33-year-old Daniel, born to Mr. & Mrs. Black, as he likes to point out, is the newbie on synth scene, releasing his self-produced debut, 'Un' (one), this month. Formerly of the defunct band, The Servant (who enjoyed moderate success across Europe, notably in Italy, Germany and France in their time), Dan Black has been operating solo for just over year, discretely gigging in his new adopted hometown of Paris ( currently living in Le Marais, where he moved "when an option to live there came up"). Black cites among his influences the likes of Jay-Z and Sigur Ros, who lay at the prefect junction of his musical ambition, i.e. "modern hip hop and at the same time quite epic, emotive, alternative, filmic kind of music", he says. But Black's self-defining album is Prince's 'Sign o' the Times' for being "good value for money, eclectic and with most emotions expressed on it".

And as he emerges at the same time as other electro-bound kids such as Esser and Frankmusik, Black dismisses belonging to a scene or any musical similarity with these "solo artists doing stuff"... "Frankmusik's sound is more up-tempo, high energy, Pet Shop Boys-y meets Depeche Mode, which doesn't make any sense for my music", he adds. But when he feels praise is deserved, he abounds with it: he particularly likes Passion Pit's intense alternative pop as well as La Roux's "simple and efficient pop songs" (can you be bad when ripping-off the totality of Prince's discography, really?). Although happy to give feedback on others' work, Black steers clear from reading any on his because of his tendency to dwell on criticism: "if there are 10 reviews, 9 of which are positive and 1 negative, I'll only think about that one", he confesses.

Well, Mr. Black, one in a million, you'll be missing out on a lot of ego boost.

'Un' is out now.

Solange Moffi