Captain Mustache, a French music producer and DJ from Paris, has been gaining recognition in the electronic music scene since 2020. He has released music on well-known labels like Kompakt, Mobilee, Exploited, Permanent Vacation, and Return To Disorder, curated by Helena Hauff. His talent has gained the support of popular DJs worldwide.
Photo credit: Benjamin Robert
Inspired by 80’s pioneers, Detroit techno, and electroclash, Captain Mustache’s music can be described as romantic and burlesque. As an avid electronic music enthusiast, he has collaborated with iconic artists such as Dave Clarke, Chicks on Speed, Adamski, The Advent, Paris The Black Fu, and Keith Tucker from AUX88.
His music has received significant support and recognition from respected DJs including the late Andrew Weatherall, Laurent Garnier, Dave Clarke, John Digweed, David Guetta, Paul Van Dyk, Claptone, Pete Tong, and many others. With a growing fanbase, Captain Mustache has firmly established himself as a promising talent in the electronic music scene.
EG had the opportunity to catch up with Captain Mustache to learn more about his upcoming release, ‘The Super Album,’ which is set to be released on September 29th, 2023 via Kompakt. Pre-order your copy here.
EG: Hello Captain, welcome to EG! Can you introduce yourself and tell us how was born Captain Mustache?
Captain Mustache: Hello! I’m a DJ and music producer from France, living near Paris. I’m an electronic music lover and I always wanted to be a professional DJ. In 2019, I decided to stop my regular job and focus my time on music production. It was longer than expected with the pandemic that came in 2020. So I could produce a lot of songs and make a bunch of releases for 3 years.
EG: You have made some collaborations with great artists. Can you explain how?
Captain Mustache: I ran a label in the past, where I signed Popof, Adamski, Play Paul… They became friends and since I’m producing as Captain Mustache, we naturally came to work together. People often asked me about the collab with Dave Clarke, and how this could have happened. I knew he regularly played my songs on his radio show. So I asked if he would be up for doing vocals on a song I was producing, he liked it and accepted. Same for The Advent and Arnaud Rebotini. About Amanda Lear, we met on a French national radio show and I proposed straight on air! I really like putting vocals on my songs, it brings a new dimension to my music. And for that, I like to ask artists that I admire. It’s always interesting to cross universes with some people that I’m a big fan of.
EG: How did you succeed in signing on labels like Kompakt, Bedrock, or Mobilee?
Captain Mustache: About Bedrock, I sent 2 melodic techno songs to the label (‘Bleu Ciel’ and ‘Bleu Azur’). Later I got an email from John Digweed saying he wanted to release it. I was crazy. Then I sent him some other tracks, and he offered to release a new EP. I just said, “hey we have 2 tracks + 6 more, let me produce 1 or 2 more songs and we can do a full album”. He called me on WhatsApp and said ‘OK’. This is how ‘Indigo Memories’ was born.
About Kompakt, I sent them some demos. One day I got an email from Michael Mayer saying: “This is really cool stuff! Keep me posted on new productions”. This gave me strength, and I produced ‘Everything’. He loved the song and offered to release it on Kompakt. It was a dream, at that moment I screamed!
EG: How came the idea of this album?
Captain Mustache: ‘Everything’ was a great success, vinyl sold out, #1 on Kompakt’s Beatport Top 10 in 2021. So I asked Michael Mayer if he would be up for releasing a Captain Mustache album. I sent him the song ‘About Love’, and he said exactly: “It’s bloody brilliant… I wanna do this with you”. I finished songs with Chicks on Speed, Arnaud Rebotini, and Amanda Lear, and ‘The Super Album’ was born.
“It’s always interesting to cross universes with some people that I’m a big fan of”
EG: Why did you call it ‘The Super Album’?
Captain Mustache: Captain Mustache is a fantasmatic character that I would want to be, glam, confident… A superhero doing super music for super people. So the name came naturally. When I started this project, I wanted to create something burlesque and fun, quite parodic. That explains some of my song names like ‘Gimme Ya Mustache’, ‘Mustache Of The Universe’, or in the past ‘Super Great Song’. In real life, I’m pretty shy and discrete, so that’s pretty funny if people think that it’s pretentious.
EG: On the album cover, you are sitting on a Ferrari. Why?
Captain Mustache: When I send my demos, for the visual I used to put a picture of Tom Selleck on Magnum with a great mustache. Michael Mayer once told me: “I receive tons of demos, but when I saw yours with Magnum, I thought this guy must have good taste”. So I wanted to reproduce this picture, like a wink. I rented a vintage Ferrari for an hour and my friend Falk Klemm took some photos. The result was different from the initial idea, but when he showed me this super aesthetic pic of me sitting in the car, it was obvious. I found it so aesthetic that I forgot the original plan.
EG: What are your projects for the future?
Captain Mustache: After this album, I hope to tour a lot around the world as a DJ, in clubs and festivals. That’s my passion and what I’ve always wanted to do. Now the Captain is ready to conquer the world!
Captain Mustache’s ‘The Super Album’ is set to be released on September 29th, 2023, via Kompakt. Pre-order here.
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