DJ ZebraSeptember 12, 2006
*Name: DJ Zebra
*Do you use a pseudonym? I am Antoine MINNE, a.k.a. DJ ZEBRA. I have this name since 1993, when I started DJing in an funky-latino style in France.
*Members: I also play in the BOOTLEGS LIVE BAND with DJ Moule, playing live our own mash-ups with guitar, bass and loops.
*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: I don't use technical definitions to describe my work. I'm rather like a "metteur en scene" (in french), it's like a movie director or a master of puppets. I create musical scenes or stories with singers and musicians that never met in the real life. It's not just a mix. If it was, mash-ups wouldn't be so interesting.
*Location: Paris, France.
*Original Location: Ham, France
*What is your creative/artistic background: I started playing guitar at the age of 9, in 1980. It was in Ham (the city where I was born, in the north of France). Then I created my first rock band in 1990. We played my instrumental compositions, which were a sort of mix between The Smiths and Jimi Hendrix (can you imagine that ?...). I was a student in an art school at this time, and I always knew that my life would be nothing without a creative job. Then I went to Rennes in 1991, to work in a radio station, and since that I played music and produced radio programs. So being a DJ was the best way to do both.
*History: I'm living in Paris, France, but I started playing music in a professional way in Rennes (west of France), which is a city that had a serious new-wave background. I joined Billy Ze Kick in 1993, a pop band who did songs over loops (from The Doors, Them, Dave Brubeck, lots of reggae hits...), which was new at this time. This experience made me want to work with a sampler, then I never gave up this kind of work. It was already bootlegs, but I didn't know it because this happened before the "bastard pop" movement came.
*Born: 1971
*Motivations/Philosophy: I like to be free. I like every kind of music, and I have an offensive attitude. The art of provocation! So bootlegs/mash-ups are the best way to do music with all those elements. It's also a way to open people's minds, to have a sort of political dimension without anything else that music. Some people think that "we shouldn't have the right" to do that kind of mix between artists without demanding. So it's like a "f*** off" style, and I like that.
*Web address: My website is http://www.dj-zebra.com
