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	.: Bob Sinclar - DJ Biography

A few years ago French maverick Christophe Le Friant, aka Chris The French Kiss, conceived a fantasy alter-ego by name of Bob Sinclar, a playboy figure with a shady past in espionage who seduces the ladies with his sexy and sleazy Continental house music. In fact, Le Friant had arranged for a moustached model Rene, recruited in a Parisian gay bar, to front the project.

However, this move only served to confuse the dance world and, to an extent, led to further speculation that Bob Sinclar was a novelty act. And so now two years after Paradise, the real Bob Sinclar - Le Friant - is stepping into the limelight. Evidently Le Friant is keen to prove that there is more to him than the Jane Fonda-sampling GymTonic with his new album, Champs Elysees, a sophisticated set of French neo-disco that references Cerrone and Daft Punk and everything in between.

Even before Bob Sinclar, Le Friant was active in the small Parisian dance scene as a DJ and producer, and, together with DJ Yellow (aka Alain Ho), presiding over the label Yellow Productions, home to Dimitri From Paris and Kid Loco. he continues to devote himself to the concern today. Christophe was raised in the gay quarter of Paris, Le Marais, where he still resides. Here he was exposed to the heady world of clubs at an early age.

Christophe was enamoured by the sight of the turntables and, by the late 80s, he was DJing himself, hip-hop stylee. In the early 90s Le Friant met Ho and they began to host their own acid jazz and hip-hop parties and before long they decided to launch a label, which would serve as an outlet for Christophe's productions. Since those days Le Friant has issued material under the aliases Mighty Bop (trip-hop) and Reminiscence Quartet (rare groove).

Still, it is Bob Sinclar's playa-ristic house that has garnered him the widest acclaim. Le Friant appropriated the monicker 'Bob Sinclar' from a spy in the French movie Le Magnifique.

He moulded him into a multi-faceted character - a porn star, gigolo, disco dancer and spy, all in one. He put out the first Sinclar EP, A Space Funk Project, following it up with an album Paradise. At the time Christophe wished to make some more club-oriented dance music. He had no idea that the idea would take off. At any rate, Paradise spawned a surprise club hit in GymTonic, which lifted its hook from an old Jane Fonda aerobics record.

Le Friant co-produced the frivolous, fun track with his friend Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk. They had struck a deal - if Le Friant remixed a Stardust single, then Bangalter would contribute a track to Paradise.

Sinclar's comeback single for the year 2000 is the disco-fuelled I Feel For You, based on a (legit) loop of Cerrone's disco classic Look For Love. It was deemed a hit at this year's Miami Winter Conference and Italy's Spiller has been brought in for remix duties. Le Friant wanted his second Bob Sinclar album, Champs Elysees, to capture his growth as a producer - the word he uses to sum it up is "evolution."

Indeed, Le Friant is all too aware of the many opportunistic studio boffins who now have access to samplers and are churning out formulaic and disposable disco cut-up records with the bare minimum of effort. And so Le Friant sought out some singers and musicians instead. Christophe also set about recording a greater variety of material for Champs Elysees, with downtempo moments like You Are Beautiful. "I was not about to do only club tracks like I Feel For You," he says.

Le Friant's whimsical, playful house is sexy and slinky, groovy and warm - the music is unpretentious in its pretentiousness and harmlessly hedonistic. And somehow it's very French, ah, chic. And, in many respects, it encapsulates Le Friant's outlook on life.

"I think your music is a reflection of your mentality. I am not somebody dark in my head, you know? I'm somebody really happy. I live with my mother, my parents were very happy with me. I have a perfect life. I can live off my music and it is really, really important in my life. I go into clubs to spin for people every weekend and I like to give happiness and sexiness to the people.

I like the girls - it's one of my weaknesses, that's why I like to do music for the girls. And I like the people to have fun to my music, that's why it's warm, I like to listen to some soul. Music is really in my life to give me some happiness, not to give me some darkness."

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