Michel Esteban
Encyclopedia
Michel Antoine Gaston Esteban (born 7 May 1951) is a French
record producer
, record company executive
, cultural center
director and former magazine editor, who founded the influential Paris
shop Harry Cover in 1973, was influential in the early development of punk rock
, and, together with Michael Zilkha, established the New York
-based record label
ZE Records
in 1978.
at L'École d'Arts Graphiques in the city, and in 1973 founded a shop in the Rue des Halles
, Harry Cover, which specialised in rock
merchandise, magazines and books as well as imported records from the US and UK. The basement was used as a rehearsal space by bands, particularly as the punk rock
scene developed in the mid 1970s. In 1974 Esteban travelled around the US, returning to New York where he studied under Milton Glaser
at the School of Visual Arts
. He became a friend of Patti Smith
, Robert Mapplethorpe
, Richard Hell
and Tom Verlaine
of Television
, and John Cale
, and was a regular visitor to the CBGB
music club.
Returning to Paris in 1975, he founded the magazine Rock News, which began chronicling the emergence of the punk music scene in the US, UK and France, coming into contact with Lester Bangs
, Richard and Lisa Robinson, and Danny Fields
in the US, and Malcolm McLaren
and Vivienne Westwood
in England. Together with then-girlfriend Lizzy Mercier Descloux
, he attended many of the early punk performances in England
, and published Mercier Descloux's first book of poems, Desiderata, as well as Patti Smith's Witt
and The Night. He helped promote the first punk rock concerts in France, with the Sex Pistols
in September 1976, and promoted the French band Stinky Toys
in England.
In 1977, Esteban shared his time between Paris and New York, forming Rebel Records and recording French band Marie & les Garçons. In New York, he worked with John Cale, who introduced him to British-born entrepreneur and writer Michael Zilkha. They set up Cale's record label, SPY, before Esteban and Zilkha left to set up another label, ZE Records
. At the time, Esteban was in a relationship with fashion
editor Anna Wintour
. Over the next four years, ZE became one of the most influential and fashionable record labels in the world, recording such artists as Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Was (Not Was)
, Bill Laswell
, Lydia Lunch
, and Suicide
, and bringing together aspects of punk rock, the art of the Lower East Side
such as Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring
, and the disco
scene.
Esteban left New York after differences with Zilkha in 1982. In 1983 he produced the album Paolino Parc by French new wave
band Octobre. He also continued to work closely with Lizzy Mercier Descloux, visiting, recording and undertaking promotional work in Asia, Africa, and South America. He produced her successful single "Mais où sont passées les gazelles?", and the albums Lizzy Mercier Descloux (1984) and One For The Soul (1986). In 1986, he began working with the Portuguese
-born Belgian
singer Lio
, producing her albums Pop Model (1986) and Cancan (1988); their daughter was born in 1987 but they separated in 1989.
During the 1990s, Esteban retreated from the music business and studied esoteric disciplines including Theosophy
and Sufism
. Later in the decade he recorded musicians in Cuba
. In 2003 he re-established ZE Records, based in Paris, which has reissued many of the label's original recordings as well as new material, including Glasgow
band Michael Dracula. He now lives in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil
, where he has a cultural arts center project including galleries and recording studios.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, record company executive
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, cultural center
Cultural center
A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run...
director and former magazine editor, who founded the influential Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
shop Harry Cover in 1973, was influential in the early development of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, and, together with Michael Zilkha, established the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
-based record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
ZE Records
ZE Records
ZE Records was originally a New York-based record label, started in 1978 by Michael Zilkha and Michel Esteban. It has been re-established by Esteban since 2003.-History:Michael Zilkha ZE Records (always written with two capital letters) was originally a New York-based record label, started in...
in 1978.
Life and career
Esteban was born in Paris. From 1968, he studied graphic artsGraphic arts
A type of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of art forms. Graphic art is typically two-dimensional and includes calligraphy, photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, lithography, typography, serigraphy , and bindery. Graphic art also consists of drawn plans and layouts for interior...
at L'École d'Arts Graphiques in the city, and in 1973 founded a shop in the Rue des Halles
Les Halles
Les Halles is an area of Paris, France, located in the 1er arrondissement, just south of the fashionable rue Montorgueil. It is named for the large central wholesale marketplace, which was demolished in 1971, to be replaced with an underground modern shopping precinct, the Forum des Halles...
, Harry Cover, which specialised in rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
merchandise, magazines and books as well as imported records from the US and UK. The basement was used as a rehearsal space by bands, particularly as the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
scene developed in the mid 1970s. In 1974 Esteban travelled around the US, returning to New York where he studied under Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.-Biography:Glaser was born into a Hungarian...
at the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
. He became a friend of Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
, Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men...
, Richard Hell
Richard Hell
Richard Hell is a singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and writer.Richard Hell was an innovator of punk music and fashion. He was one of the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins...
and Tom Verlaine
Tom Verlaine
Tom Verlaine is a singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the frontman for the New York rock band Television.-Biography:...
of Television
Television (band)
Television was an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1973. They are best known for the album Marquee Moon and widely regarded as one of the founders of "punk" and New Wave music. Television was part of the early 1970s New York underground rock scene, along with bands like the Patti...
, and John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
, and was a regular visitor to the CBGB
CBGB
CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...
music club.
Returning to Paris in 1975, he founded the magazine Rock News, which began chronicling the emergence of the punk music scene in the US, UK and France, coming into contact with Lester Bangs
Lester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, author and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock 'n' roll criticism....
, Richard and Lisa Robinson, and Danny Fields
Danny Fields
Danny Fields is an American journalist and author. As a music-industry executive in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, he was one of the most influential figures in the underground and punk rock scenes.- Early life :...
in the US, and Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
and Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
in England. Together with then-girlfriend Lizzy Mercier Descloux
Lizzy Mercier Descloux
Lizzy Mercier Descloux was a French singer and musician, a pioneer in the worldbeat genre, as well as a writer and painter....
, he attended many of the early punk performances in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and published Mercier Descloux's first book of poems, Desiderata, as well as Patti Smith's Witt
Witt (book)
Witt is a poetry collection by Patti Smith, published in 1973.- Contents :# "Notice"# "Witt"# "October 20"# "Dragnet"# "Dream of Rimbaud"# "To Remember Debbie Denise"# "Sonnet"# "Mock Death"# "What Makes Ruda Ivory"# "Rape"...
and The Night. He helped promote the first punk rock concerts in France, with the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
in September 1976, and promoted the French band Stinky Toys
Stinky toys
Stinky Toys were a punk band from Rennes, France which started in 1976 and featured Elli Medeiros , Denis Quilliard, alias Jacno, , Bruno Carone , Albin Dériat , and Hervé Zénouda ....
in England.
In 1977, Esteban shared his time between Paris and New York, forming Rebel Records and recording French band Marie & les Garçons. In New York, he worked with John Cale, who introduced him to British-born entrepreneur and writer Michael Zilkha. They set up Cale's record label, SPY, before Esteban and Zilkha left to set up another label, ZE Records
ZE Records
ZE Records was originally a New York-based record label, started in 1978 by Michael Zilkha and Michel Esteban. It has been re-established by Esteban since 2003.-History:Michael Zilkha ZE Records (always written with two capital letters) was originally a New York-based record label, started in...
. At the time, Esteban was in a relationship with fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
editor Anna Wintour
Anna Wintour
Anna Wintour, OBE is the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. With her trademark pageboy bob haircut and sunglasses, Wintour has become an institution throughout the fashion world, widely praised for her eye for fashion trends and her support for...
. Over the next four years, ZE became one of the most influential and fashionable record labels in the world, recording such artists as Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Was (Not Was)
Was (Not Was)
-Studio albums:-Compilation albums:-Singles:-Contributions:* A Christmas Record - "Christmas Time In The Motor City"* That's The Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk - "Ba-Lue-Bolivar-Ba-Lues-Are"...
, Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
, Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
, and Suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, and bringing together aspects of punk rock, the art of the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
such as Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring
Keith Haring
Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
, and the disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
scene.
Esteban left New York after differences with Zilkha in 1982. In 1983 he produced the album Paolino Parc by French new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band Octobre. He also continued to work closely with Lizzy Mercier Descloux, visiting, recording and undertaking promotional work in Asia, Africa, and South America. He produced her successful single "Mais où sont passées les gazelles?", and the albums Lizzy Mercier Descloux (1984) and One For The Soul (1986). In 1986, he began working with the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
-born Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
singer Lio
Lio
Lio is a singer and actress who was a pop icon in France and Belgium during the 1980s.- Biography :...
, producing her albums Pop Model (1986) and Cancan (1988); their daughter was born in 1987 but they separated in 1989.
During the 1990s, Esteban retreated from the music business and studied esoteric disciplines including Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
and Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
. Later in the decade he recorded musicians in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. In 2003 he re-established ZE Records, based in Paris, which has reissued many of the label's original recordings as well as new material, including Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
band Michael Dracula. He now lives in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, where he has a cultural arts center project including galleries and recording studios.