Sauce

He’s the DJ who brought us Love Generation and had people across the world whistling like crazy, and now, dance music superstar Bob Sinclair is delivering his latest offering, Soundz Of Freedom. He spoke to me while traveling across his native France about the overwhelming nature of celebrity.

How did you celebrate your birthday? Did you have a party this year?
No … I don’t celebrate anything!

Why not?
I want to stay young forever. I’m going to sell my soul to the devil very soon.

OK, and what do you think you’ll be asking for in return?
I will give him … well, my soul, my heart, everything, and I will try to convince other people to do it.

But what do you want from the devil in return?
Ah … to be forever young!

Wonderful! A bit Dorian Gray …
Yeah. For me, it’s more Phantom Of The Paradise from Brian de Palma.

Okay, cool …
Do you know the movie?

I don’t, actually.
Wow, you don’t know that? Brian De Palma did a movie called Phantom Of The Paradise in ’74 … It’s amazing; it’s unbelievable. And I did, like, a cover of this movie in my video shoot of I Feel You, if you know the video; exactly like a cover.

You took the name Bob Sinclair from a character in another movie – Le Magnifique, yeah?
Yeah, exactly, exactly … It seems like this year was really, really amazing for me, in terms of movies and music and everything.

’74 … do you believe in numerology? Do you believe in any type of spirituality?
I don’t know, really. I don’t know, because I never met someone who did numerology with me. But I think some years could be very, very important. And also astrology, and all that kind of thing.

So can you walk around in France? Are you recognised in France as a celebrity?
Yeah, mostly. It’s unbelievable, but all around Europe at the moment … two days ago, at the airport, I had a hundred young guys coming to me to ask me for an autograph and photo; I’d say [I spent] forty-five minutes in all. It’s unbelievable at the moment, and I don’t know why. Maybe because of the video, because the video is really massive here, so DJs are really popular, and my music is really everywhere – on the radio, and all around the TV. So it’s pretty amazing at the moment.

It must be a wonderful feeling, but, at the same time, it must be freaking you out.
It’s really bizarre, because I couldn’t have imagined to have this kind of career as a DJ, and it’s unbelievable that the young people are really fans of what I’m doing. It’s maybe very accessible for the young generation, so they believe in it, and they want to do it, and they consider me a pop star … I look close to me … very, very close, but I don’t consider myself a pop star … It’s not really me. So it’s really strange.

The new album, Soundz Of Freedom; the first track is Sound Of Freedom, but what is it about these tracks that represent, for you, sounds of freedom?
Um … first of all, it was the title of a track, so it’s always nice to … it’s hard to find a good title. At the same time, for me to be “free”, is to live my passion. And all these sounds are, for me, all my life. I did this album like a DJ mix. A lot of people discovered my music with Love Generation, so I wanted to give them, with half of the album, a lot of tracks that they maybe didn’t know, remixed by older DJs that I like at the moment, like Axwell, Mousse T, Tocadisco – all these guys that I met during my Australian tour, by the way. And the rest is completely new. So Sound Of Freedom, Fireball … all brand new stuff I did last year, from September through to December.

You’ve had great success in Australia, and toured here – where in the world are you most famous? And where have you sold the most number of CDs? And are they the same place?
Seriously, between you and me, Australia has been the highlight of my DJ career up till now, because I did this festival … I did that thing for five years, and I was, this year, the main artist; the main act. So it was very, very, very strange to be alone on stage, and especially for the New Year’s Eve after Basement Jaxx. When I came on stage, it was a big challenge for me to have fifteen thousand people in front of me … So Australia has really been the most amazing country for me for five years. And in France, the success is massive, because I do video, film, TV, radio, and they all know my face. So I sell, here, like two hundred thousand albums. But around the world … it’s very strong everywhere.

How do you feel that you’ve changed as a producer – either in your technique, or in your approach, from Love Generation to Rock This Party?
I didn’t change anything – my way to work – since fifteen years [ago]. Sometimes I work with samples. Sometimes I work with musicians, who can do the keyboard with me. I have my melodies and beats … because I do everything myself. It’s not different; it’s just that I’m more efficient in the way to do it. I find the right tools, I find the right melody … I know how to manage a musician in the studio; I know how to speak to them … So it’s more mature, but the way I’m doing it is the same. It’s always an accident. I’m looking for the vibe, and the perfect beat.

Can you describe a week in the life of Bob Sinclair, the producer? How many hours a day did you spend the in studio? And then how many hours are you on the radio or DJing? What’s a week like for you?
It’s five days a week in the studio, from nine in the morning until seven or eight in the evening, every day, five days a week. And the Friday night I’m leaving for DJing on Friday, Saturday, and I come back Sunday. So I have only Sunday to write. But it’s really nice. I enjoy it.

Soundz Of Freedom is released August 18th.

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