Endorphin: Mac Daddy.

Endorphin plays The Zoo on Friday.

Can I whinge? OK, so I’m a slightly competent music whore, I love chatting to assorted musicians and actors and I like to think I’m consistent with my work (whether you think it’s consistently bad or consistently good is your opinion, but I get paid for this shit). But, when equipment goes haywire, there is very little one can do about it. It’s with this in mind that I attempt to write a story about the most wonderful Eric Chapus, the softly spoken French-born producer otherwise known as Endorphin. Eric and I had a lovely little chat on Saturday afternoon about his upcoming performance’s in Brisbane and how much he loves The Zoo, but a certain little microphone connected to a certain someone’s dictaphone chose to bite the big one within seconds of the tape recording, and what was captured was like a 2-step version of the interview; kinda garbled, didn’t make a lotta sense and it was at warp speed. So... If it makes me unprofessional to even bother writing and explaining what happened, then shoot me.

Anyway, back to Eric. So we’re chatting away and it’s Saturday afternoon, a bit of a no-no time to be doing interviews and he’s a bit concerned about a live appearance he is due to perform at the Channel V studios in Sydney on Sunday morning.

“I have television to do tomorrow morning, it is kind of nerve wrecking, because its kind of different.”

For an artists like Eric who prides himself on the spontaneous reactions he can wheedle from a crowd, he admits, performing in a cold studio isn’t his idea of a good time.

“Well, it’s very clinical, isn’t it?” he says in his most diplomatic fashion. But ever the trooper, Eric knows that his audience comes from a variety of corners, and the pre-teen Sunday morning Channel V audience is just as important as the Café set who flog his latest opus AM/PM to within an inch of it’s life.

More importantly, and this aint just an up to a local venue, Chapus is dearly looking forward to returning to Vegas.

“We haven’t done The Zoo for a long time, probably because we’ve done a few international supports up there recently and it would just seem odd to come back. But Joc and C, I love those girls. And the crowd is so great there.”

Before you think, ‘Pfft! Just another producer sucking up’, hear me out, Chapus has had a long time association with the Zoo Crew. “They’re like a family,” He enthuses, and has close friendships with the owners. So if you ever thought an Endorphin gig at The Zoo was special, you’d probably be right. He even settles an internal debate I’ve had for some time that there probably isn’t another venue even remotely like the feral glamour of The Zoo, agreeing that it is the sole venue in Australia that can mix a reasonably sized audience with a down to earth, alternative, we’re-just-hanging-out-at-a-friends-house vibe. “Yes, definitely, that is why I like to go there.” Says Chapus, admitting it’s a nice change of pace to the glitzier venues of down south.

The current album AM/PM melds the two sides of Eric’s personality perfectly, even the city and country sides get a look in. We all probably remember the party line about Eric, French man lives in Daintree wilderness for 14 years writing electronica, sends a tape off to triple J, becomes Unearthed goes on to score numerous ARIA nominations and plenty of hits singles, not to mention being one the few Australian artists with a heavier touring schedule then most bands. Many parts of AM/PM appear to bring together the dichotomy of living in such pristine rainforest with moving to the concrete jungle.

“Sydney is a beautiful city, I’m enjoying the culture of the city because I lived in the country for so long.”

Coming with Eric on his next trip up our way is his long-time dancing companion Ivan plus a new addition, a stilt walker, not to mention a new swag of visuals that Chapus makes himself on Mac

“Music has become my job, so visuals are like my hobby.”

And why does Eric do the visuals himself?

“I think I’m a real control freak.”