Breaking The Cycle

The beardy French electro-funk producer Breakbot (aka Thibaut Berland) has finally delivered an album, By Your Side, through Ed Banger Records. It's auspicious, too, with him bringing his live show to Summadayze.

In fact, Berland began recording By Your Side after 2010's cult single, Baby I'm Yours, which reappears here, along with the official lead single One Out Of Two. Gallic dance acts have presented us with classic albums: Dimitri From Paris's Sacrebleu, Daft Punk's Homework, Air's Moon Safari... Yet today many DJ/producers are abandoning the format for ephemeral tracks, singles or EPs. Not Berland. “Well, yeah, I thought about just doing tracks and stuff, but at some point I felt like I maybe needed some challenge,” he says from his Paris base. “I felt like it was a good idea to make an album. It was quite hard, but in the end I'm pretty happy about it.” He still appreciates LPs, rating his labelmates Justice's Audio, Video, Disco and Kindness's Cassius-helmed World, You Need A Change Of Mind.

On By Your Side Berland journeys back to the '70s – there are reverberations of disco-pop, Prince's early funk, and the blue-eyed soul of Michael McDonald-era Doobie Brothers and Hall & Oates. The producer recruited (male) vocalists – Irfane, Ruckazoid and Pacific!'s Björn Synneby. Berland isn't alone in his nostalgia, with Yuksek mining similar influences on his exhilarating Living On The Edge Of Time. Still, being closer to Sam Sparro than Justice, By Your Side is an uncharacteristic album for Ed Banger – a label traditionally associated with bangin' club music. Indeed, Berland even offers ballads. Regardless, he's grateful that Ed Banger's Pedro Winter should be supportive.

Berland grew up on the music of the '70s and '80s, Michael Jackson's Thriller a favourite (Los Angeles' Ruckazoid spookily channels the late singer on Why). He studied at the computer graphics school Supinfocom, befriending Justice's Xavier de Rosnay. Here, Berland co-directed the award-winning short animation film Overtime. However, he became increasingly absorbed in music. Berland first attracted attention with a remix of Justice's Let There Be Light. Next, he released the Happy Rabbit EP on Moshi Moshi. 

Pnau, whose Baby Berland tweaked, invited him to Australia to tour with them in 2008. “It was probably one of the funnest experiences I've had in my life,” Berland enthuses. Does he dig Pnau's Elton John-commissioned Good Morning To The Night? “I heard about it, but I didn't hear it yet.” Berland has likewise recast Heaven Can Wait for Charlotte Gainsbourg, the daughter of Serge and Jane Birkin who not only sings but also acts (she's a Lars von Trier muse). Alas, Heaven... was one remix Berland has done that was declined. “I think it was Beck making the decision, if I recall right, because he was the producer of the album [IRM],” he says laconically. “I guess he didn't like the remix because he refused to use it.” Berland later put it online. 

House DJ/producers are now producing pop acts, David Guetta the trendsetter. Berland wants in. “It would probably never happen, but in the production world I would love to work with people like Beyoncé or Rihanna.” (He did remix a song Beyoncé's sister Solange cut with Chromeo.) And Berland hasn't abandoned film. “One of my dreams is to make some kind of musical,” Berland reveals. “It's an ultimate goal for me in my career to make a film and the music. But it's such a huge amount of work that I would have to find the time to do that. Right now it's not possible, but maybe in a few years...” Before he does anything, Berland will travel to Australia for the fifth time, his show taking in around six songs from By Your Side, albeit 'remixed' for festival crowds. “[Australia]'s one of my favourite countries in the world.”