Yuksek On Why Playing Live Is Boring

In 2011, French electro-house don Yuksek, weary of DJ culture and club bangers, released an avant-garde pop album, Living On The Edge Of Time. He put together a band, singing lead vocals. Now, a year after they performed at Splendour In The Grass, Pierre-Alexander Busson is Perth bound, having rediscovered dance music.

“I enjoy DJing again,” Busson explains. “The live tour was cool, but it's boring sometimes to play only your own songs. So now I can play anything – depending on the crowd and my feelings.” Two years ago Busson distanced himself from dance. (“I never listen to much electro,” he claimed.) What changed? “I think I needed to get my ears fresh, focusing on the melodics [and] arrangements, and not only on the 'dancefloor' effect of the music. But it's something I still like and I'm working on again at the moment.” Busson is no opportunist. While the Americans have embraced dance music on an epic scale, he's not set out to capitalise on it. “The electronic mainstream belongs to guys like Skrillex who I respect, but that is totally not my cup of tea.” He has a formal musical background, studying piano at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Busson played in bands, the best known Klanguage. The electronic convert 'Yuksek' emerged around 2006 as part of the second wave of French house. Even before Living..., Busson aired the 'producer' album Away From The Sea. Amanda Blank rapped on the popular Extraball. Along the way, Busson has remixed big pop names – Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and the folk Noah & The Whale, although props from the artists have been rare. “The best feedback was from Thomas [Mars] from Phoenix, who told me that when they start playing Lisztomania on stage he has the beginning of my remix in his head. That's a compliment!”

Living... was a stunning album with credible pop songs spanning New Wave, '80s electro and vintage French touch – but it was slept-on. In fact, today it's surely superior to Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. “I was really proud of the record,” Busson demurs. “We toured two years live with it, so for me it was successful enough. I think it was an album without a proper radio single, so it's always more difficult these days when people just download one song, add it to an iPod playlist, and switch to the next one after two days. Unfortunately, 'concept' albums are not so contemporary.”

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