„Crazy“ ist eines der Wörter, die Pedro Winter oft verwendet, wenn er seine Arbeit oder sein Leben beschreibt. Der heute 33-jährige startet seine Karriere 1996 als Manager des Erfolgsduos Daft Punk. Um sich fortan seinem eigenen Label zu widmen, legt er dieses Amt nach zwölf Jahren nieder und vereint auf dem derzeit wohl meist genannten Electro Label „Ed Banger“ die angesagtesten DJs wie
SebastiAn oder die Top Seller Justice unter einem Dach. Ganz lässt ihn jedoch das
Künstlermanagement nicht los. Er steigt als Manager von Justice wieder in den Ring der Musikindustrie und verhilft dem Duo zu weltweitem Erfolg. Unter dem Pseudonym Busy P produziert der viel beschäftigte Pedro eigene Tracks und seine seltenen DJ-Auftritte sind Pflichttermine in der internationalen Clubszene. Mit Freund und Graphiker SoMe verschafft er auch visuell seinem Labels einen charismatischen Auftritt. Gerade haben die beiden das Design-Konsortium „Cool Cats“ gegründet, das sich ganz der Mode, Styles und der Musik verschrieben hat.

Busy P. -  So let me start my introduction, even if it's your interview
What an honnor for me to have the one and only Thomas, doing and running this thing! So you are asking me about this branding thing? So tonight in Hambourg is the last show of the tour, it's the Levi's Unbutton Tour, and you know like as I said earlier, this branding thing can be scary, all those brands buying the 'cool' out of us... but it's OK! You know, we are in 2009, things have changed, you know that, Lodown is 14 years, me, I've been DJing since 95 too, and things have definitely changed. 10 years ago, I would have probably turned down all this kind of proposals but nowadays I like those brands Levi's, Coca Cola or Nike, calling me to create some stuff and giving us the opportunity and the power to express ourselves and finally do what we are doing the best: Levi's is paying me to party hard and this is what I'm doing, and I'm doing it in Germany.

Thomas - All right.  What's up with Coolcats, your clothing label...

Busy P. - Coolcats is just a natural evolution. When I created Ed Banger records in 2003, I did it completely by accident and just with the time, you know I'm born in 1975, I don't know how old you are, but probably the same generation...  I was just playing with the tools that are around me. Music and Fashion. Music is definitly my thing. Having a label and brand is like using and extending the network.
So it was also a way to have a large spectrum for our creation, we create with music and with our record sleeves and everything aI do with SoMe, which is our Art Director, I wanted to be able to express ourselves in fashion. So far it's only tee shirts but it's gonna grow up fast. We are already designing some jackets and some other stuff. Of course there is some business side behind this, you know merchandising is really an important thing for music labels nowadays, because we sell half of the records we used to do, so we still need to find the money and selling tee shirts and stuff. its a good way to keep the business alive. With the money I have from the tee shirt sales I can invest in new artists who haven't got a record out yet.

Thomas - SoMe is still your partner in crime?

Busy P. - definetly my partner in crime and I prefer not to think the day he will leave me. When I met him in 2000, I felt something was going on between us and he its still there and i'm still here for him too, and I can't see Ed Banger without him,...

Thomas - What about the music? Wha's coming up?

Busy P. - With Ed Banger it's been pretty fast. When we put out Justice vs. Simian "We are your friends" it was only the second release of the label and it blew away all around. We were really young and the success was there, so it was a bit of a shock. It's been a bit more than 6 years that the label is existing and I'm pretty confident that we manage to create something I hope to be strong enough to last, I mean I don't wanna be that hype label of the moment and be forgotten next year, I want to be here for a while, it's gonna be our responsibility to propose a new sound to the kids. People can be fed up with all this Ed Banger distorsion sound easily and it's our role to propose something different and I think we gonna do it. The last album we put it out was "Krazy Baldhead" which is like completly something different, which is more like broken Hip-Hop, more like Prefuse 73 or stuff like that. And Sebastian and Uffie are finishing their album right now, which will be a good surprise too.

Thomas - Where do you find your roots?

Busy P. - I always speak about the 10 years I spent on a skateboard, I definetly believe and spread the word that being on a skateboard opened my mind more than anything. First by being surrounded by all different kinds of kids, all on a skateboard, all on the same 4 wheels and wooden plate but all from different culture, rich kids, poor kids, all kind of kids, but finally we were all equal, and when we were all falling down and we had to go back on the board and try again. I like this period of my life. We were reading Transworld, Trasher, all those american magazines, we were on the influence of this american culture but we did it on our way in France and you did it yourself in Germany. And nowadays, but not only nowadays as for the last 10 years when you are looking at guys like Spike Jones, Jason Lee, Tommy Guerrero, Ed Templeton, all those guys who are coming from skateboarding are influencing culture in their own way and business, which is all about creation, the only entity that counts. I feel being part of this. I'm glad that I met all those guys I'm talking about, who were the guys I had on posters in my room. And I know that if I didn't skateboard in my life I would not be the same today. And I hope those people who share this passion for skateboarding can feel the same energy and dynamics. I did this label without thinking, you know, ...and when you jump down ten stairs you don't think that much, you are doing it and at the end you realize you did it or not. And I did the same with Ed Banger I did it without thinking too much. And luckily we achieved something.

Thomas - What is the french thing about Ed Banger?

Busy P. - The french thing might be the fact that it is a label where you can find electronic artist, hip-hop artist, and we are mixing it all together and most of the labels do only one genre, they are doing electronic or hip-hop, and Ed Banger can express the way we want. And it's why I feel pretty lucky.  E.g. when I get support from Stones Throw's Peanut Butter Wolf saying that Ed Banger is a reference,... when I can work with people from other labels, like Warp or some other I feel pretty lucky and I realize this is maybe the french twist out of it, we manage to unite different people and I think it's typically french. It could be german too our culture is a little bit similar.

Thomas - French have a long history of ecclecticism.

Busy P. - Yeah, Germans too when I think about all that Krautrock, but I know french much better, it's true that we always have been influenced by the US, but instead of being adaptive like the rest of the world, we took the best out of it and do it our way. And I hope this is the way we are doing it with Ed Banger. Often I like to make a joke about the sound of Ed Banger, I like this band called "Blood, Sweat and Tears" and I wish Ed Banger Records underline will be "Blood, Sweat and Tears", beacause we are making music, we are the kids who can stage dive and get crazy, some of us are bleeding and of course most of the kids who are coming to our partys are getting out all wet by sweating like pigs, and at the end when we put the last records, girls are crying because this is the end.

Thomas - What about your own productions?

Busy P. - I put out two 12 inches so far on Ed Banger and I did a couple of remixes, but for the moment I really see my job as a labelmanager so I am pushing my artist to the music and I will do my thing when I will have the time, I'm not in a rush. It's true that a lot of people tell me: you should do it now! There is the attention and buzz and whatever, but I'm not in a rush! It will come when it will come. It's not the time now. I have some ideas but it will take time.

Thomas - So give me a call when you are ready.

Busy P. - I will call you for the cover!

IN THE MIX - BUSY P Launch Player

www.red-tab.com

http://blog.coolcats.fr/
www.myspace.com/edbangerrecords