How Canblaster Got from Hardcore Gamer to Club Kid

Illustrations by Rick Jacques

It's often just one moment—a chance meeting, a mind-blowing concert, one special song—that can spark a lifetime of inspiration and motivation. In The Spark, our favorite DJs tell us about theirs. Here's French Club Cheval affiliate Canblaster telling us his story, in his own words, to Lauren Schwartzberg.

When I was younger, I was really into video games. There were a bunch of games where music was at the center: the first one was Music 2000 on PlayStation. You had to create your own music that you put on a timeline. They had tunes and patterns and you created your own melodies, so I started with that when I was about 13. I was just experimenting and discovering how to make music.

When I was 16—about 10 years ago—I really got into Bit Mania, the second game. It's an ancestor of those games where you press the key and it makes a sound. It was an old school legion with original music, so there were some DJs who made music for the video game. You had a controller with a few piano keys and the scratch and you had to play the music in rhythm. Then I started discovering another version of it, programming it for the computer and actually recording my own tracks, so I started changing it as they were doing it. I started drawing little sounds together in my mind for something bigger.

I wanted to try doing that in real life, so I downloaded the DJs' music and used their parts and sounds for my own remixes. Then I started using other software to learn, and I asked some friends to record vocals for me. I recorded anything that was good, no matter where it came from.

Around 2004, I started doing music officially for these games. I was listening to a lot of electronic music like Basement Jaxx, but I never went to a club to see it function. The only function of the music for me was if it was apt to play with your sing-a-long or with your feet—like the groove, if it's danceable or not, and if the sound is clear.

But In 2005, something happened in France that made people check out what was happening in clubs: Daft Punk came back, and they were suddenly a highlight for a lot of French producers. Everybody was starting to work together, and some really different things happened in the French scene. I was like, "Maybe I can show my ideas in a different medium than a music video game. Maybe I can make people dance and show my vision this way."

I bought two turntables and started to learn. I started buying vinyl at the French version of HMV and then I discovered Discogs, swapped vinyl, bought EPs, discovered what a B-side was, discovered old French DJs, found obscure releases after watching interviews with guys I liked and seeing who inspired them. There was this popular song by Daft Punk called "Teachers" where they quote all their main influences, so I started buying vinyls of those people. It somehow reminded me of the music video game and at the same time it was very fresh. You could see the influence the world had on the music I was listening to, so I started doing club music like that.

I met Myd, the first guy of what would later be called Club Cheval, when I was doing audiovisual studies with him. He was in a basement band, and I started as a replacement keyboardist. We started mixing together in the basement, then in the clubs, and that was it. On the train back to Paris one time this random guy started talking to us. He comes up to me like, Who are you?" I said, "I am Canblaster." He said, "Why do you give me your fucking DJ name? I mean your real name," and I said "Ah, I'm called Cedric," and we started talking like that. He was the kind of guy who starts stuff easily, an enterprising entrepreneur. He introduced us to Sam Tiba and Panteros666 and this was Club Cheval at the beginning. He was the first manager of Club Cheval.

It was just a club of friends like a book club, but gathering and swapping music and ideas. Our friends were part of the club too, and we loved just experimenting, trying to make better music, trying our first club tracks in the apartment, getting complaints from the neighbor.

I think one of the key moments of my time in Club Cheval was at the beginning when Sam Tiba was just a DJ, not a producer. He gave us a lot of tips on how to mix, and we helped him a bit with his productions in the beginning, too. He would come with some ideas, and we would produce for him. There was this one moment after two or three tracks where he was like, "No I have to produce for myself. I don't want help with production anymore."

Now I'm working really close with Surkin on a new EP. It's interesting because we're into music the same way. We perfectly understand each other in terms of influences. With the other Club Cheval guys we all come from different places, so when we work together we create something new. It's cool to have an area where you really try to create something new and another area where you can rely on the things you already know to create.

Recently, I've listened to a lot of music video games, but more old school ones to get inspiration. I went to England and a friend of mine he brought me to an arcade. I played my own tracks, it was really funny.

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As told to Lauren Schwartzberg. Lauren is the woman she is today because of Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour-@laurschwar