The first parties I went to in Paris were raves in really underground places, like the party you see in the beginning of the film. They would take place in chateaux or warehouses in the suburbs. Some were put on by UK promoters looking for places after the crack down on raves in the UK. One of the first I remember was on the roof of the Pompidou Centre. They did three parties up there, which were great.
I first met electro duo Daft Punk – who were a huge part of the scene and who feature in the film – in 1993 at a massive rave called EuroDisney near Disneyland Paris. There were two big rooms: one was for techno but bigger was the garage room – a lot of people came from the UK especially for that.
The Yes party in 1993 was the first time I had heard garage on a big sound system. I was very young and the vibe was incredible. That night I heard Tony Humphries, David Morales and Robert Owens and it was extraordinary to hear all of those people for the first time.
Another place that introduced me to garage was a party called KitKat at a very famous venue called the Palace. It was a gay club that was super-cool in those days and really underground.
For years Paris wasn’t really a city for clubs, but this has been changing over the past decade. One of the reasons is because when Parisians go out, they don’t want to go very far away: they want to stay in the centre. It’s either because it’s their culture or because they are lazy and cabs are expensive. The problem is you can’t put clubs in the centre of Paris because the streets are really small and you have problems with the neighbours. But there are still some good spots, and we don’t need to have thousands of them.
Of the new clubs in Paris, I especially like Badaboum, a large venue for about 1,000 people right in the centre of the city. For once they’ve managed to do this without any noise problems. There’s a big electro room, and a smaller “secret room” upstairs which is more funky. There’s also a bar. It’s cool because you can move around and it feels like going to different places. They have very good DJs and live performances and it’s always packed, so for very young people it’s cool.
Zig Zag is another young people’s club, but I don’t go there because it’s too young for me! It’s an electro club near the Champs-Elysées and the sound system is great. I would also recommend Rex club; techno is what it’s good at.
To get into Silencio you have to be a member, but you can always try. It’s a private club designed by David Lynch, based on the club in his film Mulholland Drive, and it looks absolutely amazing. Daft Punk told us a story about how one time even they didn’t get in. The doorman got fired after that. We put this story in Eden, and my sister contacted the actual doorman to play himself in the scene.
I like a place where you can really dance. It’s very important and now I’m older, I like outdoor parties. At Wanderlust the DJ can play outdoors. There’s also Nuba, which has a big roof terrace. As for summer parties, Haiku puts on great events, with innovative DJs, and Weather Festival is great.
If you like more underground music, Djoon is fantastic, especially if you like South African deep house. And there’s a really cool gay bar called Candelaria. You wouldn’t know there’s a bar there – but there is a small door hidden away at the back of the restaurant, and once you go through that you’ll find it. I also really like the Pop In, a small indie rock bar that puts on concerts. It’s in the 11th arrondissement, which is the nicest area for bars.
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