For many, Dimitri from Paris became a household name with the release of A Night at the Playboy Mansion back in 2000: an album that skilfully mixed together modern and classic disco tunes, all under the watchful eye of Hugh Hefner and his Playboy Bunnies (who better, really?). But well before he became a regular at the Mansion, Dimitri (real name Dimitris Yerasimos) was pushing disco and house sounds on the radio in France in the mid ‘80s, becoming credited with bringing the sound to France.

Ahead of his Australian New Year’s tour, which is set to take in Ivy in Sydney on NYE before hitting Melbourne for Welcome Summer on NYD, we chatted to Dimitri about the evolution of house, the perils of the digital music revolution and, of course, The Playboy Mansion.

Hi Dimitri. So I see you’re beginning a tour and will be in New York this weekend – what’s it like playing there with so much musical history, especially around disco? Is there a special vibe when you play?
Yeah! Well, there is for me. I think for me, New York is the most important city musically because that’s where all the music that made me do what I do is based, as well as the DJs that championed that sound. Even though it’s totally different now to what it used to be – a lot of clubs have changed and everything is much smaller – I still think that there is a vibe in the city that I find very particular. I always enjoy playing there, I actually get to play with a lot of my idols.

And what about the crowds, is the response still very positive these days?
Yes, very much so – especially with the younger crowd because I’m playing a lot of music that they haven’t lived through, so for them it’s something new. But they also feel the history that this music has because it’s been very documented, especially now with the net you can look into pretty much anything. The first time I played in New York like fifteen years ago I really wondered why a French guy would go to New York and play New York music, I thought it was completely irrelevant. Then I realised that nobody plays the same music the same way and I was really proud that I was accepted going into the US and playing their music. I didn’t expect that to happen.

You’re credited with introducing house music to France in a big way, what was the reaction when you first starting playing it on the radio?
Well the first reaction from my boss was “can you play something else?”, to be very honest! So we just had to play hide and seek with him, it was a late night show and he wasn’t always listening. Luckily for me and him, there was this early house boom with bands like S’Express and Neneh Cherry in England. Those were the records I was playing before everyone else on French radio, and when the others picked up, we were already ahead of them.

My boss soon realised there was something there and started to give me much more air time, starting programming during the day and we became the house-iest of radio stations for a while. Quite interesting considering six months ago he was trying to shut me up! So I guess, somehow I was there at a time when things were happening and I was at the crossroads of that – I guess it’s a bit of luck, but that was the music that I liked back then and I still like today.