Witnesses to black magic, defilers of the expected and proponents of self-escapism 'they' are an exiled trio of possible chefs, musicians and psychonauts intent on tipping sex, fun and electronic rock and roll into your ears: I give you dOP.
Since the Parisian trio of Clement Zemstov, Damien Vandesande and Jonathan "JoJo" Illel enigmatically flowered onto our electronic radar-at-large a handful of years ago they have provided a welcome anti-thesis not just to the musical zeitgeist but also to the refined, solemn visual aesthetic that populates the now. If I were to tell you to expect snuffling hogs in their videos; an ever-present mix of hard liquor and lit cigarettes on their stages and racks of raw soul sandwiched between their trusty synthesisers then your interest should be understandably piqued - indeed it may even be peaked. When to be live was to be different dOP led the way through a sea flecked with adversity to become one of the scenes most respected acts - to this day no one treads the line between poppy enthusiasm and electronic virtuosity quite so guilefully.
Examine their output and you will be treated to a slew of releases on Circus Company and Guy Gerber's Supplement Facts that sit cosily beside non-alphabetical collaborations with everyone from Ame to Visionquest. Famed for their live performances which see vocalist JoJo 'Jaw' engage the crowd with smoldering appeal the uniqueness of the Parisian's fruits lie in their insatiable ability to tease away the social and emotional constraints wound thick around their audiences.
Although the three-piece band, now based in Berlin, can boast a long-standing heritage (its members are soon to touch on an existence of twenty years) it is correct to consider them musicians first and electronics artists second. Their fame may have been found in electronica but it will take more than the din of wide-eyed applause and a near nocturnal existence to satisfy the men from Paris as even now dOP move towards pastures new, exploring worlds beyond the spheres of clubbing.
In Ibiza this season the eclectic ménage à trois were booked for - amongst others - Audiofly's Flying Circus event. The decidedly underground - read: deliciously whimsical - party has cultivated a steadily growing band of delight-stricken followers attracted to its mysterious fare. Focusing on the delivery of a deep and comprehensive musical experience the event showcases an eclectic range of both live performance and DJ acts guaranteed to tip the scales in favour of the peculiarly good.
As Clement and Damien embarked on a preparatory dinner after a week of intensive video filming - and ahead of their second performance at the Sankeys party - I caught up with the guys to discuss the group's evolution, their creative process and how to tactfully avoid insanity.
As a band you have explored almost ever genre imaginable, from jazz to reggae to the classical and the orchestral. Out width the confines of a computer do you think that these established genres enjoy more creativity, more freedom and inherent imagination than the electronic scene does?
Damien: "Yes and no. I think."
Clement: "Using jazz an as example, it is supposed to be a super open music with no real limit - but there are many conventions. The jazz world, the jazz business, has so many ideas and rules that it has to be like this, or like that. Electronic music is the music of now. It is inventing itself every day, it can go in any direction, can absorb music from anytime in the past: it is totally creative."
Damien: "It is probably why we are in electronic music. We feel freer than we ever were in these other genres – free to create our own universe and our own sound. Of course there are still many conventions in techno but with electronic music I feel you can really show your personality."
"There is not nearly enough time to
do everything that we want to do."
Your equipment setup has remained the same - or very similar - since your beginning. Is the creation of new music a result of the continuing exploration of these machines, of getting lost in the MOOG?
Damien: "Yeah for sure. We are not a very technologically minded band but recently we have gathered more and more machines and are starting to connect them to each other - to explore. We are trying to slowly get more involved in technology, to gain a better understanding of it."
Clement: "I would say it is half and half. Half exploring what the instrument can do and half that we have an idea of what we want to do. It might start with a loop, a groove, a word - anything."
Damien: "We were more jamming in the past but after you make a lot of songs you start to know what you want before you start. Now we are more looking to realize what we have in here [points to temple]."
JoJo’s vocal style is reminiscent of live, spontaneous ad-libbing. With this in mind, when producing does the vocal line normally come after a one of you has created a melody?
Clement: "There are many possibilities. Sometimes JoJo comes with a melody or Dam comes with some chords or perhaps it is just an idea, a concept – it can come from anywhere."
Damien: "Since we are three people the creative forces are quite active. Mostly we have an idea before starting – if we want to make a song with this groove, that colour, these lyrics - whatever."
Clement: "There is not nearly enough time to do everything that we want to do."
The industry is becoming increasingly fixated on live performance. When you first began you felt people were ‘scared of a live band’, has this changed? Is the scene becoming more human?
Damien: "It is definitely more welcomed now. With a lot more bands playing live now it brings more good music, something more than 'click-clack-boom'. Live acts can bring more personality, more emotion to the floor."
Clement: "It is cool to keep the nights – the events – alive. It is good for the crowd if it is a long event to experience a difference. But we must say that we do not preach for the live act, we DJ ourselves – it is just healthy to have this mix."
One of your tracks on Crosstown Rebels 'Get Lost V' release, 'Foly', features Sibiri Samake - a Mali musician. You have worked with Malian musicians in the past, what is it about their style of music that intrigues you, is it the honesty, the openness of it?
Clement: "This guy [Sibiri] is really amazing – he is a sorcerer. He lives totally in the wild with no electricity. He can change into animals, he can speak with anything and his tongue is totally black."
Damien: "They have kept their culture intact for more than a thousand years. It is not something like Maya - theirs is totally active. For us it is a life connection, we grew up surrounded by Malian people in our neighbourhood and our school and have always been attracted to the music. I have always felt that the music and the harmonies of it speak to me. I feel totally connected - like it was the music of my ancestors."
Clement: "I know it sounds strange when I tell you he can change into a bird like this [snaps fingers], but I tell you, there I was, the only one, it was fucking crazy."
"You cannot live only in this –
this nightlife, this scene: it is loneliness."
In a previous interview you said that ‘No prophet is recognized in his own country’. Do you still feel that this is the case?
Clement: "In the past we played ten times more in Germany, or around Europe but now this has definitely changed."
Damien: "At the beginning yes, but now? The French love us. About two weeks ago we threw a party in Berlin called ‘La Boum’ and it was so French, it was full of French – all the French of Berlin. For years we were almost not there in France, it was ridiculous. I think now there is a more underground scene in France now but they are all so young - we do not know them."
How have you found re-locating to Berlin? Has the close proximity to so many electronic musicians had an effect?
Clement: "It is a good life."
Damien: "It is a quality life. We are Parisians, and the first thing we would say is that the quality of life is very high."
Clement: "We were - and are - best friends with the guy who gave us our first gig in Berlin, it was six years ago in his club. When we moved him and his team really opened their door – and all their connections – to us, so the move was very easy."
Damien: "We were able to integrate very fast and meet proper Berliners. We never have dinner with other DJs – except maybe only sometimes with you [Clement]. Sometimes [laughs]. When we come back home it is a time to escape. We have such an intense social life during the rest of the week that I want to be at home with my wife for three nights with nobody there."
It is important to have this separation then, to switch off.
Damien: "You need this or I think you will go mad. We have some DJ friends who do not have this chance like we have and they go mad – they lose their minds. You cannot live only in this – this nightlife, this scene: it is loneliness."
[At this point we ceased chatter to clink glasses and to raise a solemn toast: "Here's to not losing our minds." we said.]
Many of your lyrics are based around sex, sexuality and love and are quite provocative. In a previous interview JoJo commented that the dance music scene is emotionally immature in its current state, it is more about losing your mind than experiencing something genuine. Does this mean your lyrics are slightly ironic - a touch in cheek message to the clubbing scene?
Damien: "I do not understand the lyrics of dOP."
Clement: "Neither do I. I have spoken English for only a very short time and before I did not even understand what JoJo was saying [laughs]."
Damien: "In Les Fils [Les Fils Du Calvaire is the bands realisation of it's non-electronic musings within which they focus on strictly live instrumentation and vocalise only in their native tongue] we speak in French and are of course very concerned with the lyrics. I think when you make the kind of dance music we do - we must be entertainers."
Clement: "It is about the live performance. It is about what is happening on the stage."
Damien: "It is about love, sex and getting fucked up. Although we do other things when we are dOP it is all about entertainment, the lifestyle and rock and roll - it is rock and roll and JoJo keeps it this way with his writing."
So you are careful to completely separate the different bands, the different projects.
Damien: "Yes for sure. It’s why we made this new band: to express this other material, these new ideas - and play in a different language. We try to make a different sound, but of course it is still us."
Clement: "Each project has it’s own personality."
Damien: "It’s own little universe."
Clement: "Each one is something we really want to do. It is a bit schizophrenic."
By compartmentalizing and keeping both bands separate does this allow you to continue your electronic work without becoming ‘bored of the kick drum’ as you feared could happen? To not become saturated by this 'club sound'?
Damien: "Yes definitely, it cannot be just for the tempo and the straight kick. At the moment we have almost finished the debut album for Les Fils Du Calvaire on Because - a major French label. We did two months of composing for this and after it - last week – we wanted to make techno again. We did some loops which we’ve already played out and they are so strong. It is good for both projects."
It must be conducive to creativity, being able to come out, step back and think in different ways.
Damien: "You come back to techno and just want to make something for smashing the room. After doing some thing like this [Le Fils] I just want to kick the roof off. I want to make five thousand people jump."
You usually employ a kooky visual aesthetic involving paint, picnics and pigs: Is this tied into anything in particular or is it simply deliberate nonsensicality, a dig at the scene taking itself too seriously?
Damien: "For sure. We like to take things less seriously because enough people take it too seriously. With us we like to have fun with jokes and such: it is our French side. We like to remember that it is just about music and clubbing and having fun."
It has been a while since you released any solo work as dOP. What is your direction now, are you focusing more on Les Fils?
Damien: "Yes it has been a while and I can say that nothing is planned for now. We are working more on Les Fils and JoJo is putting his solo album out – which does have a song from dOP on it. We still make new music but we do not want to release it – so we play it only live."
Clement: "Yes there is a hidden song on the album, after the last track and it is ours. Maybe there is actually two."
So you are still creating new material but it can only be heard at your live shows?
Damien: "Yes, we create regularly. We want to keep this concept so people are forced to listen to us. We don’t even make bonds or contracts for the tracks so that we can give them to DJs. We keep them simple and we play them live a lot, they exist only in our live performance."
You mentioned you have an upcoming album for Les Fils?
Damien: "Our next single comes out in the first week of October – this is what we did the big video shooting for – and it is called ‘Superhero’. The full album shall come out around February of next year."
Upcoming dates at Flying Circus include a slew of bristling talent in the form of live performances from Avatism, Amirali and Benoit and Sergio alongside auditory presentations courtesy of Carl Craig, DJ T, Lee Curtiss and Acid Pauli amongst others. Tickets are still available for the Closing Party on 4th October on Ibiza Spotlight. Links below.
Words by Michael Huntington, Photography by James Chapman.
