Yves LaRock's production style is almost immediately recognizable. He creatively blends ethnic instruments with house, hip-hop, reggae, ragga, and electro while breaking all musical boundaries.
His cofounding of the innovatively inspiring collective Africanism helped create an exciting new sound for the dance scene. He teamed up with other French superstar DJs such as David Guetta, Tim Deluxe, Bob Sinclar, and DJ Gregory and a bunch of Africa-based artists to position this multicultural tone of house at the forefront of EDM.
Now he's preparing to release a new single, "Until Tomorrow," stateside this summer and is setting his sights on Mynt Lounge after a brief South American tour. "I love to come back to Miami," LaRock says at a train station in Switzerland while on break from filming the music video for the upcoming single. "I've been coming for the Winter Music Conference for, like, ten years."
The track, his first shot at directing a video shoot, will be released on Millia Records under his slightly tougher pseudonym, Yves C. "Millia is my first venture into that side of the music business," he says. "I started it a year ago with my friend/label partner DJ Tremendo. In all honesty, I did it for my own pleasure — releasing the stuff I like along with the work of friends, neither for business nor big-hit commercial expectations."
His record company will focus on releasing underground music, spanning everything from minimal to house. "I just finished an album project for a French R&B artist called Trisha. She is undiscovered and has such a great voice." LaRock has roots in the hip-hop scene, so it seemed a perfect fit. He didn't really branch out much until he discovered Daft Punk. Then he came up with hits such as "Zooky" and "Rise Up," and the rest is history.
As for what he has in store for fans this Saturday, he simply says, "When I play, I just want to make dance music. That's my only challenge, all the time."
