MONSIEUR LOVER BOB

“In Los Angeles, the weather is fantastic, I just came back from my daily tennis-practicing session, so I’m happy,” purrs Bob Sinclar, affectionately known in the DJ Mag headquarters as 'Loverbob'. He’s as smooth and sexy as ever, and his soft French accent only adds to this. 


Bob recently made the move from Paris to the sunshine city, in part due to his DJ demands — with a massive summer tour going on and a residency at Hakkasen in Vegas, plus setting up a studio with Joachim Garraud — and also because of the awesome weather that allows him to continue his sport. “It gives me a lot of good energy for my music and for my life. You need to be in very good shape, and in your mind you need to concentrate on what you do,” he explains.

Loverbob is passionate about everything he does. With roots in hip-hop, trawling vintage stores looking for vinyl to sample is his norm. And the kind of LA outdoor lifestyle depicted in the video for his recent hit, ‘Summer Moonlight’, suits him well.

Despite his new LA life, though, his label Yellow Productions will remain in France — and he returns there every five weeks to work on new signings and releases (he recently took producers Michael Calfan and Erik Hagleton under his wing).

Earlier this year he relaunched his Africanism All Stars project, which has had chart success from House Rules, a couple of DJs from San Diego that he discovered. And that’s Bob all over, spreading the love...

So Bob, you still go and buy vinyl?

“Yeah, yeah, it’s very important because this is my main way to produce music, and I’m coming from the hip-hop generation. I started to listen to hip-hop in the mid-eighties and I discovered how the DJs were recycling this stuff.”

What sort of stuff have you found recently?

“Actually I found a lot of things here for the compilation album I did for my label called ‘Paris By Night’. For the new single ‘Summer Moonlight’, the vocal is a sample from a Hawaii record from 1975, for example, that I found in this store. I found another track that I called ‘Cinderella’: the sample — vocals — come from this record and I found the guy and he lives in LA and this record is from '73.”

We started to follow you on Twitter and noticed you were out shopping at the weekend...

“Yes, I’m very new on the network because it’s hard for me in my head to think that there are people who are interested in what I am doing every day. It’s not in my culture. I started my own label in 1994 and the only way to promote records was to press vinyl and send it by post, and I just reached the DJs. So now the people, the young generation, wants to know where you are every minute, so of course I tweet once a day if I have something to promote — but they want more.

They are more attracted by what you do than by your music, so it’s very special and very weird. This timing is very strange because I release a record and they are interested in it for maybe one week and then the time passes and it’s on to something else.”

You seem ego-less, responding to emails easily, with a personal touch etc. Is that something you’ve always done?

“Yeah, you know it’s very interesting what you say because the young DJs, the young producers, they don’t answer any more, they are just very arrogant. I never forget where I’m coming from. I used to manufacture the record myself in Belgium and rent a car to go to there and go to London to hand the records myself to Mr Bongo, Soul Jazz Records, Timewarp and all the records shops.”

Is that something you still want to do, to have a hands-on approach?

“I try to answer very quick to everybody, and also to answer sometimes, I say sometimes, to people who are very nice to me on Twitter. I do it myself, just to be in connection. This is my personality. I hope this is the image I give to the fans, when I’m on Twitter, when I’m in my video. I’m just having fun.”

It does look like you’re having a very glamorous, sexy lifestyle, jet-setting etc...

“I’m not the jet-setter. I’m never close to any stars. Of course, I did The Voice in Milan last week, you have the Will.i.ams, you have a few stars and I say hello. But then when I’m leaving that world I’m here, home with my kids playing with them everyday and then doing some sport and making some music — and then I’m going on tour. So of course, when I’m touring in the summer, I rent a jet — so of course, this is an amazing life, thinking of where I’m coming from. At the beginning of the '90s we didn’t have any expectations about making any money as a DJ, so I’m very happy but I don’t have this kind of life, close to any kind of star.”

Did you move to LA at the same time as Joachim Garraud?

“Yeah, because I was involved in the opening of Amnesia club in Miami. It was October 2011 and then I stayed there during four or five months, I put money inside and then it happens sometimes when you’re not on the same direction and situation with your partner. So I left the club and Joachim was also in the club with me. 
“I was really close to him because he’s a bit like me, he has kids and he’s really down to earth, and also he’s a really good producer. So after this experience in 2012, last year, we say 'What do you think about Los Angeles?' We can start the studio together in Santa Monica, and it’s a good experience for us.”

Thank you for doing the mix, it’s lovely and fresh...

“Yes, I wanted to do that for a long time. I saw that Martin Solveig did it about two years ago and it’s a very good opportunity for me, and I love to be associated with your image. I think DJ Mag, it’s one of the best, maybe the best, I did the cover in maybe '98 for the French revolution. So it’s always amazing to be close to your brand. So I did, I hope, a nice mix, a lot of exclusive tracks and I put all my heart into it.”

Tell us about your Vegas residency...

“Vegas became big in terms of DJs and electronic dance music, and all the club community, they’re doing more money with DJs than with the casinos. I don’t really understand Las Vegas because it’s typically the kind of holidays I never go on. But it’s very entertaining, you have a lot of shows, and you can spend three days with your friends, having fun, doing pool party, going at night. So I’m very happy that this is happening in the US because everything started in Vegas, this kind of crazy madness.
“I signed with Hakkasen, they are connected with the pool party called Wet Republic, so I have eight dates shared between Hakkasen and Wet Republic, which is fantastic for me because I have a lot of promotion.”

On your Facebook there’s a picture of you as a baby, DJing...

“Ten years ago when my grandpa died, my father brought me a big box with a lot of pictures of me and my sister. And I was one-and-a-half in this picture. My father told me that I was completely obsessed with putting the 45, the small disc, putting it on and putting it off. I was doing that during many hours. 
“It’s weird because I believe a lot in synchronicity. Have you heard about synchronicity? It’s a guy called Carl Jung, who was a disciple of Freud.

He discovered that there is no accident in life. It’s all about energy or the energy that you give to your life, this energy comes back to you with different meetings. And these meetings drive you to the way you’re going to be. So it’s weird that at that moment in my life, maybe I had these feelings with vinyls and it came back when I discovered the hip-hop culture.”

Have you always had that school of thought, or is that something you’ve developed as you’ve got older?

“Oh I can’t say. Because I was really passionate about sport and football and tennis. I expected to have more skills and talents in sport, but then music took my entire body. When I saw a DJ for the first time in Paris, you know you had Africa Bambaataa, Jazzy Jay, they came in '87 with a Zulu Nation tour all around Europe. He was the first to come and tour in Europe and I was really impressed. Then after that I started to buy records and turntables, but it was just a hobby at the beginning.”

What do you think of the hip-hop scene now?

“I think hip-hop is dead. I’m sorry. At the moment I think hip-hop goes somewhere that I don’t really understand anymore. There is no soul, only noise. I’m happy in a way that guys like David Guetta find the key to work with the hip-hop brothers. At the moment I think that the US pop artists took that dance music movement into their world, so I think as an artist I have to escape from this way of producing music. I try to find new vibes and new samples of music from somewhere else.”

You did a remix competition recently...

“This is the way to communicate with the new guys, it’s good to give them the opportunity to remix. The one you’re talking about was ‘Sea Lion Woman’. It’s good promotion for ‘Paris By Night’. You can share, you give them opportunities, and then it’s promotion for your song. I’m learning how to make more promotions.”

DJ Mag went to one of your promotions in Soho in London at the Raymond Revue Bar years ago...

“Oh you remember that? It was amazing! OK, you want to talk about sex, right? Because I’m a big fetishist, I have a collection of erotic magazines of the '70s. Simon Dunmore gave me the opportunity to do this because he knows my addiction.”

Where do you find this vintage erotica?

“Well, I’m doing some flea markets around the world. I love flea markets, even in fashion, I’m always dressed with a mix with French or Italian designer, like Balmain or DSquared or Yves Saint Laurent — these kinds of things. Always mixed with very old vintage ladies jackets. I go to Japan and find nice vintage store. Even in my music, there is always this nostalgia element from the '70s or '80s.”

It’s good to mix it up...

“Yes of course, because I don’t like to show any brands. I’m a fancy guy, but hidden.”

Bob Sinclar's exclusive mix CD is free in the current DJ Mag issue. Get your copy HERE.

01 Bob Sinclar "Summer Moonlight" (4’52)
(Christophe Le Friant)
Produced by Bob Sinclar
All beats and instruments by Bob Sinclar
Guitar by Tom Naïm
Piano by Cutee B.
Vocals by Gaël Benyamin
Additionnal sounds by Erik Hagleton
Contains an extrapolation of the song “Summer Lady” (written by Cecilio Rodriguez,
published by WB Music Corp/Northshore Publishing Inc)
Published by Mighty Bop Sessions/Christophe Le Friant
(P) 2013 Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0953 0

02 Bob Sinclar "Sea Lion Woman" (Nico De Andrea Remix) (4’30)
(Arrgt Nina Simone & George Bass)
Produced By Bob Sinclar
All beats and arrangements by Bob Sinclar
Remixed by Nico De Andrea
Published by WB Music Corp. / Warner Chappell Music France
(P) 2013 Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0954 0

03 Michael Calfan "No Man's Land" (4’22)
(Michael Calfan)
Produced by Michael Calfan
All beats and instruments by Michael Calfan
Published by Mighty Bop Sessions
(P) 2013 Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0955 0

04 Bob Sinclar Feat. Steve Edwards "World Hold On" (Paolo Ortelli & Luke Degree Remix) (6’15)
(Steve Edwards/Christophe Le Friant-Michaël Tordjman)
Produced by Bob Sinclar
& co-realised with Michell Tordjman
Lead vocal by Steve Edwards
Backing vocals by Steve Edwards, Valérie & Marie Paule Tribord
Whistle by Bob Sinclar
Keyboards by Michell/JG Schreiner/Cutee B.
All beats and loop by Bob Sinclar
Remixed by Paolo Ortelli & Degree
Steve Edwards appears by arrangement with the Black Arts
and Menace Management Limited.
Published by Mighty Bop Sessions/Universal Music Pub. Ltd/Menace Music Ltd.
(P) 2012 Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0956 0

05 Bob Sinclar "Dirty Mind" (Dub) (5’07)
(Christophe Le Friant)
Produced by Bob Sinclar
Keyboards by Erik Hagleton
Contains an extrapolation of the song “Smooth” (written by Mark Vincent Reilly, published by Smooth Dog Music Ltd.)
Published by Mighty Bop Sessions
(P) 2013 Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0957 0

06 Bob Sinclar & Erik Hagleton "Gipsymen" (4’14)
(Christophe Le Friant - Damien Petit)
Produced By Bob Sinclar & Erik Hagleton
All beats, keyboards and arrangements by Bob Sinclar
Additional sounds by Erik Hagleton
Contains an extrapolation of the song “Voilà l’été” (written by Noël Rota & Stéphane Mellino, published by EMI Music Publishing France/Delabel Editions)
Published by Mighty Bop Sessions/ Christophe Le Friant
(P) 2013 Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0958 0

07 House Rules "Hyena" (3’45)
(Yusef Tarzi-Nino Buccilla)
Written by Yusef Tarzi, Nino Buccilla aka Nino Anthony
Published by Mighty Bop Sessions
(P) 2013 House Rules Music, under exclusive license to Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0959 0

08 Bob Sinclar "Cinderella" (She said her name) (Brian Remix Devleeschouwer Remix)(5’07)
(Rex Fowler / Christophe Le Friant / Damien Petit - Rex Fowler)
Published by Mighty Bop Sessions
Produced by Bob Sinclar
Beats and Keys by Bob Sinclar and Erik Hagleton
Remixed by Brian Devleeschouwer
Contains a sample from “The Ballad of Humpty Dumpty and Cinderella”,
Courtesy of Rex Fowler
(P) 2013 Yellow productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0960 0

09 Bob Sinclar "Samba In Hell" (Erik Hagleton Remix) (5’45)
(Christophe Le Friant)
Produced By Bob Sinclar
Remixed by Erik Hagleton
Contains an extrapolation of “Que nega e essa” (written by Jorgen Ben Jor and published by Musison/Nagoya Ediçoes e Produçoes Musicais Ltda.)
Published by Mighty Bop Sessions
(P) 2013 Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0961 0

10 Erik Hagleton "Together Forever" (Bob Sinclar Remix) (5’30)
(Damien Petit)
Produced By Erik Hagleton
All beats, keyboards and arrangements by Erik Hagleton
Children's vocals by the Association AMME (Bonnie Woolley)
Guitar played by Tom Naïm
Remixed by Bob Sinclar
Contains an extrapolation of “Winter rains” (written by Charalampe Chalkitis/Mary Sundahl/Michael Swirid and published by Leros Music France, rights transferred to Première Music Group)
Published by Mighty Bop Sessions
(P) 2013 Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0962 0

11 Tommy Vee "Reach Me (di-run-dero)" (Bob Sinclar Rework) (5’37)
(Tommaso Vianello - Mauro Ferrucci - Emiliano Rizzi)
All instruments by Tommy Vee, Bob Sinclar, Mauro Ferrucci & Keller
Published by Veecious Publishing, Pan-Air Publishing and Mighty Bop Sessions
(P) 2013 Airplane Europe, under exclusive license to
Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0963 0

12 Bob Sinclar Feat. Ron Carroll "House Music" (5’00)
(Ron Carroll/Christophe Le Friant)
Contains an extrapolation of “You can't hide from yourself” (written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, published by Warner Tamerlane Pub. Corp.)
Published by MosProd Publishing and Mighty Bop Sessions
(P) 2012 Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0964 0

13 Bob Sinclar vs Garrett & Ojelay "Let Me Tell U Something" (4’36)
(Christophe Le Friant)
Produced by Bob Sinclar and Garrett & Ojelay
All beats and instruments by Garrett & Ojelay
Vocal by Makedah
(P) 2013 Yellow Productions
FR 4 E 4 13 0965 0

14 Bob Sinclar "I Feel For You" (Ben Delay Remix) (5’09)
(Christophe Le Friant-Marc Cerrone/Christophe Le Friant-Marc Cerrone-Frédéric Poulet-Raymond Donnez)
Produced by Bob Sinclar
Lead Vocal by Bob Sinclar’s angels
Engineered by Cutee B. at Defrey Studio, Paris
Remixed by Ben Delay
Published by Universal Music Ltd/Chrysalis Music Publishing/Malligator Productions
(P) 2012 Yellow Productions.
FR 4 E 4 13 0966 0