Whyd Paris: Coming Soon (OFFICIAL LAUNCH PARTY APRIL 24th)

Paris has long been one of the world’s cultural centers. From the Pagans who flogged witches on the marshy banks of the Seine to the philosophers and impressionists of the Left Bank to the music collectives of 2014, Paris has never followed. 

It is appropriate, then, that Paris, our sweet home, leads the Whyd community with our innovative approach of promoting our community to mainstream audiences. Whyd’s Parisien selectors are sharing some of the best music, no matter where it is coming from in the world. 

So, on April 24th, we will celebrate the launch of the Official Whyd Paris page, a place uniquely suited to give you the pulse of the music scene here, putting forward our trendiest music lovers and giving everyone a window of access into this whirlwind of sounds rotating around the Eiffel Tower. 

If you’re here in Paris, you’re invited to the official Launch Party at Le Dandy, organized in collaboration with our buddies at Bathroom, Thursday, April 24th. Tony will be cooking all day to bring you some delicious bites to eat, and of course, we have much to toast, so bring your drinking hats, and never stop jamming! 

Up On The Rooftops Horizon: Emerging Music From Around The World

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Hello guys! Tell us about yourselves? Why did you decide to create a record label? 

Hello Whyd! I’m Yassine-Elie, the co-founder of Rooftops Horizon. I’m a 21 year old law student from Paris. I’m an old producer, always fascinated by music. 

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Hey! I’m Louis, 22, co-founder of Rootfops Horizon. I’m currently learning at Louis Vuitton to go into a career in communications. I’m also fascinated by music, I wrote for different music blogs and I’m currently part of the growing blog FraisFrais. So music is definitely my daily shit! 

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We wanted to start a music label to bring something new to the French electronic scene. We’re focusing on promoting some hidden, talented artists from around the world who deserve more followers. We can’t say we are getting caught by trends, as a lot of people we obviously love trending artists like Shlohmo, Druid Cloak, or Arnold MOD but we listen to everything, and we think that is the great way to build a music label. 

We’re trying to create a strong structure, a music label with strong partners to promote the artists we sign in the best way. 

We would also like to thank the Paris-based law firm Avocat Saint-Georges that help us with our contracts!

What is the purpose? What can we expect for this year? 

2014 is probably the year for Rooftops Horizon. We’re in touch with some great renowned artists like salute, Noï, or Clu, and some other cool guys that we would prefer to keep secret at the moment. We are really focusing on promoting some hidden artists, and we put out a “release pack” including 4-5 tracks we are not sure for the moment. And, we’re in touch with some great collectives to launch our first party. 

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Who are your artists? 

We currently have four: DJYEN, YYOIY, TIGERZ, and ADRIEN DE VALENTIN. As you can see they are not from the same country, DJ Yen is from Japan, YYIOY from Spain and the last two from France. You can also see that we are not getting caught by a kind of music, we just want to release what we love. 

We think that it’s not a great thing to only see the artists where you come from. We spotted DJ Yen a long time ago when we were at the very beginning and we were hesitant to launch the first release from a country like Japan. Will French listeners give a listen to this? There were so many questions. But today we are really proud of how diverse our releases are. 

DJ Yen: Sapporo-based producer who loves the Jersey Club and becoming increasingly famous day after day: 

YYIOY: A talented producer from Spain who has his own brand called “Shoop Clothing,” and has done some great collaborations like Pixelord and was already spotted by Earmilk. 

TIGERZ is the revelation for 2014. This unknown French dude is definitely the kind of guy we want to promote. He’s reaching a lot of followers daily and is currently our most-played artist. 

ADRIEN DE VALENTIN is someone who we’ve followed since about a year ago, and we were really surprised by the skill in his tracks, so it was natural that we had to propose to work with him! 

Did you already have any events? 

For the moment, we’re still organizing our base. We have some great proposals and we will definitely take advantage of them. As we said, we have some parties planned which we will do in partnership but we prefer to keep the details secret for the moment and not ruin the surprise! 

We wouldn’t want that! Subscribe to Rooftops Horizon on Whyd to keep up with their latest discoveries. 

Let Process Take You Into The Depths Of Your Mind

Yo! Can you fill us in a little bit about your backstory? Who are you and where are you from? 

Yo! I am Remy (Auymer is my artist name) from the south of France, Marseille, and I have been based in London for four years now. I was working in shops and started to produce and play music there in my hometown and it’s here, in one of the most interesting cities in the world that I met Alice, half French and half Brazilian and also our graphic designer Federico. This city was for all of us a way to expand our interest for electronic music. 

London is a city that is world famous for its music, the standard is really high. What are you bringing to the scene today? 

Process is a new project that we launched in May 2013. After exploring London’s clubs, bars, and private parties, we got amazed and inspired a lot, but we realized that the average entry price was quite high and that the spirit was often quite business oriented. Although we went to so many great venues, with brilliant atmosphere and proper sound systems, we always felt there were quite a lot of standards, and the first one was the high price. We soon realized there was one type of party you couldn’t really find and that was free (or cheap) entry, good vibes, intimate venue, just for the love of music. The normal story in London if you want to put up an event and get to have a “name” in the scene, you need to book a pretty famous DJ to attract people and it helps to have a big venue, already quite known. However, we didn’t want to think this way. 

Instead, we wanted something where people discover new music and new talent. From the beginning we thought that with minimized funds and some contacts, you could organize a party that would make people happy and create the right vibe, without necessarily having an already settled DJ. We thought of having more of a party for everyone, that people wouldn’t need to pay much to have a great night and that everyone could contribute, by telling their friends, playing, proposing ideas, etc… 

We got exactly what we wanted at our first event when we gathered around 100 deep vibe lovers in our intimate venue in East London and hell yeah it was such a great night! So I guess Process is just adding some fresh air to the scene, with no pressure to be successful or competitive in the industry; more of an alternative night with fresh and deep beats in a warm atmosphere… Just a night for fun, about music and great people! 

Tell us about your obsession with deep music. Who should come to your events? 

We are really into all those kinds of post apocalyptic, dark, cerebral, acid, minimalist, and deep electronic music so it goes from deep house to dub to techno. And we keep on expanding our knowledge of it and musical culture here in the UK. It’s a type of music that could not be understood at first if you are not really into this. It might seem harsh and scary but it takes some interest to actually catch the little thing that makes you understand why artists such as Lucy, Tom Dicciccio, Rrose, or Polar Inertia (to name a few) are making this type of music; to understand what they are trying to say and get across. You will then understand the spirits that they put behind their machines. 

What we love the most is to see every time where they are driving us to another dimension that was unknown for us. I am pretty sure that the range of frequencies they use in their productions, which can be really love or really high, creates something in our body and brain. And this is what we want to do with Process, make people aware that this type of music can be really festive, energetic. I try to do a kind of step by step when I play at Process, going from different types of electronic music to drive the crowd to this dark, cerebral, and post apocalyptic dimension. 

It’s taking the crowd through a journey, and what is great about Process is that it is a diverse crowd; people there like many different types of electronic music, and the challenge is to get all of them to follow. And until now, all of them did! Indeed you don’t need to know everything about techno to go crazy on some deep beats, it’s all about explaining where I am trying to get you, and having you follow me! 

When is the next event and what else can we look forward to in 2014? 

The next will be in early 2014, still in one of our intimate venues with the same atmosphere! Then we have a couple of projects in mind, like a series of “open podcasts” in which everyone is invited to be a part of by sending his mix. Also, we have some collaboration in mind, with some like-minded friends to create always a better party and bring quality music. 2014 will be an inspiring year for us, no doubt about that! 

Subscribe to Process London on Whyd, and make sure to check out both Process London's and Auymer Music's Facebook pages! 

Whyd’s 2013 Year In Review

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Well, it’s the last day of 2013, a day of reflection for all of the cool events and milestones from the past year. We started 2013 with a trip down to MIDEM in Cannes, meeting with cool music lovers and industry folk. We flashmobbed a Durban Dance, created hilarious Whyd memes, partied in Barcelona and at the #AperoMusicTech events across Paris.   

We boosted the product with the new recommendation systemlaunched totally new profilesstuck a shuffle in there, created Hot Tracks by genre, and beefed up the social features with comments and mentions to get to the Whyd that you see today. 

But more importantly, we shared hundreds of thousands of the best of the newest tracks thanks to you, our wonderful community. What will 2014 have in store for us? Some amazing things, you will see the first step on January 6th, so hold on tight! 

Benin City’s Headlining Show: October 30th @ Electrowerkz

For those us you who have been with us for a while, you definitely know Benin City (read the Whyd interview here) London’s electro-brass trio that is rapidly taking the UK by storm. Since they burst on the scene, they have received high acclaim, including the Huffington Post calling them “one of the UK’s most exciting bands.”

Their unique style is infectious: pulsating brass alongside dazzling lyrics that combine to form a sound so complete it’s impossible not to get stuck in your head. Their latest single “Wha Gwan,” signifying a common greeting similar to “What’s up,” is a must-listen. 

So it is no surprise that on October 30th, they will perform for the first time as the headliners at a concert at Electrowerkz. If you’re in London, this is one show that is not to be missed!

Congrats guys and good luck!! 

#AperoMusicTech 4 RECAP

It was a warm night in Paris last week as we presented the fourth installment of our #AperoMusicTech networking series at Workshop Paris. We had some of the mega Whyd family members, like this picture above featuring R∆D∆R!, Sabrina, and Albin. Very cool to get everyone together again! 

As the night progressed, we arrived at the happy sounds of Brooklyn Bitches and R∆D∆R! spinning nu-disco and eletro-pop all night in the downstairs area which has come a long way since the first time we were there back in February. 

And of course, there was the exciting gift given to the first 50 people who came: the first ever Whyd sticker in support of our boys at BPM: Le Blog des Pépites Musicales. The instructions were simple: take the sticker and put it in a funny place. Take a photo of the sticker, and send it to us. The funniest situation gets a home made Sushi dinner at Tony’s place. Share it with the hashtag #neverstopjamming. 

A huge thanks to everyone who came, to our co-sponsors at BPM and of course to the dudes who spun amazing music all night. See you next time! 

unLabel aka “disruptive ideas for the everyday music business”

This interview features Didier Mary, a man doing some seriously great things for the cultural richness of the world at large. 

1. Can you introduce yourself? Where are you from?

I wont enter into too many details as I’ve already lived a few different lives. Spent 8 years at Microsoft (in France and in the USA), as an engineer/technical product leader, in charge of all the technical and support aspects of games, hardware, multimedia, productivity software (incl. MSProject and PowerPoint) for the French market. 

Left in 1997 and founded Cybear, a marketing communications agency. Did many web and print projects, got a few awards and prizes. After I bought a music catalogue in 2003, I added Sound & Music design as well as supervision to my offering (through my subsidiary CybearSonic). 

Went back to school for an Executive MBA in 2005/6 (HEC + Babson), focused on Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and later did an in-depth program focused on Media & Entertainment that led to the creation of another subsidiary focused on artist booking and management, festivals, and concert production. 

While in school, I did my first presentation on the evolution of the music business, that later turned into a project called the “unLabel” aka “disruptive ideas for the everyday music business.” It’s under this project that I work mainly with African artists, offering coaching, training, A&R, publishing, digital distribution, booking, and any innovative ideas we can develop in West Africa. My African network is mainly sub-saharan and goes from west to east to south… As the English speaking countries tend to be more visible and offer better dynamics to artists at the moment, I concentrate on the French speaking ones (easier for a French guy too…).

2. How are you connected to Africa? What is the history of KoToNTeeJ? 

To make a long story short, when I met music that pleased me when I was 13 years old (born in the 60s, I already could listen to Soul, Rock n’ Roll on the radio), I fell in love with Jazz while listening to Art Blakey and African rhythms, percussions and brass while listening to Osibisa. Discovered them the same week, listening to vinyls by an uncle who had a great music collection. For years, I bought vinyls, tapes, and CDs (too many…) and always bounced between Jazz and African, and mixes of both such as Acid Jazz or innovative uses of great music samples. 

My first “physical” contact with Africa happened at the beginning of the 80s where I helped create a newspaper in Senegal, shipped typewriters and schoolbooks to Madagascar and Guinea for UNESCO. 

In 2008, I decided to start blogging, and it was a natural approach to try to push the music I liked. I did it in French on KoToNTeeJ.com (“de la musique au fond des oreilles”) as many blogs already existed in English, but not so many in my “natural” language. 

This blog opened many opportunities (went as a journalist to a festival…) and many direct contacts with African artists/bands. At the same time, I was developing the unLabel project, I then produced a few albums in 2009/10 and other projects (tours, festivals in Benin…) I’m helping an NGO too to help children who can’t afford to pay for school in Benin and who then can learn the basic (writing, counting, reading…) as well as music (instruments, singing) and dance. 

KoToNTeeJ the blog is still alive, although I had to stop posting (and working in fact) for a while due to health conditions. 

You can find me and my activities on various platforms, as I try tools to check what’s useful/easy to implement in a strategy: I did playlists on Spotify, manage many (artists) pages on Facebook, Twitter, or Soundcloud. My digital presence is now mainly on Google+ where I manage many pages too and a nice community: the “African Music Forum" that grows quietly. 

3. Who are your favorite African artists at the moment?

First, Africa is a continent with many different cultures and languages. Across the continent, there are many different music styles. Then, there’s no “African Music,” there are African musics, traditional, tradi-modern, or heavily influenced by the west. There are jazz musicians. There are Hard Rock bands. There’s a lot of Hip Hop/Rap/Soul/RnB at the moment of course. I then like many different styles from various regions. I love Mandingue music from Guinea/Mali. I love brass bands from Benin. I love Assiko & Makossa from Cameroon. I love traditional polyphonic music from the rainforest (Baka). Sometimes, in one country, there are various, very different music styles depending on which part of the country or which ethnic group it comes from. For example in Mali, there’s no Malian music, there are many styles. And Malian musics are not the only kind of music in Africa. Same in the South of Africa. There are many styles and variations. South African music contains what you could listen to with Paul Simon and Johnny Clegg. But that’s not the whole stuff. That’s a tiny part. Listen to Kwaito (a mix of traditional rhythms with Deep House and Rap) to Electro Shangaan and old Shangaan music and so on…

And don’t forget the influence of salsa and rumba in many African countries. 

Choosing is difficult. In the old bands/artists, my favs are Osibisa (from Ghana mainly) and Manu Dibango (the godfather) from Cameroon I met a few times. But there are many many very good ones, Ali Farka Touré from Mali, Fela Kuti from Nigeria, Hugh Masekela from SA, Franco from Congo. 

Contemporary or tradi-modern, there are very interesting people to follow: Fredy Massamba, Baloji, M.anifest, Wanlov the Kubolor, Assi-Ki, Just a Band… Check the AMF Community on G+, there’s plenty to choose from! 

4. What are your plans for the future?

I’m working on various projects in West Africa to try to create a sustainable environment for artists: to empower them, to allow them to work and get paid properly, to connect the word (e.g. through social media when internet connections and mobile phones, and electricity, work…) to understand their rights as artists (publishing anyone?) so that they can evolve in the new digital environment where we all live now. 

Getting visas to have them travel becomes an everyday nightmare. Traveling abroad (to Europe or USA )are big costs too. Festivals and venues pay less and less, and take less and less risks. There’s a bright future for artists if we’re able to invest in culture (and music) as part of development. I’m trying to help. 

Subscribe to Didier on Whyd to keep up with his latest discoveries! 

An Afternoon of Music and Pétanque

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Yesterday in a square in Paris’s trendy Marais district, Radio Faubourg Simone and the Mairie de 3eme organized an afternoon of music spun by a chill electro DJ and pétanque, France’s summer tradition that involves accurately throwing heavy metal balls around. 

Our Gilles went to participate in their competition with good friend and Whyd music lover Matthieu, and when the dust settled, they were the last team standing! Beating out 7 teams of pétanque veterans who couldn’t believe that this rag tag group could throw and roll heavy metal balls so accurately! 

Congratulations Gilles and a huge thank you to Radio Faubourg Simone for throwing the event and providing excellent music the whole time. Check out Radio Faubourg Simone’s Facebook page to find out about their next events! 

#AperoMusicTech #Flashmob Durban Dance

To commemorate the third #AperoMusicTech, yesterday we announced that the Afro-Electro collective Mawimbi will be spinning for us throughout the evening. Their unique sound is contagious, and we thought we would have a some fun with it by organizing a flashmob dance at precisely 21:30. 

Everyone will gather in front of the DJs inside Point Éphémère a few minutes before 21:30. The DJs will start playing a song (we can’t tell you what it is - it would ruin the surprise - but trust us, you will know when it’s time to dance!) 

The dance we will attempt is from this Durban Dance clip (from three very talented dancers). Obviously learning the whole thing is impossible, so instead we are going to do a few repetitions of the dance moves between 0:41 and 1:00 of this video:

What do you need to do?

  1. Watch this video between 0:41 and 1:00
  2. Try to mimic their awesomeness
  3. Practice those moves (it’s a lot of fun with friends)
  4. Come to #AperoMusicTech 
  5. Be inside in front of the DJs at 21:30
  6. Dance your ass off!

We will hopefully have a projector displaying the clip to serve as a sort of lead. And if enough people want to, we can meet up before to practice together. 

Please share this with everyone you know who is coming. The effect will be impressive! 

Interview with Poejazzi: London Spoken Word Architects

1. Before we get to the specifics of Poejazzi, how do you view the role of poetry in today’s society and how is it tied to music?

We think of poetry as part of everyday life, especially in music, so we have always put the two together because we see them as related. Through our poetry and music nights we wanted people who wouldn’t necessarily have been exposed to much in the way of poetry or who may have believed they wouldn’t enjoy it to find themselves liking it through its connection with something that most of us like: music. 

2. When did you start Poejazzi and what was the original idea?

Poejazzi was originally a monthly night that started six years ago, its founders wanted to create the kind of night they wanted to go to. It developed into an organization and online magazine, poejazzi.com, 18 months ago. Now we are publishing poetry apps (our first one comes out in a month), producing concept shows like our new re-imagining of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” and visual content like live sessions, as well as putting on our regular nights. 

3. Can you define what Spoken Word means to you? How is it unique as a medium of expression?

Spoken word equates to honesty for us. It is unique because it can be accessible and deeply personal at the same time. 

4. Tell us about the tradition of your live events. What is the vibe and who should attend?

The vibe is generally very eclectic, both of us have very broad taste in music so you can expect to see all corners of the alternative world represented, even if it’s pop music, at a Poejazzi night it would be pop music with a twist. We always consider the mood each act evokes and who they should be with on a line up so people get a range of experiences from the night. All of our spoken word acts are as amazing as the music acts, there’s always that equilibrium, so neither is an afterthought. 

We love championing people we think people will be hearing more of or should be and people who may be established but we feel are deserving of even more fandom! From the responses we get from both regular Poejazzi-goers and new faces, the night is a beautiful medium between challenging and entertaining, so there is always a level of innovation or surprise from our acts but there will also be an element of no matter how alternative this may sound that it could be popular once people have been exposed to it because it sounds fantastic. 

We’re pretty selective as a duo about what we like musically and we have to be very critical running an online magazine as well as a night, so we are always putting ourselves in the shoes of the crowd watching and thinking “is this entertaining?” “is this life-changing?” “is this interesting?” because that is what we want from a night out like this. 

5. Who are the minds behind Poejazzi and how did you all come to work together?

Poejazzi is run by partners and music/spoken word obsessives Joshua Idehen and Charlotte Morgan-Nwokenna and all visuals are created by the wonderful director Bruno Ramos. Joshua Idehen is also the vocalist in the band Benin City, founded Poejazzi six years ago with friends and poets Musa Okwonga and Inua Ellams. Inua Ellams is now a guest curator for special nights whilst Musa Okwonga has a very busy and great career in broadcasting, journalism, and music/spoken word. Former editorial assistant Charlotte Morgan-Nwokenna was looking for new challenges and so Joshua convinced her (with cake and promises of future success) that that challenge could be Poejazzi: she joined Poejazzi 18 months ago to help expand the night into an organization that published poetry digitally and has an online magazine. 

6. Can you leave us with your favorite inspirational quote?

Life isn’t about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself.

Thanks guys! Make sure you Like their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter to get the latest updates, and definitely subscribe to them on Whyd to hear some examples of excellent spoken word!