SHA Exclusive // Noir Interview

Today is the first big day of many in 2012 for Noir and Noir Music. It see’s the first release of the year for both artist and label, ‘Noir & Richard Davis – Found Out’. The track is the follow up to 2011′s massive club hit ‘Noir & Haze – Around’ and the early feedback is already showing it is set to be just as big as it’s predecessor. Check out our review here.

To coincide with the release Noir has granted SHA’s Craig an exclusive interview so waste no more time reading my introduction, scroll down and get to the good bit!

NOIR // NOIR MUSIC

Welcome to SHA Rene Kristensen (aka Noir) How are you today?
Thanks, I’m good… just had a much needed weekend off, so i feel relaxed.

You grew up in Aalborg, Denmark. A City well known for its Classical and Opera music links. What were your musical inspirations growing up?
I had a good friend with a big-brother who was really into early hip hop and electronic music. That was my main inspiration. I started to listen to Kraftwerk at the age of 6-7 years old (because my friends big brother recorded his 12” singles onto cassette tape for us) and for some strange reason I fell in love instantly. In fact i was pretty much only into electronic music back then, especially if it had robot vocals on it.

Noir is a French word which translates as ‘black’. How did you get your artist name?
I have always been facinated by melancholic and dark things (music, movies, people). In my teens i listened a lot to Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, The Cure, Nirvana etc.

My father died in the winter and I had a good friend who died in the winter as well. I was born in the winter, I love long walks in the night-time when all is quiet and dark….. and for some reason I just felt that black/dark was a very suitable name for me. Now…. Dj Black or Dj Dark didnt seem like a cool name, so a girlfriend I had at the time suggested I looked it up in French (like my real name) and when i saw ‘Noir’ it just made sense and seem to be the perfect match for me.

In 2005 you became known Worldwide through the success of your track ‘All About House Music’ on Wyze Recordings. You were 29 at the time, what involvement with music did you have up to this point and how did the success of the track change things?
Well….. it became my international breakhrough as it was played by a lot of big djs, made it to the top 3 on Traxsource (which was maybe the most popular download store back then) and it made top 5 on the buzz chart and got played on the Essential Selection, which was also a big deal back then.
So it made people aware of ‘Noir’ and it gave me a boost to keep on moving forward and believe in myself and my tracks/productions.

Up untill the sucess of ‘All About House Music’ I had been doing a lot of tracks, remixes and bootlegs that got some attention, dance chart positioning and airplays in Denmark. I was producing House, R&B and a lot of chill-out tracks trying to find myself as a producer I guess. When I started focussing on the house-tracks, which I realized I loved the most, it all started happening slowly and led me in the right direction.

You followed this up with a number 1 digital release ‘My MTV’ on Toolroom Records and have had continued success ever since. I read that you took a year off to perfect your sound, how would you describe this time?
To be honest i didnt take a year off on purpose. At the time I was focussing on getting my label ‘Noir Music’ some attention and it became more than a full-time job making that happen.

On the side-line I was working on several tracks but I didnt feel the productions were good enough and I started feeling limited by the software I was using back then (Reason). So I bought Ableton and my good friend Martin Thompson from UK flew over to Denmark and spent a weekend with me teaching me how to use the programme. It didn’t take me long to feel comfortable with it, but by the time I had something ready to release (that I was finally happy with) a year without any single releases had passed.

So it happened by accident, but it was a fortunate accident as I got time to think about what direction to take for the future and it gave me time to the productions to another level in my own opinion.

Your success hasn’t gone unnoticed in your homeland. You have featured heavily in the Danish Deejay Awards (DDJA) for the last 3 years winning ‘upfront deejay of the year’ in 2009 and ‘producer of the year’ in 2010. How did it feel to receive such acclaim from your own Country?
It feels really good plus in 2011 I won for best producer again and dj of the year (even though I was up against all the more commercial djs) The fact that people like and award me for my dj skils and my productions is a very nice feeling, especially as the people voting are from within the industry: djs, label-bosses, producers, promoters etc.

I never expect to win anything as I dont make music to please people, to hunt fame and success. It all comes from passion and love for what I do and believe in – so when its awarded I truely feel surprised and happy.

Through the success of your dj-ing and production you have now played all over the World. What has been your favourite place(s) to dj and why?
I get asked this all the time and I really cant pinpoint out any specific clubs and places cause there’s been so many different experiences that satisfy different parts of the club element in your brain and heart.

Sensation in Denmark and some of the festivals in Brazil have been awesome because of the amount of people you see in front of you enjoying the music. Miami, Kazantip, Barcelona and Ibiza are always good places because of the weather and their electronic festival/music events. I really enjoy playing in the UK and Germany as they are always up for some good partying and are quite well-educated and open minded to underground music.

In 2011 i had surprisingly good experiences at Sixx in Athens, Bootleg in Tel Aviv, Le Pearl in Lyon and Melkweg in Amsterdam. Its all about the people you meet, the enviroment of the clubs and the reactions you get from the music you play. I dont really care if I play in front of 150 people or 35,000 people. Its the feeling you got the day after remembering the party and the happy faces that counts. The fact that you can go home with good memories and a smile on your face.

In 2007 you started your own label, Noir Music. You regularly feature releases from underground music heavyweights such as Butch, Solomun and Santos. The label is highly regarded amongst peers, when you first started it off did you expect such success and what challenges have you faced?
Again I never expect success. In this industry you cannot predict success no matter how good your product is. So much good music is overlooked each and every week. You can work hard, do your job as good as you feel you are capable of and then hope for the best. And thats simply what I have done. The first year I worked so hard for my label that it affected my own producing-career as mentioned before.

The big challenges is getting your music out to the right people and that was maybe the biggest challenge for me in the beginning; getting the big respected names to first of all listen to the music and the hopefully support and hype it. It takes a long time to build the right network and then build a proper reputation and brand from that. It doesnt come overnight. Takes time, patience and hard work.

Even today I still work very hard on every release and treat it as if it was my own. I try to keep the quality very high on my label, but I also try to give each release its own personality and story via the remixes, ideas behind and press releases. If I started leaning back and just enjoyed the success instead of trying to evolve and do better I might as well stop being a label-manager. It wouldnt be fair to the artists involved and the good music they produce.

You are currently working on a new artist album. What can we expect to see in this release?
I am going for 10-12 full vocal (verse, chorus) tracks/songs. I feel there’s too many electronic albums with 2-3 good tracks and then 10 fillers. I wanna try and make an album with no fillers, no matter how long it may take me.

There are no special rules regarding the genres, but what I have made so far is very 4/4 minded. I think you’ll be able to hear that all tracks are produced by Noir, but at the same time I start from scratch on each and every track to keep from recycling ideas, sounds and to give each track its own personality.

Working with different singer/songwriters on each track takes a lot of time and me being a perfectionist doesnt help either, so the album is far from finished right now, but I’ll get there and it will be released whenever I am 120% satisfied with the outcome. I think 2 more singles will be released before the album is 100% ready and released.

Finally, other than the album release, what else does 2012 hold for Noir and Noir Music?

Noir:
As it looks now there will be a lot more touring than previous years, so I might have to get a mobile set-up to produce my music on the road as well.
I also aim to stay more healthy in 2012 as the touring and in/out of airports + clubbing can lead to a very unhealthy lifestyle. I am not 18 anymore and need to take care of myself if I wanna be on top of my game when i’m 100 years old

Noir Music:
We got a lot of exciting releases coming up. I cant reveal most of it as things are not 100% confirmed in some cases, but in February we will do a re-issue of the 1997 classic ‘Hollis P Monroe – I’m Lonely’ incl new remixes by Subb-an, Laura Jones, SIS and Larse. In April we should have something extra exciting as Noir Music turns 5 years.

I am also kick-starting the NM2 label (Noir Music 2) which is an off-shoot/sister label to Noir Music of course. Exciting artists such as Toky, Fur Coat, Hot Since 82, Inxec & Droog, Atapy, Kolombo, Santé, Lula Circus, Blond:ish + more are already involved in what looks and sounds to be a very good start for the label. Very excited about that.

So no rest for the wicked……. we keep rockin’ it

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