Skrillex, lies and videotape: an interview with Merlin Bronques of Last Night’s Party

Skrillex, lies and videotape: an interview with Merlin Bronques of Last Night’s Party

13 April, 2011 | 11.44AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Videos: last nights party, merlin bronques, skrillex

The past decade has seen an explosion in nightlife photography, but Last Night’s Party stands in a league of its own. Since 2004, the site has served as a globetrotter’s chronicle of late nights and early mornings, high fashion and wardrobe malfunctions, runways and gutters, from champagne soirees to mega-raves to depraved afterhours—all of it as seen through the eyes of the Brooklyn-born, Quebec-raised photographer Merlin Bronques.

No other photographer captures decadence with quite as much skill, thoroughness, or wit. (Plus access: how does he coax his subjects into disrobing like that?) And while the site has its obvious, voyeuristic pleasures, it goes deeper than that: you get the sense that Bronques is trying to communicate something universal along with the vicarious thrill of looking at other people living it up.

Part of that comes down to his range: alongside the models and scenesters you’ll find raving teenagers, bridge-and-tunnel types, trannies, punks, drunks, ravers, porn stars—the works. Where else would you find Gossip Girl‘s Leighton Meester rubbing elbows with Chromeo, Steve Aoki and the Ed Banger crew?

Recently, with LastNightsParty TV, Bronques has been moving into video, creating short, semi-narrative films that capture an additional dimension of fashion, music, sex and decadence. “La Parisienne,” a new addition to the site, begins with a kind of meditation on the philosophy of nightlife before shifting its focus to a rather unexpected guest star: Skrillex, whom Bronques interviews before the former hardcore kid lays waste to Paris’ Social Club.

If you thought Skrillex was just an American phenomenon, think again: this throbbing, sweaty (and occasionally topless) Parisian crowd suggests that Skrillex’ chaotic beats translate just fine on the other side of the Atlantic. (We should note that, as with most things LNP, the video is also very much NSFW.)

To find out more about the video, we reached out to Bronques, who told us that the video is the first in a new series of videos designed to spotlight emerging musicians. Read on for the full interview.

How did you discover Skrillex, and what do you find exciting about him? What can you tell us about making the video?

My buddy Josh Madden turned me on to Skrillex, and, by sheer coincidence, Skrillex turned out to be playing my favorite club—Social Club—in Paris while I was there. His music is as catchy as anything on the top 40, but has these layers of complexity too and somehow you can dance to it. On top of all that, he’s so entertaining to watch. What more do you need? He’s worth every GB of my memory card.

I love discovering new stuff like that and then exposing it to other people who couldn’t be there or who may not have the time to dig as deep.

What do you hope to accomplish with the new videos that you’re doing, and who else will you be covering?

I’d love to pass along that element of surprise that I feel when I travel and meet new people and hear new music. I’m lucky to be involved in some of the most obscure underground artistic scenes AND some of the most beautiful mainstream shitshows, so I like to show both. It really doesn’t matter to me where something comes from… it just matters that it’s amazing. Like Sleigh Bells… Like David Guetta… they BOTH fit on LNP. I love the idea of different crowds being forced to peek into how the other halves lives.

Chromeo and A-Trak turn up quite a lot in your work—perhaps because of the Montreal connection?—as does the Ed Banger crew. Are there any other DJs that you cover frequently? And does that come down to personal relationships, the music itself, or the photogenic possibilities of the scene around them?

Those are my pillars. New York City, electro and indie rock, and the artists that were there from the beginning are the things that will always show up in my work. As much as I may be out there discovering new parties and new sounds, I don’t want to ever forget my roots.

Your work is interesting because, unlike many party photographers, you don’t just focus on the DJs. At its best, you really capture what it feels like to be in the midst of a frenzied throng. Can you remember the first time you had that feeling yourself?

I’ve always had a Frederick Wiseman outlook on party photography. I’ll photograph the busboy (like the back cover of my book), the door people, the bathroom attendant, whatever… It’s all part of the mosaic of a great night. But it’s never about being a “fly on the wall” though. With LNP, you’re definitely getting a particular vision of the party—one that didn’t necessarily exist for anybody else.

Your sets range from high society shindigs to down ‘n’ dirty underground parties. Do you ever feel like an outsider?

Before I got invited to parties, I used to crash parties and none of those parameters mattered. People are people no matter what country you’re in or what music is playing, or how much money they have. We all want the same thing, even if we may go about achieving it in different ways. That’s what LastNightsParty TV wants to show.

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