Tony Goodguy, DJ & Special Projects Specialist at Axel Arigato, Paris

Hey Tony, do you want to introduce yourself?

Tony Bonhome is my real name but my DJ name is TonyGoodGuy. Bonhome is French for ‘good man’, so I just translated it to ‘good guy’. I was born on a Caribbean island where they speak French. I moved to Paris when I was young to study and I’ve been in there for a minute now.

So, tell us a little about your job and what you do?

Let’s start with focusing on the music side. I started DJing almost 10 years ago. I was doing a lot of different things before but I wasn’t really satisfied. My best friend that I grew up with and I decided that we wanted to pursue music, because that’s something that we always loved and had inside of us. We just bought a controller and started learning how to put music together, do music curation, started making transitions, and just focused on that. I had a couple of contacts in the Paris nightlife. It wasn’t anything crazy but we were playing a few bars, splitting the money. We did that for a few months and then I had the opportunity to bump into Charaf, the founder of Casablanca. Back then he was part of this collective called PPP and had this club called Le Pompon. I’d always told myself that I wanted to DJ for these guys, that’s the type of people I wanna be around, the type of energy I want when it comes to playing music and for what they represent in Paris. I’d prepared a mix in advance on an SD card and told myself that the next time I’d bump into him, I’d give it to him and tell him, “Yo, when you have a minute just listen to this.” He ended up listening to it hours later and on the note it had my email and phone number, and he called me. He said he really liked the mix and asked if I was ready to work with them. He said, “Are you ready now? We open the club at 11pm.” I think it was 9pm and I just went for it, and haven’t stopped since. 

That’s a great and pretty unique story. You really put yourself out there. Within music, what pushed you towards DJing specifically?

I don’t wanna sound pessimistic but back then there weren’t a lot of DJs like me. Can you imagine 10 years ago, in Paris? When music and fashion started colliding, there weren’t a lot of people who initially had an interest in the colliding of high brow fashion and wider culture and lifestyle. I was so fascinated by being creative and the love of music, and that passion drove me to not only want to play music but also play music with taste. Music was always there but having creativity within it is what drove me to take the direction of DJing. I wanted people to tell me how I made the club feel amazing, that my set was so good and people were loving what we were doing. So I wanted to be that specific type of DJ, with taste and creativity.

Going back to the start of your career, did you go to college or university?

I went to university, so I have a Masters in International Trade with a major in Marketing, so that has nothing directly to do with music. I do think Marketing really has helped me, especially in terms of communication. The degree also allowed me to do an internship and travel a lot. In my 4th year I was able to do an internship in a radio station in Miami. That helped me learn and get really interested in music and see that it was something that I could do later on. After I graduated I was able to work for a year in the US doing PR, so pretty much booking talent and organising events. It was an important part of my journey. Education can definitely help you learn lessons and discipline, and sometimes it’s not directly about the degree itself.

What does a standard day look like for you?

As you know, I also work for Axel Arigato and I’ve been involved with them for around 2 and a half years. I’m a Special Project Specialist, so I’m pretty much handling the French market for the brand and also contributing to the UK market in terms of Music and Culture. My day-to-day is waking up, checking emails, taking meetings, everything from handling the events to the low level activations… So I do a lot of different things. Creating events, creating concepts, creating activations, creative opportunities for the brand when it comes to talents, collabs and partnerships. We work on a lot of different projects simultaneously.

What are the things you enjoy about what you do vs the challenges?

I would say the benefits would be being able to be around so many creative people, be able to learn so much and be free to travel, see different cities, different countries… It’s a never ending journey and you always find ways to be fulfilled by being able to do this. For example, through working with Axel Arigato I’ve learnt so much and this has helped me later on throughout my career. Learning is a never ending journey, travelling, meeting people and engaging. The less nice things are not being able to spend as much time on your social life. Sometimes you don’t have time to do things that may be important, like spending time with family and friends, because you’re always busy and it takes a toll on your body being a DJ and being within the nightlife scene. But it’s all about a balance. With life, if you’re passionate about it then you need to find that balance because when you get what you want you need to keep on moving.

People probably perceive djing as a really social job but actually in reality it leads you to having quite an antisocial life because of your working hours.

Exactly – being involved in the culture means you’ve always got to be on your A game and be social. People don’t understand how tiring that can be. Sometimes you just wanna be with your own people or be alone, but because you have to perform you sometimes have to force yourself or compromise. It can be draining. Mental health is so important and sometimes people only see you happy and smiling and energised behind the decks. Balance is key.

You’re always playing all over the world. How do you make yourself appealing to so many different territories and get booking internationally?

It’s all about networking, being available, being there at the right place at the right time and being social. I resonate with a lot of what Tommy Gold said in his interview with you guys. It takes time. I’ve been in this game for ten years and I’ve built a beautiful network and thankfully it opened so many doors for me. It’s about cultivating those relationships and understanding how to make it beneficial to yourself. I don’t have a precise recipe for this but I would say it’s all about being out there, being present, being a good person, being kind and always trying not to use people but having something ready to put on the table if you want to work.

What do you have coming up that you’re excited about?

 You know we always say “I’m working on the biggest project of my life” right? And then when you’ve done the biggest, you work on something else that’s even bigger. So yeah, I’m working on the biggest project of my career right now but I would say it’s the biggest project that will lead to even more. I can’t say much about it now but we’re opening our 1st store in the US! So you’ll hear about it and see it – more details to be announced soon!