Faces#1- Snowball

Snowball at Exploration Music 5th Birthday - Paris

Snowball is one of the corner stones of the Parisian night life Renaissance. Gifted Deejay and vinyl addict, the man attaches great importance to versatility when it comes to spinning records. He will make his first appearance in Berlin on the 23rd of May. He answered a few questions for us.

What were your early musical influences?

When I was kid I used to dance with my brother to the classical piano demos in my moms electronic piano (that she never played). I also used to listen to Guns & Roses, and that type of music. Basically anything that was playing on MTV in the 90s, I only discovered electronic music and dub when I was already in my 20s.

How would you describe yourself as a Dj, and what can people expect from your Dj sets?

I love to think that people can’t expect anything from my dj sets. But that would be bragging really, I usually end up playing some techno, some house, some dubstep and some jungle, maybe some dub and hip hop aswell. I try to keep things varied, that’s how I like it myself when I go out to dance.

Tell us a bit about Exploration Music and the story behind it.

Exploration Music started out as a podcast and now we also organize nights and hope to set up a label soon. It was initially called “Breakbeat Exploration” because I was all about drumfunk jungle back then but the french didn’t get the “breakbeat” reference to jungle breaks, and we also started liking dubstep and techno so we decided to only keep the Exploration part.

Any advice to people coming to Paris concerning the Underground Scene?

There are great parties everywhere and all the time, really. Check out “75021” if you can, these have the best atmosphere. Otherwise I’d recommend Sonotown, Signal, No Hype Just Bass, Skank It Up, Dub Station, Roots Meditation, Concrete, Technorama, DKO Collective, Release The Groove, Newtrack, and anything at Batofar or Glazart because these clubs are so cool. Underground wise you just need to talk to people there is always a party somewhere you can end up at, in an appartment in the catacombs, where ever. Lots of stuff happening in Paris, lots of party people, lots of freaks, too much for me really, I want to move to the country and have a dog and a forest nearby where I can have a nice walk.

What are you working on at the moment? Any projects you would like to share with us?

I’m working on a couple of mini festivals for this summer. One has been announced, the Signal Festival, the second one will be announced soon.

Some music for our ears? Your latest crushes?

I can’t get over Leon Vynehall’s album right now, not very original I know, but it has Zelda Ocarina Of Time samples in it, can’t beat that. Been loving Pinch’s new label Cold Recordings aswell. Otherwise dudes from our forthcoming label, Nulpar, Yan Kaylen and Sicaa, have been getting lots of plays from me lately.

https://soundcloud.com/yankaylen/yan-kaylen-areamemento