Dan Ghenacia
San Diego, a Paris record shop, the Kwality after-hours at Batofar, Freak n’ Chic and DC10: how Dan Ghenacia shaped Paris house and co-founded Apollonia.
- Paris DJ and producer who discovered house at a rave and lived in San Diego from 1995.
- Ran the Kwality after-hours at Batofar and the label Freak n’ Chic; long associated with DC10 in Ibiza.
- Co-founder, with Dyed Soundorom and Shonky, of Apollonia, launched in 2012.
Dan Ghenacia has been part of Paris house music since the late 1990s: record shop, after-hours, label, Ibiza residency. With Apollonia, the trio he formed with two friends from the same scene, he turned the back-to-back DJ set into a project of its own.
From a rave to San Diego and back
Ghenacia discovered house music at a rave; records and turntables soon followed. After high school, in 1995, he moved to San Diego, where he befriended DJ Quark and played his first public gig at a club called Flame. Back in Paris, his career took off within two years. He played Magic Garden parties alongside Carl Craig and Green Velvet, and was involved in the Paris record shop Traffic Records. In October 2000, Cyclo Records released his mix CD Revolving House.
Kwality, Batofar and Les Bains Douches
His name grew at night. Ghenacia started an after-hours called Kwality at the Batofar, where he and his team mixed UK deep house, American classics and after-hours techno. He was also a resident at Fuck Me I’m Famous, David Guetta’s party at Les Bains Douches, during its first years, with Dyed Soundorom handling PR and promotion. Through Guetta came his first Ibiza booking, at DC10.
Freak n’ Chic and DC10
He then founded the label Freak n’ Chic, which ran for about seven years until 2011. He explained the idea simply in a 2011 interview with Ibiza Spotlight: “we need a platform and a space for our sound”. He also helped build Lola Ed, the booking agency that represented most of the Freak n’ Chic DJs. Early on, in 2003, he shared the First Step EP with Phil Weeks on Weeks’ label, Robsoul.
DC10 became his second home. By 2011 he had played there for ten years and, at one point, held residencies at DC10 and We Love at the same time. That summer he also played Cocoon for the first time, before Sven Väth, and compiled a double CD for Ministry of Sound.
Apollonia
In 2011 he started planning a new label with Dyed Soundorom and Shonky. Apollonia launched in 2012 as both a label and a three-way DJ act built on back-to-back sets. Ghenacia’s EPs Close to the Edge and Trax on da Road came out on it that year, and the trio’s first album, Tour à Tour, followed in autumn 2014. They also mixed fabric 70 for the London club’s CD series and kept their long link with Circoloco at DC10. More recent records include work with Chris Carrier, from “Just a Sin” (2016) to the Vocalized EP (2020).
FAQ
Who is in Apollonia?
Dan Ghenacia, Dyed Soundorom and Shonky. The trio launched Apollonia as a label and DJ project in 2012 and released the album Tour à Tour in 2014.
What was Freak n’ Chic?
The label Dan Ghenacia ran for about seven years until 2011, which he described as a platform for his crew’s sound.
Where did Dan Ghenacia play his first Ibiza gig?
At DC10, a booking that came through David Guetta, whose Fuck Me I’m Famous party at Les Bains Douches in Paris had Ghenacia as a resident.
