Back in early 2011, I had the chance to meet Phillippe Cohen Solal of Gotan Project. The story based on this interview was never run, due to a series of unfortunate events. Gotan Project’s promoter in Japan was not able to bring the band over to perform because of financial difficulties, most importantly. And then the quake struck on March 11, and the article ended up getting lost amid the chaos that followed.

Below is a Q&A with Solal that I wrote before the ill-fated article.

Are Gotan project looking for commercial success? Or something else?

On the first record, there was one tune that was a little bit more housey and written for the dancefloor. My friends all said ‘this is the one, this is the one that will make you guys big,’ but it didn’t make the album. I wasn’t completely happy with the song and so we did not put it on there. Every song on every album we have released is a work I am satisfied with, I do not particularly care if we make the charts.

I would love to work with, say, Madonna or Lady Gaga, though. That could be a lot of fun.

When did you realize you had “made it”?

I remember after we released our first record and my girlfriend came into the bedroom and told me Gilles Peterson was on phone. I told her to go away, I did not believe her. But since then he has been very supportive of us.

What would you consider your main influences?

Actually, I have been DJing since the early 90s, so there are a lot of influences in our records. Of course, disco and the house of Paris – Daft Punk – and then there is tango. We spent time in Buenos Aires and that was a wonderful city, full of music, one of those special places that you cannot help but feel affected by.

You are French, and have a lot of ethnic influences. How do you balance that with your government’s treatment of immigrants?

Of course, what is happening to French politics makes me uncomfortable. Sarkozy will go home at night to his beautiful wife and dance to the music of gypsies, yet he does not want them in his country, and now they are suffering. But on the other hand, we hear about gangs from overseas exploiting immigrants and so that makes the question a difficult one. But from a musician’s perspective, it certainly seems hypocritical.

Do you think Japan has an environment conducive to original music?

There is a lot of diversity in Europe that you cannot see in Japan. And the cities are very … strange. There are so many people and so many huge buildings, and these things can also be an inspiration that can make music sound unique.

The record shops here are special, I can spend hours, days in them. But I do not have the time. I have not had 30 minutes to sit down yet on this visit. If people bought records like I do, then there would be no crisis for the industry. Record labels would probably be bigger than the military industrial complex.

Anything out there musically that you are impressed with at the moment?

Music is always moving forward. When we look at the charts we can sometimes be a little disheartened, but there is always something going on. After we became popular, there were many bands that were imitating our sound, but they did not interest me. In South America now though, there are bands doing really exciting things with tango, movements like this will always push music.