Groovin' with Mister Funk
It would have been hard for Sinclair, known in France as Mister Funk, to have become anything other than a performer.
As a six-year-old he met the likes of David Bowie and the Rolling Stones through his father, top sound engineer Dominique Blanc-Francard. The young Sinclair became so obsessed with studio production and learning to play as many instruments as possible that he dropped out of school at 15. 'I loved my father's job,' he says from his Paris home. 'I could spend days and nights in the studio, but after I put together a demo people encouraged me to perform.'
The keyboardist and guitarist dropped his birth name of Mathieu Blanc-Francard and adopted the moniker Sinclair, for no better reason than he liked its sound, and became a key player in the French funk movement of the 1990s. Although he was heavily influenced by American soul and funk artists Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone and Prince, today Sinclair's music morphs from funk to pop and soulful ballads. Hong Kong will get a taste of his sound when he performs on Saturday as part of Le French May.
'My music has groove and energy, but I'm not trying to make [Jamaican rhythm section] Sly and Robbie again - that would be vulgar to try to do something that's been done before,' he says. 'After 12 or 13 years of work, I'm more into the songs now. I like to get people moving and dancing, so today it's more like my music has the fragrance of funk.'
Awarded best newcomer of 1995 at France's Victoires de la Musique awards and with more than five albums under his belt, Sinclair seemed a natural for the majors, but he says his deal with EMI went sour when it reneged on his contract. He took the company to court and won. 'I got back all my records and tapes of the past 10 years, so I decided to distribute myself and set up my own label, Ministrong,' he says. 'I want to be small, but efficient.'
Although he speaks fluent English and has written songs in the language with British soul singer Beverley Knight, among others, Sinclair prefers to write and sing in his native tongue. This tends to limit his audience.
Sinclair's first Ministrong release was Comme Je Suis (As I Am) in October 2004, which brought together old and new material from his EMI days. Down from a support staff of 50 at the major to three at his own label, Comme Je Suis has sold more than 100,000 copies in France and the French-speaking countries where it's been released.
'We've earned enough to produce the next album and to sign the French band Smooth, who make electronic and groove music,' Sinclair says. 'From now on I want to be releasing an album a year. I'm not tied to a major record company's ideas about release dates.'
For his Hong Kong debut, Sinclair will be playing tracks from Comme Je Suis and he says that previous gigs in countries such as Spain, Japan and Chile proved to him that an audience that doesn't speak French can be just as enthusiastic as one that does.
Sinclair, Saturday, 8pm, Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, 5 Edinburgh Place, Central, $150, $200, $250. Inquiries: 2823 4920
