DAVID GUETTA Biography
DJ/PRODUCER/REMIXER

If Parisian NightWorld polymath, David Guetta had a motto, it would almost certainly be the hypnotic refrain from Marshall Jefferson’s old school house anthem. ‘House music all night long!’ Cut him open and you’ll find four-four drums and driving techno in his veins, not just blood. You can hear his lifelong search for the perfect beat in his electro-trashing debut album ‘Just A Little More Love’ which compresses Chicago House, New Wave, US garage and techno into a 24-hour-party package and you can certainly see his dedication to the dancefloor as official Godfather Of French House TM.

At 14 Guetta was running after-school parties in his basement and charging his pals ten francs for the pleasure. By 17 he was playing Funkadelic and Prelude releases at Parisian gay club Broad, impressing a crowd used to workaday DJs who had more in common with wedding jocks than all-mixing, all-scratching club spinners. ‘Back then, resident DJs would work five days a week and just use records from the club,’ Guetta explains. ‘I was one of the first DJs to bring my own records. People really liked my music, and I ended up working the DJs day off at all the clubs in Paris. It was a crazy time.’ Then came the euphoric headrush of acid house. ‘I witnessed the birth of this new music,’ he grins. ‘No-one had heard anything like it before – and I spent my whole time running around telling people about this amazing new scene.’

Guetta has been pivotal throughout Paris’ modern club genesis. He ran the first nights at Rex and Queens, opened Le Bain-Douche, and invited DJ legends like Little Louie Vega, David Morales, DJ Pierre and Roger Sanchez to join him on the turntables. And whilst the music comes first, a sky-high glamour quotient comes a pretty close second. His stylist wife is ‘the friend of every celebrity in the world,’ and you’ll find the likes of Dolce and Gabbana, Calvin Klein and John Galliano at his parties – and not just on the punters clothes. ‘I don’t care about celebrities. I love talent,’ he says with Gallic flourish. ‘We don’t just select rich people – we want people with interesting things to say. Sometimes I could kiss the feet of some one who is really unknown.’

What is true for his hometown events is doubly true of Guetta’s Ibizan excursions, which he started in the mid-90’s. ‘We were the first French to organise in Ibiza’ he remembers. ‘It was different back then. The English DJs were laughing at us, but I was friends with Daft Punk and Cassius and one day they became famous.’ Guetta’s once-a-summer party in Ibiza, which he plays at alongside Bob Sinclair, is the kind of hedonistic glamour fest that pre-acid house Ibiza was famous for – except with post-acid house grooves and attitude. This year, 3,500 people stayed until 8am, and refused to go home. ‘They were clapping for half an hour’ he grins. ‘It was the best party of the summer – and a massive ego trip!’

Unusually in a world where most stick to either music or business, Guetta has successfully straddled both. As well as the album, he’s now in demand as a remixer, having recently completed re-reubs for new Cassius single ‘Sound Of Violence’, Kylie and George Michael. ‘I started as a DJ,’ he says, ‘then I went on to be a promoter, and an art director for the clubs. I was successful, but bored.’ Hence ‘Just A Little More Love’, which happened as Guetta and a producer friend decided to meet once a week in city centre SquareProd studios, just to try out some ideas. ‘We did the first single in two afternoons, and it worked,’ he says. ‘I never would have thought it would be this way. It’s the passion of my life, a dream come true.’ Recorded over seven months, it’s a life-affirming, fashion-clashing, electro-edged journey around Guetta’s favourite grooves and – of course – house music. All together now: ‘House music all night long!’