As one of the founders of the French house movement, David Guetta has been rocking dance floors around the world for more than two decades. While he was in St. Louis for his DJ set at Home Nightclub, Eleven talked to David about the collaborations on his most recent album, One Love, and how to correctly DJ an airplane.
What’s your favorite club to play in the entire world?
David Guetta:
Wow, that’s very difficult. OK- the only place where I’m actually a resident playing every week during the summer is Pacha (in Ibiza) – Ibiza is like really the Mecca of dance music, it’s really incredible. But, I’d have to say that in the moment, because of the bridge the I’m creating between electronic music in Europe and urban culture from America with my album, it’s very nice to play in America for me. Like, this tour that’s going on right now for me is absolutely unbelievable – it’s like the excitement of the people is unreal.
11: Does an airplane count as a venue for you? I saw a video of you DJing on a plane – it looked crazy.
DG:
Yeah, that was really, really cool. I was DJing my new album for the media and some competition winners, and that gig was perfect because it was from Paris to Ibiza, and then after that we went to my party (called Fuck Me I’m Famous) at Pacha, so it was really terrific. And, people were dancing on the plane, which was pretty nuts.
Did they have problems getting people to buckle their seatbelts and stuff when the plane was landing?
DG:
No no no, because already people were already like, “that’s weird.” So when the captain was saying something, they would listen. At some point, everybody came close to [where I was], and then the captain said “hold on, you can dance but you need to stand where you are because of the balance of the plane,” you know?
That’s awesome. So on your last album, One Love, you’ve got a ton of big name collaborators like Akon, Estelle, and Kelly Rowland. Did you choose the right people for each track, or did they come to you?
DG:
They came to me – I know it sounds crazy, but it is what happened. It started with Kelly Rowland and Will.i.am, and the thing is that Kelly started to play [our stuff] to her friends and Will started playing “I Got a Feeling” to his friends. [People] asked me to produce tracks for them, and my answer was like “yeah I wanna produce tracks for you, but you need to do a feature on my album.” That’s the idea, which is I think very cool – because it’s not like a business thing. It was more like, you know, we like each other’s music and we want to help each other. And then there was some accidental stuff, like Akon. We met when we were both performing - I was performing before him, and when I got off the stage, he was like “this is crazy, “Love is Gone” is my favorite song,” wait for me. And then he got on stage, and when he finished his songs, he was like “man, we need to work together.” So I said, “listen, we can’t wait.” He was leaving at six in the morning, so I said “we [should] go to the studio now and you will sleep on the plane – I will sleep on the plane too.” We went to the studio last minute, and we made “Sexy Bitch” in one night.
11: One night?
DG:
It’s crazy, yeah? But after, I worked on it in my studio. But, the main thing was there in one night.
One of the artists you feature, Kid Cudi, comes from a very different vein than the other artists you’ve already mentioned. How did that collaboration come about?
DG:
The whole album’s story is really strange. It looks like this huge project that was really planned, but it was totally not. So the Kid Cudi story is, the Black Eyed Peas invited me to the shooting of “I Got a Feeling” because I produced that song, and I was at that scene in the video with Kid Cudi. And, on my way from Paris to Los Angeles, I made a track on the plane with my laptop – I was thinking about a different sound, more dirty than what I usually do. I didn’t know I was going to see Kid Cudi, it was like destiny. And between two shots, I was like “man, I love your work, I can play you this dirty track I made on the plane.” And imagine, it was not even finished actually. Between two shots, I took my headphones and my laptop and played the track for him, and he was like “wow, I love it, and let’s meet tomorrow at 3 at the studio.” The day after, we were at the studio, [and] we recorded it in like 3 hours, and that was it. That’s the story, you know, [what] was really interesting with this album is [that] it’s only people who I met by accident. All of it was like [tracks] we really wanted to make happen. It’s not organized by management and lawyers and stuff.You’ve been making French house music essentially since the genre started – how have you seen it change? Did you think you and your colleagues would have such an impact on electronic music as a whole?
DG:
What is even more crazy is that it’s not only in electronic music, it’s on pop music. It’s like I cannot believe it myself – it’s crazy, but that’s what I always wanted for this music. You know, I always wanted to share my passion with more people, and I always felt that dance music was so underrated. I never understood why it wasn’t as big as rock or hip hop or pop. So, I think we’re getting there, and it’s a great thing! But no, I could never have imagined that this would happen one day. And especially not for me, I could not even imagine it for anybody, for any DJ.
What do you think truly makes a good DJ set? How do you get the crowd really into it?
DG:
You know, for me, it’s really simple. I come there and have a party with the people. So, again, it’s like when I make my music: if I’m having fun DJing, probably people are going to have fun being there. That’s the main thing – I don’t take myself too seriously, I just come and party, and trying to do it with my own style, obviously. That’s what probably makes the difference.
