THE REAL TONES OF FRANCK ROGER

Franck Roger is a vinyl supremo, a crate digger of the highest order and a huge house music fan. A DJ since the 90's, he's head of the Realtone records label and runs his music business out of his Paris home.  Come this Saturday March 3rd, he's heading to London to play the Melt 4 event alongside Ripperton, Arnaud Le Texier and more at a secret warehouse location ahead of his next release on the Circus Company label and we grabbed a chat with him about releases, the art of DJ'ing and his ultimate collaborations.

Hi Franck! Hows it going? Where are you in the world right now?  I'm fine, well for now I'm in Paris in the studio.

You’ve just put out the latest release on your imprint Real Tone Records, how did the collaboration with Terence :Terry: come about for the This Is Now EP?  It comes first of all from a long time friendship. Terry and me get back together in Madrid last year in his studio for two days, then we did Beaucoup la Fete in his studio, then he came back to Paris few month after then we created Hustling People in one afternoon and This Is Now has been worked between Madrid and Paris.  That was fun to work like that , exchanging ideas through skype, exchanging also our feedback from the crowd reaction when we played them in our club gigs.  Yeah, it was a good experience.

In regards to production what is it about working with other artists that inspires you?  I'm not used to working with many producers, when it comes to collaborate it's with an artist or mostly a friend that I have a feeling or a singer, like Mandel Turner that is a 15 years old good friend of mine but we took time to hang in the studio because of each ones life and schedule, so it's first of all a friendship approach, after that I got no ego, I'm open, music is made to be shared.

Can you name your top three artists you would love to work with and why?  Hard question!  Let's say I'd like to exchange my horizons with Joe Claussell one time in my life in the studio for his worldwide vision on the music, Quincy Jones for the Magic but impossible [laughs], the last one will be a joker for this interview!

When in the studio what us your production process? Do you have a set method?  I can start from a beat approach on the Mpc, or a Melody on Synths or a sampling session on turntables from old records, but i like to mix all of them into the mixer and had external effects module and filters, that s where the Magic is for me , having hardware stuff give me millions of possibilities even to fix a simple kick drum.

If your studio was burning down and you could only save one piece of kit (apart from the computer) what would it be and why?  Wow I hope it will never happen, i love all of them but the easiest gear to take will be my MPC 2500, then my Eventide effect module.

You’re playing at Melt Music 4 in London. Tell us a bit about what we can expect.  Well my set sounds is all about House music culture so it goes from past, now and tomorrow musics, but I always try to build my set to please the crowd aswell and always had a look on.  If they're happy and having good times then we can share something special, I give 100 percent of me, that's what it is.

Do you feel that a London crowd is more receptive to different styles than across the rest of Europe?  London has been always in the role of nightclubbing in Europe, the crowd is really educated and aware from many different music styles, I like to play there, people are always cool and reacting to the music and for me to go back and London is always an emotionnal thing as i used to live three years there when I was more younger in the 90's 

With the festival season on everyone’s lips we thought it only right to ask you if where we can find you playing this summer?  For now the most exiting gig of this summer will be playing at Ushuaia at Luciano's party on 13th July, that one should be really cool.

What does the rest of 2012 hold in store for Franck Roger and Real Tone Records?  An EP on Circus Company with 3 tracks is coming mid March, they already started the promotion dj pool and so far we got good feedback.  A remix for Alain Ho on Composite in a more poppy way and one remix for Overall music is coming out also in March, then a totally fresh Ep will be out around April and many good surprises are coming aswell, but I can't tell more for now!

Melt Music 4, Saturday 3rd March at tba, London

Line-up

RIPPERTON (Perspectiv -Planet E- CLR - Systematic)
FRANCK ROGER (Real Tone - Desolat)
ARNAUD LE TEXIER ( Safari Electronique-Cocoon-Melt Music)
DZETA N'BASILE ( Real Tone -1 Trax- Viva)
MAURA ( Leftroom Records-Melt Music )
MONIKA ROSS ( Serialism-Uberbeat-Melt Music)

Originally posted: http://pulseradio.net/articles/2012/02/franck