"Born in Paris, Bitton’s cultural upbringing was as varied as his music collection; his passions mostly centered around R&B, the Dada Surrealism movement, 1920’s Jazz Age art and France’s first real rock star Serge Gainsbourg. “Growing up in Paris, you are surrounded by art and architecture, museums everywhere. Everything is visual, from street sign design to cars, theaters and posters on the walls. But I think the black music interest came when I picked up my dad’s Screaming Jay Hawkins LP,” explains Bitton. “And all those visuals were so stunning to me, more shocking, contrast-y and inherently controversial.” Bitton fell in love with the synergistic world the album created for him, but aurally and visually, and began obsessively collecting albums at a young age, scouring Parisian flea markets on the weekends to buy R&B, soundtrack, soul, jazz and funk 45’s and LP’s, sometimes purchasing them solely for their album covers. This enthusiasm for African-American music extended itself to another medium that, like jazz and R&B, perfectly merged its own brilliant visual references and sounds to carve out its own cultural corner: Blaxploitation films. As with his other interests, Bitton was instantly drawn to the extremes and musical textures of the genre. “To me, Blaxploitation is another type of surrealism. The drive comes from the combination of absurd, louder and larger than life egos, colorful and often ridiculous characters. But it started with the soundtracks, and as I got older, I built a massive collection of original film posters. I think those have influenced me more than anything.”
With these influences worn squarely on his sleeve, in 1982, Bitton took a trip to Los Angeles at age 9 to visit his mother, who had moved there. It was this trip that changed everything for Bitton, merging his disparate interests into one fully-formed idea that opened a path to where he is today. Yes, on this particular jaunt from Paris to Los Angeles, Bitton was truly shaken to the core by his discovery: he found Prince." More on MathieuBitton.fr
