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. 

DIALOGUE #2: Mawimbi & Whyd at The Machine de Moulin Rouge

Next Saturday night (March 22) will be a rocking cabaret of afro-infused beats at the landmark establishment that is almost as famous as Paris itself. The Collective Mawimbi have been invited to create the line up for the Central area, and they are bringing two acts down for the UK for our aural pleasure, both featuring unique rhythms and percussions, filling some sort of pleasure zone that you didn’t know you had. It’s classic Mawimbi, and it’s why this party is going to be unlike anything you’ve heard before. 

The Busy Twist: https://soundcloud.com/thebusytwist

Drumtalk: https://soundcloud.com/drumtalk

Track of the Weekend #74: “Pictures” FlicFlac & Bearson’s Remix of Benjamin Francis Leftwich

Good morning Incubator! 

A beautiful week of springtime layered over us in Paris this week, and as the buds come out of the trees, the jackets and coats are being shed, velib’ stations are empty, and the long lost sun stirs smiles across hibernating Parisian faces. If any song can capture the feeling of the end of winter, it’s this week’s Track of the Weekend. FlicFlac & Bearson's remix of “Pictures" by Benjamin Francis Leftwich feels like it breaks through the low drizzling clouds into an abundance of light and warmth. Congratulations to Bertrand for the perfect timing sending it to the top of the Hot Tracks

"Sweaty, Erotic, Electro" Krone Korp March 14th

Are you in Brittany? Or anywhere in western France and are looking for an awesome night out? Krone Korp are your guys. Created about a year ago in April, 2013 in Rennes, Krone is an association that brings together great music, culture, and fun people to its unique “sweaty, erotic, and electro” soirées. 

This time, it’s full techno, and the guys at Krone are bringing in some big residents the well-known Concrete soirées, famous in Paris’s electro scene. It’s all coming together at 1988 Live Club on Friday, March 14th, and Whyd is a sponsor of the event! 

Here’s the line up with links to their Soundcloud pages for your listening pleasure: 

FRANCOIS X (Paris - Concrete/Dement3d)

ANTIGONE (Paris - Concrete/Construct Reform)

THÉO MULLER (Rennes - Midi Deux) 

SEIMIANE & BLCKSMTH (Rennes - Krone Korp Records) 

Here is the official link, don’t miss it! 

Promoting Artists? Talk To We Do Music

You are an artist promotion agency. What do you do for artists that they normally can’t do for themselves?

We are a promotion agency specializing in the web, a big nuance! We bring our assistance to artists, and most importantly, that which deals with their web presence: how to use different tools (from the website to a newsletter and also flashing partnership banners), web promotion (you can think of us as cyber press attachés), but also viral communication and social media. 

To sum up, the web is our game field, our medium of diffusion and the finality of our actions. 

Each artist has a different relationship with the web: sometimes, they are completely autonomous with their networks, mastering the abilities of diffusion tools and communicating effectively with the public. 

That’s in a perfect world, where there is a professional entourage like a manager or project manager from a label who is very invested in these questions. But almost always, and even with confirmed artists, signed to a label and very prolific on the web, we discuss strategy together: when, how and where to communicate? What about viral ideas? Which material? What are the strong points here? etc. 

The web has changed everything for musicians, do you see the web in a positive or negative light for the promotion of artists? 

More than positive!! It is mostly for that that we have specialized in the web. From the point of view of diffusion, all our actions have secondary effects, and information circulates very quickly. When a journalist finds something they love, there is no delay to talk about it with us or waiting to publish something in print. We can also mount very inventive operations, without limiting the type of content. 

What’s more, the web can also be a real jungle for novices, with its own codes, webzine trendsetters: one must know how to navigate and know musical preferences of journalists, and know which social tools correspond best with regards to the artists. 

Tell us about a success story with one of your artists:

We don’t really have a magic story like that, web promotion is really more of a long battle, full of little victories, a group that you take farther and a juicy press release about the project that’s running.

But a nice recent story was our meeting with the Chinese group Nova Heart: we discovered them at a show completely by accident at the Mama Event. We immediately loved their project, and we discussed at length with the group and their manager to convince them that they absolutely had to develop their project in French territory.

Then we saw them again, completely by accident, six months later at the other end of the world at the Sakifo festival on Reunion Island which we worked on: the alchemy worked again, the sea and flavored rums even more. We finally were able to launch something together, and we released a completely underground EP in France and the project finished among the last of the Transmusicales de Rennes: their new album is coming in 2014, and it is going to be even bigger!

Are there clients that you don’t accept to work with? (Because the style is not yours, the artist seems like an idiot, etc…)

We Do Music has existed almost five years and when we look back, we see that we’ve worked on a good number of projects. And it’s important to note that with each new album we put our image on the line, and our credibility with journalists, therefore we must be — above all — convinced by the music that we are charged with defending. It’s the bare minimum!

Then, before we say yes, we ask groups to come take a coffee with us, and we must see that we match up on a human level too. Sometimes, we like a project that is very young, unknown to the world, but we take the bet and help them develop. Those are the most exciting projects, everything is to be done! 

Make sure to subscribe to We Do Music on Whyd, Like We Do Music on Facebook and follow them on Twitter!

Paris Funkmaster & 22Tracks Curator DJ Soulist Video Interview

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Perched atop Montmartre off of a private street stands the Hotel Particulier. Surrounded by gardens, tables, and proud cocks who strut around (of the chicken variety), it is here that we meet DJ Soulist, one of Paris’s most established DJs, responsible for the event What The Funk which has been running for over 10 years. 

Inside the Hotel is a room where Tony’s bowtie is finally not out of place: stuffed fowl, fireplace, giant stag, all the elements of haut culture. Enjoy with a tumbler of bourbon.  

Big thanks to the team at Hotel Particulier and of course Masscut for making this all possible! 

DJ Soulist: The Whyd Interview from Tony Hymes on Vimeo.

Wednesday Evening: Jolicloud’s Ecosystem Party

On Wednesday evening here in Paris Whyd will be presenting at Jolicloud’s Ecosystem Party. For those of you that don’t know, Jolicloud is a virtualization software where you can access and manage all of your content. Jolicloud will be making some big announcements, and you can probably imagine what that might be…

If you’re available, we highly recommend that you come and see some of the presentations. It’s free and we’ll be there! 

Link to the event to reserve a ticket

Never stop jamming! 

Party Photos from Last Night @ Le Dandy

Headaches abound, stomachs upset from half-chewed late night kebabs, and only two of us are in the office (it’s almost noon) which are three signs of an EXCELLENT night partying together last night. Thanks to DYLTS for all of their help, to Leze Majestic, WEKEED, and Cheaper Shepherd for jamming all night, and to everyone who came out to say hi. 

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Stickers from DYLTS

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Leze Majestic

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Adrien Lemaire & Friends - Founder DYLTS

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Dr. Joly

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A great partnership: Whyd x DYLTS

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Manu & Gilles

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Vimare & Company

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Loick Muller + Bottle of Vodka = Peace and Love

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Voilà

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Jie

Hipster limit reached: Instagramming a polaroid 

Looking for a way into Tony’s mind

Playing a game where if you laugh first you get slapped, it ended in a tie.

See you tonight!

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Final call for everyone in Paris, tonight Whyd and DYLTS are taking over Bathroom Afterwork at Le Dandy (metro Pigalle). To recap: 

#AperoMusicTech starting at 19hr30, followed by the WEKEED concert part kicking off around 21hr30. If you’re with Whyd, tell them at the door to get in for free after 21hr00. Awesome stickers up for grabs for DYLTS’s 2nd birthday! 

Official event link

We’re looking forward to seeing you there, and don’t worry if you’re not in Paris, we’ll soon be coming to your city too! 

Never stop jamming!