International Man of Mystery Bob Sinclar, whilst just a character of Parisian DJ Chris LeFriant’s creative imagination, has become a self-perpetuating example of art imitating life. Until now that is. The name Bob Sinclar brings with it imagery of a 1970’s playboy; oozing style, sophistication, mojo and groove. Well the idea was something like that anyway. As part of the then blossoming French House scene in the mid 90’s LeFriant needed a producing name to match the 70’s disco flavoured tunes he was producing. With his third album, coincidently titled III, having been recently released, LeFriant once again proves with tracks like The Beat Goes On and Kiss My Eyes that Bob Sinclar can deliver dancefloor stompers but is also capable of much more. In the making of III Sinclar found himself progressing from his 70’s trademark sounds and drawing on many of his 80’s influences, perhaps partly due to the influence of production partner – 80’s legend Alan Wisniak. ITM’s Nojman caught up with Chris over the phone from his studio in Paris to get the lowdown on III.

In talking about the new album LeFriant refers to it as a progression, as a chance for more diversity and growth to be associated with the name Bob Sinclar. “This album was really important for me because I tried to find a new theme to work. I didn’t want to once again to dedicate this album to the disco scene of the 70’s. I wanted to put more innovation into my music, more electronic, more new wave into my disco”.

LeFriant is the first to admit the influence of working with influential 80’s producer Alain Wisniak in creating the sound new sounds to broaden the scope of Bob Sinclair. . “I started to work with a new guy, Alain Wisniak, who brought me some new melody and new sound. It was a new possibility for me to create my own sound rather than sample the others. This album is a little more mature.”

The success of the final product, however, being the fruits of a combined effort in which Chris describes the chemistry between the pair as the reason he refers to their time in the studio as such a success. “The nice thing was the alchemy between two people. Every time I do an album it can be quite hard to do ten or eleven tracks. For this one I had 17 or 18 tracks, you know, so I had to make a choice. It’s like ping pong between two people, I bring some stuff and he brought some stuff. It was connections of idea.”

In recent production work Chris has steered away from over sampling. Instead he has preferred to work more with live musicians in creating sounds influenced by era’s gone rather than simply adopt the practice of sampling old disco records and building a track around the sample. I was curious as to whether this had been the case when working on III. “Of course, of course. I like sampling though. I’m not against sampling. I buy records every day and I sample for my project “Africanism”. I like sampling to find in an original track 2, 3, 4 seconds of a very amazing sound I like to put in a loop. The dynamic is something really important for me. But, I don’t have any complaints of musicians. I like to work with musicians to create my own sound because I don’t find what I like in old stuff. “

As a Parisiner it seems the hardest critics to please are those from his home city as he deals with their expectations of Bob Sinclair. “For French people they like to put artists in a case. I’m a disco producer so I have to do only disco things. If I do an electronic or darker track I do it under another name. That’s why at the beginning of this album it was really surprising for people but after that they said I’m coming into it, and I’ve put an evolution into it. If I had to do 12 songs like The Beat Goes On, it’s not really exciting for me. An album for me is a trip, a way to show to the people that I’m not only able to produce house music or dance music. Dance tracks but also down tempo tracks with atmosphere, with electronic experimental tracks.”

It seems one thing that LeFriant has enjoyed most from the whole experience of making III is challenging himself as a producer as well as his audience. Chris considers himself a DJ and an artist but not a musician so whilst musically he is full of ideas on what will and won’t work the collaborators he chooses to work with are essential in helping him transform these ideas into sound and learn from. It is this learning process that Chris seems to have enjoyed the most. “Really I live my dream every day because I do music and play everywhere in the world. I like to work with more adult people to learn, cause they give me a lot of things. I learn constantly in music. When I am no longer learning I will stop. “

III is available now through Hussle/EMI at all good record stores.