’m no musician, I had no musical skill when I quit my other life but I believed in myself and my feelings and now here I am. I can’t quite believe I’ve come this far along really; it’s pretty fucked up… in a good way.”
Words: Ben Lovett
Shonky - Les Shonkettes is out 16th November - listen & pre-order
Shonky plays the Junk Department Presents… Cocoon party on December 10. Visit www.bristolinmotion.com for more information.
