There seems to be a new David Guetta track on the radio every day, if you ask me. Yesterday, it was Nicki Minaj getting turned on, and the day before it was Minaj and Flo Rida asking Where Them Girls At. Squeeze in hot new voice Sia on Titanium, and Usher's Without You, and you get the picture. Just to complicate things, he goes and remixes the new Flo Rida/Sia song Wild Ones. It's a spider's web that for his fans means a constant flow of new music, and for his critics, adds fuel to the argument that there's too much of the Frenchman's house sound in music today.
The effect of all this on Guetta himself? Just a little sleepy. Ahead of his sell-out gig at Yas Arena on Friday, his interview schedule was torn up in favour of a nap — and with a work schedule like that, we can't really blame him. The next day, refreshed and still buzzing from the Flash Entertainment concert, Guetta sat down with tabloid! during a stopover in Dubai ahead of his Indian concert debut next week, and faced his critics the way he seems to face the world every day — with a broad grin on his face.
How was Abu Dhabi?
It was wonderful. I am still shocked.
It was just an amazing surprise, I was not expecting such a great positive energy like this. I think a lot of people have the wrong image of what the Middle East is — a lot of people think it's very conservative, and the party was amazing.
You've performed in so many cities. Is it always the same or do different countries have different audiences?
It's difficult to explain, but I have to say it's less and less of this because of the internet. Today, people are all on the same page. Of course you have local specificities, but before, a record could be successful in one country and then one year after in another country. Now everything goes so fast and it's really exciting and that's probably also why I am here today. I am totally from that internet generation. I have to tell you — I just reached 30 million on Facebook. It's unbelievable.
I guess you could call it an international sound.
That's what it is!
Your live act debuts in India next week. What took you so long to get there?
Yes, my first time in India. It's difficult because there are many countries on the planet and each year I have to decide and give priority to some places. I cannot be everywhere at the same time, unfortunately. I've been waiting a lot to go to India and Asia and that's what I'm going to do now.
What do you expect from India, and what can India expect from you?
I have no idea because I have never been to this country. It's really exiting for me to go somewhere and have absolutely NO idea what to expect. I want to visit the country, I want to know about it — I don't know if I'm going to have 20,000 people in front of me or 2,000. It's great, you know — it feels like I'm a beginner again.
Do you ever feel like doing just that — playing to 2,000 people?
I do it sometimes — I play clubs too, even though most of my shows are in stadiums and festivals. I keep on playing in clubs because this is where my inspiration comes from. It's very important.
Do you go to clubs as a clubber?
I might go tonight if you hook me up with a good one! When I'm travelling it's very rare as I work almost every day, but when I'm off, for example when I'm in Ibiza, because I live there during the summer, then yes, I would go clubbing.
You've worked with nearly everyone in the phone book. Anyone out there you're excited to collaborate with now?
As much as I love those big stars, I also love discovering new talents. They can be singers, they can be producers, in the same way I discovered Afrojack, and kind of fell in love with him and collaborated on a few records together and DJ'd a lot. I first met him two or three years ago. In the same way, there's a new guy called Nicky Romero. I think he's really, really amazing. We've made records together, we made a record called Wild One Two, it's No 1 on Beatport right now — it's more of a club record. It's huge and it's with Sia too. I'm very excited about him.
Who would be on your personal playlist that would surprise us? Do you have any Adele?
Yeah, of course I have Adele. I love Adele. She is incredible. It's funny because that record that I made, Titanium, it's totally different. It's that mood, that soulful white music. I love that.
You're on the road and working constantly. How do you make your relationship with your wife Cathy work [Guetta and Cathy have been married since 1992, and started off together organising parties in Ibiza and Cannes. She now organises his events including the F*** Me I'm Famous nights]?
[Laughs] The secret is that I am travelling. Because we have been together for so many years. It works really good. I am travelling a lot but when I come back it makes it an event every time.
Do you listen to music when you're travelling? On what?
I got my own headphones now. I started a collection with Beats, we've been working on this for a year and a half. It took a long time but it's finally out. I wanted to make DJ headphones that can be used by anyone, and they are the most powerful headphones on the market, but also strong. The sound is beautiful but real. I am very happy about it.
At the Grammys recently, the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl criticised music made in a computer and not on instruments. [Said Grohl: "Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do. It's not about being perfect, it's not about sounding absolutely correct, it's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in here (pointing to his heart) and what goes on in here (pointing to his head)."] What do you think about that?
Foo Fighters? I'm very surprised because he also performed at the end with Deadmau5. And he came to see me and was very nice. I don't want to comment because I am very surprised.
But you do have critics of your style.
I'm gonna put something on YouTube very soon. You know my record was a double album and there was one album with vocals, and one album with electronic. The first record on the electronic album is called The Alphabeat. And there's a wonderful conductor that made an arrangement with a philharmonic orchestra of this record. I think this is the answer to your question.
Creating music is creating music. It doesn't matter if you do it with a computer or a guitar. I mean, it was always like this. There's always been reaction — every time there is a new music, it came with a new technology. There wouldn't be rock 'n' roll without an electric guitar. And probably people that were used to the classical guitar thought "this is terrible, this is noise". And now I am sure a lot of people are shocked because they hate electronic sounds... Some people will see this as the music of the devil. It's probably a good thing because it's what happened with every major music movement.
So what's the future?
I don't know... actually I do know but I don't want to tell you! I do know for myself. I'm very excited about this record I've done, Titanium. I'm going into that style. That's for me, I don't know about the rest of the people.
