Chester French Is The Future
October 25, 2007
That's a photo of Maxwell Drummey (left) and D.A. Wallach (right) of Chester French together with their new boss Pharrell Williams.
Genre-defying duo Chester French was courted by the crème de la crème of the music industry earlier this year. After meeting with people like Kanye West and Jermaine Dupri, the recent Harvard graduates decided to sign with Star Trak that was founded by musical partners Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo aka production duo The Neptunes. The label is part of Jimmy Iovine's mighty Interscope family. Other artists on Star Trak's roster include Kenna and Robin Thicke.
Star Trak is an exciting home for an exciting new band. I've said it before and I will say it again: Expect big things from Chester French. I have championed the group since last year and the group has kept me posted about their exciting meetings leading up to the deal with Star Trak. I look forward to the release of their debut "Love The Future" in 2008. Stream one of the album's lead tracks "She Loves Everybody" below.
After signing to Startrak/Interscope, D.A. gave me the scoop about the group's recording deal.
Why did you choose to sign with Star Trak after shopping different labels?
We ended up with several incredible options, any of which would have been a great opportunity for us. Ultimately, Star Trak was just the best partner on both creative and business levels. It goes without saying that Pharrell and Chad are futuristic geniuses, and on the business side of things, Jimmy Iovine (which is Star Trak's parent) struck us as the smartest guy in the room.
Will you be re-recording much of "Love The Future"? What can we expect from your major release?
We're producing the whole first record ourselves, and much of it will be built upon our original recordings. It was very important to us that we preserve the spontaneity and, honestly, the "mistakes" that we captured by writing, producing, and engineering all of this ourselves. I think people should expect the best debut record in years. It's gonna be ultra-saucy.
(More of the interview after the jump)
Should listeners expect celeb collaborations? Guest producers?
Nope. Just 100% uncensored, hardcore Chester.
Where do you expect to be a year from now?
No expectations.
Why did you focus your efforts on signing with a hip-hop oriented label?
We
didn't really. That said, I think the situation conforms to our
philosophy of breaking down senseless categories. Music is music,
people are people, and a label is a label. The whole "Urban" vs.
"everything else" dichotomy in the industry is fundamentally flawed and
rests on weak, racist assumptions.
You met the high and
mighty of the hip hop/R&B industry while pursuing your recording
deal. Is there an anecdote that you can share about meeting these
heavy-hitters?
Jermaine Dupri showed us an incredible time in Atlanta one night. We'll leave it at that.