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Laurent Garnier was born on February 1 1966 in Boulogne-sur-Seine (a suburb just outside Paris). Growing up with his father, who worked in a fairground, and his mother, a hairdresser, young Laurent was interested in nightlife and fashion from an early age. Around the age of 7 Laurent became particularly fascinated with the idea of nightclubs, and as a young boy he would spend many an evening alone in his bedroom with his hi-fi, creating his own 'nightlife'. Young Laurent's major passion in life was his record collection and, thanks to his father's friend who was head of the CBS record label, the young boy soon managed to procure himself a unique collection of vinyl albums and singles.

The disco fan



In the late 70's Laurent was finally old enough to venture out onto the Paris club scene with his elder brother. The disco craze was at its height in the late 70's and Laurent, a major disco fan, decided he had at last found his vocation - music and nightlife. Besides disco, the teenage Laurent tuned into all the other major musical trends of the day, listening to punk, funk and reggae. He was also greatly interested in the crossover between the music and fashion world. Laurent was soon able to observe changing fashion trends directly when he began working in his mother's hairdressing salon to earn a bit of extra pocket money.

By the age of 16, Laurent had discovered musical programming. The streetwise teenager had also started taking a particular interest in the club DJs whose musical mixing skills got clubbers gyrating on the dancefloor on a Saturday night. Rigging up a series of small microphones in a makeshift home studio, Laurent started recording dance tracks which he would then practise stringing together DJ-style.

But around this time Laurent's parents, worried that their son would be unable to make a living from his musical hobby, began urging him to start thinking of training for a 'serious' profession. Laurent took his parents' advice and enrolled for a two-year course at a catering school.

At the age of 18 Laurent left home after landing a job as a silver-service waiter at the French Embassy in London. Arriving in London in the late 80's, Laurent soon discovered the city's thriving club scene, which was at that point undergoing a veritable explosion thanks to house music. After a year and a half in London, Laurent moved to Manchester in 1986, where he discovered a dance scene which was even wilder than London.

Garnier discovers the house scene



Within a few months of his arrival, Laurent had fulfilled his musical vocation and set himself up as a DJ. In 1987 Laurent started hanging out at the legendary Hacienda, the hub of the Manchester dance scene. It was there that he would meet the in-house DJ Mike Pickering (who would go on to become the frontman of the group M People). Laurent soon landed a job DJ-ing at the Hacienda under the pseudonym DJ Pedro. House - the vibrant mix of black dance music and pop which was invented in Chicago in the early 80's - was taking Manchester by storm and Laurent Garnier found himself in the very eye of that storm at exactly the right time.

In 1988 Laurent was forced to leave Manchester nightlife behind and return to France to do his national service. After serving his time in the army, Laurent headed straight off to the U.S. to sample a bit of New York nightlife. Once more the young French DJ found himself in the thick of the dance movement, hanging out with the famous Frankie Knuckles (inventor of the original House sound) and discovering the New York club scene. When he returned to France, however, Laurent found a dance music wasteland. House had not yet arrived in the French capital and Paris nightlife remained decidedly tame in comparison with New York or Manchester.

Armed with his boxes of rare dance records gleaned from his travels abroad, Laurent Garnier set out to revolutionise Paris nightlife. Playing at Paris's hottest nightspots such as Le Palace or Le Boy, Garnier soon attracted enormous crowds of French clubbers eager to dance to his new beat. Within a few months Laurent Garnier had become the most popular DJ in the capital. Indeed, he would soon begin the evening playing in nightclubs then move on to perform at raves held in fields and disused warehouses on the outskirts of Paris. Garnier's immense popularity stemmed from the fact that he could adapt his DJ-ing to suit a wide variety of musical tastes. Indeed, the young French DJ was constantly tuning into emerging musical trends, discovering techno, trance, goa, ambient house, garage, jungle and, of course, the 90's disco revival. Garnier was passionate about new musical sounds and his talent as a club DJ meant that he knew exactly how to mix them.

Garnier the master re-mixer



Not surprisingly, Laurent Garnier soon went on to win a whole string of awards and he was voted DJ of the year countless times. Following his success on the club scene, Garnier then began releasing a number of maxi-CDs and dance remixes under various DJ pseudonyms.

The British music press went wild about Garnier, showering his record releases with rave reviews and hailing him not just as a talented DJ but as a veritable musician.

At the end of 1994 Laurent Garnier released his début album entitled "Shot in the Dark". This album, essentially aimed at the dance scene, revealed Garnier's incredible talent for improvising over long stretches of techno beats and samples. "Shot in the Dark" proved to be an enormous hit, selling over 70,000 copies in 20 different countries (a rare feat for an album by a French artist).

Garnier top DJ



Meanwhile, Laurent Garnier's collection of awards was steadily increasing. The young French DJ triumphed at the British Dance Music Awards no less than four times, scooping awards for Best DJ, Best Artist/Producer, Best Label (for his label F Communications) and Best Club (for the "Wake Up" nights he organised at the Rex Club in Paris).

By now Laurent Garnier was one of the leading figures on the techno scene and it came as no surprise to anybody when in 1996 he was voted Best International DJ of the Year. Following this success, the English label React contacted Garnier, offering to produce a 'Best of Laurent Garnier' compilation. The result was the excellent "Laboratoire Mix", released in December of that year. This innovative 'album' consisted of a single track lasting 344 minutes which featured a selection of Garnier's most famous remixes and recordings.

Meanwhile Garnier continued with his DJ-ing on the Paris club circuit, playing every Thursday night at the Rex Club and every Friday night at the legendary gay club Le Queen. Totally fascinated by ultra-modern technology and his "machines", Garnier also continued to experiment by fusing new musical styles. Indeed, the young DJ is renowned for constantly seeking to reinvent his sound and he loves to inject a bit of "fun" into the techno movement, which, in his eyes, takes itself far too seriously at times.

In April 97 Garnier released a second album, entitled "30" (the title was inspired by the fact that he had just turned thirty when he recorded it). This second album, recorded in the Wake Up Lab, Garnier's home studio in the Paris suburbs, has a more introspective feel to it than the first. The ever-innovative Garnier also ventures into new musical territory, fusing catchy dance beats with jazz, rap, funk and even reggae (on the track entitled "For Max"). Other tracks (such as "Deep Sea Diving" and "Le Voyage") are evidently inspired by film music and Garnier freely admits that he would like his next musical move to be in this direction. In fact Garnier says that his greatest dream would be to collaborate with a director on a film where the music plays as important a role as the images. (He envisages a collaboration similar to that between French director Luc Besson and his composer Eric Serra on the film "Le Grand Bleu"). For the time being Laurent Garnier continues to combine his love of music and fashion by creating the soundtrack for Paris fashion shows. (Garnier regularly works on soundtracks for the Japanese fashion designer Kenzo).

Meanwhile, Garnier has lost none of his youthful enthusiasm or energy. Indeed, earlier this year the star DJ celebrated his 32nd birthday by organising a special "Minuit/Midi" (Midnight/Midday) rave at the Rex Club in Paris, where he delighted French dance fans with twelve hours of non-stop house and techno.

On 20 February 1998 Laurent Garnier triumphed at the Victoires de la Musique awards, carrying off the prize for Best French Dance Album of the Year. This was the first time that the organisers of the French music awards had chosen to include a dance music category and, as this new award came just months after the SACEM (French copyright association) had officially recognised the rights of French DJs, Garnier did not fail to underline the importance of the award in his acceptance speech.

Following his triumph at the "Victoires de la Musique" awards, Garnier began taking his techno in a new direction, collaborating with choreographers, for example, on contemporary dance shows. Garnier also became something of a godfather for young up-and-coming DJs and musicians. Indeed, he devoted a great deal of time and energy to helping France's new generation of dance musicians get their records produced and distributed.