{"id":811041,"date":"2024-12-08T10:51:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T16:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/08\/boombass-talks-epic-new-cassius-club-tour\/"},"modified":"2024-12-08T10:51:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-08T16:51:06","slug":"boombass-talks-epic-new-cassius-club-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/08\/boombass-talks-epic-new-cassius-club-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Boombass Talks Epic New Cassius Club Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Music <\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Hubert Blanc-Francard<\/strong>, better known to the world as <strong>Boombass<\/strong> \u2013 co-founder of legendary French house duo <strong>Cassius<\/strong>, has had quite the year. Following a series of collaborative DJ sets under his own name alongside fellow DJs \u00c9tienne de Cr\u00e9cy and DJ Falcon earlier this year, he was left feeling inspired to revisit the Cassius story.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Formed in 1988 and originally conceived as a record label before evolving into a musical duo, Cassius came to a sad, sudden conclusion following the untimely death of its co-founder Philippe Cerboneschi in June 2019. His passing came just two days prior to the release of what would come to be their final album, \u2018Dreems\u2019 and Boombass subsequently announced that the project would be retired.<\/p>\n<p>After half a decade away, something happened during those collaborative sets with de Cr\u00e9cy and Falcon that changed his mind, however. The crowd\u2019s rapturous response to drops of Cassius hits \u2018Feeling For You\u2019, \u2018I\u2019m a Woman\u2019 and \u2018I <3 U SO\u2019 convinced him that there may yet be another chapter to the story.<\/p>\n<p>September saw Boombass performing as Cassius solo for the very first time as part of the closing celebrations for the Paralympics. In October, he oversaw the release of <strong>Best of 1996-2019<\/strong>, a 20-track compilation of the duo\u2019s finest moments. And now, with the Cassius revival in full swing, Blanc-Francard is turning his attention to a new project: the Cassius Club Tour, which will see him touring around Europe and North America throughout the first half of 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Paul Weedon caught up with Boombass to discuss his plans.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cassius - I Love U So (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NazVKnD-_sQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>It was great to see Cassius return at the Paralympics closing ceremony earlier this year. What did it mean for you to be able to honour Philippe\u2019s legacy in that way?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was an honour to be part of French music history and French electronic music history, and to be able to play at the Stade de France. For the first thing I had to do as Cassius alone, it was totally crazy\u2026 It was the best way to celebrate coming back and to say hi to Philippe. It was really a special moment I will never forget, you know? So I\u2019m very proud and very lucky to have had the idea back in April, not in September. The most crazy thing was two weeks after the Olympic games, the documentary about DJ Mehdi was released. We\u2019re part of that story and I\u2019m interviewed a lot. I didn\u2019t remember because I did that two years ago, and it was an incredible success in France. And I had the second return of the Cassius story two weeks later, with people in the street coming up to me and saying, \u201cThank you for what you did with Mehdi,\u201d taking me in their arms. It was incredible coming back.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you feel that Philippe was kind up there with you when you were performing that set?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, it\u2019s really strange, because for a few years after he passed, I was feeling really alone\u2026 I mean, we were so close that he is still here, in a way, through the memories and all the things we did together, but he\u2019s still here in future things too. I don\u2019t know how to explain it, but we spent so much time together that now I can think a bit like we were thinking when we were together \u2013 especially for the aesthetic things and the philosophy we had. I don\u2019t know yet if I will do new music under the Cassius name. I wanted to do that, but it\u2019s a bit strange without him. I found a lot of old tracks and a lot of old music, and when I\u2019m listening to it I say, \u201cOkay, there are some things I can do alone,\u201d but the Cassius identity musically is, I think, very difficult. I may do more collaborations as Cassius with other artists and be part of the history, rather than doing new Cassius music. For me, it\u2019s still a bit abstract. I will miss him musically, for the sound and his craziness, so I have to build a new universe for the music, but for DJing and for celebrating and for partying, I can do that alone because we are still together when I\u2019m in the DJ booth. It\u2019s really fun.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Does it surprise you that these songs that you created together have continued to endure in the way that they have? You can drop \u2018Cassius 1999\u2019 or \u2018Feeling For You\u2019 and the crowd just goes crazy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Especially when the people in front of me aren\u2019t all people of my age who grew up with our music, but it\u2019s a new generation. It\u2019s what I discovered when I played with \u00c9tienne de Cr\u00e9cy and DJ Falcon. We did a tour together and I played the Cassius tracks. Afterwards, when I was speaking to people, I said, \u201cWow, it\u2019s mad.\u201d It\u2019s one of the best things you can have as an artist, when you realise that you can speak to a few generations. It\u2019s really enlightening in a way. It\u2019s great when you can share it for so long. I realise that we started 25 years ago and 25 years later people are still jumping around. It\u2019s really fantastic \u2013 especially alone now \u2013 to see that what we did is still here. It\u2019s great.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019m thinking back to watching Alan Braxe live. When he drops \u2018Music Sounds Better With You\u2019, it\u2019s like a secret weapon. Well, it\u2019s not a secret, really. You just know that people are going to go crazy.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Especially when <em>you\u2019re<\/em> the incarnation of the songs \u2013 like Alan did that song with Thomas [Bangalter] as Stardust. If people see me playing \u2018Cassius 1999\u2019, they know that I was part of the song, I think it brings something to it. For me, if I see one of my heroes playing the guitar, I feel the same way\u2026 So especially in the digital world, we see a lot of things, but not for real. When they see you for real, playing the music that you did, it\u2019s a special communication between people. And when we were young, we were not thinking about that, you know? We had no idea that at my age, we would play \u2018Cassius 1999\u2019 and see kids jumping around.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cassius - Cassius 1999 (Radio Edit) [Official Audio]\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NDesnOyWzL0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>You briefly touched on aesthetics. A lot of artists change their logo as they evolve and there\u2019s a kind of visual identity that maybe doesn\u2019t stick. From \u20181999\u2019 all the way through to \u2018Dreems\u2019, the Cassius logo remained the same and feels like an integral part of the brand, if you like. Could you tell me a little about how it came to be?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s actually \u00c9tienne de Cr\u00e9cy who drew it, which I only learned two years ago. I thought it was Alex Courtes, the guy who did our cover. At the beginning, it was a label. We were thinking of doing a record label. It was called Cassius, and we did \u2018L\u2019Homme Qui Valait 3 Milliards\u2019 at the time with \u2018Foxxy Lady\u2019 and \u2018Dinapoly\u2019. And when we received the vinyl, I remember we said, \u201cWow, Cassius? It\u2019s a good name for a band. Why use this for a label?\u201d So after that, \u00c9tienne drew the logo. It\u2019s a family affair and we kept it because it was working at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s funny how, perhaps more so than any other genre, there\u2019s a visual consistency across French electro, especially with yourselves and labels like Ed Banger.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The funny thing is, it\u2019s full of people who, at the beginning, were more into pictures and creating images than music. We were all geeks, we had access to computers and musical programs and a lot of the time \u2013 it was more accidental \u2013 but it was more of a graphic movement before the music. Maybe that\u2019s why.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And it\u2019s kind of impossible to think of one without the other now.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, especially for electronic music. As we weren\u2019t rock stars or punks, there was no singer. There were no leaders of the band. I think we thought about the graphics as a way to fill up this space. It was more a way of existing through an image, more than our own image.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019re kicking off the Cassius Club Tour next year. How does DJing now compare to when you first started?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think I prefer it now. All the technological toys are fantastic. I love vinyl, but I\u2019m not at all a vinyl DJ. That\u2019s not a judgement, but for me, I love to have a little bag with thousands of tracks and be able to have cues, loops and stuff you can use. If you know how to use those machines, it\u2019s really fun. When we started, we could play nine minute songs in a set. Now, it\u2019s nearly impossible. If you play a seven minute track, people look at you and say, \u201cIs he sleeping, or what?\u201d With vinyl it\u2019s really difficult to play a lot of tracks. You have to have ten bags or so. So anyway, the sound now is even better. My only regret is the level of the sound in the club. It\u2019s like 106 dB max. It\u2019s very rare to find a place where you can play loud and I think this music is better when it\u2019s very loud. It\u2019s not good for the ears, but it\u2019s the only thing I miss from the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"506\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clashmusic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/1000114698.jpg\" alt  ><\/figure>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>What can we expect from Cassius Club?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We do a lot of back to back. People in front of us really love seeing people having fun. It\u2019s more like a band now. I\u2019ve rediscovered what I was doing with Philippe, so it\u2019s really great. I really love it. And for the music, it\u2019s not prepared. We don\u2019t say, \u201cOkay, I\u2019m gonna play this, you\u2019re gonna play that.\u201d You have to react to what your friends are playing. The time goes quickly and you share the energy with each other when it\u2019s good \u2013 sometimes it can be a nightmare \u2013 but generally, when it\u2019s good, it\u2019s really something.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And you\u2019re kicking things off at Fabric in London.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, London is really something for me, because it\u2019s been a long time. For us, it was our start. America is going to be fun too. I know the club we\u2019re playing in Berlin \u2013 Prince Charles \u2013 and I\u2019m really excited. I feel really lucky to have all of these things to do until July. It\u2019s a bit of a dream. My idea is really to mix the new generation with me and our friends. That\u2019s really important. It\u2019s like what Pedro [Winter] and Ed Banger were doing at the beginning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I feel like that\u2019s something that the French electro scene has always done well. I mean, you look at what Ed Banger did with their 20th anniversary last year at Printworks.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, it\u2019s crazy. I know\u2026 You have to have someone who wants to share and get everyone together, so that\u2019s gonna be what I have to do on this tour. It\u2019s very exciting, because it\u2019s not only that you come with your USB, play and go back to the hotel, you know? You have to put in the energy for all the DJs. I will be like a father figure \u2013 the older one \u2013 \u201cOkay, guys and girls, now we have to celebrate\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cassius - The Sound of Violence (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RfnPCymwl9k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p><em>Bombass takes Cassius Club tour to London\u2019s fabric on January 17th.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Words: <strong>Paul Weedon<\/strong><br \/>Photo Credit: <strong>Leon Prost<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clashmusic.com\/features\/boombass-talks-epic-new-cassius-club-tour\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Music Hubert Blanc-Francard, better known to the world as Boombass \u2013 co-founder of legendary French house duo Cassius, has had quite the year. Following a series of collaborative DJ sets under his own name alongside fellow DJs \u00c9tienne de Cr\u00e9cy and DJ Falcon earlier this year, he was left feeling inspired to revisit the Cassius [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":811042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[131522],"class_list":{"0":"post-811041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-news","8":"tag-podcast-music"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}