That will be the band's next challenge: finding the bridge between the sound of the big band era and the ever-changing electronic music landscape. "I think we're thinking about it for the second album, to make something maybe different, more you know, trumpets, trombones, stuff like this." "Now we like a lot of big band stuff, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, all this stuff," he says. Vial says the record will be more focused on the sound of the '40s, with an emphasis on brass instruments. All you have to do is dance."įor its second album, Caravan Palace plans to stay true to the spirit of swing. "It's timeless music, it has an immediacy, it's classic, it's got great energy and you don't have to understand anything that's being sung. It's that same sort of hybridity that really works, where they're being respectful of the tradition but bringing it into the modern day sensibility," she says. The show's promoter, Leigh Ann Hahn, director of programming at Grand Performances, compares Caravan Palace to another Paris-based band that mixes tango with electronic beats. The band's concert in Los Angeles drew an audience of nearly 4,000 dancers. "We try to do that job, to entertain the people, and we found that it was a strong characteristic of our music." "We didn't have the talent to do virtuoso music, very technical music, virtuoso exactly, so we asked ourselves to know what we found interesting in that style and, in my opinion, it was entertainment," he says. Caravan Palace Apart offers 8 air-conditioned accommodations with complimentary newspapers. Payen says they found a way to respect tradition and still have fun. This hotel features a 24-hour front desk and tour/ticket assistance. But this group of 20-somethings all had side projects with electronica bands. so they listen to our music for what it is: dance music - dance music inspired by their own culture."Ĭaravan Palace's three founding members, violinist Payen, guitarist Vial and bassist Charles Delaporte started out as jazz musicians, playing standards in a swing band. "We were inspired by their music, by their culture. "We were very afraid of the reaction of gypsies, and really understood that we weren't here to do the same job as them," he says. Violinist and Caravan Palace co-founder Hugo Payen says he was worried about their reaction. "Just they needed more, more bass!"įrom the beginning the musicians were well aware that they would face all kinds of criticism from traditionalists - especially gypsies, or Roma as they're more properly called, who depend on the continued interest in their music to make a living. "We come back with this old stuff, with modern electronic beats and so people just think, 'Oh, I'm swinging, I'm swinging,'" he says. Guitarist Arnaud Vial points out that back in the '30s and '40s, people danced to swing music, so combining swing and today's dance makes perfect sense. At the heart of the group's popularity is a confluence of gypsy jazz, American swing from the '30s and a high-energy electronic beat. Even with an anonymous beginning, last year the group sold over 150,000 copies of its first CD and reached No. you'll be dancing.Ĭaravan Palace formed when the band was recruited to compose the soundtrack for a silent porn movie. The group had one of the top records in France last year. That's just what you'd hear if you happen into a club where the band Caravan Palace is playing. Now in the mist of composing their fourth album, the band has decided to take a break from the studio and go back on the road in North America.Imagine sashaying into a night club, looking to get down to some thumping electro, only to hear swing music from the 1930s. With their 1940s inspired look, they serve up festive, frantic music, an improbable futuristic and melodious Jive fit for the dance floor. The band has come a long way since they first assembled in a Paris Studio in the late 2000’s to create the soundtrack for an early 20th century erotic film.Īll accomplished Jazz musicians, their shared love for electronic dance music pushed them to combine those influences into a new project, at the crossroads of the exuberance of manouche jazz (the Caravan) and the hedonism of modern club music (the Palace, after one of the iconic Parisian clubs). With the breakout single “Lone Digger” (50M+ views on Youtube) and a third album (aka Robot) that has topped 50,000 sales in the USA with a running 72 weeks of presence in the Billboard Dance / Electronic Charts, 2016 was a breakout year for Caravan Palace in the USA.