Yannick Dangin Leconte is a painter who also works as a vj and videographer. He directed videos for many artists like Stupeflip, Black Devil Disco Club, the label Copilote Recordings and for his band In Broken English.

GrooveboxVJ:Magazine: Hello YDL, can you introduce yourself for the readers of GrooveboxVj:Magazine ?

YDL: I’m part of In Broken English, Stupeflip (the immersed side), Copilote Recordings (I do the visuals for the label), and I collaborate with Black Devil Disco Club. I’m a painter who always wanted to make cinema and who discovered the video: as an experimentation, a personal diary or a way to approach music by making videos and VJing.

GrooveboxVJ:Magazine: When did you start VJing ?

YDL: with IBE (In Broken English) but it wasn’t really defined. I started really lately, the computers weren’t cheap back then. My real first step in VJing  was when I showed my video clips in San Sebastian (in Spain) in a fashion-and-art festival, I made them believe it was audio/video project and I put Boris (Copilote Recordings is Boris’ label) on the project. It was stress all along during one month: buying a laptop, making loops, “what are we gonna do?”, “how ?”, etc… It was in 2007.

The festival was a deception ! The organisation was sh****: we waited ages before we could play in a gigantic room with sh**** sound and 4 sh**** screens. The picture was shaking, we didn’t know why. Nobody knew. There was very few people in the room and a lot of trans. That was my first experience ! It was a nightmare, so much efforts for that. I understood that it’s not worth to be too much prepared, and it was the worst configuration to start with. Now I still have stress before a show, but less.

GrooveboxVJ:Magazine: And then you started going on tour with Copilote ?

YDL: yes, in Paris, in the clubs. We made parties at the Nouveau Casino. Boris invited luke eargoggle, dj overdose, mr pauli… that kind of electro

GrooveboxVJ:Magazine: So IBE was created at the same time ?

YDL: No, IBE started before that. I went first on stage with Copilote, that’s all. Gregg from IBE was a confirmed musician, and I had no experience. Our first date with IBE was in 2009 at the Cube, a space for numeric creation with a giant screen, giant video projector, lights turning in every directions, it’s a crazy thing. It was merely too much (lights). We rocked it all!

Last year we played at Vidéoformes in Clermont-Ferrand too. I’ve been there 2 years earlier as a Vj, during the Nuits Electroniques. It was like crazy electro, a super atmosphere, a super room… And then we came back with IBE for a new wave rock show. We try to do more than a simple rock concert. However the use of VJing is well spread, I’m on the stage and I try to sculpt the band with pictures. I create the atmosphere, I punctue the tracks. Then the variations are multiple: creating a background including the musicians like characters.

 I have a lot of material with the clips I make, I get my vocabulary from it: in the falls, in little elements that i transform/cut/segment. That’s how I make my loops. There’s a background playing permanently that helps to get up on my feet if i missed something, and I put my stuff over it. The effects are made before in advance.

GrooveboxVJ:Magazine: Do you work on your visuals alone ?

YDL: Yes. Making videos needs a very light Setting up, I think it’s a solo practice. If you have an idea, a desire you start recording, you don’t stay there waiting for someone getting ready, i exaggerate a bit. Of course gathering a crew for more ambitious projects or more complicated plans is a good thing, like having background actors.

GrooveboxVJ:Magazine: You said you try to sculpt the stage, can you explain me how ?

YDL: with IBE it’s about scenography, there are multiple possibilities. You can create a perceptive space, emotional space, mental space, enhance things on the stage or erase it… Ideally it’s the band and the videos being their own lightsource, the projection as a lightsource. And I play with that, basic elements with some stuff a bit more complicated, shams, boxes in boxes in boxes. I have a base, a color and I improvise. It’s my instrument on the stage, my rock trip. While you’re painting you look for the accident, the moment you missed. On stage you’re looking for the same thing, even it’s less obvious with the machines.
I’d like to have an installation that can react to my commands and that can transform with what’s going on stage and in the room, all in the show. Like a big machine that creates pictures. I think that’s what VJing is all about, creating a device and testing it live along the show.

We’ll be playing on 21th april at the Klub in Paris. We’ve released our new album “Sometimes The Scars”. And I’m working on a video for the new album of Black Devil Disco Club, “Circus”, which is going to be released in march with crazy guest stars. And I’m a lot busy with STUPEFLIP, we’re going all around France. We’re preparing the releasing of their new album “The Hypnoflip Invasion”.

GrooveboxVJ:Magazine: How did it start with Stupeflip ? They contacted you ?

YDL: No, I’m the one who contacted them. They were looking for someone to do the Dvd (e.r.: available only on their website www.stupeflip.com), it was a good occasion, it went well directly and i’m a part of the crew now. le CROU !!! So I worked on the visuals you can see on youtube. And on the video clip “La Menuiserie”. I wanted to make a clip like the movies dracula or vampy from Dryer, with STUP in it. Kingju wanted something epileptic. It’s going to be broadcast on MTV, can you believe it ? And we’re preparing the next clip

GrooveboxVJ:Magazine: What’s on the dvd ?

YDL: A documentary I directed and for which I made a relecture, and a live. By relecture I mean I took things from their visual universe. I created little sequences and I put a bit of myself in it, well you get it. The guy who has a brain COMME ASS (e.n.: in french slang: like that)

GrooveboxVJ:Magazine: The one that blew up ?

YDL: Yeah, after 2 hours of interview :-)

GrooveboxVJ:Magazine: Huh, did I say half an hour ? Sorry for that.

YDL: Don’t worry, it was really nice talking to you. Cya !

practical informations:

YDL is part of:

• In Broken English (official website): http://www.inbrokenenglish.com/
• Copilote Recordings: http://www.youtube.com/copiloterecordings
• Black Devil Disco Club: http://www.lorecordings.com/index.php?artist_id=40
• Stupeflip (official website): http://www.stupeflip.com/

website/portfolio of YDL:

• ydlproduction: http://www.ydlproduction.com/
• on vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/ydl