SATURDAY OCTOBER 13 // MEZZANINE // SAN FRANCISCO
The story of Breakbot begins at the heart of the aughts in front of a computer with hands dancing over a keyboard. Thibaut Berland had just graduated from art school specialising in 3D animation and was working for different production companies. In his spare time, on his own, young Thibaut made a few remixes with the help of some handy softwares. His remix of ‘Let There Be Light’ by Justice landed on one of the duo’s LPs produced by Ed Banger and its captain Pedro Winter. Following that first release, carried by the echo of MySpace, Breakbot earned himself a small reputation and started rearranging tracks for the likes of Metronomy, Digitalism and Data. He soon stopped working on images to concentrate on music.
In 2009, Breakbot signed on Ed Banger and published his first single the following year, Baby I’m Yours, a sugary retro track reflecting his best inspirations, between the Pacific pop of the Doobie Brothers and Chic’s satin disco. To give his groove more shape, he called on singer Irfane’s melodic voice. The singer, who is from Strasbourg with Yankee origins, had also made a name for himself in the mid-aughts by lending his Curtis Mayfield-like singing to the funky band Outlines. Signed on the Berlin label Sonar Kollektiv, Outlines made a string of hit songs that ended up on Radio Nova’s playlist, along with some great remixes for DJ Mehdi among others.
