Ed Banger's Heavy Metal Disco Misfits Are Still Just Having Fun
Photo by So Me/Courtesy of the artist.

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Ed Banger's Heavy Metal Disco Misfits Are Still Just Having Fun

The French imprint's founder Busy P looks back on 14 years of glam and goofs on the eve of their 100th release.

On the last night of Coachella's first weekend, French electronic duo Justice closed the Outdoor stage amid a frenzy of flashing lights. A clip of the show captures the euphoria of the thousands-large crowd, hands skywards and screaming the lyrics to their classic 2003 collaboration with Simian, "Never Be Alone." As the camera pans the audience, one figure is seen standing stock-still, studying the onstage spectacle: Pedro Winter, the Ed Banger boss who never clocks off—not even at a music festival.

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"It's a show you have to see from the front," Winter, a.k.a. Busy P, tells THUMP while in Los Angeles between Coachella weekends. "People like Pharrell Williams, Frank Ocean, and Madeon were in the audience with us. It's good to have so many people like that watching the show with you and realizing something is happening."

It's a feeling that he's gotten used to over the years. The former artist manager was also in the crowd at the California festival when two of his then-clients, Daft Punk, debuted their iconic pyramid setup back in 2006. "I cried, to be honest with you," Winter recalls. "It was emotional. I was 100 percent sure Daft Punk would have an amazing show, but I never imagined what it would do for the American electronic music scene."

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter's—and more generally, French dance music's—role in catalyzing America's electronic boom can be partly credited to Winter's work behind the scenes. While throwing club nights and studying to become a lawyer, a chance meeting with Daft Punk in 1996 convinced a 20-year-old Winter to instead become their manager. He'd then navigate them through some of their most fruitful and successful years, of which that Coachella performance was one of many peaks.

But his most visible contribution to the global scene came in 2003, when he launched Ed Banger Records, practically on a whim. He launched the imprint with Mr. Flash's Radar Rider EP, followed by Justice's "Never Be Alone / Steamulation / Anything is Possible (Chateau Flight Remix)." The latter's opening track would be the duo's breakthrough. But it also laid the foundation for what Winter calls the label's "heavy metal disco" sound—something like French touch's rebellious child with raw electro riffs and rock star swagger. "Because of this song," says Winter, "Justice is Justice today, and we are Ed Banger thanks to Justice."

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Subsequent releases like the neon scrap-pop of Uffie's "Pop the Glock," the tongue-wagging electro of Mr. Oizo's "Positif," Cassius' The Rawkers E.P. (a track from which was sampled on Kanye West and Jay Z's 2011 album Watch the Throne), and the gritty ecstasy of Justice's "The Waters of Nazareth" continued to build the label's momentum. But it was the latter's 2007 debut album that made the imprint stars in the eyes of dance music's new, internet-savvy disciples. Through their pre-game-ready catalog and goofy onstage antics, Ed Banger's small, tight-knit roster simply brought the party during a time when dance music was, as Winter once put it, "too serious."

Fourteen years after the label's formation, they're hitting a big milestone. On May 12, the label is marking its 100th release with a compilation, Ed Rec 100. Containing exclusive tracks from many of the aforementioned affiliates—including Mr. Oizo, Breakbot, and Cassius—it takes stock of where the once-riotous artists of Ed Banger are at over a decade later. The tracks are calmer, more centered, but still filled with the giddy bliss that they've made their hallmark. Ahead of its release, we spoke to Winter about the Ed Banger sound, its legacy, and why nostalgia is better left in the past.

Photo by Romain B/Courtesy of the artist.

THUMP: You started out wanting to do law before becoming an artist manager. Was running a record label a natural progression for you?
It was totally natural. I often say that if you love electronic music, you have to buy records. You have to buy a turntable because it's the most iconic instrument of our culture. You have to get a sampler or a drum machine to understand how to make this music. And you have to go to clubs and raves. It's a journey, and I did it myself by going to a rave in 1992. Then I realized I wanted to be guy behind the shows, so I threw parties. Then I wanted to be the DJ playing the music, so I DJed. Then I wanted to produce all the records the DJs were playing. So it was step by step, until I finally realized I wanted to do my own label. Did you set out with a plan for the label, or was it more something you just took day by day?
I had no plan. When I started the label in 2003, the morning I woke up, I didn't know I would go back to bed with a new label. It was a complete accident. I met a guy who wanted me to be his manager, and I didn't want to do it. At the time I was managing Daft Punk and DJ Mehdi. I told him to play me his music and I loved it, but I told him, "I'm not going to be your manager, but I'm going to release your music." In another interview, you mentioned your focus as a club promoter was booking local DJs. As a label head, was it important to you that your artists also be local, or from France?
Yes, but not in a nationalist way. As a French man, I wanted to push the French scene, and it's better to work closely with people from your city than by email or with someone you don't see. And maybe that's what people like about Ed Banger: they look at us as a family, and we are a family because we are all living in the same city. I'm proud to be French, I'm happy to be living in Paris. Nowadays, a lot of people here, because of the [terror crisis], want to get away. I'm definitely going to stay because Paris needs culture and music.

Which Ed Banger releases do you consider pivotal in terms of establishing the label's popularity or sound?
The second release on the label was Justice's "Never Be Alone." For me, that's the most pivotal release because it led to where we are now, 14 years later. I would also say DJ Medhi's Lucky Boy album from 2006, and not just because I want to pay homage to Medhi; every time I can speak about the label, he needs to be associated with our success and spreading the love because he was with me. Now, the label is just a one-legged man; we lost one leg and it was his label too. Lucky Boy was the first full-length we released on Ed Banger, and it was also musically showcased exactly what I wanted to do: a mix between hip-hop, house, and electro. Of course, everybody will tell me that it's Justice's , and I love that album too, but if I had to show someone who doesn't know Ed Banger a record in order to understand who we are, I would play them Lucky Boy. Even though it's far from the Justice sound, there is still a bit of the funky stuff that you can also find in Justice. Did you ever feel that the Ed Banger sound was misunderstood?
I understand it, but I will never complain about that. We are lucky to reach a very large audience, and I feel so happy that from a little desk in Paris we managed in 20 years to have fun, spread our music, and meet people without being successful in a "charts" way. If people are focusing on the success of, like, 2006–2009, the "bloghouse" explosion—I am not a big fan of this word, to be honest—I can't and will never complain if people think Ed Banger is just about [ makes whirring sound] funky noise, because it's who we were and who we are. But there is plenty of other stuff we've released that is not that. Mr. Oizo is not making the same music as DJ Mehdi; Boston Bun doesn't make the same music as Justice; Feadz isn't making the same music as Breakbot. I have 15 artists and people are still focusing on the same artists like Justice and Sebastian… I think we are happy. We have a saying in French, "We are well in our shoes." We don't try to be an indie label, or a hype label, or a mainstream label… I think Ed Banger is a unique label. It might make me sound a bit pretentious saying that, but we are in a unique place. You can't fit us in the EDM space or the underground. Why aren't you a fan of the term "bloghouse"?
In French, we have the word "éphémère" [which translates to "ephemeral"]. It's a date in and a date out. [But] here we are in 2017, and we are in really good shape. I love nostalgia, but I think nostalgia is coming a bit too fast. Yesterday someone told me, "Pedro, you were my childhood," and I was like, "Whoa, am I 70 years old?" I was kidding of course, but I think "bloghouse" is a bit like a time capsule. We had a really amazing time; I will never regret the mosh pits, the crazy stuff we did onstage, bringing heavy metal disco to the club. We also did the backstage-onstage, where rather than drinking backstage, we brought everything onstage and had a party. The term "heavy metal disco" makes more sense to me than "blog house" because blogs don't exist anymore; it was an Internet concept that died. And we are not dead yet. The label's rise is often associated with the rise of new media. How did this shift in the digital landscape affect Ed Banger in terms of promoting your music and communicating with the fans?
It started with MySpace, but rather than being guided by MySpace, we managed to take control of social media our way. We were making jokes, putting pictures of me sucking dicks or stuff like that, and I think the key was that people had fun watching us making stupid things and connected with us. It was all about MySpace and adding your friends, but we were friends URL, not IRL. There was also a direct link with the fans, sharing music with them through the player, so we were definitely part of the revolution. I think we're still living in the Internet revolution now. People think it's a one-year thing but it's a 30-year, 40-year revolution that I'm not sure how it's going to eat us. When I started to work with Daft Punk back in 1996, I used a fax machine. It's funny, but that was only 20 years ago. Kids today don't even know what a fax machine is. We got our first email maybe about six months after I started working with them, and that changed everything. Imagine in ten years what will happen. That's actually the perfect lead-in to my next question. It's taken Ed Banger 14 years to reach 100 releases, so where do you imagine the label will be 14 years from now?
I don't think too much ahead. I joke about celebrating 20 years of Ed Banger. I have absolutely no idea where we'll go, what we'll do… For the moment, it's still fun, but maybe Ed Banger will transform itself into something different. I have no plans. I think the important thing, and this is a good message for the kids, is to do things rather than speaking about and planning them. Do your thing, make things. This is what I'm most proud of, reaching 100 physical releases. Some kids might say, "Oh, they only release seven or eight records per year," but it takes time to make a proper record physically. It's not just an mp3 we're throwing up on the Internet; otherwise we'd be at 300 releases. It takes time, but this new compilation has 17 unreleased, exclusive tracks which give me a kind of confidence in the role and relevance of our label in 2017. It's not easy; it's a cyclical thing. We're lucky to be the label of the moment often, but of course trends change and labels lose fans, but I feel there is a new generation of fans rediscovering Ed Banger today. There is a lot of positive nostalgia from the old-timers who miss those years, and I tell them the door is still open with Ed Rec 100. What do you hope will be Ed Banger's most enduring legacy in French dance music?
I think we are still working on it. Daft Punk already paved the way, telling the world to check out what's going on in France; they did the hard work and we surfed the wave. I have no shame in saying that, because I helped to make the wave, too. But our legacy? I don't know. I hope people see us having fun. I want our legacy to be something that's not too serious, you know?

When Krystal Rodriguez isn't jamming out to SebastiAn's "Embody," she's on Twitter.