After everything that has happened are the boys from Paris still cool? You bet they are.

I had a chance to speak to one of the men who has been at the forefront and a member of the ED BANGER team which has helped bring so much change and inspiration to music over the last couple of years. His name is DJ MEHDI and he has a new release 'Pocket Piano' which was just released. Here we get to sit down and talk about the story behind the track, the history of the man and his thoughts on the OBAMA election...

IHEARTCOMIX: TELL US ABOUT YOUR LATEST RELEASE, POCKET PIANO. WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS AND INSPIRATION FOR THE SONG? PRODUCTION TECHNIQUE?

MEHDI: I first programed this instrumental, without the piano loop, for a James Pants remix I was doing for Stones Throw. But it was slightly off-key, and I asked James if he would re-sing to make it right. James Pants already had his head in his new album and never could find the time to do it-this was during the first Justice US tour in October 2007.

In a Los Angeles hotel room, couple of hours before the Henry Fonda show, I let So-Me and Gaspard hear the beat and So-Me completely freaked out on me when I told him this wasn't going to be on Ed Banger: he commanded me to finish it quick and let it be my own new single. Now you know we can't refuse him (almost) anything!

So, back in Paris, I started to think about it in a different way: i had a good beat, but no theme, no hook, and no vocals. That's where my main musical collaborator BOGUE comes in the picture. He first played the bassline, which was simple and effective. I chopped it up and arranged it in half an hour while he was randomly playing some chords on my Rhodes electric piano. When he hazardly stumbled upon the chord progression that you now know, i understood that we had what we lacked so far and flipped out: we recorded it straight up, only on the electric piano.

Now begins the longest mixing session of my life: I loved it but I just couldn't get the sound right for some reason. I called a lot of engineer or producer friends to help me out, Zdar from Cassius most notably, who is the best sound engineer in France. We mixed it like, 2 or 3 times, but we were never satisfied. I gave up on the track and forgot about it for 3 months.

January 2008, and comes your yearly email for the Ed Banger annual compilation. Dropping by the office to let Busy Pedro and Amandine hear what I had in stock, they revived my enthusiasm for that track, telling me it was one of their all-time favourite of mine. Now I had to finish it, no doubt.

At that time, some of us Ed artists started to dig in 70's and 80's french popular music, to find inspiration and chord progressions to rip-off. Apart from Serge Gainsbourg, the biggest french songwriter of the era was this awesome guy called Michel Berger, an amazing piano player, of all things. Listening to his tunes 'Il jouait du piano debout' or 'La groupie du pianiste', I get the idea that the electric sound of the Rhodes might not be the perfect thing for this track and I went back to my friend Bogue to change it to a regular straight piano sound. It felt so natural, and now you know the rest is history...

For the record, some of my friends strongly advised that I get a vocal for the song so I tried a few things, including a show-stopping vocal performance by Mapei that you will perhaps hear one day...

IHC: WHAT IS YOUR HISTORY, WHERE DID YOUR NAME COME FROM AND WHAT IS YOUR HISTORY WITH ED BANGER?

MEHDI: My real name is Mehdi Faveris-Essadi. DJ Mehdi isn't a nickname, it's just DJ my name, and I often thought about changing it. I started as a Hip-Hop DJ for my old band Ideal J in 1990, released two albums in 96 and 99 with them. I was also doing a lot of production for other french bands, including MC Solaar which is the only one that had crossed the borders unfortunately.

I met Busy P, the Cassius guys, and the whole Daft crew in 1997, and immediately felt connected to them musically. I remixed and traveled with them a million times, they definitely got me into the music I'm making now. I recorded an album in 2001 for Virgin Records, with Pedro being my manager. It wasn't an outstanding success but it definitely put me on the map and made my old Hip-Hop audience understand how I was trying new things and going somewhere else. In 2003, Pedro founded Ed Banger Records, and when he came across the 'We Are Your Friends' song, he asked me to do a B-side for it-that's how I got on Ed Banger. If you have the first and second press of that record, you'll see 'Anything is possible' by ESPION on the B-side: that was one of my alias back then.

IHC: TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE THESE LAST COUPLE YEARS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS CURRENT MOVEMENT OF MUSIC AND YOUR PLACE IN IT?

MEHDI: I have the time of my life, I enjoy every moment of it, and I work hard to make it last.

IHC: HOW HAS THE MUSIC SCENE IN PARIS CHANGED? AS AN ARTIST WITH A WIDE DIVERSITY OF INFLUENCES, DO YOU FEEL A KINSHIP WITH YOUR FELLOW FRENCH ARTISTS?

MEHDI: Paris is like that: wide variety of influences. It's old and new. It's Hip-hop and Techno. It's rich and trendy and poor and not-trendy at all. It's the city of fashion and the city of ghetto riots. It made me who I am and I love it.

IHC: WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR HIGHLIGHTS OF 2008?

MEHDI: Looking forward to Dec 31st, then it would have been nothing but a come up ride.

IHC: AS A FRENCHMAN WHO SPENDS A LOT OF TIME IN THE US, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ON THE ELECTION OF OBAMA, IF ANY?

MEHDI: I felt concerned and happy about the US election, no doubt. But I am a french citizen, I don't vote in America, and I observed it as an american thing first; i was mainly happy because the totality of my American friends were hoping on him to win. I happened to be in Brooklyn on November 4th and I am glad to have witnessed that moment.

IHC: IS THERE MORE TO MEHDI THAN THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC?

MEHDI: I'm a family man first, raising my son with my wife is definitely my main involvement. Other than that, it's all Sex, Food, Beats and Blues.

IHC: WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW? ANY EXCITING PROJECTS COMING UP? WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR YOU?

MEHDI: Working with Mapei on her first amazing album and with Spank Rock on some crazy, crazy new songs. More remixing and touring, no doubt. And maybe sparking a new album for 2010, after the Uffie and Sebastian 2009 Ed Banger jump-off...

Big thanks to MEHDI for the interview. Be sure to pick up his new single 'Pocket Piano' out now on ED BANGER RECORDS w remixes by BRODINSKI and JOAKIM. DJ MEHDI
"POCKET PIANO" EP
OUT NOW!

including remixes by JOAKIM and BRODINSKI

Available on Beatport , Beatsource
& USA , UK , Japan , Germany , France , and the rest of Europe

www.myspace.com/djmehdi