Music on the Rise—Benjamin Diamond - French musician - Brief Article

FROM CHOIRBOY TO CLUB SAVIOR

Unlike most of the current French electronica artists, Benjamin Diamond is a singer first. At the age of eight, his mother enrolled him in a church choir. "That was torture," he says of his years singing in Latin. "When I was 13, I discovered you could sing in places other than church, so I stopped. I started hanging out with friends in a basement and making a lot of noise." Since then, Diamond's tastes gradually shifted from punk to funk to sensual electronica, and he gained proficiency as a multi-instrumentalist, mastering the art of sampling along the way. The Prince-inflected funk of "18 and Over," from his most recent album, Strange Attitude, couldn't be further from "Ave Maria."

The 29-year-old now records for Epic in France, and also runs his own label, Diamond Traxx. "It's quite difficult to do," he says of the contractual freedom he has managed to negotiate. "It's a way for me to continue to make music without being trapped by a contract." Indeed, so far his biggest successes have been outside the confines of his major label. Diamond is best known for a song called "Music Sounds Better With You," which he recorded in 1998 with Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk under the name Stardust. The song, released on Bangalter's tiny imprint, Roule, sold almost two-and-a-half-million copies. He also created a custom-made soundtrack for Christian Dior's show last winter in Paris.

Diamond recently got the producer's ultimate nod of approval when Bjork asked him to do a remix of "Alarm Call" from her Homogenic album. Perhaps the Icelandic priestess was attracted to the homemade quality of Diamond's music since he doesn't use samples, preferring to create original sound sources. This do-it-yourself ethic may be the final vestige of his days as a punk rocker- the aggressive, harsh aesthetic has been replaced by dreamy, glamorous millennial disco, the aural equivalent of flashing lights. "In hardcore punk there is a lot of energy which is interesting," he says, "but I found another way to express myself without shouting."

Dimitri Ehrlich is Interview's Music Editor at Large.

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