Published in the February 2010 Issue of DJ Times Magazine
Volume 23 - Number 01
By Jim Tremayne

West Palm Beach, Fla.—After just five minutes inside the club, Cedric Gervais begins to apologize.

It’s only 65 miles or so up I-95 to the Euro Lounge gig in West Palm, but in his mind, he’s a long way from downtown Miami and the Space Terrace—the place he regularly works out his musical ideas, the place that sports the most manic crowds in American clubland.

The modest-sized Euro Lounge is not completely rammed. Still, considering that the venue booked the gig on very short notice and had little time to promote, it’s actually a respectable turnout. When fans begin to approach and ask for pictures—which Gervais accommodates graciously—he starts to ease up. He’s here to rock the room for two hours with his arsenal of popular remixes (his take on Alcatraz’s “Give Me Luv” and George Morel’s “Let’s Take Drugs”) and original productions (“Mauri’s Dream,” “Pills” feat. Second Sun, “Burning,” and “Spirit in My Life” feat. Caroline).

He does just that with his unique mix of Miami-centric jams—big-room bombs, vocal sing-alongs, tweaky tracks, hard groovers, his hits. By the end of the evening, everyone’s happy—hugs all around, more pictures, clubgoers exit aglow and contented, promoters promising a better experience next time.

Earlier that night in his downtown studio—home of his Sleaze and Sleaze Tech labels—Gervais played us a sneak-peek of new material from his upcoming artist album, Miamication [Ultra]. It’s not finished, but what we hear is very promising. He’s assembled a cast of top vocalists—Mya, Rachael Starr, JES—and the material doesn’t stray too far from clubland. Hooky, yes, but no formula. Look for it near Winter Music Conference time and afterward.

Upon listening, of course, it also becomes apparent that, with his obvious studio talent and sharp, DJ-trained ear for new sounds, the 30-year-old Frenchman could very well be the next DJ to break beyond clubland. He’s gained deep respect in his adopted home town and worked the globe relentlessly to break his music. And judging from the reaction of the gals at Euro Lounge, his hunky, Euro looks don’t hurt his appeal either.

Our discussion at the studio went like this:

DJ Times: What made you want to DJ?

Gervais: I was living in the south of France and my father owned a club down there. Also, my cousins were organizing raves back in the day, back when it was big in France. That’s when Daft Punk started getting big with the Homework album. The first big show I saw, I saw them play in Marseille—before they were wearing the masks or anything—that’s when I knew I wanted to do this.

DJ Times: What kind of club did your dad run?

Gervais: A dance club. He’d get DJs like Laurent Garnier, Carl Cox, people like that. Laurent is still my all-time favorite.

DJ Times: Pretty special to have that exposure to a DJ like Laurent. Why does Laurent Garnier still resonate with you?

Gervais: Because Laurent never played the trend game. Laurent is Laurent. He’ll play everything. I mean, I saw him play disco for seven hours. He will maybe start with house-music stuff, then techno, some trancey stuff, then go back to other things. Now in the scene, if you’re not minimal, you’re not cool. Then you have the trance guy, who maybe doesn’t like that. Laurent is not about that. He’s just a genius. If it’s good, he plays it. He doesn’t worry about the trends.

DJ Times: Aside from Laurent Garnier, which DJs do you most enjoy?

Gervais: Luciano—I love to see him do a proper DJ set, just unbelievable. Svan Väth because the energy that he has is amazing. He’s one of my favorites. Also, Sharam. He always does a kick-ass DJ-set, always different from what he produces. To me, he’s a really good DJ.

DJ Times: You have mentioned Carl Cox as an influence. I would imagine that the energy he projects was pretty amazing to see.

Gervais: He’s like a legend to me. First time I saw this guy, to me, it was huge. When I grew up, the techno scene was really, really big. There was Laurent Garnier, Carl Cox, Fumiya Tanaka—a DJ from Tokyo. You couldn’t see them in clubs, just raves. So to see them then was like seeing U2 in concert. It was a big thing for me.

DJ Times: What was your first DJ-gear setup? What was your first big break?

Gervais: My first DJ gear was the Technics 1200 turntable with a 2-channel mixer—don’t remember the brand. So it was me and my cousin on the top floor of my house mixing vinyl every day. Then one day they organized a rave and I asked if I can play. They said, “Sure, you’re going to play at the end, the closing set at 3 in the afternoon.” You know, when nobody’s there.

DJ Times: Just puddles.

Gervais: Exactly. So what happened was that at 7 in the morning the DJ who was supposed to play was smashed, couldn’t play, didn’t show up. This is a true story—they had nobody to fill this hour. I’m there with my records and my cousin turns to me and says, “You gotta go—you gotta go play.” There are 3,000 people in this field, sun is coming up, I’m shaking. I went and played for an hour and it was the best set I ever played in my life. When I finished, I couldn’t even speak. I was still shaking. Everyone was giving me hugs, saying, “Man, you killed it.” I couldn’t talk. That was my first gig ever.

DJ Times: Helluva start. What were you playing?

Gervais: Oh, my goodness, yes. It was ridiculous. I was playing techno. I was playing things from Peacefrog, F Communications, underground techno.

DJ Times: Once you got up and playing regularly, how did you move up the ladder? How long until you moved to the States?

Gervais: Back in the techno scene, you had to have big records [to get booked]. So to work my way up, I worked at the Papagayo club in Saint-Tropez. Obviously, I couldn’t just show up and play techno. I had to adapt and play more house music, more commercial stuff. I was only 16 and one day the booking manager from [Parisian club] the Queen came down to do a party and he said, “Hey, this kid is really good—I want to bring him to Paris.” So I did my time in Paris and they took me as a resident. But three months after that, they shut down every club in Paris.
DJ Times: So what happened to you?

Gervais: So I’m out of work in Paris and thinking, “What am I gonna do?” A friend said, “Listen, I live in Miami. Just come with me to Miami. I think I can do something for you, and then you can go back to Paris.” But I never left Miami. [laughs]

DJ Times: What was the Miami scene when you got there?

Gervais: It was 1998, 1999—a great time. There was Liquid—Victor Calderone was there. But there was no club bringing big DJs every week. There was the Living Room, Splash, Chaos. One night I did a party at this really rich guy’s apartment—he was a friend of ours—and he used to do a party once a month at his apartment. The Living Room was the hottest club, but nobody was there that night because everybody was at this party I was playing. The owner of Living Room found out that I was the DJ and the next day I had a contract playing there every Monday to Sunday with Ivano Bellini.

DJ Times: You moved up the ladder relatively quickly and the Miami scene evolved into what it is today. What was the journey like?

Gervais: Nikki Beach was a big one, for me. They gave me the first big Sunday. I was the first one to bring Loco Dice to Nikki Beach back in the day. Then Crobar came in and changed the game in Miami. Bar Room came in—Chris Pacielo was there—but it was more the VIP scene. Crobar brought the big-dog DJs here and they came to me, they said, “We’re going to make you the resident and you’re going to be the main guy here.” Then Space came in and it was over. They really changed the whole thing.

DJ Times: For those who may not know, describe Space. How did that become what it is?

Gervais: It’s a magical club, man. You gotta remember that [owner] Luis [Puig] came in and said, “I’m gonna open a club downtown.” And back then, if you went downtown [Miami], you’d get shot. You couldn’t get out of a cab, couldn’t walk in the street. Everybody thought he was crazy to open downtown [and not South Beach], but he proved everybody wrong.

DJ Times: How did your studio work evolve?

Gervais: I had a home studio, but nothing was going anywhere. One day I made this record called “Burning.” [David] Waxman was playing at Crobar and I brought it to him, expecting nothing. But the next day he said, “This record is incredible—I want to sign you to Ultra Records.” And he signed me to a three-album deal in 2002.

DJ Times: Up to this point, which remix or original production do you feel most proud of?

Gervais: I’m most proud of “Mauri’s Dream.” It’s a pretty record. I really pushed the boundaries, the artistic side, on this one. This was a very musical idea for [studio partner] Maurizio [Ruggiero]. I had an idea and I sang it to him and we made this record in a day.

DJ Times: Advice to a DJ who wants to get known?

Gervais: If you wanna get known, you gotta make records. Put time in the studio, learn the programs, listen to music and get inspired. If you wanna make it as a DJ today, you just gotta have records out there. It’s more than being a good DJ, because, with all the programs out now, anybody can DJ today. So get in the studio and find your sound. Eventually, boom! It’s going to happen.

DJ Times: When do you think you found your own sound, your own musical voice?

Gervais: To be honest, in the last two years. Doing all the remixes really helped. I was banging out one remix after the other. They were doing really well. It just hit me. Pete Tong was playing them all on Radio 1 one after the other. It was a crazy time. I was getting inspired by records, but I thought my work was sounding too much like this guy or that guy. I had to do my own thing, and now everything I do is in a different style. And now, you cannot say that I have one sound. “Mauri’s Dream,” for example, is different from [his ’07 remix for the Alcatraz classic] “Give Me Luv.” You can’t tag it all and say that it’s a typical Cedric Gervais record.

DJ Times: Even though Miami has always been known for that tribal-house sound, the audience here let’s you play a wide range of music.

Gervais: There’s just so many flavors in Miami. You have Argentines, Venezuelans, Cubans, of course, Europeans, everybody. When you go to Italy, it’s one sound: minimal. If you don’t play minimal, it’s a problem. When you go to France, it’s one sound. You go to Miami, you can play every sound—minimal, house, whatever.

DJ Times: Tastemakers like Pete Tong and others see you as representing the current Miami sound. You’ve been called the musical ambassador for Miami.

Gervais: The Miami sound is a party sound, man. It’s a fun sound. I want to make sure every party is a rocking party. At most VIP-type clubs around the world, it’s people looking at each other, seeing who’s there, checking each other out. Here in Miami, the VIP section is hands-in-the-air, going crazy on house music. To me, that’s the Miami scene, the Miami sound.

DJ Times: Tell me about pacing a DJ set. What’s the difference between playing Space and a gig like tonight in West Palm?

Gervais: At Space, I go on at 4 in the morning or 5 a.m., and I play a five-hour set. Playing there, you can play whatever you want and you can create a set by building it up, building it up. But when I play a place like tonight, I’m playing a two-hour set and the audience is paying to see me. They expect to hear me play my remixes and songs.

DJ Times: A lot of peaks.

Gervais: Exactly. It’s sort of like a festival show—you have an hour, you have 20,000 people in front of you, and you gotta rock them.

DJ Times: And you gotta play something they know.

Gervais: Something they know or hands-in-the-air music. Some people—and I respect them, but I’m not going to name names—but some DJs come on at these festivals and play their type of music for an hour and the audience just stares at them. They’re not dancing. I’ve played festivals and seen 20,000 people not responding to a DJ who’s just doing his own thing. You gotta separate the stuff.

DJ Times: Does your approach change, as it relates to each city and their specific tastes?

Gervais: You have to have a mind of what those people like. I’m not saying you have to go to Italy or Germany and play all minimal all night, but you have to adapt a little bit.
DJ Times: You travel a lot. In your mind, how is the U.S. scene coming along? How does it compare to the rest of the world?

Gervais: Each country has its own thing. America, obviously, it’s still growing big. Yesterday, I was in McAllen, Texas, and it was ridiculous—on a Thursday night. Five years ago, who would’ve thought McAllen, Texas, would be so crazy.

DJ Times: Do you think that some of the American audiences are more apt to accept dance music, now that David Guetta, Black Eyed Peas are everywhere. They’re getting played in big venues, like baseball stadiums.

Gervais: Oh, it’s huge. You can’t hate on David Guetta. What he’s doing is huge. A lot of people hate on him, but I don’t understand it. To me, the biggest enemy [of EDM] is hip-hop music. In house music, everybody should look at [Guetta] and say, “This is cool.” But apparently, the techno guys would rather be in the room with 500 other dudes and playing their music together. I mean, I don’t like everything that Guetta is doing—I don’t play everything he puts out and it’s not all my cup of tea—but the doors he’s opening for this music is amazing.

DJ Times: What’s your DJ gear now?

Gervais: I’m endorsed by Pioneer and [Native Instruments] Traktor, so I’m using both. I use Traktor Pro and I’m using the Pioneer mixer. I just did a demo for the CDJ-2000—it’s unbelievable. It actually has Traktor inside it. It’s an amazing product. I think it’s going to change the whole DJ game.

DJ Times: Why?

Gervais: For Traktor users, you don’t have to bring your box anymore. Traktor worked with Pioneer, so the box is already in there and the timecode CDs are already in there programmed. So you don’t have any latency anymore. All you do is plug in your computer USB, Traktor comes up on the screen and up comes your playlist, everything. Then you can have two CDJs linked to each other and have the settings on both CDJs, as well as the Traktor. You have the needle drop, loop cutter and quantize on the fly. It’s ridiculous.

DJ Times: So why did you adopt Traktor Pro a couple years ago?

Gervais: For me, Traktor Pro changed everything. When I started DJing, I was carrying vinyl and then CDs. Now I have everything in one computer with a sound card. It changed how I play my music, how I organize my music, how I approach my set. I can go back and see what I did before. It’s a whole other world.

DJ Times: OK, let’s talk about your artist album that’s going to be out on Ultra Records in early 2010.

Gervais: Miamication, it’s called. I wanted to do something that represents all the flavors and sounds of Miami and all the music I’ve had in my head for 10 years. On this record, we have Rachael Starr on the album. We have Caroline, who did “Spirit of My Life.” We have Second Sun. We have Sultan and Ned Shepard, plus BT. We’re also waiting for Mya and JES to be on the album, too.

DJ Times: How would you describe the material so far?

Gervais: The material is house music, tech-house and big-vocal record house. The song with Mya is a big-vocal, David Guetta-type tune. Then I have a song that Chris Willis actually wrote that’s a big pop record.

DJ Times: Artist albums for DJs can be tricky things. Sometimes the DJ can really lose his or her way and forget where they came from, musically.

Gervais: Exactly. Sometimes it becomes this big rock-n-roll thing, but it’s not you. I don’t understand this. How are you going to play this out? It’s not representative of you. So, even on my vocal productions, you can hear the beats behind, which is me. That’s me playing. “Mauri’s Dream” is part of it and that’s me. That’s what I like.

DJ Times: Tell me about running your label [Sleaze and its offshoot, Sleaze Tech,] in the current environment.

Gervais: I’ve had this label working for three years now and I’ve finally put together a real team. Before, I had to worry about my DJ career. But it’s so difficult because there are so many labels now. You don’t sell vinyl records anymore. You have to deal with things like Beatport, which is the No. 1 retailer. You have to consistently put out good music, or else they’ll drop you from the site—then, of course, you don’t sell your music. So I’m trying to put good records out, push them, promote them, and have them chart on Beatport. We’ve done well recently.

DJ Times: What’s the best way for a DJ to make his or her breaks?

Gervais: Now? It’s difficult these days, but you gotta hustle. Like I said, you gotta make the records. But you also gotta contact the record labels. You gotta try to contact the DJs. I mean, if you give a DJ a CD after a show, I’m not sure that he’s ever going to listen to it.

DJ Times: It’s going to end up in the taxi or the hotel room.

Gervais: Or in the trash. Not because he doesn’t want to listen to it, but because maybe he’s trashed after the gig. [Laughs.] But yeah, networking is the biggest thing.

DJ Times: Do you think conventions are important?

Gervais: Definitely, conventions. Go to the ADE in Amsterdam. Meet the record labels. It’s more important to give the music to the record labels than the DJs you like. He’s probably not going to do anything for you.

DJ Times: Unless he owns a label.

Gervais: Well, yeah, a guy like Mark Knight [of Toolroom Records]. But he has people who will listen to it and it’s probably better to reach them.

DJ Times: What are some other things that DJs should definitely not do?

Gervais: First of all, I don’t think DJs should ever think they’re bigger than anybody else. To me, [David] Guetta is the best example to look at. He’s the biggest DJ in the world right now and he’s the same as he was. I’ve known Guetta for a lot of years now, from the days when he was a promoter, and the guy has not changed.

DJ Times: Any other DJ pitfalls?

Gervais: Also, I don’t think you should judge other people. You should do your own thing. What happens with DJs is that they get into one sound and they’ll say, “Well, I’m a minimal guy, so fuck this other guy.” Do your own thing and never criticize anybody else. Worry about your music. Worry about making it on your own.

DJ Times: What’s next for you?

Gervais: With this album, there’s going to be a lot of promotion for it, a lot of touring for it. Then after that, I’m going to do a mix compilation in the middle of the touring. Yoshitoshi’s going to start doing a series, sort of like a Global Underground thing. It’ll be like “Yoshitoshi—Miami” or “Yoshitoshi—Montreal.” Sharam is going to head this up and I think I’m going to do my mix in Columbia, because I really like this country.

DJ Times: So, if you weren’t a DJ, what would you be doing now?

Gervais: A soccer player. I almost went there.

DJ Times: You were that good? What position?

Gervais: Yeah, I was always a middle fielder.

DJ Times: What’s your club team?

Gervais: Marseille. You watch them this year. Marseille all the way!