An exclusive interview with Paris electro duo The Glimps

Today we have an exclusive interview with France’s electro-funk masterminds The Glimps. Welcome to Independent Music Promotions. Tell us about The Glimps and what you bring to the table.

We are a French band from Paris. Victor Valdez composes the music and Christophe Paris is the singer and co-writer. Our style is Electro funk with a pop touch.

What do you feel are some of the ways that indie bands should adapt and change in today’s music industry? What qualities should a successful band have?

It depends if we are talking about adapting our music style or adapting to the new ways of managing a music business.
We think it’s no the good way for an indie band to adapt its music even if times are challenging in the music industry. We believe that we are powerful as we create the music we love and we put all our energy in it.
But this doesn’t mean we should not take advantage of the new technologies – we have to be visible and so we are on facebook, twitter, myspace, soundcloud and reverbnation. We want to be close to our fans and we want to have regular feedback on what we are doing; the internet is an excellent way of getting the info we need and use.

What have you found works well for you as far as promotion goes?

Thanks to our manager, who is very close to us and who has experience in the music industry, we managed to structure our promotion and our marketing. We have mostly based our strategy on our interaction with our fans. We thought that getting the opportunity to be involved in the artistic decisions related to its album is an experience that has hardly ever been offered by a band to its fans. So we decided to take this challenge on our electro funk debute album !

During over one year we submitted, to our fans, different versions of songs, lyrics, remixes and sometimes CD artworks. These fans have then be given the opportunity to give their feedback on the band’s work, by posting a comment on the wall; they have also been given the opportunity to select the version they prefer through polls.

Started in July 2010, this experience has already gathered almost 17,000 fans, from all over the world, within few months, through our 2 fan pages (one for french speaking fans, the other one for english speaking fans). All the tracks available now are the definitive versions selected by our fans !! Some others are still to be discovered…

The next step will be to have all these virtual fans coming to our concerts. We are currently working on a tour starting from different cities in France. Next concert will be in Strasbourg, France in Feb 2012.

Who in music today do you admire most and why?

Victor Valdez: Jamiroquai, Chromeo, Martin Solveig and Daft Punk. They all have their own style and I like that very much… I like the energy of their music. But I also like Gorillaz, Blur, Maroon 5. I have worked on a remix of their song ‘Give a little more’. They approuved my remix and it will be available soon..

Christophe Paris: I’ve always been a fan of all kinds of entertainers in pop music, musicals and cinema, And I think this is interesting to see today how the past is used to become a “new” material! Those I admire most today are those who can give a new flavor using what has been known before.

Do you have any advice for independent musicians who may feel disillusioned or discouraged at times?

Victor Valdez : Don’t stop, follow your dream… and believe in yourself!!

Christophe Paris: : I think Victor is right , it may sound a bit “cliché” but it is so true!!

My advice for musicians would be the same advice for anybody who has a passion and wants to achieve something : never think that some other do it better than you and that some other is luckier than you. Everybody is unik and have his own way. Learn from others but do it your way… Chance is sometimes not far… As long as your work hard and If you don’t meet her, maybe that’s because you still need something to learn or improve… We do one of the most amazing job in the world… but it is definitely one of the hardest in many ways… Never keep pushing!

How can music fans keep tabs on The Glimps?

You can join us our fan pages: