Danger is the superheroe we need: heavy synths and a post-chiptune vibe from the man behind the mask can save our world. Or at least take the streets of Paris and start an uprising.

Producer and artist extraordinaire Franck Rivoire is the name behind urban vigilante Danger. Like Batman, the haunting yet mesmerizing images of a past filled with 16-bit battles, 80’s cyberpunk and grainy VHS images have changed the man into his alter ego, and given him a mission. His is a battle between reality and fiction, between the two worlds colliding through his electro-pop synths or visually stunning performances. You think I’m kidding? Exaggerating? Try listening to his tracks without having any image, any scene or any story popping into your head. It just gets into your mind, doesn’t it?

Heavy distortions and 80’s influence have settled apart this electronic-French-second-waver as a rebel in a path of his own. After the release of his three EPs (curiously entitled 09/14 2007, 09/16 2007 and 09/17 2007) a cult of followers have pledged loyalty to his cause. If it keeps up, this might as well become the stuff of legends.

When I first heard your songs, the first image that came into my mind is Streets of Rage. What images go through your mind when you’re playing the tracks?

Actually it's a reverse process: my tunes are the musical translations of the stories I imagined and each tune has its own story. Now I'm a lot into universes close to those of Streets of Rage, post-apocalyptic city streets terrorized by gangs of punks and crappy nightclubs.

While we're on the subject, can you give a personal top 5 of video games with the best soundtrack?

Street of rage, Jim Power, Shadow of the Beast, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Shadow of the colossus.
 
What kind of anime would you love to do a soundtrack to?

I like anime. I'd be very interested in making a soundtrack for a big science fiction anime, like for the next Otomo Katsuhiro. I'm already working on some projects with friends in the animation so I might do some soundtracks for an anime or a cartoon in a near future.

What equipment do you like working with?

I have some analog synths, a mini moog, Juno 106, MS20, DX7, but I don't use them. I want to make everything with a computer: music & pictures. So, in the same way, I don't use any piano keyboards to compose music. I enter the notes manually with my mouse 'cause when I use my hands to play it sounds too "piano".

How are your heavily-visual shows generally received?

I get some good reactions from the audience. Now I'm working on a new show with more interactions between reality and movies. I want the screens, lights and the movies to be very lively during the show, almost like if they impersonated a character of their own, so everybody could enter the universe and not just watch geometrical shapes blinking.

We read that you love to tell stories. Have you ever considered jumping to other media?

That's already what I do, I can't imagine myself just making music, I try to compose a whole thing, 'cause I want people to feel this project as somehow global. I try to make as much things as I can by myself, and I work with friends for my upcoming video clips. Basically, we are all hardcore creative geeks, so it's easy to get along. And to answer precisely to your question, we'd like to make a video game and perhaps a film too.

How do you imagine the future?

I can't wait the moment when computers or/and robots will be real assistants that you can work with, something like: "Remember James (that could be the name of my computer): you have to tidy up the desktop, and answer to my mail and don't tell me you got a worm, do this now, it will be perfect, you must see this amazing video”.

If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

It probably be the ability to travel into movies and pictures, and a second one: that what I draw become true.

Text by Oscar Gomez Poviña @ Vnfold