The return of Kitsuné Musique with Antoine Kenobi Ressaussière

0:12Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. I'm Fernando Augusto Pacheco and today we talk about the return of Kitsune Music, the music arm of the renowned French label Maison Kitsune. Kitsune Music was known for their fantastic compilations and the man behind it for three decades is Antoine Kenobi Ressussière. He has navigated the heart of the French electronic music scene, balancing artistic flair with long-term vision. He tells me more about the return and what are the main new releases.

0:56Antoine Ressoussière, welcome to Monaco Radio. I'm so happy you're here because you, of course, you represent Kitsune Music, which I'm a huge fan. And it's kind of back, you had a hiatus, but you're going to tell me a bit more about it. My first question is, how long have you been at the Maison Kitsune Group? since day one since day one it's like a trickle of story with kitsune i can force at maison kitsune since 22 years now it's like a tricky relation like let's say no but for for the beginning actually i met gildas as a founder of maison kitsune back in the days through daft punk because like kitsune is like a one of the son of daft punk there was a banger on peter winterside Gidas was like a group with like the entourage of Daft Punk, like me.

1:44We met like through Daft Punk. And when he decided to create Kitsune, I was like, I was there. I was not in-house, but just helping, giving some like tips, advice and stuff like that. I really joined the company like during two years from 2008 and 2010. It's where we've built the compilation era. and on the like the fashion brand side we launched all the different collaborations because maison kitsune has been really famous for for like the collaboration after that i made like a small career small quite a good one at universal music because i was like it was a passion for life in my life i was like i need to work for like a major company to trick the business and to make to make things happen so i i worked for eight years at the universal and i came back from maison kitsune as a brand director in 2018 so we launched Korea we don't China together I was so excited by like the this time because it was the time of the like of Virgil Abloh and stuff like that so I was oh it's more interesting to work like in a fashion brand for with the music with the entertainment rather than working in a proper major company and I came so it lasts two years I make like some like a life of consultant, I built like an advertising agency and I came back only for the music.

3:03It's been more like a year ago now and it's my best time at Kitsune because the purpose was like... Kitsune was like... maybe I'm speaking too loud. No, I want to hear it. No, but Kitsune during years I grew up like a fashion brand and a record label. When Gilda started Maison Kitsune, when I was the partner for the first days, when he designed the shape of Maison Kitsune, I was like, maybe I can help you to find some investor. There was no investor. Finally, he launched the company by himself. But we just had some meeting, and each time we explained, OK, we want to make a fashion brand and a record label.

3:52So the people were like, oh, okay, so it's going to be like a record label producing some t-shirts and merchandising. No, no, no, it's going to be like a record label and a fashion brand. Oh, okay, so it's going to be a fashion brand and inside the shop you're going to sell some records. No, not at all. It's going to be the two, like the two sides. It's quite unusual, you know, especially at the time, you know. Exactly, exactly. But it was like, honestly, it was so inspired by Japan, for sure. The main inspiration of Kitsune is Japan. And the origin story of Maison Kitsune is this travel to Japan to produce the first anime of Daft Punk.

4:33Gildas traveled with the band. He needs a translator for Japan. So he brings Masaya Kuroki, which is the second founder of Maison Kitsune. So Gildas discovered all the time of Bape, the top era for Bape. All these new brands building cafes, having some haircut salon, these kind of things. So when he came by, he said, OK, I can combine my two passions in one project, having a fashion label, a fashion brand, sorry, and a record label. So it was super, so original when it was launched. and without any because now you see like all the different luxury brands combining themselves with like entertainment which is super cool.

5:23Selling vinyls exclusive vinyls. Exactly or producing movies Saint Laurent now producing movies and it's super great but we launched Maison Kitsune it was totally without any like a concern or like a strategy of or maybe the record is going to fit the brand it was just two passions there's a combination of two passions so we say okay let's do it let's do it like this

6:05Tell me a little bit the story of course I've been a fan of the compilations I love it so much and all the rest of the music there was some kind of hiatus with the music side of things. But I was so glad when I saw an Instagram that was back. I was like, I need to speak to Antoine about this. So tell us about the hiatus and why the return. And as you said, it's quite an exciting return as well. Yeah, definitely. I think COVID has been really important. Bison Kitsune is still independent. So now we've got a full expansion with the shops, mostly in Asia, with the cafe. You're just in Korea just recently.

6:42Okay. So in Seoul, right? So with like all the rays of this different business, at the same time, the music business changed so much because when we started Kitsune, it was violin after twisting to like compilation. After that, it was iTunes and after it was streaming and all the relation with the music business was becomes really, really tricky. So Gilles Dès on his side say, OK, let's put on hold. why is the restart there was there was a covid which killed a little bit of vibe also with the music so they were just say okay put on hold and the origin story i was in ibiza i i didn't work for mezzo kitsune like daily i was at circo loco the party in dc turn the club the famous club in ibiza and i give a call to gildas i was like oh i'm in dc turn he was in japan so not at the same timing.

7:36I say, yeah. In front of me, there is like a Woo Made Woo, a brand that we released, we called 17 years ago. They are playing now some electronic cool music. I'm surrounded by people wearing some super cool clothes, super nice brands. So there is something happening and we've been part of this culture. And electronic music is so exciting. Kitsune music has not been only into electronic, but it's the music we love with Gilles Das and we share. And so we said, we just discussed and said, yeah, but maybe it's time to relaunch it. Maybe to reshape a little bit about what is the expression. Electronic music in many ways is like so cool for us because we're still enjoying to have parties with DJs, to discover new songs from DJs.

8:25This music travel, I always use this expression that the electronic music uses the same road as Maison Kitsune because it's international it's people can vibe on the same music from Mexico to like Indonesia to Japan this is the magic of like the music and particularly the magic of electronic music so we just give some call, we start by giving calls like oh why not like just having some projects together it was not a question of reunching records one year ago let's let's discuss because we want to see like some people we like wearing some maison kitsune so i take like a the plane i travel to see there was and there is new phenomena in electronic music new brands coming up and when i met this uprising brand like for the like maybe people are aware of it like the kind Kainer Music, which is like a super famous at the moment.

9:26Yes. These three DJs from Berlin. The first days to relaunch the music at Kitsune, I say, OK, I take a ticket. I fly to Berlin to meet Kainer Music. So first of all, I send an email saying, oh, Kainer Music, I would like to meet you. Maybe you know about it. I'm part of Maison Kitsune. As I just respond, like, of course, you know, of course, we've got a full collection of compilation. Please let's meet in Berlin. So I try and we we spend a lot of time together. they explained to me like how they built the brand and they were like please tell us about wow oh you built a maison kitsune give let's share some tips and stuff like that and it was so exciting that at this moment with electronic music there was like a new global and independent brand coming so exciting so it was definitely the time to relaunch this dynamic with music I'm so excited and I was looking there are a lot of new releases as well and people you've worked before like Digitalism as well.

10:27Give us a little taster. Today we launched Digitalism, yeah. So give us a little taster of what music is coming up or what have you released so far. The original idea of Maison Kitsune has always been into curation. I think it's like a super early phase. What is a Maison Kitsune compilation? it's now a playlist. And I think we've been quite good on playlists. I think definitely Gildas is one of the best curators of music in the world. So it's why the Kitsune music compilation was so good. I'm not sure about like on curation too. And what's going to happen? What happens to Winsome Kitsune? What's going to happen?

11:10Like a full curation. The idea is like, okay, we got to focus on electronic music and particularly music for the DJs and for the dance floor. so the dance music is going to be our playground but it's going to be mean is there is so much like expression in electronic music so we can dig into different things so we start with like a newcomer from france really close to solomon called notre dame we've got a new guy called baron today we launch i like the baron song is amazing it's a great and we're going to work it like the whole summer because I think it's a big hit and it's really like physical.

11:49Today, it's like a co-project between Adena Twins and Digitalism, which sounds like an old school New Order song, but really electroclash because there is also this new trend of like, this trend of like, we digging into electroclash song called Indies Leeds. And we have like many kids who send... It's back Indies Leeds, right? I'm so excited. Yeah. It's crazy because yesterday we just had a post on Instagram on Indisleys, Kitsune is back on Electroclash, so cool. And I was so proud that, OK, I'm 50. I'm just, I just had 50 like the last week. Happy birthday. And I'm so happy to, because of the music, to be still on the deck of the boat and like, oh, I'm still on it.

12:37We still connect with people with the nostalgia, which is not like a purposeful for us. it's quite like something like a dangerous for don't want to be nostalgic and so it's not going to be the old compilations it's a new style it's a new maybe like at the moment well because there is so much love in this compilation for sure maybe make a relecture of the compilation it's going to be a project next year about having the this summer we're gonna we're gonna make like the top of the top of the Kitsune compilation playlist, but maybe working on a special project which can be like some kind of remix or relecture of the best songs of the Miseaux compilation and maybe producing an object because there is many, many requests for our clients in the shops, in the cafe for having like a vinyl.

13:29We are more into like digital and now, but it's true that when so much people ask about the objects and we at Kitsune we love the objects we love furniture we love design. I like your t-shirt for example your celebratory t-shirt I wonder if you can my celebrity t-shirt yeah it's part of like yeah and there were so many people who ask about why not producing this kind of like just for like the people who listen we have produced a t-shirt with the faces of the compilation but using like the face of like the people from now, from Peggy Goo to Charlotte De Viet, Kaila Music, Dixon, all the DJs, the odd DJs at the moment.

14:06And we send it to the DJs and we receive so much love. And even the people on the T-shirt say, why are you selling it? Because I've got my face on the T-shirt. It's so cool. No, no, it's like a super cool era to dig into this project. We have also the music at Maison Kitsune. It's like, of course, the first pillow is the relation we can have with the artist. in last October we we used like a the like of Charlotte De Vitte as a Nigeria Charlotte De Vitte is the top number one DJ techno techno DJ by the way and female DJ in the world we made an amazing campaign with her it's now a friend of the brand so there is this like this this axis which is really dedicated to the relation between the brand the cafe with the artist using the cafe for pop-up for like a showcase and stuff like that there is a label now and the third part of the operation going to be like the relaunch of all the dynamic of with the party because we use the party for example the first time we arrived in thailand we made a party we made the second one the third one and after that we made a pop-up and after that we open the shop so we use a party as some kind of ambassador we have so much request now from like asia and it's interesting because Asia is not at the same level of perception for the electronic music.

15:27They're a little bit late because of many reasons. So it's so interesting to bring to this new audience a new sound and with the help of Maison Kitsune. So it's like the main target for the coming months. Antoine, merci and thank you for the music.

16:00That was Antoine Canobie-Ressossier from Kitsune Music. Keep an eye on their Instagram page for the new releases, Kitsune Music. This show was edited by Elliot Greenfield. Thank you for listening.