This week I'v managed to get in touch with the Parisian DJ Tony Holster, who you may also know as TypoBoy, whos just returned to France after a mini UK tour at places such as the Secret Garden Party. For myself its a bit of a coup to get in touch with him seeing as I've had his website http://www.typoboy.fr/ bookmarked for quite a while! Check it out yourself for new mixes and all!
I got hold of him and managed to ask him a few questions! But First heres a mix you can listen to whilst your reading!
DJ Tony Holster aka Typoboy - Gangsta Swing Mix by Flapper5 blog
You Can also check out;
http://www.mixcloud.com/typoboy/gangsta-swing/
http://soundcloud.com/tonyholster/gangsta-swing-1
http://fairtilizer.com/track/134364
1.what would you say was the first time you heard Electro-Swing and what was your first thoughts?
1. First time I heard Electro-Swing it was just a word. I was playin underground swing house and a girl came to me at the end of my dj set and told me that some of my records were similar to "Caravane Palace" I had never heard about Caravane Palace before that night. I googled it and wow ! that's how I discovered Electro swing ;) And it worked both ways... I was playing records in a club in Paris and Antoine - a member of Caravane Palace (he plays the trombone and machines) came to ask me what was the name of the underground swing house track I was playing !!! ;) The 1st Swing-House mix I've ever decided to play was for my wife's birthday (she loves jazz and vocals). I started spinning records in small venues and was lookin for happy music to mix. I was fed up with all that dark electronic music (minimal tech-house). Everybody was playin' the same sound and it is not such a happy music to play in small venues like Parisian Bars. If people want to listen to that kind of music they just have to go into dark clubs. The first time I played my swing house mix and saw people dancing on it I realized it was the sound of the yesteryears (1920) with the production of the next decade (2020). What a link ! There is also another musical link in my mixes. My parents are from Macedonia and Balkan Music is the 1st music I've ever heard, that's why you can hear Balkan Brass Bands mixed with New-Orleans Brass Bands in my mixes.
2. How did you get started djing?
2. I started djing when I was living in Brussels, It was 6 years ago, I was just scratching a lil' bit at the time... and many DJs and organizers were always at home, afterpartying and mixing, but I was just listening and watching then. The Last week before I left Brussels to go back to Paris, I switched off my cell phone for a week, and learnt to beatmatch... When I came back to Paris my son was born and then I started to mix minimal and tech-house every day for 2 years as a bedroom DJ and I was publishing my mixes at http://www.typoboy.fr/. And the 3rd year I started to mix in small venues in a duet project with Larry Genius called Ventilation Rotative. He was playin lots of Wind Instruments while I was spinning tech-house and minimal stuff. He plays the saxophone (Tenor and Alto), the Flute, toys instruments for kids and even instruments from his own invention. He's a kinda kwezi guy and a good showman hehehe. As I was a lil' bit shy at the beginning, people were rather lookin at his show, that's the way I started DJing...
3. I see that your page mentions the electro swing club de paris? could you tell me a bit more about that? and also the chicken swing?
3. One night I played that underground swing house set at Café des Sports. The program planner immediately asked me for a residency each 1st saturday of each month. This residency is a party called Chicken Swing NOT Chicken Wings. And a year later I asked DJ Tagada to find a place for a bigger party. He asked the owners of the boat where he had started his Balkan Beats Parties 5 years ago. The Electro Swing Club de Paris is the name of the party I organise on this famous and very beautiful chinese boat in Paris. Many famous french artists started there at http://www.damedecanton.com/ It is actually the first, the one and only party dedicated to Electro Swing in France. I was dreaming of a party where people could use fancy dressing, watch for a burlesque show and listen to electroswing bands and international DJs. Nick Hollywood (Freshly Squeezed) and Chris Tofu (Continental Drifts) were already running an Electro Swing Club in London, so we wanted to bring the same kind of music to the french people. We've launched the Electro Swing Club de Paris with my partners from bebop-swing (they organise Electro Swing events in Toulouse and Lyons)
4.What have been your biggest musical influences outside the genre?
4. I'm most influenced by electronic music but I've listened to many music before Electro Swing. My strong interest for music started when I was a child in the 80's, then I went backwards in time with the music of the 70's, the 60's, the 50's etc… until I discovered Robert Johnson the 1st and oldest phonographic recording of blues... and in the 90s I started listening to electronic music. I have also always been interested in the fusion of different kinds of music with electronic music. Mashups and things like that. It's a kind of encyclopaedic way of discovering music. I'm very curious and in music it's important for me to go beyond boundaries.
5. could you give us your top five electro-swing tracks?
1/ Der Dritte Raum's Swing Bop (which is a remix of their own trance track from the 90's!) is for me the ultimate electro swing track... I started to play that track a long time ago and I still play it. To me it's THE electro Swing anthem and the cornerstone of Electro Swing, it's a swing track produced like a house track.
2/ Hollywood Black and Tan from the amazing DJ Tavo (we are actually working together on a track)
3/ Bouffée d'Air from KKC Orchestra which is simply the best electro swing band for me.
http://www.myspace.com/lekkcorchestra4/ Why Don't You is a swing house remix of a jazz standard by Gramophonedzie (he's from ex-Yugoslavia like my parents!).
5/ And watch out for the incoming main track from Max Pashm's first electro swing EP, tha kinda track you listen and five minutes later you are whistling the melody while you're washin your dishes !!! Well... today machines do the dishes... but this one makes you whistle with your dishwasher ! :)
6. What can the world of electro-swing expect from the latter half of 2010?
6. Things are moving quickly. I've listened to "We No Speak Americano" something like 6 months ago but I had never imagined this track would be Number 1 in the UK ! and reach the Top Ten in the world. I've never played that track. As I was not playing Caravane Palace. Many people have theories about music evolution but nobody knows what is gonna happen with electro-swing. I know that I've play that music for a long time now because I love it and for all the reasons I've told you before. Some people think it is a subgenre that will die as quickly as it appeared (should die in 2 years). Some people think it's gonna be like Big Beat (3 main bands in 5 years and will be over in 10 years). Some others think it will be like the Balkan Beats scene (but a Balkan Beat track never reached the top ten). I think we just have to remember that Swing was here before us and will stay forever. It will maybe disappear from the musical horizon but it will never die. The most important thing is that electro swing does not belong to anybody but to each and all of us.
And to clean up the confusion between Tony Holster and TypoBoy
"Typoboy is a graphical project, as I am a graphic designer,
Typoboy is alive man ! he has serif for the feets, he walks, he shoot/spray ink against enemies, etc… it's an animated project and a book for graphic designers childs to learn typography and also typo goodies (like Pucca or hello Kitty)."
Tony Holster is at present planning a show with 2 bad bad girls for the launching of a new electro swing club somewhere in Europe! The show is named : Tony Holster and the Bad Bad Girls!
Thats all for today folks! We should have an interview upcoming with Odjbox soon and an ecclusive mix just for us guys! Im leaving off on travels on thursday for three weeks so hope to get it it up before then, but in any case expect a mammoth post in three weeks!
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