Joachim Garraud on the Virtual Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions 8/28/24

In this captivating Virtual Session, Darran Bruce sits down with legendary French DJ, producer, and innovator Joachim Garraud for an in-depth conversation that spans four decades of electronic music history. Known for his work with artists like David Guetta, Jean-Michel Jarre, and countless French Touch pioneers, Joachim shares how his iconic Space Invaders logo became a symbol of unity and anonymity in the early 2000s club scene.

 

Joachim walks us through his multiple creative lives—from vinyl-spinning funk DJ to techno producer—and his evolution into a multimedia performer with spaceship-like studios in New York, Los Angeles, and now a fully solar-powered mobile studio, the LA Good Vibe bus. Designed for off-grid recording in stunning remote locations, the bus reflects his passion for combining technology, creativity, and the natural environment.

 

The discussion dives into his label Underground Music, the tight curation process behind its releases, and the importance of promotion in a crowded digital landscape. Joachim offers advice for aspiring producers, emphasizing passion over trends, pride in every release, and the value of unique creative identity.

 

From memories of 16-hour sets at Burning Man to thoughts on AI’s growing role in music production, Joachim provides both entertaining stories and practical industry insight. His commitment to mentoring new talent shines through, especially in his collaborative vinyl project that brought emerging artists to his Paris festival stage. This session is a masterclass in longevity, reinvention, and the art of sharing music with the world.

 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Joachim Garraud
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Los Angeles, CA

 

Overview:
Darran Bruce talks with Joachim Garraud about his career milestones, creative philosophies, and innovations in music production, performance, and collaboration.

Topics Covered:

• Space Invaders Identity: Origins of his signature logo and community movement.
• Multiple Creative Lives: From vinyl DJ to French Touch producer to multimedia performer.
• Studios & LA Good Vibe Bus: Solar-powered mobile recording for off-grid creativity.
• Underground Music Label: Focused curation, stage integration, and artist development.
• Burning Man Memories: 16-hour marathon set blending genres.
• Gear vs. Creativity: Hardware, software, and the nomadic studio era.
• AI in Music: Tools, risks, and potential future innovations.
• Passion Over Trends: Advice for emerging producers to stay authentic.
• Mentorship Projects: Collaborative vinyl featuring 40+ artists and festival debuts.
• Industry Evolution: From cassette to vinyl revival and the $30B electronic music market.

Call to Action:
Visit joachimgarraud.com for music, tour dates, and projects.
Explore more interviews at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions Presents the Virtual Sessions. I’m your host Darran and right now I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington and my guest coming in all the way from Los Angeles, California, I hope I get this right, it’s Joachim Garraud.

[Joachim Garraud]
I give you a 8 on 10, good start Darran.

[Darran]
Thank you so much for being here today.

[Joachim Garraud]
Looks like we got some liveliness in the chat room right now, Christophe Deveaux, and you’re going to have some people who are going to speak French because you know I’m French, so I just want to say to all Space Invaders from France, speak English guys today, we’re going to do 100% English.

[Darran]
Thank you, thank you for that one. Speaking of Space Invaders, let’s jump right into that. What is this Space Invaders theme?

Because I grew up in the 80s, played a lot of video games and I was going through your website, through your socials and everything and I just, I saw the one picture, I mean there must have been a few thousands of people and they were all wearing these Space Invaders masks. What is that all about? I want to give a shout out to those that are here, that are part of that.

[Joachim Garraud]
You know back in the 2000s when I started DJing again, because I’m pretty old you know, so I had maybe two or three different life as a DJ. I can say vinyl life DJ, funk, Fat Larry’s band, Kool & The Gang, you know this kind of thing on vinyl, you know vinyl. And then in 2000, I had a new life start with the French touch movement and I was lucky to have a recording studio in the heart of Paris and I was lucky to produce a lot of people who were identified as the French touch beginning, like Bob Sinclair, David Guetta, Cassius or many, many different people.

And then in 2000, when I started to again to go behind the desk and to start to play my techno music, because I was a very techno DJ, I was looking to be identified not as a visual DJ, but I was looking to get the logo or to get, you know, like identification by something I really in love with. And video games and Space Invaders was really what I loved the most. I really loved the no religion, no race, no sex, it could be a man, a woman, we don’t care.

And so I decided to use this as my logo and signature and don’t use my face. And that was really something common in the 2000. Remember, for example, Daft Punk, not using the face, they were using this kind of, you see behind me, this kind of amulet.

So that was something I was really in love with. And that was really using the Space Invaders logo was really in phase with my music. Very, a little bit rough, a little bit techno.

And I really love that. So I’m still and then that was so I decided to do this. And I remember 2003, I did the first gig in Paris for a big festival and I was wearing for the first time Space Invaders on my T-shirt.

And then the two weeks after I’ve seen in the crowd, 10 guys wearing the same logo because I dropped the logo, I redesigned the logo and I dropped the logo on my website. And then it’s, you know, that was such the first community movement in France around electronic music. And I was identified to this.

[Darran]
Now, when you get into the studio, does it feel like you’re in a spaceship? Let’s really take a look at a few of your studios here. I got one queued up.

I got your LA studio queued up, but I saw the other ones, the New York studio.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah. The New York one.

[Darran]
It feels like you’re in a spaceship.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah.

[Darran]
It looks like you’re in a spaceship.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah. So, yeah. Let’s say I really try to focus on the location where I am.

As a music producer, I’m very sensible about the light and also about everything around me. So, this is crazy to say that. But for example, when I’m in New York in the spaceship studio and you’re right, the name of the studio is spaceship because it’s designed as a spaceship.

So, that was perfect. This one where I am today, LA, is very laid back studio, you know, California style.

[Darran]
Yeah. We’ll take it. Yeah.

Go ahead.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah. That’s the one. Yes.

Yes. And this is more home studio, like a regular studio, you know? And yeah.

But you’re right. I loved using different studios to get different feelings regarding composition and production. And also, maybe later we’re going to talk about a very special one I just designed to go in the desert and really to emerge in a special place.

[Darran]
You know, I’m glad you brought that up because it’s a great segue into what we’re going to talk about because I was just at Rave the Planet. And I don’t know if you got a chance to go through our website and check out our mobile studio that we have.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah.

[Darran]
I built to do my show is the big glass box truck on the back with the concert grade sound system on it. I love that. And when I got out to Rave the Planet, I didn’t know what to expect.

I thought these floats were going to be floats. These were full-on semi trucks, double-decker semi trucks. And I’m like, we could never put one of those in the streets of Seattle.

Maybe if you went one way with one, but that would be it. Not eight hours driving around by, you know, the brand. That was crazy.

[Joachim Garraud]
The concept was amazing.

[Darran]
Yeah. And so coming in and going over, you know, get my show notes ready for you today. You went and showed me this bus.

And I mean, this is like awesome. I’m going to pull up a video right now if you want to describe this a little bit about.

[Joachim Garraud]
Okay, for sure.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Joachim Garraud]
So the project, the name of the project is LA Good Vibe, like Los Angeles Good Vibe, or in French we say La Good Vibe. And I was lucky to buy a 2009 Fleetwood RV, 36 feet long. And I was very lucky to go from scratch and to, you know, to build a recording studio inside using solar energy to get unlimited energy and especially to be able to go in amazing places we have around in the West side of USA.

And I want to talk about all the BLM, which is the Bureau of Land Management. And this is 280 million acres of free land. And you can go there and you need to respect two rules.

Rule number one is leave no trace, like Burning Man, for example. And rule number two is don’t stay more than two weeks on the same place, on the same spot. If you just respect these two rules, you can go there and enjoy that amazing location and amazing spirit.

[Darran]
Thank you for that. I’m going to take a pause really quickly here for Christophe. He says, for those who don’t know who Darran is, could you please explain who this person is and especially translate for those who don’t understand English?

[Joachim Garraud]
So I’m going to translate in French if you want. If you don’t know Darran, Darran is a very famous person who makes so many interviews about a lot of DJs and producers. And if French people, you know, the thing is French people, some of French people, they’re not very English, comfortable in English.

And that’s why maybe if we are now using all the AI technology, you’re going to be able to listen to all the interviews made by Darran back in the day, since 10 years, I can say more than 10 years. 15 years? 15 years.

Yeah. So that was 10 years. 15 years.

[Darran]
You’re right. With the AI coming into place, one of the things that I added to our website was actually obviously a translation tool. So I think it can be loosely translated.

If you see typos in there, you know.

[Joachim Garraud]
No, no. It’s better and better. And it’s accessible.

[Darran]
And we want to go back and transcribe all our shows. And that way, when you switch it to an other language, it’s there. And I use, some of them are just getting really awesome where they’re making show notes for you.

You know, they’re breaking it all down. I’d really like to see where that’s going in the industry. We can talk about AI and the music world in a little bit.

I’m sure you have something to say.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah, I have some. Yes, yes, yes.

[Darran]
But let’s go ahead and take a look at this bus really quick and what you’ve got here. This is amazing.

[Joachim Garraud]
So you have the video?

[Darran]
I do. I do.

[Joachim Garraud]
Cool.

[Darran]
I’m going to queue it up right here.

[Joachim Garraud]
So you see, this is a bus. And I was happy to, you know, to do, to pimp that bus and to do something cool. And you can see all the solar equipment on the roof.

Give me unlimited energy to go on planet Mars. You see, this is planet Mars. So I was the first before SpaceX to go on planet Mars and to do a recording session over there with all these rocks.

And I’m very lucky to have this recording studio because I can go into a special place. And you see from the sky with the drone, we have some amazing footage because you are alone on planet Mars. Yeah.

And then inside, this is a recording studio with, I don’t want to say basic, but everything comfortable, like screen speakers and the AC and everything working with solar energy. So you can stay there one week if you want. As soon as you have water, you’re good.

[Darran]
I was going to say, yeah, it’s water. Now, is this something you would have a trailer with that would tow, say, gear to sleep out there?

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah. I’m trying like a side-by-side vehicle, like a buggy, like a Can-Am buggy, which is crazy because you can bring this one into those locations, the BLM, and you’re doing like an OHV. Yeah, this is an OHV.

This is an off-highway vehicle. And you’re using this kind of vehicle to go in the mountains, to do some crazy things. And back in the studio recording.

And this is the first time I’m having a recording studio. I can be outside and having no noise. Because those locations, there is no birds, no insects, no life, no humans for sure.

And then it means that you can be outside and you can play as loud as you want, or you can play zero if you want. Yeah, you can see some video from inside. And I have some French equipment, like Focal, the speakers you see over here.

Yeah, this is a 3D video. And I tried to make a very luxury design inside with kitchen because I’m French and food is very important. And this is one of the main thing.

So we have a beautiful kitchen and you see the screen in front of me can go back in the desk.

[Darran]
I don’t want to see any of that. Get out the screen.

[Joachim Garraud]
And now we’re going to another chapter about… But that’s the thing. So LA Good Vibe, if you want to have more information about this bus, go on lagoodvibe.com.

LAgoodvibe.com, one word.

[Darran]
Awesome. Now, you mentioned, is gear really that important when being creative? I mean, you have a beautiful studio.

I’m going to try to pull up the studio in New York as well. We’ve got to see the LA studio. Do you call it a mobile studio or you call it the bus or the LA Good Vibe bus?

What would you call it?

[Joachim Garraud]
So you’re right. When I started 30 years ago, it was impossible to do that because the mixer was like 10 meters long and you have this tape, 48 tracks. It was like, I don’t know, a kilogram or a ton of pounds.

It was crazy. And all this equipment was super expensive, super heavy. That was completely not a nomad setup.

It was impossible. And then since we introduced computer into the creating process and recording process with laptops, now we are completely off-grid. We are completely nomad system.

And now I’m just using my MacBook Pro as a recording studio, as a streaming platform right now. So I have only one device to do everything. So it means that you’re right.

Now you can do music with the same quality without having all this equipment around you. Now, depending on the project, for example, when I’m producing with a French artist called Vitalik, he’s a very electronic guy. Before starting the collaboration, we are choosing two or three different synth machines and we say, okay, we’re going to use only this.

And then we are just focusing on these three devices. And when the album is done, we sold back the devices and we’re done. And when we’re starting a new project, we’re going to start with something different.

So depending on the project, sometimes I like to be surrounded by equipment, like my Moog over there, depending on the kind of music you are doing. But right now I’m working on the new album I’m going to release next year. And this is a special Dolby Atmos mixing.

And this is a special research and design album called OVP, like Oscillation, Vibration and Precision. And this is only research. So I’m using a lot of different textures.

And for that, I’m using old synths, special synths. And then maybe I’m going to do some mixing in the bus, in the desert to fit well with the Mars planet, this kind of music. But right now in the first step of the creation process, I like to use hardware.

[Darran]
You’re right. I grew up in the 80s and my brothers were in a band. I talk about this quite often.

And my dad had kind of lavished studio gear on a four-track recorder, eight-track recorder, keyboard, synths, rack mounts. And when this gear came through back in the 80s, this stuff was coming from Japan. And the manuals were trying to be translated in English.

And if you didn’t know what you were doing, you really couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on. So it turned out a lot of experimenting, just button pushing.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah, you try. You play with knobs.

[Darran]
I do like that tactile feel though, when you’re playing with gear. I dabbled in music production very rare, 25 years ago, where I got myself an MC-505 and an SP-808 by Roland. And you know, that was nice, just putting them together in MIDI.

And I had the sequencer here and I had… But then I started working for Apple a few years later and became a Logic trainer. And once I got into the back end of Logic, I was like, okay, I’m game over.

Because I used to play with Fruity Loops back in the day. Fruity Loops 3, I think it was. Now it’s FL.

But still a great program, sequencer, sequencer. And then you’ve got all the plugins and everything you can do now. I got myself a 49-key MIDI Roland keyboard and now you get to play with everything.

[Joachim Garraud]
No, I have to admit that right now, you don’t have to buy any equipment to make good music and to be successful. And so many plugins are doing the jobs very well. So right now, I didn’t get any hardware.

I was not able to reproduce with plugins. And when I worked with Jean-Michel Jarre, the French composer, this guy had maybe the most beautiful collection of synths, because he started in the 70s. And then he had all the first AKS, all the first equipment.

And this guy is doing a collection of everything. So he never sold anything. And then when I was working with him in his home studio, I was able to go in the basement and to see all this equipment.

And every day I was taking one and take a headphone and just listen to it. And I remember I co-produced with Jean-Michel Jarre one album called Metamorphose. And then I was co-producing some shows, the Millennium shows and this kind of thing.

And I remember having testing all these different synths. And we were looking for, is there any plugins can do that? And in 2000, no.

But right now, yes.

[Darran]
Yeah. I remember looking at, and when I went to Guitar Center to get that MC-505 and SP-808, that if you really wanted to do music production, you were going to get an AKAI 2000, I think. And you had to get a computer to run it.

And it’s like a $5,000, $6,000 setup. It’s like, what now? Well, you know, producing music, dance music, stands for synonymously spending countless hours behind a computer screen, sculpting your beats.

What do you do in your free time to stay fit?

[Joachim Garraud]
The only solution is to merge your laptop on the treadmill. This is the only solution I found to still producing and working at the same time. Otherwise, you stay in the seat like this, like 12 hours a day, and it’s very hard to stay in perfect shape.

[Darran]
Yeah. I have to definitely, when I take a break, I can’t just binge watch shows anymore. I have to take my iPod up to the treadmill, and then I’ll binge watch for an hour, hour and a half, and just do a nice four, four and a half hour, or four mile walk.

I’m sorry. You know, just get moving. Because I will sit in this desk in this studio for 10 hours a day.

So I know how that goes. What do you prefer to do when you’re taking a break from music?

[Joachim Garraud]
Listen to the music? No, no. Maybe I like to discover new places, like the one I showed you.

I like to be impressed by the surrounding views I can have in this kind of location. So I like that. I like swimming.

I like cooking. I like a lot of different things. But my number one passion is music.

So let’s say when I’m not producing music, I’m listening to some music. Even if you are in the bus driving, go to Grand Canyon, you have eight hours, you can listen to music nonstop, like eight hours.

[Darran]
And speaking of, now you’re producing music, listening to music, but you also have a record label, Underground Music. Is there a sound or a specific sound or genre that you look for Underground Music? Are you open to all submissions?

[Joachim Garraud]
The target is very, very tight. I have to admit that. Because I want to be able to play the track when I’m on stage first.

So I have to be able to be proud and to be sure about the dance floor impact. So first, the sound on Underground Music has to fit with my own DJ set. Then number two, the kind of music I’m looking for for Underground Music is the kind of music I’m able to play in my own weekly podcast on the National Radio.

And this is a special, not special, let’s say it’s dance music, but electro. And I love listening to some Deep House sometimes, but I’m not going to play it. So I’m not going to sign any track.

I’m not able to defend on stage.

[Darran]
That makes sense. You know, we’ve toyed with the idea or we’ve talked about it for the last few years now of starting a record label with the DJ sessions. And how far do we open up that door?

Do we only work with the DJs that we work with? Do we open up the door? Do we say we’re this genre or we accept these genres?

And then who’s going to listen to all these?

[Joachim Garraud]
You’re right. There are so many labels right now. So it makes sense to have something dedicated for one style.

And if Underground Music is the label of Joakim Garraud, it means that if you’re going to go on a festival, listen to Joakim Garraud’s DJ set, you need to listen to the track he signed as a label manager.

[Darran]
What’s the most important things that record labels should be doing for their artists? And are most of them nowadays doing a good job with that?

[Joachim Garraud]
I think number one right now is promotion. Because everybody, when I say everybody, can release a track in a day. In one day, you go on Spotify.

It’s so easy right now to release a song and you can produce the song with your smartphone in two hours. So it means that there is, I don’t know, one million songs a day. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but I think we’re talking about millions.

So it’s something like that. So there are so many songs a day on all the streaming platforms coming that the only way to make the difference is to have good promotion. And the way I’m considering promotion is first to having the people who are joining my label on stage with me when I’m doing a tour or on my home festival.

I’m owning a festival in Paris, Electric Park, which is one of the biggest electronic festivals in Paris. So once a year, I’m trying to build a stage for new talent. And this is people from my label coming.

And this year we were doing the festival on June 15th. I had 12 people on stage with me. And I was on the 12 people, 8 people, that was the first time they were doing a festival.

And it was the first time they were playing in front of more than 10 people.

[Darran]
More than 10 people or 10,000 people?

[Joachim Garraud]
No, no. That was the first time they were playing in front of more than 10 people. Because usually they’re playing for their friends, for 10 people.

But no, no, that was more 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, thousands of people.

[Darran]
I just want to clear something up really quick. Christophe, I’m not a DJ. I just play one on live streams.

Ah, yeah.

[Joachim Garraud]
Okay. I see the question.

[Darran]
I just want to get that out of the way. A lot of people get the misnomer that I’m a DJ because I do a show called The DJ Session. It’s like, no, I work with all the DJs.

I do interviews with all the producers.

[Joachim Garraud]
Voilà. C’est un journaliste. It’s a journalist, guys.

[Darran]
Yeah. That’s all good. Is there something you’d like to say to new and up-and-coming producers to watch out for when it comes to making their career successful?

You had touched on that in the video you sent over to me a little bit.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah.

[Darran]
Just like to get that out to our DJ Sessions viewers as well.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah. I think the number one advice I really want to transmit to the new generation is to use your passion as number one motivation to do music. It’s amazing to be able to live by producing music.

I think the more passion you can introduce in your work, the more successful you’re going to be. Don’t try to imitate or do any duplicate music because, oh, there is this new style on the radio. I’m going to do the same.

No, don’t do that. Do exactly what you feel the most comfortable you are. Every single piece of music you want to release, you have to be proud of that because that’s going to stay two, three, five years, ten years.

You don’t have to to consider your past work as a bad work. Use your passion and be proud of everything you release.

[Darran]
Yeah. You started at a really young age. You started 17 years old.

Is that correct?

[Joachim Garraud]
I thought when I, my first composition was, yeah, I was 15 years old, 17 years old. Yes. I have 56 this year.

That was 40 years back in the day. This year, I’m celebrating my 40 years of music producer, if you say producer, because back in the days when I was 16 years old, I was using a Texas instrument, TI-99. This kind of computer was making only eight sound, two, two, eh, this kind of sound.

And with this eight sound, mono, monophonic for sure, eight beats. And I was able to produce something like 25 seconds maximum. But that was my first electronic music production.

[Darran]
Sounds about right where I would have been playing with something too, you know, like making Atari beats or something. Exactly. Now, do you believe that DJs should learn more about music theory or does it really matter that much when it comes to making dance music?

[Joachim Garraud]
It doesn’t matter anymore. You know, I have to be honest, you know, I was lucky to have a classical music education at school to learn piano and drums and to learn how to read and write notes. And he makes some difference because I can give you a small story.

Six years, seven years ago, I was producing a remix for Beyonce and Jay-Z, the track called Drunk In Love. So I was producing some remixes for them and I was lucky to be introduced to those two people in their own studio in California, in LA. And then I was there and we were a lot of different people.

And so my agent introduced me to them, said, OK, let me talk. This is Joachim Garraud. He made the debut with Guetta.

And then Jay-Z considered me as a DJ. So he was not very excited about sharing some time with me as a DJ. But by luck, in the room, they had a piano.

And then I was talking to this guy and this guy said, OK, but what kind of music are you doing? So I went to the piano and said, this kind of maybe, you know, this track and I play a famous track from the David Guetta album. And the guy recognized first I was playing piano and then I was able to maybe to produce some music, you know, live.

So maybe this kind of knowledge gives me an advantage about the relationship, because then after this small 20 seconds of piano, the level of conversation was different. We were talking between musicians and I was not only a DJ who was playing record A to B and back to A, you know? Yeah, well, I’d say that kind of saved the day.

Yeah. But now, to be honest today, I don’t know, but maybe 80% of the DJs are not, don’t have any music education. I don’t know.

I don’t know exact numbers, but everybody can make music without having any music knowledge, you know, a computer and especially right now, AI make a crazy job.

[Darran]
So I think that was a great segue right back into that AI topic we were going to bring up earlier. What are your thoughts? I mean, you don’t have to go in depth or a thesis on this thing.

Your thoughts of we saw AI come back in the art world. And, you know, people were doing that. And now it’s kind of entering into the music world and even the video world where I can throw up segments and it’ll spit out a social video for me, you know?

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah. But I think first I’m using AI every day. I have to say every day, not only in the music thing, but ChatGPT 4.0, it’s amazing help every day. It’s helping me for a lot of different things. In terms of music, I found some crazy platform or crazy website to help you to produce music. For example, you just drag and drop a remix, you start and then the AI is going to propose a B part or C part and propose you a bridge to go from A to B.

This is an amazing job because you just have to understand that music is mathematical. It’s a mathematical thing. So it’s a very computerized, we can say that, computerized way of making music.

You can use a computer. And so AI makes a job, a very good job. Then a lot of people are, say, just afraid of losing their job.

And I have to say there is a lot of different jobs who are going to be in danger. Yes. If you are on, if you are, for example, the best player and you can be the best, best player ever, and you just do this, you’re not composing, you’re not producing, you’re not on stage, you’re just the best player going to do studio session.

I think your job is going to be dead, maybe it’s already dead already, because you can use a lot of things, can give you some baseline. So I think we have to use this as a tool, as a great assistant, and maybe it’s going to replace some human work, human feeling, human sensation and human vibes. I’m afraid of that, but you can’t go back.

[Darran]
Yeah. That was the one thing a few years ago, I was at ADE and was talking about AI with a few people that were on the show. And they said that the one thing you’re not going to be able to get with AI is soul.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
Soul of the music. And I’m like, okay, well, if you start tweaking, it starts learning, then it isn’t going to get that. You’re right.

Get that in. So just very interesting. I know a company up here in Seattle, it was a tool they called, I think it’s called Vibe AI.

And what you do is I can go in, I can say, oh, I want something that sounds like David Guetta. I want it to be house. I want it to be 124.

And it’ll go curate a playlist for me off of Spotify. And it’s like, well, did you just make me a David Guetta mix? Or does that mean I’m going to sound like that now?

And can I use that tool to go out and help buy my tracks or buy tracks if I was a DJ looking to put together a set list or something? I thought that was kind of an interesting tool to use.

[Joachim Garraud]
I just- I think it’s working well. I have two things to add on this topic. First one is, oh, you know, look, it looks beautiful.

It’s been doing that a couple times. I like to do that on this.

[Darran]
That’s AI.

[Joachim Garraud]
Show me again. But okay, it’s going to come back. So two more things to add.

The first one is if you want to learn how to use AI in the music, I just recommend just one website, which is amazing because it gives you access to six new AI per day talking about music. In average, the name of the website is thereisanai4that.com. Thereisanai4that.com.

Go on there. Check it out. Drop music.

And then you’re going to see there is like 80 per month, usually new music application. So go there. And the second thing is you were talking about soul.

I completely understand that. But sometimes in the music, you just need efficient. And that’s stupid to say that.

But there’s a lot of producers that just take care of getting efficient, having the drop at 17 seconds and then having 130 BPM and then having the right key. So they’re just using efficient and they just want to have efficient job, you know?

[Darran]
Mm hmm. Now, as we just talked about, AI technology does move very fast in electronic music land.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yep.

[Darran]
If you could think of something that’s not on the market today, but in your vision would be really amazing to be out there, what would that be?

[Joachim Garraud]
OK, so if I give you this, I’m just, you know, because I’m.

[Darran]
Turn off the mics and go to the side.

[Joachim Garraud]
No, no, no, no, no. Because I’m working with a Californian company and we’re working on something very special about AI and music. But I can tell you what I have in my mind because we have already a large advance about that.

So what’s number one as a producer is I have a sound, I have a music, I have melody, I have a track, MP3. I just upload this track and then I ask to the AI to give me the separate track in MIDI, in MIDI with the right sound. So it means that, for example, you send the Depeche Mode, I don’t know, live in silence, for example, and you want to have the baseline.

So he’s going to send you the baseline, the MIDI baseline, but with the right sound and you can adjust the sound more or less reverb, more or less cutoff frequency. So if you can do that on multi-track things, it’s going to be crazy because it means that you’re going to be able to have access to thousands and thousands of material come from the past, for sure. Because the only thing of, yes, AI, they just recycle and they’re just learning from the past.

They don’t create the future. They just do a big recycling machine. So that could be something not working right now perfectly, but if somebody or a website can offer this kind of function, they’re going to make a huge hit for music producer.

Sorry, this is a little bit precise, but you asked me for some details.

[Darran]
If you could go back 25 years in music history or forward 50 years in music future, which would you go back to knowing what you know now? Which way would you go?

[Joachim Garraud]
That’s a very… So I’m going to do a French answer. The French answer is say, I want to do both.

Why? Going back in the past 25 years ago, just to enjoy about having a real bass player, a real drummer, large session and something exciting about human collaboration between people. And then I’m going to back 50 years or 25 years and 25 years in the future to just to be curious about what’s going on with the music, with only machine and only robots.

[Darran]
Have you ever done anything in virtual reality? Are you looking to do anything with the future of a virtual concert or virtual production could be and the encompassing experience with that?

[Joachim Garraud]
I’m a little bit lost with this because I tried to work with Jean-Michel Jarre about virtual thing because he produced some virtual shows. He means that he was into Versailles, in Versailles Castle for real. And then because there is only 200 people can go in the room and then they produce a special 3D virtual concert for Outworld.

And I’m not very excited about that. I think sometime it’s better to focus for a show for 200 people only. That’s going to be only 200 people, but those 200 people, they’re going to leave.

They’re going to have something crazy and unique. So I don’t know, maybe you can introduce me to people who are going to convince me to the opposite. But today I’m not very seduced by the idea of doing this kind of virtual thing.

[Darran]
Yeah, it’s going to be interesting. I thought that Meta with their new headsets would come out and kind of hit the market as the Atari or the Nintendo or the Sega or PlayStation. But the entry level, some of these higher end headsets, they’re $1,500 headsets and you need a decent computer to run them.

And I don’t know anyone that’s going to go buy their 10-year-old, spend $4,000 on a virtual reality headset for them. Then they just leave it and it sits there and collects dust. The kid doesn’t play it and use it.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yes, you’re right. I have to add something more about this kind of situation. There is a French company called Virtual Clubbing and they’re French.

I know them very well because they asked me to do some recording with the 3D camera into my shows or festival. And those people, they are proposing for everybody who wants to subscribe to their website to be live into Tomorrowland. And you’re using your virtual 3D glasses.

And then you can watch left and right and you are in the middle of the crowd and you have a famous DJ in front of you playing some music. So maybe it’s a way to assist post-event to event you miss. But I tried it.

I was not very excited about the experience for now. But with the app, for example, I test the Apple Vision Pro and this is crazy. The frame, the beautiful pictures, it’s crazy.

It’s like a real world. But in the other hand, it just makes me scared about the future because if everybody is going to use this, you’re going to stay in your home. I’m going to stay here in my bed and I’m not going to go outside anymore.

[Darran]
You know, that was one of the biggest things we heard, obviously during Pandy, that people were going to not want to go out. They’re going to want to stay at home. If you’re streaming these shows live online.

I mean, that’s been a big, big one for me over the years of wanting to be in nightlife culture and taking cameras into the nightclubs and the bars. The nightclubs say, if you film this and put it on TV, this is back when I was doing broadcast television. They’re like, people are going to want to stay at home and they’re going to watch what goes on in the club.

I go, it’s a 28 minute show. We’re highlighting the B-roll footage. We might be doing some interviews with people in the club.

It’s not going to make them want to stay at home and watch the show. It’s going to make them say, I should have been there. And it should be used as a 30 minute commercial for your business rather than looking at it as a detirement that your drink sales are going to go down.

Our attendance is going to go down. And they still say this today. We wanted to do the first ever, this is in 2013.

We wanted to take a DJ and let’s say you’re in your studio in LA. And what we do is we would bring you in streaming live into the nightclub. And then that way it’s like, you’re only going into that nightclub.

It’s only one instance. It can’t get out in the world, but you’re doing that. And would that save on the cost of a writer?

Would that save on airfare? Would that save? DJ would still get paid for their performance, but you wouldn’t have to do all the writer attachments to it because they’re at home in their home studio.

But nobody had home studios back then with video cameras and everything.

[Joachim Garraud]
I’ve got some. Did anybody try that already?

[Darran]
I’m sure somebody has had, well, actually, yeah. Back during Pandy in 2020, we did something here in Seattle.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah, but right now?

[Darran]
I don’t think anyone’s doing it right now.

[Joachim Garraud]
Because nobody like it?

[Darran]
I don’t think anyone, yeah.

[Joachim Garraud]
They want to see the artist. To be honest, having somebody behind a screen or having somebody for real, that’s not the same thing. I don’t know.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m too old. But when I go to a show and I want to see somebody, I want to see somebody.

I don’t want to see somebody through a machine or interface.

[Darran]
But yeah. And that’s where I think augmented reality is going to really have a lot of fun in place too. Once we get to the glasses, once it’s a nice, it’s not this big headset, you’re putting on this augmented reality glasses and you’re going to be able to change the environment around of the nightclub you’re in while the DJ is playing or have your own, have a light show that you can make your own light show.

And everyone’s watching a different light show, but the DJ is still playing and it’s working somehow. I don’t know. Maybe that’s the technology.

[Joachim Garraud]
I don’t know. Yeah, maybe, maybe. But I want to answer in the chat.

[Darran]
Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.

[Joachim Garraud]
Mike says, is there any way to form, ask questions, please?

[Darran]
Absolutely. Yeah. Type them in.

[Joachim Garraud]
Type the question.

[Darran]
You’ll have to monitor the French side of things.

[Joachim Garraud]
Both French. You can stay in English because today… Sorry, Darran, I have to say some words in French to the French audience.

[Darran]
That’s okay.

[Joachim Garraud]
Okay. Switch back to English. I said to, I’m going to do, I’m going to go back to a French talk show September the 5th.

It’s going to be in French and I’m doing this every Thursday. So that’s why. Nice.

[Darran]
You’ve played a number, we were talking about events, nightclubs. You’ve played many, many different festivals in your career. Yes.

Do you, can you say you have a favorite one that you always like to go to? I mean, you have your one that you just mentioned that was just in June.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yes.

[Darran]
And you know how you introduced artists, but is there something outside of your own productions that you don’t produce?

[Joachim Garraud]
Yes, I have one favorite. Yes, I have one favorite. I have to say it’s American one.

And this is one in Nevada called Burning Man. And it’s this week. So it’s right now.

I’m working to go there tomorrow to be at Burning Man Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and back on Monday. So yeah, it’s my favorite one. Burning Man is my favorite festival.

This is not really a festival like EDC or like Coachella or Tomorrowland because this kind of festival is not only music. This is hearts. So it could be dance.

It could be a painting. It could be all the different arts. But I have to say that as a DJ, going and play there is something unique because of the location.

And we are going back to the beginning of this interview about location or surrounding around you. When I told you that being on the planet Mars with my solar recording studio makes you in different mind, drop you in something different look. So imagine when you have 70,000 people in the middle of nowhere in the desert of Nevada, Black Rock City, you have 70,000 people in a different mind.

So those people, they are ready to dance with you. And I remember I made a set, maybe I don’t remember which year that was because I was lucky to go in Burning Man 10 times already. So that was, I don’t remember which one, but I had a very long set.

I played like 16 hours nonstop. And that was crazy because back in the day, I was playing a CD, you know. So I have a huge book with a lot of CDs, CDKs.

And I played all my CDs, 16 hours. But in my CDs, I had ACDC, Hard Rock. I had some classical music like Mozart.

But people, they was there on the dance floor. So I was playing track, funky track, new techno track, everything. And people was for every track.

So that’s why this is one of my favorite track, favorite festival, sorry, because the location and the audience was unique.

[Darran]
I had to once tell somebody, I’m glad you brought that, the difference between something like EDC, Tomorrowland, you know, those ones and trying to explain to them, they were calling an event like that a festival. And I went to the Eclipse Festival in 2017, 2017. I had never seen anything like that.

I was used to going to your typical EDC or Tomorrowland kind of experience. And I was talking to my friends who had been to Burn many times. And they’re like, this crowd is a lot more Burning Man crowd.

Yes. With the exception, the only exception was they did have vending booths at this event.

[Joachim Garraud]
Okay.

[Darran]
Which was kind of like, okay, is there commercialism here? Is there not commercial? They didn’t have, they weren’t selling Pepsi or Coca-Cola or anything like that.

But they definitely had vendor booths. And I know that Burning Man has that. I don’t know.

What’s the philosophy?

[Joachim Garraud]
The philosophy is no advertising anymore. Yeah. No commercial use, no trademark, no logo.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Joachim Garraud]
For example, you go there with your truck, rent a truck. When you just arrive in Burning Man, you just cover and you, or you’re doing rent a fuck. Rent a fuck is cool.

Rent a truck not. You know? So that’s the, for example, at Burning Man, you have the Google camp.

Everybody knows this is Google, but there is no mention about Google. This is only the G camp. Sometimes J camp, you know, but nobody talking about that.

[Darran]
Nice. Who has been your biggest influence when it comes to your career as an artist? And why would that person be such a big influence?

[Joachim Garraud]
I have to say maybe a French influence was Jean-Michel Jarre about the shows, about synchronization light, about using outdoor as a stage, you know? And as a producer right now, I love Eric Prydz as a producer because I love his sound. I love his integrity.

I love the way he’s really, really introduced himself into producing content, visual content also. So yeah, so that’s my, my, maybe some influence. I have many more, but I have to choose those ones.

[Darran]
Well, I saw a lot of the pictures of the people you’re hanging out with. If you have Carl’s number, can you please get me into his Rolodex somehow?

[Joachim Garraud]
We have some questions coming. Oh yeah, we do.

[Darran]
I wanted to get to those too before we wrap things up here. You’ll have to respond to that.

[Joachim Garraud]
About the language? Yeah. About the language.

I want to say that. Okay, so I don’t understand exactly the question, but you want to talk about the difference between switching from French to English into your job or creation process. When I’m doing creation process, I don’t think about this is in French or English because this is a mix.

We are using the same machine, the same knobs, the same function. After that, if you call that synchronization or synchronization, it’s more or less the same. So I don’t know how to respond to this question, but I’m not focusing on any language when I’m in the music process.

Okay.

[Darran]
If somebody were to write a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?

[Joachim Garraud]
I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s hard to answer, but I don’t know.

I like when people talk about me as a pioneer. Because I remember back in the day when I started to be a DJ at 16 years old, we were just using tapes. There was like cassette, tape cassette.

And that was before vinyl. And so I remember across a lot of different periods, like vinyl, CD, cassette, tapes, and then CD, and then MP3, and then Napster, and then all this kind of thing. So I remember all those different layers.

[Darran]
I think I saw something recently. It was on one of the socials, and it said, you want to know why our generation, yours and mine, because I just turned 50 on Friday. Thank you.

But why our generation got so pissed off about music is because we had to go from vinyl to eight track to cassette tapes to CDs to MP3s and buy our collections all over again.

[Joachim Garraud]
And now there is nothing. So that’s why we are coming back to vinyl.

[Darran]
Yeah. A couple last questions here. If Hollywood were to make a movie about your life, who would you pick as the main actor?

[Joachim Garraud]
Do we have to choose an American one? No, anyone, anyone, anyone. I never thought about that.

We’re going to be able to play my life as an actor. You have to have the same morphology of myself. So I can’t choose somebody like Leonardo DiCaprio because that’s not going to be exactly the same look.

Maybe I can say Elon Musk. Sometimes people will say, you look like Elon Musk. Okay, okay.

But I’m not sure he’s going to be available to play my role. I can ask, I can ask. Elon, please.

Are you able to do the casting for me?

[Darran]
That would be awesome.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yes.

[Darran]
And we are going to be getting… Oh, go ahead. Did you want to take another question?

[Joachim Garraud]
I see there is a question. There is two questions. One about the bus, say, which is going to be the…

If you have the choice to having only one keyboard, I’m going to choose this one, the Moog. The Moog 37 sub sequencer. I love this one.

It’s for making bass or lead sound. It’s monophonic, but I love this one. So if I have to choose only one synth, I’m going to take this one.

That was the question from Vincent.

[Darran]
That’s NC Protector, right?

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Yeah, NC Protector. No, no, it’s not Vincent.

You’re right.

[Darran]
And I think there was one last one I wanted to get.

[Joachim Garraud]
French, French touch. They talk about the French touch. You know, actually in France, we have a huge, not a controversial discussion, but there’s a lot of discussion about Olympic Games celebration because we had this worldwide representation on the national TV and on the planet for, I don’t know, two billion people was watching the show.

And then during this representation, we had a scene with a girl in the middle of a lot of different people. And this girl was a DJ. And unfortunately, the Pioneer stuff was not connecting very well because the two CD players was connecting on the same line, you know, one in phono and one in line.

So people was just saying, okay, that’s fake. Everybody knows that was fake. Nobody was playing.

That was just during the show. Okay. But then they did the selection of music and the selection of music was using one of my tracks.

So I was very happy and very proud of that because they have chosen Just a Little More Love, which was, no, Love Don’t Let Me Go, which was a track I could produce with David Guetta. So I was very happy about that. And there is this kind of controversial talk about did they have chosen the right people to represent France as the French touch because Daft Punk was not there.

Yeah, Daft Punk was not there because Daft Punk don’t exist anymore. It’s done. So they’re not going to reform or come back just for one show.

Even this is the Olympic Games representation in front of two billions of people. So that was this kind of controversial thing. I remember I read an article about David Guetta because David Guetta was surprised that nobody called him to represent France at the Olympic Games.

And that was a strange situation.

[Darran]
Yeah, I do remember seeing the pictures and the memes about that. And I’m like, I hook up this type of gear all the time for my shows. And I’m like, I guess I just didn’t look at it close enough because it looked like there were plugs plugged in.

But you’re right. I think you’re right. Now that I look at it, it was going in the same channel.

Exactly. Okay. Speaking of mixing, we’re going to be getting an exclusive mix from you as well, right?

Yes. Awesome. Awesome.

I always love those exclusive mixes. We’ll get that out there. Is there anything else you want to let our DJ Sessions fans know before we let you go?

Okay.

[Joachim Garraud]
But I want to talk about this baby. Yeah, there we go. So this baby, it’s vinyl.

So it’s Joakim Garro and friends. And this is very important for me to have this kind of collector vinyl. So we are sold out already.

So sorry, I’m not selling anything. If you want to listen to these tracks, go on the streaming platform, Joakim Garro and friends. We have 16 tracks.

And I’m very happy and proud about that because as I told you, since the beginning of my career, I tried to help people and to give advices and to invite them to my own festival and to help to share my production process with a lot of people to give them tips and tricks to be able to produce music. And then this album is very important for me because in the 16 tracks, I have more than 40 people who made the tracks, all those tracks with me. And we produce this track only during stream every Thursday night on my own channels.

And I was direct live with all those people. And I was very proud to have all those people for the first time. They’re going to release a track.

They’re going to be subscribed to the copyright agency, SASEM. And this is great because for those people, one year ago, there was completely unknown. Now they have one track with me on vinyl and they were on stage with me on my own festival to play those tracks.

So I’m very proud of this thing. And this is very, the spirit. I love that the kind of sharing because at the end, DJ work is sharing passion, is sharing music.

So with this, I really go to the top of what I can share, you know, my time, my money, my music, my knowledge, everything, my connection, my festival.

[Darran]
Yeah, you know, after talking with DJs, producers that have been in the industry for years, you know, it was when you had something come out on vinyl, there was only a limited amount of release. There were only a limited amount of copies out there. It wasn’t like you were getting a million copies.

You were going multi-platinum with the record, you know? Yeah, you’re right. And I remember working in the music store in 1992.

I was 18 years old and we had this little electronic music section.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah.

[Darran]
And yeah, I didn’t know where to put. You could find Enigma in there. You could find Deep Forest.

You could find Tiësto and Superstar Kyoki, you know?

[Joachim Garraud]
Crazy, Deep Forest and Enigma. There was French and Belgium, from Belgium. That’s crazy.

Yeah, that’s good reference. Yes. Yeah.

But you’re right. But now electronic music is something like 30 billions of US dollars per year by counting about festival, merch, streaming and everything. So, yeah, now we move from underground to the main stage.

But this is cool. You know, I’m lucky to have this kind of vision because back in the day, when I start to be a DJ, nobody wants to be DJ because I was in the dark. I was into the basement.

Nobody can see you. I was, my feet was less than the guy behind the bar. And my feet was less than the guy was the doorman.

The doorman was making 10 times more money than the DJ. But what I liked the more was to share my music with people, even if nobody can see me because I was in the dark and I was in the basement. But now if you have to the young generation, what kind of job you want to do?

DJ is maybe in top five, you know, because and if you have to the young generation, why do you want to be a DJ? Because I want to travel private jet and I want to be in a hotel five stars. Hey, come on, guys.

It’s a bad start. Very bad start. A very bad answer.

[Darran]
You mentioned that in that video that you made. And maybe, you know, a lot of people say don’t go after, don’t go after the money.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah.

[Darran]
You know, if you’re looking for the money, then yeah.

[Joachim Garraud]
Exactly. You’re right.

[Darran]
You did mention 30 billion dollar a year industry merchandise. How important is it for somebody to have a website? Some type of merchandise, something that’s actively on social media, you know, all those things that combine together, that their makeup, their outward or their public, you know, PR, you know, but how important is it to have merchandise?

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah. Back in the day, there was nobody had any merchandise. Nobody had any logo.

And maybe I was one of the first in France to make money by selling t-shirts with Space Invaders on the top. And today it’s like, it’s like a rock band, you know, but that’s funny because the merchandise is not so… Merchandise people buying still Rolling Stone, still Pink Floyd, ACDC.

This is crazy because even the young generation, they don’t buy any Tiesto shirt or any David Guetta t-shirt because this is something I believe a little bit strange with electronic music world. You know, it’s more like a rock or Coldplay. Coldplay, they’re selling a lot of shirt or a lot of merchandise, but not so, but not DJs anymore.

Maybe, maybe, yes, maybe Fred again. I see this kind of newcomers. When I say newcomers, they’re not newcomers anymore, but like Fred again or like Martin Garrix, they’re selling a lot of things.

I think the old generation, they’re not really into it.

[Darran]
You know, it’s one of the things I’ve told some younger DJs, local DJs here in town. I said, you get on the stage, you put your logo up behind you and it plays for a few seconds and then goes to the visual, you know, the LED screens. I go, why don’t you make a shirt and put a QR code on the front of the shirt or at least put the QR code on the back with your name on the front and that way when it’s time, you can take that moment and turn around.

Everyone knows what to do now with the QR code and everyone’s going to go. Yeah, and it can take them to your website or it can take them to your Instagram or TikTok, wherever you want them to go to. You could have a different shirt for each show taken to a different social platform or something.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yeah, you can do that.

[Darran]
You know, just something to get a little bit more creative out there, but I think you’re right. When I tell people, get your own domain name, get a logo. These things are not hard to get nowadays.

I mean, I literally just made a whole website for a third company that I own completely based on AI text.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yes, yes.

[Darran]
Make it 500 words and focus on this keyword of a minimum of like six to 10 times. Yeah, I made all like seven or eight pages for the site. I was like, okay, that was easy.

So get a bio, you know, come on. These quintessential things. But anyways, it’s been such a pleasure having you on the show.

I definitely want to follow up with you. Absolutely. And thank you to everyone in the chat room.

Thank you guys. That came on via Facebook, that came on via Twitch and YouTube. And thank you for the questions.

We will get this episode up on the site here soon. I’ll translate it as well to make sure we have it out there.

[Joachim Garraud]
Thank you for having me because I really like your work and you’re such a passionate guys. And I really appreciate that. And I think that’s what makes you successful because you’re not lying.

You’re just doing what you like the most. And that’s why you’re doing a very good job.

[Darran]
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

It’s funny. A lot of people out there think I make a quarter million dollars. I’ve been accused of making half a million dollars a year doing what I’m doing.

I’m like, do you know that I was on food benefits and I had a broken back and going to surgery? Are you serious? No, you know, you got to be real about it.

But thank you again. We’ll definitely be following up with you here in the next, like to follow up with everyone in six months.

[Joachim Garraud]
Okay.

[Darran]
Hannah, here we go. Here we go.

[Joachim Garraud]
I’ll see you soon. As soon as I’m going to go, I’m going to play. You’re in DC, right?

No, Seattle. Oh, Seattle. Oh, you’re in Seattle.

Okay. Because I have a show in DC in October. But Seattle, I have to organize a show in Seattle.

You have to introduce me to a club. We can play techno or techno or electro sound. Send me some, maybe some contact.

And we have to meet there.

[Darran]
Definitely. Definitely. I know those people very well since I’ve been partying in this town for 35 years.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yes, I can imagine. You know everything.

[Darran]
Best place for people to go to find out more information about you.

[Joachim Garraud]
Go on my website, joachimgaro.com or Instagram. Yes, you see it. Perfect.

There we go.

[Darran]
Website, Instagram, and Twitch. So technical. Just think of the days when you had to use OBS.

[Joachim Garraud]
Yes. I love OBS. Thank you.

Thank you, Darran.

[Darran]
Cool. Yes. You have a wonderful evening and we will talk soon.

Okay. Bye-bye. Bye.

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We love getting those. But again, be sure to follow us on our socials for more updated information at thedjsessions.com. This is Darran and that’s…

Salut, Joachim Garo. Etez dans la place. Thank you, Darran.

Thank you very much and y’all have a wonderful evening. Goodbye. Bye-bye.