Music ELECTROCLASH PIONEER MISS KITTIN

ELECTROCLASH PIONEER MISS KITTIN

Published on Wednesday

The first lady of electro is back with a truck-load of catchy electronic pop tunes under her belt.

Music

ELECTROCLASH PIONEER MISS KITTIN

Published on Wednesday

The first lady of electro is back with a truck-load of catchy electronic pop tunes under her belt.

• Text by Dazed Digital

Set to play an idyllic Greek location alongside the likes of Autechre, Gonjasufi, Moderat and Gaslamp Killer, Miss Kittin will be bringing back her electronic sounds to the Reworks Music and Art Festival. The electronic-focused festival will be the first ever audio-visual art festival in Greece offering both new and established artists for a chance to exhibit and play out. Inviting out Caroline Hervé aka Miss Kittin, she will be playing an unexpected set composed of Sven Vath, 90s progressive house to pure electro.
Dazed Digital: How do you feel your own music has progressed since you first started out?
Miss Kittin: I am getting closer to the kind of pop-electronic song structures I'm trying to reach. Of course when I started, I didn't expect anything like where I am now, I was just a raver who happened to DJ and then speak on tracks, all by "accident". Since then, I travelled around the world, performed as a DJ and my voice exploded. By practicing, on stage or on devices in the studio years after years, I now can finally make my ideas come true. I am conscious the kind of music I have in mind is a niche, too electronic for the masses and too pop for the "underground" but I feel good in this position, this is my home. I am at a crossroads, it defines me well.

DD: Having been such a major part of the electroclash stuff earlier on, what are you listening to for 2010? Your charts tend to include more progressive/tech-house sounds now?
Miss Kittin: I am listening to a lot of things. At home or in clubs. In private I have a huge taste for rock, punk, electronica or simply good pop music. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Biosphere, Bola, Serge Gainsbourg, old kitsch things like Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Ella Fitzgerald, Iggy Pop, Leonard Cohen, Outkast, Sebastien Tellier, or Fever Ray are among the things running in my iPod lately.
In clubs, I regularly listen to other DJs - it's important, to have fun and open my ears, which is not the case of many of us. I always played Detroit techno in between, pure electro or minimal tools. It's the big jump between all these styles that drives me, artistically and technically. The aim is: how can I play together all the things I like, without taking care of labels, and keep people dancing? It takes a lot of research to find special tunes in your old DJ bags, B-sides, forgotten tracks. Good beats, good melodies. What you play is clearly influenced by what you can find in the new releases today.

So it's true I am back to a certain idea of trance, what you guys call "progressive" which is for me a different type of trance, more british. I always liked it in the German sense of the word, Sven Vath's early 90s flavour. Why? Because there's excellent releases like this right now, because it brings a room together after few years of split atmospheres. I am lucky that this sound is back. Let's say we come back to a sound coming from the heart, less from the brain. I am not the type of musician or DJ running in a loop between the studio and the gigs, I have a life!

DD: Where are your favourite places to play?
Miss Kittin: Many... Ibiza of course, because it's a concentration of all what you can find in electronic music. Well, nearly... I love Spain in general, long love story. I love South America for teaching me how to sublime life through music. I love Japan for the sci-fi feeling lost into a structured society. I love France because it's home, I don't have to travel far and there's so much to do here for music! I love London and Scotland for the rough party style. Italy came on the map a few years ago and I discovered amazing clubs with a long history, plus, the food is great!
I am looking forward to go to Israel for the first time this month.

DD: You've worked with many people like Golden Boy/The Hacker… any dream collaborations for future?
Miss Kittin: I have... But it's a complicated one, let's see how it goes... Otherwise, for the hundredth time, if Damon Albarn calls me...

DD: You recently started your own fashion line? What are the inspirations for the latest collection?
Miss Kittin: It's not really a fashion line, it's fun accessories like purses, for a French brand called Lollipops. Again, it happened for fun, I got introduced to Marjorie, the boss, and we got along. I want to keep it that way. I think the collection reflects this fun, rock'n'roll influenced, girly, black-white-red, something to party. I am working on the summer collection for next year already.