Le félicité du label Ghostly International pourrait provenir d’une juxtaposition de sonorités atypiques plutôt que de joutes verbales métronomiques et de substrat d’abstract hip hop. C’est le cas du jeune Derwin, évoluant sous le pseudo Gold Panda. Ce dernier est une averse électronique qui répand par à -coup ses beat frappadingues comme autant de bourre-pifs vocaux dispensés sur les rings du label durant la dernière décennie. Chaussé de bottes de sept lieues, Derwin déambule sur cette avenue électronique propre à lui en y disséminant çà et là des monceaux de splendeurs artificielles et de collages révérencieux. Aussi compétent dans les irrigations électroniques que dans les roucoulements hypnotiques, Gold Panda distille au compte-gouttes son filet de voix spectral sur les magnificences terminales. Muni d’un savoir-faire assez prodigieux, il se voit directement catapulté avec ce dernier album, Lucky Shinner, au top des charts. Nous, on en a profité de son passage en Belgique pour lui parler autour d’un thé des fantaisies de sa vie et ça nous a plus que plu. Voyez plutôt.
Puck : How’s it all going?
Derwin : Yeah, it’s going all right. Been playing live quite a bit recently.
Puck : You consider your album as a story, tell me why ?
Derwin : I’ve always loved albums to be albums, really. I know it’s a bit cheezy nowadays. People are just making a collection of tracks that come together as an album.
But I wanted to have a story and a narrative. I wanted a beginning, middle, and ending for the album, and the same with each song. It was made really quickly :  in three weeks, in total. I did most of it in two weeks over Christmas. I went to stay at my aunt and uncle’s house, and they live in the countryside in Essex. There’s nothing to do. It’s a little village; there’s a few pubs, and there’s a local supermarket. It’s not far from London, but when you’re there, it does feel like it’s a million miles away.
Puck : Who is Daisy ? And why was her so important in your writing proccess ?
Derwin : It’s my aunt and uncle’s dog and I looked after her over Christmas and had my whole studio set up there. I have a really short attention span, so most tracks are done in a day, and then I’m bored with them. And if they turned out good, then they’re good, and if I think that they’re not really finished or whatever, then they get rendered to the hard drive and put into iTunes and sit in there forever. I was never really a big fan of dogs before but with her i twas different. She’d wake up really early and wake me up, and I’d take her for a walk, come back, start making tracks. And then after an hour or so, she’d want to go for a walk again or play. Every time I was getting into it, she’d kind of stop me and we’d go for a walk. It stopped me from overworking things, and I think that’s what made it (the album’s) more simple and more direct. It was good to have a distraction while I was doing it. It’s all about relationships that I’ve had, and people that I know, and family. They’re the most important things to me in life and for finding out what I wanted to do in life. And Lucky Shiner is my grandmother’s name. She’s from northeast India. She married my grandfather, David Shiner, so that’s her name. She’s someone who is really close to me and is still going really strong.
Puck : I have got the impression there are different colors on the tracks, or that there is a palette – lo-fi sounds, somewhat exotic samples, asian world… like a trip around the world?
Derwin : There’s a big Asian influence, or world music influence. You can sample anything, but I guess if I’m looking for old records, then stuff from the Middle East or Far East are really interesting. They’re stuff that I’d listen to anyway, and then just through listening to those records you find samples. The tracks are quite varied, but I think they have a similar sound throughout, and a narrative. But I really like this comparison with this trip around the world.
Puck : Was it because of your friend who passed away, you decided to make music ?
Derwin : After my friends death, I thought it’d be cool to dedicate something to someone who isn’t dead. Rather than someone dying and then doing it, it makes them realize how important they are. I really want people to attach their own sentiment to it. People can add their own feelings to it, sort of like a blank canvas. « The musician wanted to write songs with structure and substance. He wanted the sounds to be personal and intimate. He didn’t intend on just simply writing beats. »
Puck : How was important Japan for you ? And your interest in Asian music?
Derwin : I saw the anime Akira when I was like fifteen. And then from there I started buying computer games like Street Fighter, and spending loads of money on the imports. And then finally getting to go there and being really inspired by it all. It’s a great place, and I think just how it looks, the topography is really inspiring for me.
Puck : Is it true you sold your record collection to study a diploma in Japanese?
Derwin : Yeah, I was really into hip-hop and I sold it all to study Japanese for a year. The course was so expensive but it was totally worth it. I got to like, upper intermediate level in a year.
Puck : Do you speak Japanese fluently?
Derwin : I’m supposed to, I’m on the highest level, so I’m gonna try and knuckle down and take my final test. When I completed the course and I graduated, I thought I’d be able to get a job working in a bank of something. So I went to all the interviews and whatever, and then I realised I’m not interested in a city job, and I couldn’t really find anything I wanted to do with it.
Puck : However It’s fairly well known that you used to work in a sex shop…
Derwin : Yes and It was the only job I could get, really. It was pretty good because I’d do all my hours at the weekend and then I’d have the whole week to do nothing. So I did like, fifteen hour shifts on the Saturdays and Sundays and that’d be a thirty-hour week.
Puck:Â What did your parents say when they found out you were working there?
Derwin : « Can we come have a look? « . They’re pretty cool parents.
Puck : What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
Derwin : The worst job I ever had. It was working for Stansted Airport on the pick up point where the buses take everyone to the long-stay car park. I’ve never had so much abuse in my life. It was like I was responsible for the buses being there on time and it’s nothing to do with me. My job was to put people in queues and then get them onto the bus safely. And people just call you, like ‘You fucking cunt. Where’s the bus? I’ve been waiting here for twenty minutes.’
That’s the only job I’ve been in tears. I thought I was fairly tough but I’ve never been abused so much in my life, and actually scared for my life. Like thinking someone was going to hit me, and I did it with my sister, 4am to 10 and it was just ridiculous. It was abuse like I’d killed their son or something. Or raped a child. That bad.
Puck : Future of Gold Panda ?
Derwin : Touring. Resting. Drinking tea.
//par Victoria, photo: Landon Speers
Gold Panda a sorti son dernier album Lucky Shinner sur Ghostly International
