“It’s never too late – if Bruno wants to work with Breakbot, he can call us!” Pedro Winters on Breakbot’s rejection of a Bruno Mars collab

Pedro Winter, the founder of French electronic music label Ed Banger Records, has looked back on the near-collaboration between Breakbot and global popstar Bruno Mars.

• READ MORE: Spitfire Audio co-founder Christian Henson returns with new project, The Crow Hill Company

In a new interview with NME, Winter takes us through some of Ed banger’s most iconic releases over the decades, including the label’s biggest hit, 2010’s Baby I’m Yours by French musician Breakbot.

The label head explains that Mars’ team had initiated contact expressing interest in the track, saying “Bruno Mars’ team reached out to me in 2010 to work with Breakbot on a Baby I’m Yours kind of song. And I remember saying to them, ‘Thank you for the request, but Breakbot is working on his own album.’”

“And a few months later, we’re listening to Treasure! Everybody emailed us like, ‘Pedro, did you listen? it’s a ripoff of Baby I’m Yours!’

“I tried to cool it down; I said, ‘French and electronic music has been based on sampled music – we are not going to jump on Bruno for being influenced by Breakbot. That’s part of the game,’ Winter continues.

“And one day, Bruno Mars came to Paris, had dinner with Breakbot, and they shook hands; it was nice!”

The exchange might come as a surprise, given that Breakbot had previously called Treasure a “rip-off” of his song. The producer was later awarded a writing credit on the song post-release.

“I’m saying that with a lot of love and peace but, of course, if I could redo it, I would have loved Breakbot to be involved [in ‘Treasure’] and to enjoy worldwide success,” says Winter. “But it’s never too late – if Bruno wants to work with Breakbot, he can call us!”

Listen to the songs below.