Labtonic

.What current projects are you working on?

 - Creating the music soundtrack for the Target vertical fashion show at the Rockefeller center (NYC, July 18th). Lightly Funny New York feeling.

- Music for the Cosabella swimwear fashion show (Miami, July 16th). Sexy Urban safari feeling. 

- Music Styling, supervising and Direction for Fly a luxurious Fashion/Art/music magazine on DVD. (Zero issue Soft launch in September). 

- Stated to work on some of the Fashion Show for  Spring 2006 (New York, Paris,in September) 

.  How did Labtonic start?

 Like everything should ever start: friendship, passion, 2 complementary backgrounds, and the feeling that something was missing between fashion, art, style and music, 3 years ago.

. When creating the sound for a brand, what do you look for?  What is your process?

 We did the soundscape for the launch of the Calvin Klein fragrance Euphoria last month. The process is mostly the same each time, however long is the event (1 minute for a commercial, 15 for a fashion show and up  to 2 hours for the Euphoria event).

 First is to understand the feeling of the event. It can be a world, a movie, a character, even an object (last fall Duckie Brown collection was inspired by a quick view in a kaleidoscope…for the fragrance it was a 30video inside a foggy forest, almost in grayscale).

 Then we dig in our music-gem mine to select some tracks that can fit to the feeling of the event, considering also the space, the crowd, the time… 

 Meeting with the client to be sure we are on the same direction, and to establish the limits because we are all different in a perceptive way. Music, like any art expression in very subjective, and this is a very interesting part of our job: to find a emotional language that everybody can understand but trying to be always on the edge of the unknown to move forward. 

In this example we tried to tell the story of the awaking nature mixing some very ethereal music (the morning foggy quiet nature) with some minimal beats (Calvin Klein image) but trying to keep in mind that it was a cocktail party. The story is very important. I think you can not create a coherent sounds cape if you are not trying to tell a story. 

Finally, we usually listen everything with the client to explain some details if needed (sometime there is some delicacy in the mix, like for the Louis Vuitton / Murakami collection a child was spelling the alphabet on top of the music and start to spell L.o.u.i.s.V.u.i.t.t.o.n  at when the L arrived… we need to have fun working). 

Then it is production and licensing if needed 

. How does sound influence branding?  Why is it important?  

 Of all of the senses hearing, like smell can brings you in deep memories, in a second that can give you joy, sadness, mightiness…

Everybody knows now that some brands are using words, images, even fake perfumes to create a special feeling in or around their stores (fresh baked cinnamon bread, or clean shirt…) music does the same thing but without lying because it works deep inside you, it is too abstract to lie.

.  How do you see the future of music styling?  What role with Labtonic play in it?

 I think the most important in the music styling is not about the way you can mix tracks together (When you love music you know that Live band will always be better than a dj). It’s all about the choice.

If the role of the music styling is to dig around tones of music and bring the best to the light so the future is to help any ‘ipoder” to find what they like or help them to discover the unknown. We would love to create some personal sounds capes not only for hype places but for peoples (from the Fashion shows to the street.) 

.  What type of music do you work with?

I would say any kind from classical to heavy metal, because good music is everywhere as well as bad one. We just try to stay away from the mtv standard. So we work a lot with small labels in Europe but also with some independent American labels that try to bring some emerging artists. 

.  When did Labtonic start?

A bit more than 2 years ago, between Paris and New York. We started very small with some kind of underground parties, 3 month after we were doing the music for 5 designers in the tent during the New York fashion week.

.  Who/what are your influences?

I stated djing during the 80’s in France when all the Fm radios were emerging. At this time Bernard Lenoir hosted a show on the national radio called feedback. He’s our John Peel. Every night I could not fell asleep before the end of the show.  

So of course the Uk 80’s are very important for me, as well as the french pop from Joe Dassin to Serge Gainsbourg (Michel Colombier is not to forget in terms of build the music). 

But the influence is everywhere. You have to see art, watch movies, travel, have friends, walk in the mountains… Stay open, eat everything and digest. Life is influence.  

.  What was your most successful project?

We still are very proud of the Vuitton/Murakami soundtrack we created. Not because of the name of the client, or because I a big Japanese Contemporary Art collector, but because everybody who got the 2 hours mix still keep telling us that they listen it when they are sad to feel better, or when they lounge on the beach. Some even told us that they make love when they play it. That is successful.