If you’ve heard the tunes ‘Gymtronic’, ‘Disco Selector 2000’, ‘Africanism’, ‘Darlin’ or listened to a House mix by any DJ worth his salt – chances are, you’ve heard or heard of Bob Sinclar.

Bob Sinclar… is not real, he exists only in the heart and mind of one Christoph le Friant and those of countless thousands of House Music appreciators, but House hasn’t been the same since this man led the so called ‘French Invasion’. Responsible for some of the most sex-you-all house this side of the Seine, and for bringing Glamour (in its entirety) to House Music with a thoroughly, deliciously Disco flair, I had the absolute pleasure and honour of speaking to Christoph le Friant, the man responsible for Bob Sinclar, who, might I add, has a tres Francais accent that stumped even this natural French speaker at times…

‘Bonjour Monsieur – Comment ca va? Merci pour l’interview! So, to whom shall I be speaking this evening, Bob Sinclar or Christoph (le Friant)?’

“It depends what you want to know, if you want this for a girlie magazine or a music magazine – but I presume you are speaking with Mr Sinclar chuckle“

As you would imagine with someone such as Bob Sinclar, much of his time is spent both in the studio and touring and whilst we punters usually get to witness the magic for but one night only, it’s always interesting to know what the artists has been upto of late and what’s really taking up the majority of their headspace. Bob Sinclar has been working on a new album and a DVD ‘Around The World DvD 2004’, and of course, the touring necessary to gather footage for this venture.

“So far this last couple of months.. I did every tour.. many dates and from September I work on the new album but it’s really hard to. People want to perceive more about the artists which is why I’m preparing the DVD and with that a double CD compilation with all the hits, like the album I did with Cerrone – Angel and Sinclar – it will be called, all the videos and interviews – ‘Enjoi’.”

“It’s not really ‘Bob Sinclar – Enjoi’ – more ‘Enjoi – Bob Sinclar’, to see what life is like touring around the world. To show the people I’m not taking life too seriously”

“Doing music every day, this is amazing because when I was 18 my dream was to be a DJ in a cool club and I was in my room scratchin’ and bought vinyls everyday and my dream was just to share my music with the people and now I share my own music with the people’

Being a great fan of the ‘Africanism’ releases, It was quite obvious that he’s delved far and deep (ala the ivory coast it would appear), to come up with some interesting ‘african rhythms’ – it seems that a great amount of producers are forever touting the ‘african rhythm’, so I put the question to Le Grand Monsieur de Paris, ‘So, just how far are you willing to go to bring forth a sound that no-one else has even dreamed of?’

“Laughs thank you – you have a lot of compliments today – too much for me”

“It’s not dedicated to African music. I should say that. As a DJ, we just wanted to play something different in clubs. We know that if it works in clubs it is good for us. There were no special ideas behind these releases. We just wanted it to be… erm… What is the English word for this?... Can I say ‘sucre’? (sugar). Just to be, sucre,.. (at this point I suggested the word ‘sweet’, to which Bob almost squealed with delight). YES! Sweet, with colour. Fresh. Something tropical… something like being around the beach”

Another major release for Bob Sinclar this year was the ‘Electronic Disco’ triple boxed set and as with almost everyone I speak to who’s had anything to do with a compilation release, I asked Bob how one begins to select the titles for inclusion..

“The album… you know after each album, what I’m gonna do I don’t know. All of those things. I started a label, Sinclar. I met a guy called Allen Wisniak who used to do a lot of work in the 70’s’

“Allen is known for the melody, someone else for the lyrics and Dawn Ray for the arrangement”

“So I took two of them to do a new album because it puts a new dimension onto it all. I like to work in teams, so I start by the title – like ‘The Beat Goes On’ with Wisniak and the work was fantastic so we continued. I like to work with musicians – maybe they have ideas – I do arrangements and I compose”

“I think every collaboration is important. Some people say you have a lot of chance in your life because you do music, so okay – I have some chance but I have the idea to work hard and take new directions and I think the people see that. People come to me. They say ‘we saw you go this direction and we’d like to work with you’.”

“To do an exploration and do it well and dedicate it to the classics. To commemorate something – to continue with something you’ve completed with others”

“When I begin a new tune, it can start by just the beat or the loops, little things – just a horn section building something around something. I sample old school classics. Just 1,2,3 seconds of one track – you can loop and just find fantastic things doing a 5 -6 min tune”

”(If I could choose which era I’d have been born into), I’d choose to do music in ‘73. Or, as I’d have had to be born a minimum 18 years before – New York in the ‘50’s or in ‘47, ‘48. In the beginning of the ‘70s in the disco era – in the beginning of the Disco era when all the fun was”

As mentioned, Bob is currently working on gathering material for the ‘Around The World DvD 2004’, which shall feature footage and highlights of his world travels including one of his favourite parties of all time in Sydney. A party he enjoyed so much, he can barely keep on his seat whilst telling me of the excitement he feels at the thought of performing in Australia again..

‘It will be the 3rd time I come and everytime I expect a lot because the two first times were amazing. You will see on the DVD. There is a big part, two minutes on Australia. I did a very big event last year in Australia. A party under the stars in the open air in Sydney with 14,000 people present. It was fantastique. The most beautiful moment of emotion is at the end of my set. I took the microphone just to say ‘thank you’, because everywhere we go the people were screaming”

“When you play to 14,000 people in Europe, you have to play techno, hard stuff. The people in Australia love this House Music. I love them.”

Bob Sinclar Australian tour NYE/NYD:

Sunday December 28th, Gold Coast – Berlin Bar
Wednesday December 31st, Sydney – Kink NYE (BUY TICKETS)
Thursday January 1st, Melbourne – Summadayze (BUY TICKETS)