the essential
Narbonne DJ Thibault aka Phreak Monica will be on stage at Pratgraussals on Thursday July 4, as part of the Pause Guitare festival. Interview with a young artist with a unique musical universe, who experiences his participation in the Tarn festival as an “honor”.
One day, he is in Narbonne. The next day, in Toulouse and the other days, he runs around the region to fulfill his role as DJ, programmer and artistic director. But next July 4, at 7 p.m., Thibaut aka Phreak Monica will indeed be on the Pratgraussals stage as part of the Pause Guitare festival. He will bring his youth, his enthusiasm and his “all-terrain eclecticism”. Interview.
Phreak Monica, tell us about yourself.
I’m originally from Narbonne, that’s where I started mixing about ten years ago now. But I moved to Toulouse 3 years ago to try to embrace new opportunities in the musical culture. That’s how I found out about the production company Bleu Citron and that’s what led me to Pause Guitare! And today, in addition to being a DJ, I do programming and artistic direction.
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Can you tell us about your beginnings in music?
My first contact with electronic music was with my brother who was already a DJ but with a different style from mine, more hip-hop and reggae. And then I really got started when I was studying in Montpellier. It was there that I decided to buy my first turntables and try to develop this practice.
What do you offer in your sets?
Mostly house but I play a lot of funk songs with hip-hop and disco connotations. What characterizes me the most is my all-terrain eclecticism and this is what I try to highlight in all my performances. And then I build my sets according to the style of music that is usually played at the place where I come to perform, while remaining faithful to my practice and always adding a few ‘classic’ pieces reissued or not and new things that I seeks through monitoring of everything that is happening at the national and international level on the major house scenes. For Pause Guitare, I’m going to try to stay faithful to the set that will play after me, by preparing something quite funk-oriented, but while once again remaining faithful to my practice.
Speaking of Pause Guitare, will this be your first big stage?
Completely ! It’s a good first actually. To be able to play in front of so many people, especially with an organization like Pause Guitare, it’s very cool! It’s apprehension… but good apprehension (laughs) And then it’s quite symbolic for me because the first mixtapes I listened to were those of the guys from Chinese Man and my first contact with French hip-hop music was with the group IAM so it’s really an honor to be able to open this evening and share the same set as them.
Exactly, what are you going to offer festival-goers to open this evening?
The objective is to succeed in contributing to the excitement from the start of the set, to put on something with enough energy but not too much so that it is still coherent with the rest of the evening.
