About

Biography

At 19 years old, Louis La Roche is perhaps the next great hero for the British dance music scene. Taking his influences from UK legends such as The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers and Basement Jaxx, along with the unmistakable French house scene of the 1990s, Louis La Roche grew up listening to Daft Punk, Cassius and Mr. Oizo, and his inspirations have already led to him being confused for one of his heroes.

“It was my very first track,” says Louis, as he recalls the fever which surrounded the leak of ‘LOVE’ onto the blog scene. “Before I knew it, it had been posted everywhere and had been credited as being by ‘TB’. People started assuming it was Thomas Bangalter.” Certainly not a comparison to shy away from, but Louis was keen to distance himself from the sudden attention. “It was nice but I don’t want people think I am trying to imitate the Daft Punk sound,” he says, “It was just that one track which was recorded in the same style as a Thomas Bangalter record.”

His influences run deeper than the music which was popular in his youth, as it was an early rummage through his parent’s record collections which sparked his interest in music. “My dad listens to seventies rock and my mum is really into disco and soul and those both influenced me as a kid,” says Louis, growing up a fan of both types of music, despite finding his mum’s music taste more suited to his own musical intentions, “When I started buying records it was the modern versions of what they listened to – disco became house and rock became indie.”

Despite only being born in 1990, it was this decade of the dance scene which inspired Louis to create rather than simply listen. He cites The Bucketheads’ ‘The Bomb’ as one of his favourite tracks from the era, and his love for the decade has transferred into his own music. “I make music in the same way it was made in the nineties,” he says. “I don’t like the crisp sound of modern house music. I like a little bit of grit and a little bit of something not quite perfect in the tracks.”

Gritty and charmingly rough around the edge, Louis’ tracks are soulful and full of tributes to his love of disco, soul and his upbringing on nineties house music. Tracks such as the French-pop influenced ‘Sunshine Hotel’ and ‘Be Brave’ sound like lost dance classics. “I like to get all my ideas for a track done in three and a half minutes,” says Louis. “I hate six minute long tracks with a huge intro and huge outro. You could play any song from my album in a club but they also work being listened to it on an iPod.”

The influence of his mum’s record collection and his early listening habits are evident in his work, as each song is based around long forgotten soul samples which Louis has painstakingly sought out to build his work around. “I’m always looking for the next gem, the tracks people won’t have heard before, releases from small labels in the eighties who may have only put out four or five records,” says Louis. “Maybe one of those records will have had a good idea in it but one that was never fulfilled, maybe something else in the song was lacking. I’ll take that idea, turn it on its head and see it through to how I think it should sound. I’ll take other people’s ideas through to fruition.

But Louis is doing far more than updating other people’s ideas – he’s bringing the euphoria of nineties house, lost eighties soul classics and vintage seventies funk to the fickle MP3 generation. Louis La Roche merges these influences to make a sound all of his own.

But don’t expect Louis La Roche to take things easy. Having completed enough tracks to fill an album , this 19 year old wonder-kid is already looking to his next project – as well as making those all important final tweaks to his current. “I finished an album in six months but now I’m slowly starting to pick it apart again,” says Louis. “Some people will release an album and DJ it for two years solidly before taking a break and working on the next. I want something new out every year. I’m not going to be sitting back and relaxing after my album.”

Which is just as well – because since when has dance music ever been about sitting back and relaxing?



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