{"id":1083,"date":"2017-04-13T20:48:24","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T20:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.halcyon-sf.com\/main\/?p=1083"},"modified":"2018-12-10T04:20:03","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T04:20:03","slug":"may-20-noir-fred-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halcyon-sf.com\/main\/may-20-noir-fred-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"May 20 – Noir + Fred Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

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NOIR<\/h5>\n

\u201cI was 8 years old,\u201d remembers Ren\u00e9 \u2018Noir\u2019 Kristensen, \u201clooking at a poster of Duran Duran outside the Eiffel Tower, and telling my mother that when I was older, I wanted to be a musician, traveling the world like they did.\u201d In the three decades since that day, the softly spoken Dane has achieved all that and more. One of the planet\u2019s most in demand house DJs and the man behind a hugely successful and pioneering label, he\u2019s also the man responsible for one of the decade\u2019s biggest house tracks so far, 2011\u2019s global club smash \u2018Around\u2019. The track, a sexy, synthesizer-tinted groove featuring vocalist Hayze, was by far the biggest of Noir\u2019s career to date. Picked up by house giants Defected, it dominated dancefloors across the world for nearly 18 months – and didn\u2019t just catapult Noir to the front rank of producers and DJs but Solomun (whose subtle, sexy remix became the definitive version) as well. <\/p>\n

But then Noir\u2019s mission to spread the house music word started early. Ren\u00e9 was raised in the quiet, close-knit city of Aalborg in Northern Denmark, a town shot through with the peculiarly Scandinavian quality of Janteloven (rule one: \u201cdon\u2019t think you\u2019re anything special\u201d). Very much the youngest of three children, his father a smith and his mother a cleaning lady, there was, he says, \u201cno music in the family.\u201d A friend\u2019s big brother, however, had a huge vinyl collection. At 7 years old, when his schoolclass was asked to bring in a tape of their favourite music, Ren\u00e9 first demonstrated his gift for the unexpected. \u201cAll the other kids were bringing in children\u2019s music,\u201d he remembers, \u201cI played Kraftwerk!\u201d<\/p>\n

By age 8-10 he was collecting Duran Duran posters and at age 10-12 listening to UK radio stations playing the first wave of acid house, and by 13, like so many European teens, he was a Depeche Mode diehard.
\nA gifted teenage football player, he had offers from some big local teams, but says he \u201cknew really early that he wanted to create music and express myself.\u201d It was a club called Rendez Vouz that gave him his chance aged 17. \u201cI filled in maybe 5 or 6 times before they asked me to DJ regularly. I told the owner that I would only do it if I could buy all the music for the club and decide the music style.\u201d Soon he was playing three nights a week. As the upper floor DJ, playing \u201c50% house, 50% R&B and hip hop\u201d to the notoriously late arriving, early leaving Danish club crowd, he developed a philosophy of DJing that remains to this day. \u201cThe guys that played before me, they played what was given to them via paid promo-service \u2013 I bought a lot of music myself to stand out and to push it forward, keep it interesting.\u201d This passion for new music, this wish to give the crowd something unique every time, has never left him: eight out of ten tracks you hear Noir play in any club now has been re-edited by him to fit his sets perfectly.<\/p>\n

In 1997 he bought a PC, a Yamaha synth and some Cubase music software. With no experience or musical knowledge (aside from the instinctive sense of \u2018what works\u2019 that has guided his whole career) essentially he was starting from ground zero. \u201cI found a guy, Leif Berg Jensen, who taught me to use Cakewalk, and later Reason. He was very technical and I had the flair for arrangement and detail.\u201d The pair made \u201cvery electronic, sample based\u201d music, but soon Ren\u00e9 was looking for a fresh challenge. His next mentor was blues musician Palle Kruse Jensen. \u201cThe software I had picked up very quickly but the music stuff came from a lot of questioning. I didn\u2019t know the scales or chords, I judged by mood: \u2018why is that happy? Why is that dark?\u2019 It was a long learning curve, sucking all the knowledge I could from these musicians and vocalists.\u201d <\/p>\n

A trip to Ibiza in 2004 led to Noir\u2019s first big international tune. Inspired by Nic Fancuilli\u2019s Skylark bootleg of Tears For Fears, and a snatch of a Dire Straits song he heard from a passing car\u2019s stereo on his return home, he constructed the cheeky, \u2018Money For Nothing\u2019 sampling \u2018My MTV\u2019. It finally came out on Toolroom in March 2006 (by then parts and vocals had been re-recorded), and its success, coupled with that of 2005\u2019s polemic, \u201cAll About House Music\u201d gave Noir (\u201cI was looking for melancholic DJ names and DJ Dark or Black sounded really bad! My girlfriend (at the time) suggested I look for something French\u201d like my birthname Ren\u00e9) exposure outside Denmark and the confidence to strike out on his own. Giving up his day job at a friend\u2019s gym (\u201cI had convinced them to put a DJ booth in there!\u201d) in 2007 he set up his own label, Noir Music. In 2009 Pirupa & Pigi\u2019s \u2018Sweet Devil\u2019, became Noir Music\u2019s first Beatport number one. Since then the label has combined acclaim from DJs and critics (it\u2019s currently the eighth \u2018most charted\u2019 label of all time on Resident Advisor) with commercial success; over 180 releases to date (including on sub labels NM2 and Klimaks Records) have garnered too many Beatport top ten hits to count, while the \u2018Use Your Ears\u2019 compilation series has consistently showcased the label as one of the best and freshest in house music.<\/p>\n

Indeed while Noir maintains that \u2018the real kick\u2019 for him is still DJing, thanks to his label (and his bi-monthly podcast), he\u2019s almost as well known for his skills as an A&R \/ house music tastemaker as he is producer and DJ. Two of this years hottest stars in particular, Hot Since 82 and Finnebassen, first got their break on Noir Music. The team-up with Defected has also proven a great marriage. Not only have the giant UK house label brought \u2018Around\u2019 to a wider audience, but a hugely successful, quickfire double header of mix compilations for the label (\u2018Defected In the House Miami 12\u2019 and \u2018Noir In The House\u2019) epitomised the label\u2019s new, forward thinking direction, arguably helping it regain its status as one of the leading house labels on the planet. <\/p>\n

And since that day in the classroom, Noir\u2019s success has been based on following his instincts and refusing to do the expected. Six months after \u2018Around\u2019, confounding expectations of a copycat, cash-in follow-up, his next track was the dark, deep, \u2018Found Out\u2019. It was greeted with a mixture of caution and bafflement by his new fans, but today its one of the tracks he gets requested the most. \u201cWhen I play it now,\u201d he says, \u201ceverybody sings along even though there’s not big chorus like the one \u201cAround\u201d has got\u201d<\/p>\n

Still based in Aalborg, Noir is now firmly established in the first rank of house DJs with bookings all over the world. Last June he recorded his first Essential Mix for Radio One, and he\u2019s just returned from the BPM festival in Mexico, where one of his original heroes, Kevin Saunderson, played at a Noir Music showcase. And while he continues to live that eight year old kid\u2019s dream as a DJ\/musician, next on the musical agenda is \u2018Angel\u2019, the first collaboration with Hayze in the three years since the completion of \u2018Around\u2019. An early Giorgio Moroder-style bassline, fused with a techno vibe and a heartfelt vocal from Hayze, it might well be an even bigger smash than \u2018Around\u2019. Not that Noir is too bothered. \u201cI don\u2019t have a strategy,\u201d he insists. \u201cI just have a passion for sharing the music that I love.\u201d From the classroom, to the DJ booth, to the studio: so far it seems to be working.<\/p>\n