What is your name?
Oxia, stylized OXIA. Initially, Oxia was a two-man project : Stéphane Deschezeaux, a friend from back when I was teenager, and I. We started making music in the early Nineties and decided to perform live in 1994, so we started looking for a name. Stéphane had a bunch of astronomy books at home; we opened one of them and came across the word “Oxia”, the name of an area on planet Mars. We thought it sounded cool and took it as our moniker. There’s no real message behind this name, it’s simply that we liked it. Then, after Stéphane and I stopped working together he let me keep the name.
Where are you currently based?
I still live in my hometown Grenoble, France, the small city where I was born. I’ve often considered moving to Paris because I like spending time there and a lot of friends are based there as well, but in the end I guess I enjoy living here. Also, because I travel almost every single week, most often than not to big cities, I’m actually glad to go back home where most of my close friends and family are also based. My points of reference are there, you know. If I hadn’t had my job as a DJ/producer and weren’t touring around the world, maybe things would have been different; I don’t think I would’ve stayed in Grenoble because, even though there is stuff to do and cool parties well… It’s still far from being a big city.
Your hugely successful track “Domino” (25 + million views on YouTube) was voted #6 techno track of all time by fans at Awakenings, what do you attribute to the success of this track
It’s always a bit difficult to know why a specific track works. I think there are many factors: the context in time when Domino was released, its catchy melody with this sort of universal appeal, and a groovy beat. What also contributed to its success was the fact all types of DJs played it, from the underground ones to the most commercially-oriented ones, helping the track to become even more popular. Twentysomethings (25 is about the average age of the crowd) often come up to me and tell me they got into electronic music because of Domino. Since it was out 11 years ago and they discovered when they were still teenagers, this track brings up many memories; they’re always happy to listen to it again.
What equipment and programs do you use?
It’s a bit long to list but mainly I use Logic Audio on Mac, a bunch of software, and still some hardware like Virus or Nova …Nowadays I compose in my studio and, afterwards, I mix the tracks at my friend’s studio – Nicolas Masseyeff, who’s also my label partner (Diversions Music). He’s better equipped than me when it comes to mixing. And it’s always good to have a second opinion.
How did you get into Djing and producing?
I became interested in music at a very young age, and very quickly was drawn to mixing, when I was about 13 years old. I won a local radio contest and was invited to their studio, which was a second revelation to me. The first being attending a Cerrone (late Seventies French disco artist) concert with my parents when I was a child. I remember telling them: “This is the job I want to do later” – being onstage and playing music.
Flash forward a few years later to that studio invitation … A year later I began to mix, using a cassette recorder and a turntable. I shared this passion with a couple of friends, so we started hosting a radio show on a small local station. It was back in 86 or 87; we mixed Funk music and also House – the first records were starting to show up in France. Then with time I started mixing in student parties and in clubs … In the early Nineties as I mentioned above Stéphane Deschezeaux and I turned to producing then created Oxia in 1994, and our first record was out the year after. It was released on the label we set up with Kiko, Ozone Records. Afterwards we starting playing a bit everywhere in France, then one or two years later abroad… Then I became a solo artist.
For its tenth anniversary, “Domino” was reissued on Agoria’s Sapiens in February (“Domino rework” features remixes by Matador, Frankey & Sandrino, Robag Whrume and yourself) which all did very well on the Beatport charts. How has the scene changed in the last ten years?
The main difference in the last ten years is, I think, the emergence of social media. They weren’t as developed ten years ago as they are now. Nowadays anyone can buy Likes on such and such social medium to be more popular; some people give more importance to the number of an artist’s followers than to his or her music which I think is a shame.
Where do think the dance scene will be in the next ten years?
It’s hard to say, especially that there are a lot of countries where the local scene is very developed. I’ve been to countries where I would never have imagined a few years ago that I would one day be performing there. I had this preconceived idea there must not be events at all there, like Peru, Ecuador or China. But thanks to the Internet people all over the globe are now able to discover and listen to artists.
Who or what influences your sound?
I think it’s still what I have listened to in the past, even stuff I used to listen to as a teenager, and that I still listen to from time to time. Of course there’s also what I’ve listened to recently, we all are influenced consciously or unconsciously by what we listen to; there are no specific artists though. And finally there are the places I go to and the people I meet… They all play a part.
Domino finally received an official video in July, how did the concept for the video come about?
Finally indeed! Kompakt at the time hadn’t suggested making a video and I hadn’t really thought about it myself, I guess. When Domino was reissued on Sapiens, Agoria and his label team thought it was a real shame it didn’t have a video and suggested we make one; I really liked the idea, even though it came ten years after the initial release! Eventually the Sapiens team started looking for a concept and approached a few directors, and then we received Arsène Chabrier’s proposition. We got along great, so we trusted him and he directed the video.
You performed at Music On back-to-back with Miss Kittin, closed Music On recently, how did the collaboration with Miss Kittin come about?
Yes, I played solo in August at Music On, and I played the Terrace before Marco Carola, then Miss Kittin and I both performed at the closing – we actually did one set each then ended it B2B, just like we did the year before (also for the closing). Caroline and I have been friends for about twenty years, we both come from the same city, Grenoble, and met when the first raves in France started happening. We would bump into each other a lot, at night or at the record store, but it wasn’t after a few years later that we became really friends, 10 or 12 years ago I think.
Our first collaboration took place in 2012 for my album “Tides of Mind”; she did the vocals on one of the tracks. Then we both worked on a remix for one of POPOF’s tracks, off his album “Love Somebody” (released two years ago on Hot Creations).
As for our B2B sessions, I don’t exactly remember how it started, it was a kind of natural, spontaneous process. Then we came to realize it was actually really cool to perform together onstage. I mean, we might each play slightly different genres but we have so much in common, and we share this really cool energy; there’s something special there and we make each other laugh so hard when we play. I think people can feel this really positive mood.
Your label Diversions Music, which you co-founded with Nicolas Masseyeff, has released several EPs (Oxia & N. Masseyeff together, solo, MOAN’s Artslaves) how did and why did you decide to start Diversions Music?
Well, before Diversion I’d already had launched two labels: the first one, Ozone Records, with Kiko, and the second one, Goodlife, with The Hacker (which we ended in 2008). So … In kind of missed the whole thing. Meanwhile I was working a lot with Nicolas, mainly on tracks. Once we completed these tracks we sent them to various labels; a few were interested but the whole process was taking so much time. They were taking forever to answer, then the release dates were way too late, many months away. In the end Nicolas and I decided to set up our own label, since we’ve know each other for 20 years and completely trust each other. We thought: at least we’d be able to manage everything and release our music when we’d want! And so this is how Diversions Music was born. We’ve had only four releases so far : Nicolas and I, then each one of us solo, and this summer we released Artslaves’ EP, which came with a remix by Nicolas and I and a remix by POPOF. The next ones are almost ready. We’re planning to release an EP by young Spanish artist Miguel Lobo (+ a remix by myself), and there’s another one due to be out as well, by a very promising young artist called Lewis Jimenez; we’re also considering remixes for this one.
What do you find most challenging about starting and running your own label?
For me, a label is mostly a very practical means to manage everything from A to Z, from the music to the artwork. And it’s also a way for us to share with other people our vision of what we like in electronic music. We don’t want to be stuck in one genre; the label is quite open in this sense and we aim to release all sorts of music: tech-house, techno, melodic stuff …
Who are you listening to at the moment?
I haven’t really has the time recently to listen to many things, to be honest. My schedule was really busy this summer and I didn’t have much time to check new things out, except for the promo tracks I get for my sets. Usually I like taking the time to discover new things, and not only listen to the material I use for my performances. For example I have running a podcast series called “Home Selection”, playing only music I listen to at home or in the car. No Dancefloor, it ranges from Electronica to Pop music. Well, except for the last podcast, which is a bit different – feel free to check it out on my Soundcloud 😉
Favourite show of the year and why?
It’s always hard to pick one great show in particular. There were a bunch this year, especially in Argentina at the beginning of the year; I absolutely love playing in South America, the vibe is so intense there. I also remember this amazing, huge event in May, in Lima, Peru. I ended up playing B2B with Loco Dice and Technasia, it was quite a memorable one. And how can I not mention the Music On gigs at Amnesia Ibiza? One of my performances there included me playing the Terrace for the first time, right before Marco Carola, and it was incredible. The energy in this venue… It’s always impressing. My B2B with Miss Kittin was also amazing. And there were so many more fantastic shows : in Madrid with Agoria for Brunch Electronik, in Lisbon also with Miss Kittin… I can’t list them all! J
When and where are you playing next?
Before my little tour in Australia mid-November I will play in France (Paris and Nantes), then Budapest, then head to Down Under: 17/11 Strawberry Fields Festival / Tocumwal, 18/11 Manning Bar / Sydney and 19/11 Pawn & Co / Prahran (Melbourne).
Afterwards it’s Athens, Lyon (France), Luxemburg, Zurich, Toulouse (France), Beirut and Geneva… You can check all my dates on my website or my Facebook page :
https://www.facebook.com/OXIA.official/
https://soundcloud.com/oxia-official
http://www.youtube.com/user/OXIATV
Featured Photo Credit : Pascale Cholette
