- To celebrate their 15th anniversary, the group Chinese Man is releasing a new album, The Groove Sessions vol.5.
- This album highlights the different groups of the Chinese Man Records label.
- A tour begins on March 12 in Marseille.
A fifteenth candle blown out with friends. The members of Chinese Man are celebrating their 15th anniversary with the release of a new album, The Groove Sessions vol.5, produced in collaboration with other groups and MC of the Chinese Man Records label: Baja Frequencia and Scratch Bandits Crew. A tour in France is also planned, it will start on March 12 at the Moulin in Marseille, where 20 Minutes met Fred, director of Chinese Man Records, Sly, of Chinese Man and Azuleski of Baja Frequencia.
You arrived in music at a time of change, with the appearance of digital. How do you see the evolution of this industry?
Fred: The label was created at a time when the disc was no longer at the center of the "game". Basically it was not to sell, but to broadcast sound. The collective was created by the three members of Chinese Man which brought together musicians, but also graphic designers, screenwriters, videographers. They put the first stone, a first EP, with the will to release only a vinyl. Very clearly, to be able to play it in the evening because it was a DJ, and to play it in the evening, you had to have your vinyl. After, it kindly followed the movement, the sound pleased people, the sound that we broadcast on My Space at the time, the first platform where it really worked. There was an idea to play, to play the music afterwards to go play and shoot.
Sly: We ended up in the right place. At the same time, it gave us time to adapt to the digital explosion. We were able to follow and evolve at the same time as digital media. Basically it was not planned to release CDs, but when Chinese man started to reach a slightly larger medium, we had requests from people to listen to music otherwise. Today, it would be suicidal not to release our music digitally. Right from the start, for free, we put our songs on Emule. Above all, we wanted to make ourselves known and to reach as many people as possible. Not necessarily with the desire that they buy records because they were difficult to find, but more to make them want to come to our concerts.
Is the place of live in your group important?
Fred: Our sounds are not the same according to the groups. There are common bases and interpretations but there is a common desire, it is to make people dance. There is always this desire to share, as for vinyl. It's a bit the same approach today.
Sly: It's even more integrated today, when you compose an EP or a maxi we often already have in mind what could become the song live, the live has become more and more important. The more dates we have done, the more fun we have learned to appreciate. Now it's an integral part of the composition.
Azuleski: We come from DJing, we do very dancing electronic music. Live is a bit of a goal in all musical projects. It is a label apart from where we are not specialized in a single style of music, but on the other hand we are on artists who have a logic of developing their music on stage so you necessarily think about it. How to bring this music without it being boring on stage. It's not very exciting to see a guy turn buttons. So there is this challenge of making the show interesting to watch. You need added value.
Has your independence allowed you to navigate the different phases of music change?
Sly: I do think that being an independent label necessarily gives you flexibility in everything you do. You choose the timings, you choose to adapt to new technologies or not. We don't know the pressures of record companies. We are free to choose our artwork up to our live music.
Fred: And free financially. Chinese Man was a little precursor in the show, as much in the visual as in the music. It was a bet, which would have been more difficult to make elsewhere, it was also taken up by quite a few people. The independence side is there, making choices that are based on creativity and desires rather than profitability. We are lucky that sometimes the desires are profitable.
Many people know the Chinese Man group but few know you individually, is that also your strength? To be a group?
Sly: It is surely a force, but above all it is a will. We did not want to put everyone's personalities forward. Since it's a collective, anyone can be part of Chinese Man Records. We kept this idea of not putting ourselves forward and that's why we created this character of Chinese Man, to hide a little behind this mysterious being.
Fred: Besides, there are people who don't know that there are three people behind. The purpose is the music and the project.
Sly: It's quite comfortable, you can walk around Marseille. And even the people who recognize us, which is rare, it remains a very simple report. People have embraced adventure rather than people, a personality.
You met in Aix, but you live in Marseille?
Fred: Yeah, we created a little world near the Plain. 80% of us live in this neighborhood. Those who live in Marseille are next to each other, and we see each other every day. There is a fairly family side to the way the project works. And it surely shows through.
Sly: Marseille is more suited to us. Like many in the region, you study in Aix and then you choose. It is not at all the same universe, the project was more linked to a mix like Marseille. It's nice to go to Aix, but the project would not have been the same.
On this album there are many members of the label, loyalty, family spirit are important to you?
Fred: The idea was to make a collective project with the people who are in the label or gravitate around for a few years. It's the DNA of the thing.
Sly: This is due to the functioning of the label. We do not have huge resources so when an artist comes with his project, he knows that it will be longer than in a record company. The artists imbibe the spirit of the label, and that creates loyalty by the nature of things. You don't come to Chinese man to make an album and go.
Fred: It's a joint album made by three groups. There was the desire to keep it with artists we really know. The album was created very spontaneously and that's what we wanted to keep. If we had asked for fetauring with people at a distance that we don't know very well, it would have been difficult to keep the spontaneity that we put in the beats.
In five years, are we celebrating 20 years of Chinese Man?
Fred: You came up with thought-provoking questions (laughs).
Sly: In general, we know roughly what we will do in 2-3 years.
Fred: We don't rely much on the existing, we always try to do something new. In the label, it's the same. We try to consider collectively, to confront ideas, to seek new dynamics and to evolve so as not to remain in what we know how to do. Yes in 5 years there will be something, a priori an adventure always common with the majority of people. And surely in a slightly different way. We have been in this search for the future for 2 years. Especially because we change place, office. The idea is to bring together what we have never had so far, studios, rehearsal space, offices, invite people, create new synergies. We are independent but we don't want to close in on ourselves.
Azuleski: We always have new ideas, sometimes it opens up more to the cinema. If an artist always does the same thing it will be boring, for him too. With Baja Frequencia, we released an EP and an album, we are already thinking about what we can do again.
How does your tour look like?
Fred: We're going to tour the Smacs, people paid to see your show so it's cool, they're curious. We are going to push the trick of playing with several groups on stage since the album brings together three groups.
Sly: It's a common spectacle, which we had started to do on the 10-year tour and which we will push even further. This project made it possible to further explode the groups, it is something new.
Marseilles
White march for Mehdi: 300 people marched through the streets of the White House city
municipal
Municipal in 2020 in Marseille: Altercation between the teams of Vassal (LR) and Gilles (DvD) during a poster collage
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