„Az a célunk, hogy az egész világ hallja az zenénket” – exkluzív interjú az Ofenbach DJ duóval

We’re guessing you’ve heard about Ofenbach, and it’s no surprise as the French DJ duo released hits after hits in the last few years. What’s more, they performed in Hungary a number of times, once at Strand Festival, and once at the X Factor. Dorian and Cesar met at school when they were 10 years old, and they hit it off really quickly after that thanks to their shared passions, most importantly making music. Ofenbach is a real passion project for them as well, which was created for quite an interesting reason. What’s that, you’re wondering?

We sat down to talk to them via Zoom not long after their latest single, „Wasted Love” was released: they answered the question above, they told us about their inspirations, their craziest festival experiences, their connection to Hungary, and of course we taught them a Hungarian word, as well – exclusive interview with Ofenbach.

Hey guys! Ravi de vous voir! (Nice to see you!)

Cesar: „Aww, merci! (Thank you!)”
Dorian: „Merci beaucoup! (Thank you very much!)”

So, how is the new year starting out for you?

It’s starting out really fine! We just released our new single „Wasted Love”, we’ve been on our computers for like six months, so it is a really good feeling to finally release it after such a long time.

Let’s get back to the very beginnings: how did you guys meet?

Cesar: „We met at school when we were ten. We were really young boys, and we were starting out in our bedrooms, just two children really passionate about making movies, making animated movies, in fact. Dorian used to design stuff with Play-Doh and I used to do it with Legos. It was our first passion that we shared.”

Can you recall the moment when you decided to make music together?

Dorian: „Making music came after that. When my father was young, he used to be in a rock band and he told me „young man, one day, if you are in a rock band, you will have all the girls”! We thought it was a really great idea, so we did it!”

You guys have been in the industry since 2015, which is 6 years – what is the most important thing you’ve learnt so far?

*Dorian’s phone rings*
Cesar: „We have learned to put our phones in airplane mode during interviews, but Dorian missed this today! No, we have learned many things.”

Most importantly, we have learned how to be patient and that if you work a lot, you can succeed.

Your sound is quite a mixture of everything, for example rock, country, pop, dance, house. Who are your biggest inspirations?

Our biggest inspirations were always big pop and rock bands, like Rolling Stones.

Cesar: „Nowadays, we like Calvin Harris, Daft Punk… We really love all the French stuff, like Daft Punk, Justice, and Cassius. There are a lot of talented people from the ’80s and ’70s, and nowadays, too, so we try to get inspiration from a mixture of spaces and times.”

Dorian, we’ve seen you play the guitar during your live shows. Do you guys play any other instruments?

Cesar: „Dorian used to play the trumpet for two years, and I play a bit on the kazoo, and the cello.”

And Dorian, did you like playing the trumpet?

Dorian: „Yeah, I loved playing the trumpet, but I was really bad at it. It made me really bitter and I stopped.”
Cesar: „Just a bit bitter!”

I’m asking because I used to play the trumpet too when I was 8 or 9 years old!

Cesar: „Wow, nice, so you’re trumpet bros!”

Yeah, but I hated it, so I stopped after 2 years!

Dorian: „I think it’s the most difficult instrument in the world!”
Cesar: „It’s really hard! I tried it once and my mouth was literally bleeding!”

Your very first hit was „Be Mine”. Did you expect is to be as big as it became when you made it?

Cesar: „I can’t say no, because when we release a song, we put our trust in it.”

We spend hours and hours just working on and track, and when we released „Be Mine”, I think people loved it because we put our souls in it. We have trust in our work.

„Of course, the success was bigger than expected, but when we release something, we trust in it.”

And then „Katchi” became even bigger! This will be a hard question: if you had to choose between the two, which one do you prefer?

Dorian: „Hm, it’s really hard, but let’s say „Be Mine”, because it was really the first hit we had, so for us, it was a real booster at the beginning of our musical career. I think „Be Mine” definitely changed our lives, because after it happened, we had the chance do to what we want.”

You just released your new song, „Wasted Love”, can you tell us a bit about the song? What was the main inspiration behind it?

Cesar: „In terms of the sound, we wanted to show people that we are open to do a real dance track, in fact a real pop-dance track.”

This is the first time we don’t specifically have organic instruments and it’s something new for us, but we wanted to try something different in terms of production.

„As for the lyrics, it’s a song about love, there’s a play with words: „being wasted” and „wasted love”. The singer Lagique is really talented at writing lyrics and composing melody.”

He’s an up-and-coming singer, right?

Cesar: „Yeah, in fact, it’s his first song and I’m happy to see that after one week, he already has more than a million monthly listeners on Spotify! That’s a good thing!”

Speaking of features, how do you find the perfect match for your songs?

Dorian: „It’s just a matter of mood and it depends on the track, too. On „Wasted Love”, Lagique was really fitting because it’s a melancholic track and I think he has this beautiful, soulful voice. On other tracks, like „Head Shoulders Knees & Toes”, [the singer] Norma has a really powerful voice and it’s a really powerful track, she’s the perfect match. It just depends on the mood of the track.”

But, unlike some other people, we don’t care about having famous people on our songs. We prefer to have a really good singer who fits the track than a famous person who doesn’t understand it that well or just doesn’t fit that well.

Still, do you have dream collaborators?

Cesar: „Yeah, many! We have dream collaborators, of course, but as Dorian said, it’s not our specific goal.”

Our goal is just to release good songs, to entertain people, and to have a fun life.

„We have some goals, dream collaborations, which can be a big rock star like Mick Jagger, or a pop star like Ed Sheeran, there are so many talented people to collaborate with.”

But we got one big project and it’s Ofenbach.

How does it feel for you to be able to play big festivals and bring people together with your music?

Dorian: „Honestly, we feel like Machine Man!”

We always wanted to live our passion and our worst fear was to do a job that we didn’t like.

„So, we are really happy to have succeeded in music, and we will do everything do go bigger and bigger.”

In fact, the only thing we want is the whole world to listen to our music and we really want everybody in each country to know all of our tracks, everything we do!

„The more people there will be at gigs, the more people we’ll share the music with, that’ll be the best thing for us.”

What would you say, what is the best part of touring? 

Cesar: „Is being on stage! It’s amazing to wake up in a new country every day, but sometimes travelling can be really tiring. It’s really hard, and usually people don’t understand when you say, „oh I’m travelling every day during a tour”, people find it really cool and say „ah, you’re lucky”. Yes, we are, but it’s also hard and comes with sacrifices. But being on stage is definitely the best thing ever, the best feeling ever!”

If you don’t sleep for 3 days, but you are on stage, you will have all the energy of people and you can make it through the show. It’s the best gift in the world.

What was your craziest festival experience?

Dorian: „Our craziest festival experience was maybe… I loved playing at EDC Mexico. That was our first big festival in South America. Also, I loved our first show at L’Olympia, the mythical place in Paris, where all the greatest bands in the world played, like The Beatles. And it is in our hometown, Paris, so it means a lot for us. So, L’Olympia, and EDC Mexico, yes.”

You also played in our country, Hungary before at Strand Festival and also appeared on the Hungarian version of the X-Factor in the past few years. Did you have the time to explore Budapest and the country?

Cesar: „Yeah, but that was not our first time in Budapest!”

We have been to Hungary when we were younger on holidays with our friends, so we knew the country a bit.

„Last time, when we played at the festival, we had time to chill there for one week, I think, because we had some things before and some things after, so we had the chance to stay a bit more in the city. So yeah, we had some time to enjoy your amazing city!”

Did you try any Hungarian food?

Cesar: „I don’t remember if we tried, what’s your specialty?”

Goulash, for example.

Cesar: „I don’t think we tried, but we have to”
Dorian: „Next time we come, you prepare goulash for us!”

Okay! And finally, is there a message that you would like to share with your Hungarian audience?

Thank you to every one of you for your support, we cannot wait to come back to play in Hungary to see you all. It is cool to use social networks, but of course, it is even better to see you live, in real life!

That’s all we planned, but before we let you go, we want to teach you something so you can take away something from this interview, as well. Do you know any Hungarian words?

Cesar: „No, I don’t think so! What a miss, we have to learn some!”

Is it okay if we teach you how to say „I love you” in Hungarian?

Cesar: „Of course!”
Dorian: „Of course!”

So, it goes like, szeretlek.

Cesar: „Szeretlek!”
Dorian: „Szeretlek!”
Cesar: „Szeretlek, Hungary!”

Follow Ofenbach on their official pages below.