DAT Politics

Chain D.L.K.: Hi there… I’m not sure if I should say “folks”, “lads”, “louts”…  amidst so many ways to address young people, what’s your favorite one and why?

DAT Politics: I kind of like “Louts”, in French we often use the word “Loulous” which has probably the same meaning.

Chain D.L.K.: How are you?

DAT Politics:  Really good and happy to have our new album “Blitz Gazer” out, we played the new tracks live recently in Paris and London and people seemed to like them! It’s really satisfying!

Chain D.L.K.: I think you’re one of the nicest electro-indie-rock (even if I keep on preferring “digital with human touch” as a possible description of your style) bands on the stage. Could you tell us some funny anecdotes about your birth and artistic history?

DAT Politics:  The funniest one is probably the launching party of “Dat Politics” as a band, back in 1999.

It was in a pretty small “experimental oriented ” club in France. We had a bigger crowd than expected, some people had to stay outside.
During the show, girls started to dance and the vibe was really nice. So at the end of the gig we were pretty pleased and asked the owner of the place what he thought about the party and he answered us with a grouchy tone : “This is not a discotheque!!!” When we think about the music that we were doing back then (rough computer jamming), it’s pretty funny, I mean it was not really mainstream music!!!

Chain D.L.K.: Many reviewers refer to phenomenons like yours as the perfect example of out-of-head marketing product thanks to the proliferation of merchandising that normally follows some good audience response… let’s give them some of evidence to prove that it isn’t what they think… I don’t know… we might talk about a matter of topical interest, some unknown philosopher or of a scientific debacle… pick your topic!

DAT Politics:  The merchandise is integral part to the society of the spectacle we live in. The music industry is unfortunately sometimes run by corrupted unscrupulous business men, unconcerned with the artistic quality. I think at our level we are quite far from this ideology and even if the project has existed for over a decade, we are still part of a movement that’s rather underground and DIY.
In this world where everything is virtual, and as a total fetish geek myself, I think it is important that the physical objects such as vinyl or t-shirt still exists. It’s not about money, it’s more about having fun and continuing a rock tradition. And I really hope there’s an in-between marxism and idiocracy.

Chain D.L.K.: Are you still using the 8-bit software “sound club”?

DAT Politics:  Not really, it was stored on floppy disks and it can’t run anymore on our actuals computers. But we kept some sounds from it which we still inject in our music.

Chain D.L.K.:  The effect on people of some of your most known tunes is quite incredible… I’ve seen many emulating chicken movements while dancing… reveal some secrets of your voodoo-like practices?

DAT Politics:  HAHA! We always had the most improbable dancing demonstrations during our shows, I guess that our music helps to liberate some kind of energies that tend to be restrained by the pressures modern life! Probably a weird neurotransmission thing, due to our frequencies and melodies! Some fans even told us that they used it as a therapy!!!

Chain D.L.K.: Let’s speak about your new release on SubRosa, “Blitz Gazer”… how would you describe it? A sort of mutation on the classical concept of “best of”?

DAT Politics:  I guess that with “Blitz Gazer” we reached another level, a better assimilation of everything we’ve done so far mixed with artistic approaches which inspired us. The synth pop side is more obvious here. The production is less glitchy and more 80’s classic but everything is still mixed in our own strange way.

Chain D.L.K.: Is your Toshiba still alive?

DAT Politics:  Yes it’s still alive, but he’s been retiring at my mom’s house in the french countryside.

Chain D.L.K.: The importance of laptops as a proper musical instrument in contemporary line-ups is not a cliche’ anymore so one could argue that there will be laptop legends besides guitar legends… amidst so many button pushers, who’s the worthiest of a wax figure at Madame Tussauds?

DAT Politics:  It could definitely be Aphex Twins ’cause of the grim face he used to put everywhere and he is one of the best knob twisters!

Chain D.L.K.: Any forthcoming tour?

DAT Politics:  We’re working on it! We’re planning to go to Australia/Asia/ USA/South America in fall and tour Europe as well of course.

Chain D.L.K.: Let’s suppose you could choose a videogame or a movie to score… make your choice!

DAT Politics:  It would be fun to redo the soundtrack of “Liquid Sky”. Also, I’d like to score the next Duncan Jones’ movie, “Moon” was so good!

Chain D.L.K.: How do you imagine the future of music?

DAT Politics:  The future is now, the big music corporation is dying, there will probably be more and more micro-societies focused on specific sounds and creative spirits, living outside of business and laws but determined to stick around, if only for a short but joyful life.

visit the artist on the web at: www.datpolitics.com