French legend Marc Cerrone has sold tens of millions of records, was at the forefront of the '70s disco domination, and his output continues, via both original, sampled, and remixed productions, to fill dance floors worldwide.
Don't know Cerrone? You know Cerrone. Commonly grouped with fellow disco legends Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rodgers, Cerrone's seminal '70s hits 'Give Me Love' and 'Supernature' are as impactful today as when they were rocking New York's famed Studio 54.Those timeless productions, however, were just the start of a 50-year (and counting) career that has seen the drummer, composer, producer and multiple Grammy winner's extensive and varied output serve as inspiration for everyone from Dave Lee and Dimitri From Paris to Beastie Boys and Purple Disco Machine.
Speaking from Paris with his beloved drum kit in the background, the Frenchman is excited to make his first trip to Australia, where he will play a series of hybrid DJ sets featuring live re-workings of his back catalogue.
A convert to Ableton and DJing over the last decade, Cerrone's focus has, from his early days with Afro-rock band Kongas, always been on the dance floor.
However, recalling his 1976 debut 'Love In C Minor' – a 15-minute, soaring, racy masterpiece – it was a vision not initially embraced. "When I did my first LP. . . everybody asked 'why?'" he explains.
"For me, it was logic; I'm a drummer. Fifteen minutes [for 'Love In C Minor']. . . was logic because I produced the song for the discotheque. But for the music industry, everybody said to me, 'no, no more than three minutes, three and a half; you cannot go on the radio'.
"I said 'please, I don't want to go on the radio [and] the record company said, 'How do we sell? How do we make money off you?' I had no answer."
'Love In C Minor''s huge success soon changed that, and what followed – 1977's 'Supernature', with its melding of live instrumentation with what were then futuristic electronic effects – took Cerrone's success to a truly global level.
After selling over eight million copies, 'Supernature' remains evergreen and a standard go-to in DJ sets. However, for a man synonymous with disco, talk of the genre's latest revival on the back of contemporary productions by the likes of The Shapeshifters and others elicits a chuckle.
"This is why I'm still here after 50 years," he says. "Every decade, I read [about] a remix, or sample, or cover and the disco comeback. I hear so much from the media – 'oh it's good for you that disco come back' – but it never left!
"It's house music, garage, groove; whatever the name, for me disco is the music for the discotheque.
"Before it was a little bit underground [but] the change today from the last ten years is that disco has gone through the festival circuit; the younger generation don't worry about the name you call it.
"It's the attitude of it – of moving your body, of release, of freedom – that's come back."
Cerrone 2023 Tour Dates
Fri 2 Jun - Brisbane PowerhouseMon 5 Jun - Freo.Social (Fremantle)
Thu 8 Jun - City Recital Hall (Sydney)
