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Kitsune Tickets

“I wanted it to feel like a label of my house”

The Kitsune Music label started from this simple notion. This would be an artist friendly label selling only the best in electronic and rock club music to a public needing some guidance. The man behind this label should know a thing or two about electronica and being popular, as he moonlights as one half of Daft Punks management (with Pedro Winter, head of the, self proclaimed, more underground Ed Banger label). Gildas Loaec is the driving force behind this uber-cool off shoot of Kitsune Fashion label, he is not your typical head of a cool record label either and he kindly crossed the language barrier (he is self admittedly not great at English) to give Gigwise his heavily French accented story of this most current of labels.

Kitsune Music came into being in 2002, a place for Gildas to, in his own words, “where I will be able to work with music we like”. Kitsune though was not going to be a place for musical snobbery, it would have a more populist leaning, “I like the idea of pop, I like the idea of club music and music that can touch a lot of people.” So with this mantra in mind, he set about creating not only a label at the forefront of musical revolutions but also one accessible to people not really into this type of music, “Club music that you can also listen to at home, club music but also music with melodies and songs”. The label began by releasing compilations, Kitsune Night and Kitsune Love, amongst the early releases, the idea was to build a foundation and rapport, “so we were starting with composition, we were asking artists we like”. They built a portfolio of artists and developed a persona, “then we were starting to do more work on building a catalogue on Kitsune and work with exclusively to artists”

The building of the label continued with the compilation, Kitsune Maison (roughly translated as The House Of Kitsune). The Maison series would allow the label to showcase upcoming talent and their own artists. This compilation would not only do just that but it would provide a springboard for bands to break into public consciousness, Klaxons, Simian Mobile Disco, Hot Chip, The Gossip, Digitalism and many more just on the cusp have featured throughout the series. Kitsune Maison, like the label, is again conceived on pure simplicity. “The idea of Kitsune Maison is about like club music, so to really bring club music to home”. The idea of presenting club music to people is nothing new but the methods used are somewhat less familiar.

First of all is track listing. Gildas and Kitsune, rather cunningly, run the songs like one long club song, “We want to kind of sort out a way of getting to it, to presenting it well and having like a slow process of getting there”. The opening tracks would be slower before building throughout until it finishes with a slow beat. The tracks are handpicked by Gildas, “I am involved in finding tracks myself. I’m working every day, working, finding the good thing”.

Secondly, the compilation would be a shrewd mix of some bigger, guitar based bands (Bloc Party, Wolfmother) or established dance acts (Simian Mobile Disco, Klaxons, Hot Chip). “So when we put on some big names when they get into a store, they are like, oh yeah this name I buy today”, and the cream of underground electronica to keep the muso’s happy, “and some more music that people can pay attention to, for more curious people”. The Maison series would prove very successful, now running into its fourth title and the UK is not only providing a good cross section of the bands involved. The series is continually selling well over here. “I think in the UK we can make more and more follow up. We are getting more and more people buying the CD in the UK”.  As with any success cynics would no doubt have to make an appearance.

“If some people don’t like then they can go and listen to another music, they can start their own label with underground music and then they are not selling and then they will close”

Kitsune Music has been labelled overly commercial in some corners (including Pedro Winters, head of Ed Banger records and Gildas’s co-worker with Daft Punk) something Gildas is quick to counter. “I don’t think we are so much commercial but you will always have people who are not happy so we do what we like ourselves and just be good in what we are doing”. Commerciality may not have been the aim but a populist leaning is quite evident, through his love of pop melodies, “I like the idea of pop, trying to be popular and to have people to make sense of their music”, but an equilibrium is always the objective, “we try to find a balance between stuff”. The music and track layout are not the only details separating Kitsune from its peers; a defining image also gives them brand quality.

“Yeah, for me the image is really important; it’s what makes us different at the end of the day”

Kitsune Maison is packaged quite uniquely for a music label; the look instantly defines and separates itself from all others, both in colour and concept, “we are building a story with all the heads and things. It is kind of really a way for people to identify with Kitsune label”. Each sleeve is adorned by the cartoon heads of the friends of Kitsune Music, artists who have taken part in the compilation and with each further Kitsune Maison more heads are added, “It’s different a bit because all the time we have more and more portraits on it. So it is growing a bit, to a global process”. The concept separates Kitsune Maison and is giving it an identity, something Gildas is very aware of, “It’s really a brand that people can recognise” and a fact he is proud of as well, “That is a lovely thing”. A label will not sustain itself on compilations alone, even with your own artists; a desire to expand will always be all pervading.

“So we also started to work on bands not only doing compositions”

Up until 2007, Kitsune Music had only released a single full artist album; the CD version of Hot Chip’s ‘Coming On Strong’. This year was to prove a turning point for the label as they set about selling the fantastic Digitalism and their album, ‘Idealism’, to the world, “It’s a tough job with an artist; it’s a hard job taking care of the band, building a profile, marketing, letting stores know about a band”. The realities of working singularly with a band are quite harsh but once the product is good, as Gildas knows with Digitalism, it’s worth it, “But you really have to work with a good band and so Digitalism are really good and are working quite well so we are happy”.

Gildas is well placed to see if a dance band can break into the mainstream, like for instance with his day job, the irrepressible Daft Punk. Pragmatism is the key but a quiet confidence is felt when asked can his boys emulate his employers, “It will take a while, we have to build a story, build an image and I think that good music can really be crossover but we will see”.  Next on the roster is quite a departure from the club based stompings of Digitalism and again displays the fearlessness of this label. “So we are going to work on the album with Cazals and we are looking forward to having them working with us”, Cazals are a guitar based five piece from East London. Ex-tourmates of Babyshambles and The Rakes, and they featured on Kitsune Maison 2. The final results should be worth waiting for, of that you can be sure.

The continued learning curve for this still young label is reaching an arc with these artists, “We are building and we will release more and more in the next years or so but at the moment we can improve ourselves with Digitalism and Cazals and then we will see how it works”. One more artist is lurking behind the scenes before they take stock though, a mellower cranial experience, “We are releasing a band called Thieves Like Us also they are on the Kitsune album and that is pretty much it”. 

The future is bright in France at the moment and for the rest of us. Kitsune Maison 4 has just been released into orbit, again it’s of the highest quality and look out for Foals and Hadouken! in particular, it’s not the last we’ve heard of them. The Maison series will also be back again so don’t panic, “We will do Maison 5 of the series for sure. They will run until the people say no more thank you”. Digitalism’s album is seeping its way into the brains of clubland and they will be at every festival in the known world, “I think that they are playing everywhere”. Gildas will also continue his own DJing, alongside Masaya Kuoki, his fellow label head, so look out for Gildas & Masaya if you’re hitting Pukkelpop.

Kitsune Music is growing, pulsating, buzzing and vibrating, Gildas Loraec would not have it any other way and for that matter, neither would Gigwise.