Michael Canitrot
Michael Canitrot is currently riding high on a wave of success that has seen him propelled to the higher echelons of dance music’s elite. As a DJ he’s regularly touring Asia, the USA, South America and Europe, playing over a hundred gigs a year and wowing crowds with his incredible sets.
His own productions and his Aime music label are championed by the planet’s finest house music aficionados and his longstanding ‘So, Happy In Paris?’ club nights have taken over the world’s finest venues. But this worldwide success didn’t come overnight. It’s is a product of a lifetime dedicated to throwing parties and an ingrained desire to entertain people with music. At just seventeen Michael had a residency at one of the best loved clubs in Paris: Les Bains Douches. It was here that he came up with the concept for the clubnight ‘So, Happy In Paris?’ Ten years on, the clubnight has gone worldwide and features an array of dancers, live vocalists and musicians.
The last five years have seen Michael’s own tunes finding their way into the record boxes of the world’s biggest house DJs. Epic vocal house tracks like ‘Desire’ and darker tech-sounds such as ‘Blue Collision’ have cemented him as one of the big-guns in the production game. Furthermore, a full length artist album is set for release later this year and promises to be a unique amalgamation of Michael’s varied musical taste and dancefloor knowledge.
While Michael has a talent for making tunes, first and foremost he is a DJ. “I’m happy I cut my teeth as a DJ first,” he says. “I know how to work a crowd and DJ properly.” Whether it be an explosive two hour set or a five hour marathon, he never fails to please: reading the crowd, playing the perfect balance of vocals and instrumentals, not afraid to take things deep, nor too pretentious to play the occasional big crowd pleaser. This is why Defected asked him to mix the latest instalment of their ‘Playboy Sessions’ and why the Frenchman has a legion of fans across the globe. Michael had a urge to make tunes for pivital moments in his sets, and using his experience of what sends a dancefloor crazy, started to make some epic house tracks.
It won’t be the first mix CD he has had released – there have already been two ‘So Happy In Paris?’ compilations, both receiving critical acclaim and commercial success. Not content with having a trio of anthemic vocal tracks, Michael wanted to show he could also whip up a darker, powerful, instrumental sound for the early hours. He did this with the release of two killer tunes: ‘Blue Collision’ and ‘White Escape’, again both released on his own label Aime Music. Having showed his ability to make a broad range of sounds, the scene is set for his debut album to be released later in the year.
