Laurent Garnier Quotes

“20 years ago, the biggest inventors were the musicians. Now the true inventors of the sound are the machines and the software developers.”

“As much as I loved Chicago house music, Chicago was only giving me the funk. Detroit was giving me the funk, the soul and all the mixed-up feelings I was experiencing in my 20s. Detroit was giving me much more.”

“At the time, in the 80s, music was getting kind of boring and too neat – and artists were searching for new ways to make music so they were mixing things together a lot.”

“Back in the day, it was much harder to make music, so it was much easier to f*ck it up. Now it's hard to make a really sh*t production.”

“David Guetta changed things. Even though he's on the more commercial side, he changed the whole perspective of R&B radio in America when he started to use hip hop and R&B artists with a house beat.”

“Detroit knew more than New York and Chicago, because Detroit was listening to what was happening outside. New York and Chicago was always, and is still, very closed into itself. This is why when Techno came out, it sounded completely different.”

“For me, techno was the best combination of everything that I liked, because I grew up in France, with white music like Falco, Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode. My father was listening to Kraftwerk when I was 12 years old.”

“Here’s the thing with techno: it crossed all borders because there are no words. And I think that’s why techno became so big so quickly – going from the UK to France, Germany, Spain and across the world – because the lack of lyrics opened up this whole world of understanding for people.”

“House is not a way of life – house is just music. It's good music, I love house, but techno is much deeper in the mind. House today is only a branch on the tree of techno, and techno has bigger roots. For me, house is part of techno, but techno is not part of house.”

“I don't know if you've seen the movie When You're Strange… When you see that scene when Jim Morrison is at the front completely drugged out of his eyeballs, the band don't know whether he's going to faint and they don't know what the f*ck is coming up next, and every time Jim says a word they're pronouncing it with a drum roll or a key – they just carry him. Those guys are carrying Jim Morrison for the whole song, and you know they are ready for anything. Anything can happen on stage, and those guys will just carry on.”

“I think techno broke the rules. House music couldn't become anything else other than house. House has to be a dance-floor thing, techno doesn't have to be something to dance to. For me, ambient is Techno.”

“I wouldn't consider myself a techno DJ if I was just playing old music. I do like playing classic sets but I announce them as such.”

“I've got this massive obsession with the Doors because for me the Doors were one of the best rock and roll bands ever.”

“If I only played classics I'd feel like a jukebox.”

“If we're not here to play the new stuff then who the f*ck will? The radio won't do it, that's for sure. You know you can play a classic record but only as the cherry on top of the cake. Then I'll do it and we can all enjoy that special moment.”

“It was very hard in France to make people accept that techno could be a stage thing.”

“It's really easy to put a band together to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, and make an American show. What I mean by an American show – you can go and see the same band 10 times, and you will get exactly the same f*cking thing, every single night. This is the most horrendous, and boring thing that can happen to a band. I hate going to see a band and seeing the same thing over and over again – to me this is a complete disrespect to the fans.”

“My connection with jazz and techno is so strong – the whole frame of mind for making this music is the same, exactly the same.”

“New York and Chicago has always been a big club thing. Detroit is a really different place. People make music in Detroit because they struggle, they make music to feed their family, they make music to survive. In Chicago they make music because they go out and there's a club scene. Detroit is a complete warzone. It's f*cking tough as hell in Detroit, it's a warzone.”

“The problem is a lot of things I hear out here on the radio are not trance – I mean that ATB track I heard the other day – is this trance? This is f*cking Teletubbies music.”

“When I heard 'Love'Love Can't Turn Around' by Farley Jackmaster Funk for the very first time, it was the very first House Music track for me. Something that stood out so much that I thought 'what the f*ck is this?'.

I remember, I ran up to the DJ booth and I banged on the door. I didn't know those guys back then, I was just a punter, and I banged on the door and said 'what the f*ck is that record?'. It was such a punch in my head, it was such a strong moment, and I thought whatever happens, I'm getting that record.”

“When you go on stage you need to have risk. I hate bands that rehearse so much – they go on stage and there's not one minute that they give to the crowd 'at the moment'. I think you have to capture the moment and make the moment special.”

“You've got to remember that 20 years ago, dance music producers were not DJs. In people's minds, DJs were DJs, musicians were musicians. When I started producing, I was still a DJ that was producing a little bit of music, but I was not a musician. And one day with my partner Eric I said 'I'd like to go on stage.' And we thought 'how can we make a real live show?' and I said to him, the best thing is jazz. We went to jazz musicians, because they can improvise.”