Now here’s a name that most people had on their lips for a few years and which has seemingly drifted out of the collective consciousness of the scene. Well for most anyway, as being one of France’s best kept secrets, Troubl’ has actually been quite busy ever since he toped the world championships in 2002, winning the Beatdown and ITF titles and clocking up a few European belts on the way too. Alongside another Gallic duo, Kodh and Netik, Troubl’ dominated the battle scene in the early 2000s, bringing a fresh new approach to the table and turning heads by the hundreds with musically interesting and genuinely entertaining routines. All this culminated in a few triple showcases at the DMC and Beatdown world finals 2003. Performances which, in the case of their DMC showcase, showed to the world that these boys had talent for days and bigger hopes then mere world battle titles. Cue their collective disappearance from the battle scene in 2003. Fast forward a few years and we find Troubl’ keeping busy in his home country, releasing mixes, touring clubs, putting out break records and most importantly hard at work on a new album, a live project and an audio-visual collaboration. Yes we’ve been looking for Troubl’ for a while, and boy are we glad to have found him!

What you been up to?

Troubl’: Quite a lot really… Just got a new mixtape out, called ‘Quaz meets himself’, which is a special Quasimoto thing. I basically did the mix using all the original tracks Madlib sampled and mixing them with the Quasimoto tracks they’ve become. There are other samples and tracks on there too from collaboration tracks that Quasimoto did. Kind of like these mixes where you get originals and songs that sampled originals, but better! It’s over one hour as well, so there’s a lot for people to get their listening on.
I've also done some funk mixes in the last year or so. They're basically just a load of original tracks and then the rap tracks that sampled them. So basically breaks, original ones and sampled ones, and some scratching. I've tried to make them more like mixes you'd hear in a nightclub or at a party. You can put them on in your house and relax to them or have a party. It's not just thrown together. I've also got two break records that should be coming out quite soon.

Are those going to be battle records or more like scratch tools we've been seeing in the last year?

T: They're definitely more orientated towards battles. They're both being released alongside someone else, the first one is with Netik and is called 'Numerik Fonk' and the other one is with J-Mind and is called 'Troubl' Minded'. They've both got some beats for practice and juggling and skip proof sentences and samples. If all goes well the one with Netik will be released through Thud Rumble, which makes it easier for us to get it to other countries and just have a good distribution on it. We're sorting out the contracts at the minute but they should both be out by the summer hopefully. The one with J-Mind will be on another label.
The one with Netik we actually finished a long time ago but it never came out because of some bullshit we had with distributors. Thing is even though it's a bit old I don't think it sounds too dated because it's never been released and we've never used the beats anywhere else. I really like it. We just did both sides together and mixed our stuff. Where as the one with J-Mind is more recent and we've done one side each on there. So people can expect some very phat beats on both of these and just some good strong battle breaks.

And you got anything else you're working on?

T: Well there are a few other things. I'm working on a soundtrack for a friend's movie. Basically we're looking at doing a live show based on the movie, where I'll be doing all of the score live on stage. The movie is being shot right now, we started the other week. And my friend is putting it together and then I’m doing all the score for it, as well as all the sounds, dubbing etc... So then when we take it live we'll have something similar to what's been done already with things like Hop Fu, but taken to another level. My friend will be doing all the visuals and movie in real time using VJ equipment and I’ll be filling in the score on turntables as we go along. There are also some rappers involved in the movie and the scoring, so it's going to have all different elements, not just scratching. It's hard to explain at the minute but basically think of it like this: a totally original movie with original score and sounds done by the director, myself and the rappers involved. We did a little clip which I included on the second funk mix I did last year. My friend who's now directing the movie put together a clip of loads of different material and I then scored that and we put it on there for people to check. And that's where the idea came from really. Thing is a lot of people may not have seen the clip because the CD was a small run and you don't always check the CD in a computer when you listen to it. So hopefully this project will be able to get to more people and we'll be pushing for a live version we can tour as well. That should be done sometime this year for sure.
Apart from that I'm also working on an album, which will also hopefully see the light of day this year. It's going to be special, not like anything done before really. By me anyway! As it stands I'm looking at using both the turntables and the computer for composition. Basically I'll do all the writing on the computer, putting the tracks together etc... and then bounce all the different elements to vinyl and re-compose it using the turntables. This way it gives me more options and opens up other ideas and ways to do the tracks. I think also that by doing it this way I can make the album different from most of the stuff that's being put out. I can create tracks in different ways, using different production techniques depending on the way I feel each time I work on one, which I think is great. There could be all scratched stuff without computer elements, others were all the parts but the beat are re-composed on turns, and so on... It's a new step for me, and so I want to go in as many different directions as I can with it. So it may be hip hop, rock, free jazz, whatever, if I feel it works it'll go in there.

Are you thinking of maybe using CD decks for that, to make it easier for you?

T: To tell the truth I've tried CD decks and I don't like them, but then again I've seen the new ones, like the Numark CD-X, and they look much better. But I haven't had the chance to really test it properly. It's true that it would make it cheaper to do a lot of it on CD instead of vinyl but I prefer to use vinyl for production as then it means I can use it live as well.

Have you finished any of it yet?

T: A couple of tracks but they haven't been through the second process of being put on vinyl and re-composed yet.

And you were telling me you've been doing a lot of club nights and playing out recently?

T: Yeah it's funny because I never really used to like club nights or going out when I was battling. I was really into the whole staying at home and practicing thing but now I’ve been doing a lot of them and I really enjoy it. It's mainly funk nights really, I get to play breaks, funk, soul and old school hip hop. I try not to do too much during the sets, not go crazy with scratching and turn people off in the process. I just like doing my own thing and if people appreciate a bit of skill then I’ll give it to them. Having had a title and notoriety in battles did help a lot with the bookings, so I guess that's one good thing that came out of it. But on the other hand you get promoters who book you and they don't really know what to expect, so sometimes they get a bit scared! I like to bring some skills when I play funk especially. When you go to funk nights it's not always the most energetic style of mixing, but you can make it really entertaining with the right amount of skills.

A bit like what Shadow and Cut Chemist did with the Brainfreeze mixes?

T: Yeah that's it. I've done nights in Germany, Switzerland and around France. Thing is round here if you go to a hip hop night it can be a bit scary and there's always people around looking for trouble whereas funk nights have a bit of a more mature audience, people appreciate it more.

And do you still follow the battles and what's going on with that?

T: Not really, I find that a lot of it has become quite boring frankly. There are still good, talented people that are battling, but for the major part it's all the same. Everyone's reached this technical level and then it becomes impossible to really differentiate everyone and originality kind of gets lost in the process. It's a bit like running around in a circle. When I was battling, in France anyway, there was Netik, Kodh and myself and we were constantly pushing each other, trying to better the other and be the best. So that was good and it helped us a lot to get where we are now. But after that I don't think any of us had any idea of battling for longer then we did. I always said to myself that I'd win a World Championship in this DJ thing, and when I did I knew I wouldn't really want anything else from battling after that. But then if you think about the guys who say that to themselves but don't win and go back each year, they must be going mad! I would have if I hadn't won!
And you know I'm still waiting for the video of the Beatdown World Finals I won in 2002 as well! We're meant to get royalties from the videos too, which is a bitch. Thing is I went to the Beatdown European Finals 2003 in Germany, and it was empty! There were like 50-100 people in there, in the same room I'd been in two years before for ITF with a 1000 people in there. So I think it's obvious that battles aren't doing too well.

And you heard much of what is happening outside the battles? Like the stuff BNN and C2C have been doing in France this year and Gunkhole in the US, Excess etc...

T: I've heard some of it. It's funny coming from the battles I've always found stuff like that harder to get into when you sit down and listen to it. But since quitting the battles and working on music and other stuff I've found a new liking for it, and I'm able to appreciate it instead of thinking it's boring. I've heard BNN's stuff and I found it really nice, it's my type of stuff. Gunkhole on the other hand I wasn't a big fan. I was one of those who wanted to see them cut it up for 30mins like maniacs rather than see the show! I know it's a bit stupid, but I'd rather see D-Styles, Ricci Rucker and that lot doing some crazy cutting over a beat then the actual show. Not saying it was shit but I just didn't really feel it, it's a very particular vibe I think. It's like all these people are taking music with turntables to a whole new level, which is great. And it's now like anything else in this world of music, you're going to like it or not. People are using turntables in a lot of different ways to make music, and the music they make is going to be different, in the same way people's tastes are different.

When we last spoke a few years ago, you mentioned how hard it could be at times for people like you in France to get any recognition for what you do, or even actually get any work DJing or showcasing. Have you found this has changed or not?

T: Not really, it's funny with France though. There are towns that are going to be better than anywhere else, where the scene and things in general are good for people like me to do their thing. Like Nantes for example, they've got C2C down there and some very good funk guys as well, and that means when you go in town to do a show, the crowd is going to be receptive to a lot of what you do, and not judge you based on what they've had or seen before. They get down, you can scratch and do your thing easily and know people are going to appreciate it. And then you've got the opposite, with towns where no matter what you do people won't like it because it's not what they are used to. They reject anything that's new or different. France just isn't ideal for DJs to do sets or showcases really, there are some good parts but overall it's not much different then it always was, there are just more DJs nowadays! And not necessarily good ones either, plus the major aspect of DJ culture over here is House music. I don't do nights in my town, which is a shame. I like to go abroad or to places where people know the music and like it, and will appreciate what you do. And if I can't and I'm stuck somewhere that might be a bit shit, I try to educate people if I can.

And did you sell much of the CDs you did then? The funk ones?

T: The first one (Beat Breaker Therapy vol1) sold really well, and I did it all on my own, burnt 500 copies on my computer, colour photocopy of each cover and hand numbered. I then sold them myself to shops and people and got rid of them all. Because that went well I got enough money back to put the second one together. This one I gave to a French distributor to get it out, and it sold well through them. As for the Quas mix I've just done, again I did a more professional print job for it, with a nice cover and everything. That was all handled by a friend of mine and I just put the mix together and then I've got this guy based in London who's helping me shift them in the UK and around Europe. Thing is for me with these mixes I think that if people give them a try and listen to them properly, they'll realise they are a bit more timeless then your average best of r'n'b mix (laughs). You know, these are mixes that have taken me a long time to put together, I've put care and thought into it and I think people can hear and appreciate that when they sit down with them.

And what's your studio setup?

T: Pretty fucking basic really. 2 turns, a mixer and a computer. That's it. I've got a loop pedal as well, RC-20, but I don't really use it. I might pull it out for the album stuff. It'll be useful for that.

Got any last words?

T: Nope... (silence for a minute) Actually if anyone wants to do me a nice little site, with flash and everything, and for free then yeah please let me know!!

Many thanks to Troubl’ for his time. As you’ve just found out there is no site for the man right now, though you can check the Hand-Control forum for information on his whereabouts and releases. However speaking and understanding French helps. All the mixes mentioned are out now and available. Both ‘Beat Breaker Therapy’ vol2 and ‘Quaz meets himself’ can be found via the internet or regular record pushers. Again there is release info available on Hand-Control.
As we got this ready for publishing Troubl’ informed us that Netik and him are currently working on a joint live project for the end of the year. Expect more info and detail on that as we get it, but knowing the talent and pedigree of these two Frenchmen you can be assured it will be an interesting live project.
If all goes well we’ll have some exclusive download from Troubl’ for you in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled and also stay locked to Turntable Radio where you’ll be able to hear extracts from his mixes and new compositions in the coming months.