CoolJunkie Interviews David Guetta

August 24, 2009 10:01 AM
by Marcos Colón

If there’s one DJ/Producer in the world right now who’s busy, and we’re talking abnormally busy, it has to be David Guetta. Right now he’s got three of his tracks in many Top 10 charts all over the world, a rarity amongst DJs, let alone any pop artist. With a grueling touring schedule this past year, he’s still made time to create a highly anticipated album, One Love, and work with some of the biggest pop artists out now, including the Black Eyed Peas, Estelle, Akon and Kelly Rowland. Having been so pleased with working with Guetta, they’ve spread the word to the rest of the urban and pop community, and now the man’s phone is blowing up with requests for his production work.

CoolJunkie recently got the chance to chat with David Guetta about his highly anticipated album, working with some of the biggest artists in pop music, and the spread of dance music in America.

CoolJunkie: How’s the touring been treating you lately? You’ve got one hell of an itinerary.

David Guetta: Very good. I’m actually in Barcelona at the moment. It’s great right now, Barcelona’s a very cool place for me to play.

CJ: The release of your upcoming album, One Love, is quickly approaching and you’ve been releasing some singles that have just been crushing the charts.

David Guetta: Yes! The album comes out on August 24th, but I’ve already released a few tracks like When Love Takes Over, I Gotta Feeling, which is also on the album, and Sexy Bitch which is currently #1 in many countries at the moment.

CJ: Are these track receiving the type of reaction that you wanted?

David Guetta: Well right now in many countries around the world, I have three tracks that are in the top five. (laughs) Which is absolutely unbelievable. Between the track that I did with the Black Eyed Peas, and When Love Takes Over and Sexy Bitch, it’s unheard of for a DJ to do that, but at the same time it’s unheard of for an artist at the same time. We haven’t even really started the promotion yet on Sexy Bitch, which includes the video. So that’s something to look forward to.

CJ: You’re doing something right now that many DJs don’t do, which is teaming up with these mega-pop artists like Kelly Rowland, the Black Eyed Peas and Akon. What prompted you to do something like that?

David Guetta: It’s not that the other DJs don’t want to do it, it’s that they don’t have the opportunity to do it. I just had this incredible opportunity to do something. Since things went really well with Kelly and then with Will, they just spread the word and the next second I have many artists calling me and asking me to do a swap deal. I’ll produce tracks for their album, and in return they will be featured on my album. I don’t think there’s any producer on the planet right now that wouldn’t want to work with the Black Eyed Peas, with Estelle, Kelly, Akon. They’re all amazing artists.

CJ: This is definitely going to open up more doors in the future for you.

David Guetta: Right now there are so many huge artists that are calling me and asking me to produce tracks for them. Obviously the success of I Gotta Feeling helped a lot. I’m a DJ first of all, but I love to produce.

CJ: Since you travel so much around the world for your gigs, you obviously see the change in music in different markets. What is your opinion of dance music in America? Do you feel that it’s beginning to grow more?

David Guetta: This is the most exciting time when it comes to dance music, not only for America, but for the rest of the world as well. I’ve always felt that dance music has been so underrated in America. It’s just crazy. It’s definitely growing, but even though it’s not where it should be at yet, you can feel that dance music is getting bigger and bigger. For some reason it hasn’t caught on as fast because for a long time the media treated dance music like it was something that was only for the gay community and people who took drugs. They never gave it the respect that it deserves. For me, dance music is as big as hip hop and pop and rock. For me there have always been a few signs of it catching on, like when you listen to Timberland and Kanye West. They started taking some sounds from us and putting it in their music. The fact that I have a lot of respect for the Black Eyed Peas and that Will.I.Am decided not to stick to one sound and came to me and wanted to understand the culture and pick up new sounds is great. He came to Ibiza and spent some time with me in the DJ booth. He went for it, for real. I was really happy that I could work with them on something like this. Right now the list of really, really big urban and pop artists in America that are calling me to produce, it’s just really incredible. It means that it will happen in America and it will change the market for America and the rest of the world as well. My album is really electronic music from Europe fused with urban culture from America. Me and Will call it electro-hop, but whatever you call it, I think it’s going to be huge.

CJ: You’re going to be headlining the massive Electric Zoo Festival in New York City in a couple of weeks. What do you look forward to when you play a festival like this, because it’s not everyday that you have such a great lineup in New York City?

David Guetta: I’m extremely happy. This is something very new in New York and I’m very happy. I was actually in Los Angeles, and my record company was telling me, “David you have to understand the market here in America is a lot different than Europe and Australia. The scene is very small.” But I couldn’t agree because I tour all the time and it’s always packed. I invited them to come with me to a show I played in Los Angeles at a coliseum. They came and there were 110,000 people there. How you can say there’s no scene when more then 100k people are coming to listen to four DJs? Come on! Just open your eyes!

CJ: This festival in New York City should be able to top that with the lineup.

David Guetta: I certainly hope so. Everyone in America is so excited about dance music right now and I can feel it every time I come and play in your country. It’s really one of my favorite places in the world. You can feel the excitement and you can feel the frustration of this young generation that wants to hear it more but can’t hear it on the radio because they won’t play that music. The reaction we get from these songs when they do play them on the radio is very, very good.

CJ: This recent success is definitely going to keep you busy next year.

David Guetta: This year has been extremely busy for me, but next year could be even worse!(laughs) It’s great because for me it’s like a non-stop party.

CJ: Now do you think that may affect your touring?

David Guetta: Maybe we’ll have to balance things out a bit more, but I’ll always be a DJ first. It’s very important for me to DJ because I love it. It goes together very well because I’ll make a track and I’ll test it out at the club and look at the people and see their reactions. Then I could go back to the studio and change it up a bit. It’s very unique to be a DJ and producer because if you’re a pop artist you make an album and if it does well it does well. But for me, I make the track and try it out way before I’ll clear it on an album, so I’ll know if it works on the dance floor.

Click here to hear more from David Guetta.