Boris Paillard

Born in France, Boris Paillard has been juggling administration, the music business and artistic practice since the beginning of his career. After working as a booker for the Ghanaian music label Akwaaba Music in Accra, he worked in Berlin as a production manager for the booking agency F-Cat Productions. At Initiative Musik, he initially oversaw the technical support programmes for live music venues between 2019 and the outbreak of the pandemic. From the summer of 2020, he worked as a project manager for the NEUSTART cultural funding programme for live music venues. In 2023, he and his colleague Lisa Andersohn were responsible for the first post-pandemic live music programme, Live 500. Since September 2023, he has been heading the live music funding department at Initiative Musik together with Lisa Andersohn. Since 2017, he has also been curating the thematic event series ‘African Beats & Pieces’ in various Berlin music clubs on a part-time basis. As DJ Mixanthrope, he has been exploring and sharing lesser-known African music through live sets and deeply researched thematic mixes since 2016. Last but not least, Boris has released a total of 10 albums and played more than 500 concerts in Europe, West Africa and North America through his work as a singer-songwriter with the projects ‘The Keys’ (English) and ‘Paillard’ (French).