Pushy! (with the exclamation mark) it’s the moving Breakbeat running after himself, always anticipating and reinventing.

Pushy! it’s an impressive list of lives, sets and collaborations with worlds as diversified as fashion (Jean Luc Testu, Darja Richter, Kaat Tilley), contemporary dance (Christophe Haleb, Isabelle Boutrois), cinema (Marc Caro, Thierry Dejean), and graphic arts... to name but a few.

Then there was Les bateleurs de Bakouo, once the Paris punk Mecca (Lucrate Milk, Bérurier Noir, Washington Dead Cats… etc.) coming back on the scene.

Pushy! Flag figure of the techno world, always ahead of time... sometimes too ahead for some conservators of the Boom Tchak.

To cut a long story short, Pushy! According to my neurologist, what you’ve got is good…

Chris / Pushy! - Interview.

Jim Nastik: What is techno nowadays?

Chris: It’s got into everything, it’s been digested and it’s finally starting to be used properly. Before, the techno movement was emerging, new instruments were being learnt; the training phase being over, it’s becoming truly interesting. A bit like rap, techno is coming out of its ghetto through fusion, mixing with other music styles or acoustics.

JN: How do you approach technologies?

C: I kind of explore, but I also have my own habits, a lot of research on sounds as they develop with the times, the tones and the grains are different, the changes occur more on that level, that’s really what I’m concerned with... Tools are changing too, they’re better, more complex and user-friendly, but they do not change your way of creating after all. I am not an equipment freak, the you-must-have the very last XYZ3600 BoostKill-U is not particularly my trip!

JN: Pushy! went from duo to solo (up until 1999 Pushy! was Yod and Chris); how did you make the move?

C: Well it’s ok, I lost my second half, but since it’s been alright... Pushy! goes on all the same... The times with Yod were very fulfilling, but life is made of encounters, of going back and forth, so let’s go ahead! It’s also the opportunity to meet other people.

JN: Where do you stand with the Cheravif project? (Another Pushy!’s project, a techno/rap cross-mix with rapper Cherif Djaziri)

C: We’re working on a new album; some ten tracks are already in the box. Of course, it’s got to be polished and we’ve got to make a master, it’s planned for early summer...

JN: Are you still collaborating with contemporary dance companies?
C: Not so much today, but working with dancers is great, that’s for sure, the approach is really different in a way that choreography is often pre-existing and that music must really reflect the dance. It makes a change; it’s the opposite of dancefloor in fact...

JN: What are you working on at the moment?

C: In the short term, the new Pushy! LP, planned for september. There’s also a new dubstep HupsyDown project, I quite like this new sound. And then later, lots of other stuff for the stage...

JN: What fascinates you?

C: Everything… but mainly the wild outdoors. I’m essentially a urban boy, often locked up in studios or clubs; when I’m facing far-away horizons... nature... it’s quite shock... it’s really fascinating.