He rubs shoulders with the list of world electro stars such as Martin Garrix, David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Carl Cox or even DJ Snake. Ranked two years in a row among the 100 best DJs on the planet by the very serious English magazine DJ Mag (72nd in 2021 and 74th last year), Naeleck is nevertheless an unknown in France. Much less in Asia where the artist, originally from Mordelles near Rennes, is a hit. “I have just chained dates in Taiwan, Tokyo and Macau”, says the DJ, interviewed by 20 minutes a few hours before his return to France.
His career is also intimately linked to Japan where he lived for several years. Studying finance in Bordeaux, he landed there for the first time in 2010 as part of an international exchange program. “I had already started fiddling around a bit when I was a teenager, but that’s really where I started making music,” says Naeleck. In the land of the rising sun, the DJ quickly got noticed thanks to his remixes published on MySpace. “I had the chance to make good encounters with Japanese artists and I started performing in clubs”, he underlines.
A hundred artists in the catalog of his label
Behind the turntables, the Rennais connects styles with a varied repertoire ranging from electro-house to hardstyle via synthwave. “But above all I play dancing things for people who want to party,” admits the 30-year-old, who always wears on stage a cap and a mask bearing the image of the avatar he has created for himself. “He’s an undead character, an unsuccessful DJ who dies of an overdose and who makes a pact with the devil”, confides the artist, whose visual universe hits on social media.
Regularly on tour around the world, Naeleck also finds the time to produce artists via his label Dancing Dead launched in 2012. “I first released my first sounds on Japanese labels but they are often only interested in the national market, explains the DJ. So I set up my own structure to help Japanese artists break through outside their country. In ten years, the label has grown significantly since it now has around a hundred international artists in its catalog and has just exceeded two billion cumulative streams on the various platforms.
“I would like to start playing in France”
Last year, Naeleck collaborated with The Toxic Avenger, a French DJ well known to fans of synthetic and organic electro. The opportunity for Naeleck, who returned to live in Rennes during the Covid crisis, to start to put his pawns a little in his native country. “I love to travel and mix at the other end of the planet but it’s true that I would like to start playing in France”, he says. The message is launched.