“I had cancer, it didn’t get me, so I’m announcing my return”: the Frenchman Laurent Garnier, sacred DJ monster, returns, keen to “do less and stay in the qualitative”, reflection already matured before the illness. To the question “how are you?”, the answer is supported. “It is going much better. I stopped for six months, I had cancer, in my throat, there’s nothing to hide, I fought all summer, he didn’t get me, so I announces my return”, enlightens the reference DJ for AFP, whose smile can be heard on the phone.
The “DJ that DJs listen to”, as Jeff Mills, a techno monument, says in the documentary Laurent Garnier, Off the Record dedicated to the Frenchman, indicated on April 14 on his social networks that “health reasons” ‘forced to cancel all its dates “until the end of the summer”. And the atmosphere turned towards twilight with the release on May 26 of the album 33 rpm and then go away, with a final piece “…And then go away!”
“How ironic! When we were finishing the album, I didn’t yet know that I was going to stop and, later, it made me and my team laugh a lot, even if the news wasn’t very “fun” then. rewinds the former resident of the Haçienda in Manchester or the Rex Club in Paris. This album above all reflects his questions: “At 57, being a DJ is weird, surrounded by younger DJs, in front of a younger audience. I was like ‘am I still legit?’”
Also read: Laurent Garnier, return to the journey of a gifted DJ
Before illness struck, Garnier decided to “continue differently.” “I’m not going to do 15 weekends in a row anymore. The idea is to do less and stay qualitative, spend at least two days there, take the train rather than the plane.” “I have been refusing a lot of things for years now, not taking dates because they are well paid but because they are places where I want to play, where I feel like family” .
On November 25, he will be at the Polaris festival in Switzerland, December 9 at Koko in London for a disco set and December 17 at Sucre in Lyon. Garnier today feels the “need to return” to his “roots”: “being a DJ, sharing by playing other people’s music, to make people dance”. With this desire to come face to face with his audience, “more than present during my absence: my album was successful even though I was not even there to defend it”.
Before his return behind the decks in Switzerland, Garnier will turn up the sound on November 9 on Fip, at the helm of Comme à la radio, for “4 hours live, 4 hours of conversation in music, to travel through the life of a artist”, as presented by French radio.
If his composer’s hat remains on the coat rack for the moment, Garnier continues to supervise record releases on the Cod3 QR label, co-managed with Scan X, another DJ-producer. With his new online radio, [Deep]Search, this music bulimic is still a “blazer” in the middle of all these “platforms managed by an algorithm that can’t do everything”.
During his recovery, artificial intelligence made waves in the music industry. “I remain deeply human, machines can do lots of things but I doubt they can be as funky as James Brown.”
In recent news, Garnier rejoiced at the 25th anniversary of the Techno Parade in Paris, he the ambassador of electronic music that has long been demonized. He was not contacted for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics, while Daft Punk declined. “I think I’m not popular enough,” he concludes, still keeping a low profile after 35 years of career.
