The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 15. Cedric Gervais: Legendary Grammy Winning DJ; Intermittent Fasting, Growth Mindset & Biohacking With a Busy Travel Schedule

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Get weekly tips from Gary Brecka on how to optimize your health and lifestyle routines - go to https://www.theultimatehuman.com/ For more info on Gary, please click here: https://linktr.ee/thegarybrecka ECHO GO PLUS HYDROGEN WATER BOTTLE https://echoh2o.com/?oid=19&affid=236 BODY HEALTH - USE CODE ULTIMATE10 for 10% OFF YOUR ORDER https://bodyhealth.com/ultimate We’re back with another episode of The Ultimate Human podcast where our goal is to help every human become an ultimate human. In this episode, Gary is joined by legendary Grammy-Award Winning DJ Cedric Gervais. Cedric shares his journey from starting his music career in France at 19 to moving to Miami and gaining global success as a DJ. He talked about some of his biggest hits like "Summertime Sadness" and life after winning a Grammy. Cedric also discusses how he is never satisfied in his career and in improving his health and lifestyle with Gary over the past two years through changes like intermittent fasting, prioritizing sleep, and eating an organic whole food diet. Hear how biohacking and his work with Gary has helped Cedric’s stay at the top of his career. 0:00 How did your DJ career begin when you were 15? 05:15 How did you establish yourself and get your career to take off in Miami? 11:15 When Cedric was signed to a label and started collaborating with other artists. 14:45 What was it like when your song went viral? 18:30 What was that moment like accepting a Grammy Award? 25:45 Acting career and collaborations with Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg. 28:00 How do you prioritize your health and wellness as a busy world-renowned DJ? 32:45 Organic food, intermittent fasting, and health improvements. FOLLOW Cedric Gervais: @cedricgervais Gary Brecka: @garybrecka The Ultimate Human: @ultimatehumanpod Subscribe on YouTube: @ultimatehumanpodcast Disclaimer: The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm just a kid from Marseille with a dream. I'm not even supposed to be here. I'm not comfortable. In my head, I still haven't made it. That's why I keep going. And this is my mindset. All of a sudden, I'm a private judge playing in Romania in front of 15,000 people.

Obviously winning the Grammy was crazy. Talk about the transition into movies. You've done four movies. It was amazing. Amazing experience. I am more focused. I'm getting better sleep. It changed my life. I mean, one thing that I can say is I don't get sick anymore. Better energy. I am more focused. I'm getting better sleep.

It changed my life. I mean, one thing that I can say is I don't get sick anymore. Better energy. I'm 44 now, and I feel like I'm 20 years old. Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brekka, where we go down the road of everything anti-aging, longevity, bio-optimization, and everything in between. Today is a really special day for me. I know I say that a lot on my podcast, but it's a really, really special day for me because I have a guest on that I'm proud to call a personal friend. He's become a very close friend of mine over the last few years, as has his wife and his family.

And he is a Grammy award-winning artist. He's one of those artists that you go, I don't know if I've heard of that guy. And then as soon as you hear the song, you go, oh, yeah, I know that song. And I've listened to that song. I've danced to that song. But he's soon as you hear the song, you go, oh yeah, I know that song. And I've listened to that song. I've danced to that song. But he's a Grammy award-winning artist. He's worked with the greatest of the great, Lenny Kravitz, Lana Del Rey. He's been in a number of movies with actors that you all know, like Mark Wahlberg. We just talked about four movies that he was in right before we started the cameras rolling. He is an icon in his industry, a music legend. Trust me when I tell

you, you know his music if you don't know his name. We're going to get to know him today. So welcome to the podcast, Cedric Gervais. Great to have you on, my brother. Thanks for having me, brother. We've had an incredible personal journey ourselves over the last two years, which I want to get to, which is, you know, we always talk about, you know, the impact of optimal health on the podcast. And so I want to talk a little bit about, you know, the blood work that we've done, the gene work that we've done, the supplementation, your routine and things like that. But I really want the listeners to get a chance to know you because, you know, we were introduced by Dave Grubman. Yes, about two years ago. About

two years ago. And so shout out to Dave Grubman. But since that time, you know, I've really actually gotten to know a lot about your career. You know, you're French, which everybody will notice here in a few minutes. And you started your career at 19 in the music scene. So walk me through the start of your music career and kind of building all of this momentum up to the point where you actually won a Grammy award. Yeah, so I'm from Marseille, south of France. So I started when I was 15 years old. I got into electronic music.

That was my passion. And I started going to shows and seeing artists such as Daft Punk, Laurent Garnier, Carl Cox all these these guys that I was going to rave as a kid. Raves right. Yeah and and I remember the moment I saw Daft Punk performing live that's when I went home and I was like that's what I want to do. I was 15 years old. So I went out and I bought some, at the time, techniques, turntables. And they were really turntables back then too. A mixer. And I remember I set it up in a basement of my grandmother's house.

And I started DJing and mixing for like six hours a day after school. I was like DJing, DJing. I would go out a record store buying the record because at the time we didn't have any internet no phones cell phones no internet no audience no audience nothing so the only way to find uh you know you had to call from the home main line your friends and let's meet at the record store and let's go find out what's the hardest music right now so we'll go to record store spend days in and listening, asking the guy that was selling records, what is the hardest thing?

And they would give us the record and then go back home and start mixing those records. So that was 15 years old. And so I arrived in Miami, I was 19 years old. A friend of mine. So honey, you leave France. So basically I was, I started in Saint-Tropez at this club called the Papagayo.

And my father would drive me every weekend i had a residency i was so happy i was like start playing there you're not in legal age yet no it's not even a legal age so i started djing at this club i get the residency i'm very excited and one night i remember they they brought this mega club from paris called the queen used to be a gay club in paris but it was the number one music scene club in france everybody would look up to this club right all the djs and they did their queen night and i remember the guy that owned the club was there and heard me play and it's like this kid is very good we got to bring him up to paris so i get the residency the the Queen in Paris. I get excited. I move to Paris. At this time, I'm 17 years old.

When I get to Paris, I do my first show. Very excited. Just moved to Paris. And the government decided to shut down every club, every bar for drugs in Paris, in the whole city, for good. No. We don't know when they're going to reopen. I show up there. I just got an apartment. I'm excited. I did one show. Everything shuts down in Paris. You're kidding me. No. We don't know when they're going to reopen. I show up there. I just got an apartment.

I'm excited. I did one show. Everything shuts down in Paris. You're kidding me. No. So a friend of mine at the time, Dimitri Fransley, that was living in Miami,

goes, listen, just come to this place called Miami. I never traveled in my life. I don't know where the United States is. I don't speak a word of English. You don't even know where it is on a map. No. You don't even speak English.

I don't even speak. I know how to say hello all the time. So he goes, come to Miami with me on vacation. And then when everything's settled down in Paris, you go back to Paris, you start your residency again. I go to Miami. Clubs are still closed. I show up to the city.

I remember he was living at the Grand in downtown. That was the only building at the time the double tree hotel okay and the miami skyline there was nothing not no miami heat arena no buildings like maybe two or four buildings at the time it was like very it was very dangerous to be in downtown at the time and i just remember i landed in the city and i was like this feeling I was like, this is home for me. I'm gonna stay here. Yeah, really. So I got here and he hooked me up with a party at the time with a friend of his called Daniel Ursch, a Switzerland guy. He did a party at his house. And at the time the club that was popping was called

the living room with the Milan brothers I remember the living room yeah the Eric Milan and so I got hired by this guy I played this party and and that night everybody stayed at the house nobody went to the living room so the owner freaked out it's like what's going on and the promoter's like well we were at Daniel's party everybody's there and dj was so good everybody stayed until the end so the owner francis goes go get me this kid wire him now so i became the resident of the living room right away from monday to sunday so then at that time i was like there's no need for me to go back to paris i think i'm going to be here i'm going to stay in miami so they made my visa everything and at the age of 19 I started having a residency in

Miami that's how I started wow that's that is a ballsy move yeah because you don't speak English you've never been to Miami um it wasn't uh like you said it wasn't particularly safe town at the time no it was not safe at the time and and then you know I think the scene has kind of shifted you know downtown but um but you you're on miami beach that's where the that's where the music scene miami beach was the scene was in miami beach at the time when i got there so you start so you start djing at this um you start djing at this club you get this residency and when do you start really producing music that people are going to know about because at that time you weren't really recording so i mean it was a process it's basically i was dj at that time i was dj i was

trying to you know establish a life in miami right you're like making money getting an apartment this is other people's music you're playing yeah i'm playing other people's music i'm not even producing yet i'm just like djing like the art of djing right making people dance at the time it's like if you didn't make people dance, the owner will fire you from the club. So it's like, there's no, people were not showing up to see me. People that were not, I wasn't, you know what I mean?

Like I was just the DJ making sure people are dancing and if they did not, I would get fired. So what everything started for me is when I start moving to crowbar right uh this bigger club this mega club open in miami called crowbar and that's when they start bringing international djs right so i became the resident of that club that's when i start getting interested in producing music so i was saving my money buying uh gears computers keyboards everything and learning how to produce the art of producing right so at that time I bought everything I started making my first song

I make a first song called burning at the time and the A&R of ultra record David Waxman shout out to David Waxman came to play he was one of the DJ coming to play at crowbar I remember I came in I I made this song Burning, I gave it to him as a CD at the time, and I went home. And my number was on it. So you burned your own CD? Burned my own CD. First song.

The song is on it. First song ever produced. I give him the CD. I go home. The next day, he calls me. He goes, hey, man, this song is amazing. I'm signing you to ultra record for an album deal yeah what yeah that was awful what your first song that you ever produced ever produced he

signed me up i got signed up with one of the biggest um david waxman patrick moxie the owner of ultra record uh and and this is it so now i have to produce an album and how old are you now so you're 20 because you move here when you're it was like 20 yeah I was 20 22 maybe 23 I don't I don't remember exactly it was such a long time ago yeah so I made this first single first single comes out this is when I first starting to produce music then I start getting into making albums and everything but my career really took off when I made the move to space I became the resident of space on the terrace. Okay. And that was for me, working with Louis Puig, you know, the owner of space,

was a, first of all, made me a better DJ because I had to play for long hours. I would play inside of space from midnight to five, and then I had to go on the terrace, yeah, to six, to like close, maybe three or four in the afternoon, long sets like this. Hold on, so midnight to 5 and then i had to go on the terrace yeah to six to like close maybe three or four in the afternoon long sets like this hold on midnight to 5 a.m then you shift to another terrace and then you're playing until three o'clock in the afternoon so it was like yeah and and the same thing lewis if you're not on point you get fired right right and i'm still like you know what i mean no but like people will show up to the club because of space they're not showing up for the djs you know but then i got to be

around amazing djs right at the time like everybody will play there like deep dish sander kleinberg uh danny teneglia eric morello charlotte morello you know rest in peace and um And I remember I played with Deep Dish, Shoram and Ali Dopefire. And Shoram was like, this kid is pretty good. I think we need to sign him on our label. So, but you're on a label now because you... Well, I'm on the label. They wanted to sign me with their agency called Bullet Booking at the time.

So what they did is they signed me and all of a sudden it's like, I'm this kid playing in Miami on the plane opening for Deep Dish, which at the time was what they did is they signed me and all of a sudden it's like i'm this kid playing in miami on the plane opening for deep dish which at the time was the biggest band in the world right wow the biggest band so i'm opening for them worldwide so i'm all of a sudden i'm on private jets with them right flying the world playing in romania in front of 15 000 people playing in dublin at the Oxygen Festival. Wow. It's crazy.

So, and they signed me on the agency. But one thing Shoram always told me is like, listen, we opening you up to the world right now, but now it's up to you to put the work in, make music, because when you're gonna go on your own, now you need to connect with people and have your own career. Right. Because it's easy to go with this massive artist now you need to connect with people and have your own career. Right.

Because it's easy to go with this massive artist. Yeah, somebody puts the people in the room and you just show up. Correct, there's a lot of people in the room. They don't know who you are. You're playing good music, great. Now you've got to connect to these people. You've got to make music. Right.

So he always told me. That's why I kept producing, kept making music. And all of a sudden, made my first record, Molly, which became a big sensation worldwide. Appropriately named, yeah. Yeah. And that was the first record that, you know, the whole controversy with Deadmau5, Madonna coming on stage, shouting out the record for me because I worked with her in New York on her album. So she promoted. There was this big controversy.

The record became big and after that on the back of that it did summertime sadness that changed my life basically summertime sadness so whatever happened to burning that the very original one so go back to burning my first record came out a lot of underground dj such as steve lawler uh were pushing the record uh i was i was freaking out. The record was getting charted. A lot of people were playing it. Then on the back of that, I did two albums with them.

One song that I did that really connected was called Spirit In My Life on one of the albums. So it was like a progression of me learning how to make music and trying to figure it out how to make this. So it did well well but not as a very commercial level right it put my name out there like the cool djs were playing my music some people were connecting some songs but there was no very not a lot of very commercial success yet yeah so what brought you together with um because you you won the grammy for the lana del

rey record with with summertime sadness which is, by the way. I actually played it right before the podcast to get in the mood. But what led you to Lana and how did that working relationship come together? And is there ever a time when you're producing when you say, this is it? Like there's that it factor? to be honest with you you never know no no you never know so the way it came in is like basically i was doing all this music before on my own no management just an agency for touring because deep dish signed me to this agency so i had no management i was doing everything on my own so at one point i get a manager luke Allen, my manager, a red light management. They signed me in. And we start working.

So when we get Molly, I'm already with management. So they see Molly is going on. We're getting a buzz. So at the time, my manager was a friend with the manager of Lana Del Rey. So they had this idea of doing this record, Summertime Sadness. So Luke came in. He's like, listen, I have this amazing vocal. You record, Summertime Sadness. So Lou came in. He's like, listen, I have this amazing vocal. You need to remix the song right now.

And it was like, it's funny because I'm a huge fan of the song. Yeah. I was actually thinking about doing a bootleg of this song for myself to play my set. Really? Yeah. So I did the song, finished it on the way to Orlando, EDC Orlando. And the first time I played it was at EDC Orlando. And I remember the reaction of the crowd was insane. Everybody was singing the song. And the next day on social media, it was going crazy.

Really? That's when my management's like, we have a big one. Yeah. But not to the level that it went. We have a one people are going to connect djs are going to play it so the song went from playing in the festival to get released on beatport which is a dj website where you go get all your music for the djs being number one for multiple multiple weeks on on beatport so we're happy like now i'm happy i'm like wow all my dj friends are playing djs are playing it that's amazing i made it you're seeing it at number one.

It's probably your first big real hit. Yeah. So then a couple of radios start playing it. Local radios, you know, DJ mix radio. I'm like, wow, it's playing on the radio. That's amazing. Yeah. Like local radio, not top 40 radio yet.

Hey guys, I think the most important website you may ever go to is theultimatehuman.com. That's theultimatehuman.com because on this website, we can directly interact with one another. You can give me suggestions for podcast guests and topics that you'd like to see me cover. You can ask me any question that you'd like.

More importantly, you can sign up for my entirely free newsletter. It comes out every single week i write this so i can get the information to the masses on how to live a healthier happier longer chemical free life you can also sign up for a pre-order of my book and if you'd like to take the genetic test that i talk about all the time it's available there too and lastly you can even see all of the products that I use in my daily life for a chemical free healthy living style a lot of people ask me you know what do you use in your daily life Gary

what do you brush your teeth with and clean your countertops with well it's all there if you'd like to see it and you can again ask me any question that you'd like and get my free newsletter theultimatehuman.com I promise you that information will help change the trajectory of your life and now back to the ultimate human podcast we at the time she was signed to enter scope music and they didn't want to really we saw that there was a momentum in the song and my manager will go to enter scope and be you have to release the song like worldwide because this is the momentum we're having now we already released our album we don't care about this song so what because this is the momentum we're having now we already released our album we don't care about this song so what i do is at the time john amen was the the aon art

um antiscope record so what i do is i was playing in dc or uh edc vegas main stage at that time okay so i flew him in from la to ed, and I played a song in front of him. And at the moment of the chorus, I shut the music off, and there was like 90,000 people singing the song. So he could see that. He can see that. So he saw it. He went back to LA.

He called my manager, and he goes, next week, this song will be top 40 radio worldwide. No. Yeah. So following week, top 40 radio song in the united states dude i'm getting goosebumps right now it's going this is like it's going crazy so now i have a top 40 radio which so people understand is when you have a top 40 radio record is when you break into the masses right yeah because you have like dj mix radio which is you know bpm series xm all

these things and then you have doth for the radio which is the masses now you're with a taylor swift right caddy perry you know what i mean and then they're playing your song right which you break into the masses so that's massive so then on the back of that we sold 8.5 million single wow eight and a half million singles like Yes, of the record worldwide. And you're still on this kind of meat. I mean, you're still really chugging along in your music career. I mean, you've accomplished a lot. But I mean, boy, Steve Aoki, one time he comes to live and he goes, man, I can't get rid of you. I keep looking at the chart and you're number one on this thing.

I keep like, this is crazy. I'm like, so that was all nuts for me because I never expected that. Like when I made this song, seriously, when I made this song, I made it and I was thinking about my DJ friends playing the song and I was happy with it. I was like, oh, my friends are playing it. DJs are are playing it when I walk in the club the DJs play it that

was it I was not thinking about it's gonna be a like a commercial hit it's gonna be on the radio I'm gonna win a Grammy it's like I was not thinking like that yeah I don't and then after on the back of that the nomination for the Grammy and obviously obviously winning the grammy was crazy that must have been like talk about that moment for a minute you know accepting a grammy award like you're sitting there how many other songs were nominated it was alesso with uh uh one direction uh bob molly bruno mars and i forgot something else. Those are massive names. Yeah, yeah, massive names. Massive names. And so, because I always wondered what it would be like, you know, I always watch the Grammys, what it would be like sitting in that audience

and, you know, they read your names with the nominations, and then when they tear that envelope open, and they're like, and you don't- Settled your face, summertime sadness, and you're like, holy shit, my life is gonna change. I know, I remember when they called my name, I just walked to that stage.

I had no idea what I was going to say. In my head, I was like, what am I going to tell those people? What did you say? I got to go back and look that up. We need to find that and play it as beautiful on the podcast. There's speeches out there. This is amazing. I never thought doing this remix I was going to be standing here today.

So all I wanted, dj friend to play the record and i was cool with that thank you very much i'm just a kid from marseille with a dream i'm not even supposed to be here so thank you i'm just like i had no idea what to say and i just walk in there but the thing is with the grammys is you you don't know until the last second you're there you know some of those award show you already know you're going to win. Yeah. Your PR telling you and this and that. So, you know what I mean? The Grammys, you don't know.

You legit do not know. You have no idea. Until the last second, you have no idea that they opened this envelope. You have no idea. And so you're up there, dude. You take that stage. I mean, that moment has got to be. I remember my first public speaking moment. It was only a few hundred people in the crowd.

And I almost, you know, I froze and I almost felt like I was going to piss myself, you know? Yeah, I know. And your voice starts cracking, but you get up there, they hand you this award. And what do you, do you remember what you said? Do you remember that moment? I mean, I thank everybody that was part of the project. You know what I mean? I worked with other people.

I worked with my boy, Carlos Sid, on the record, which it's an artist that I started with. And now he's doing very well. I'm very proud of him. I thank my manager, my agent, everybody. And then at the end, I remember there was this speech from LeBron James that stood to my head, right? When we won the championship in Miami, he just said, I'm just a kid from Akron.

I'm not even supposed to be here, right? Yeah. And I remember sitting on the floor looking at him saying that, and it stood in my mind. So I said, I'm just a kid from Marseille with a dream. I'm not even supposed to be here. Yeah. That's what I said, because I remember LeBron James. Dude, I get goosebumps, man, just hearing that.

That was surreal. That was a crazy moment. I'm so enthralled by the human experience, meaning, like you said, you said something to me before the podcast. You said anyone can have a moment, but not everyone can have a career. Correct. And I think that, you know, you hit this pinnacle, this parabolic rise, you accept the Grammy and, you know, you accept the Grammy award. And now how do you keep your career from just going downhill after that?

It's like how, I'm always fascinated by the athletes that don't just win one championship, by the UFC fighter that holds a belt for several years, by a Tom Brady that dominates the league and goes to the Super Bowl so many times, even though he's already won that prize. So tell me about how you find inspiration in your career after winning the grand. Well, actually actually what I did is I got lost for a year because you're trying to replicate the same thing and you try now now when

I was telling you that I was doing this without thinking about it and I did it with the passion and the love right right now you're doing it thinking about it and you want to replicate exactly the same thing and that's when you get lost. That's when you make music that you don't want to make. Right. Because you're trying too hard. Because now you signed to big labels. Now you have big record deals.

And now you have to please them and try to do exactly what Summertime Sandwich did. Right. And that's when I got lost. And the pressure's on. And the pressure is on. So that's why I couldn't do anything. I was making records that I didn't like to trying to please them and nothing was working and then you it takes you a year or two it took me two years and then you go back inside your

head a little bit yeah it's inside your head and then you go back and you say you know what my manager told me go back to making music for your friends and and record that you want to play in your sets and that's what I did. And that's when I did a record called Do It Tonight. I redid this SOS band, Do It Tonight, and the song did amazing, blew up. It was the song of Monday Night Football, Touchdown. It was on Charlie's Angels movie. We got picked up with so many things and and everyone in the

world were playing the song and charted so this is what I'm saying I did this song again for me for myself to play it for my my friends so I got lost for like two years wow yeah and I think that happens a lot you know um I saw an interview with Dana White the other day and he's he's a close friend of mine as well and he talked about what what happens to a lot of these, you know, fighters at the top of their game. And they spent their entire lives in the grind. The fight business is a tough business. I mean, the music business is a tough business. And they get to the top of their game,

they get that big paycheck. Now there's a fork in the road, right? Because now you've got access. Now you're comfortable. You're somebody, you're comfortable. And I think that's what I wanna drill into a little bit because while people listening to this podcast might not be an aspiring DJ,

they are aspiring to something in their business, in their life, in their career, in their families. And maybe they've reached that place of comfort and how you made yourself uncomfortable again so you could go back to actually your music roots. And- Yes. You have to make yourself uncomfortable

if you wanna be back, you can be comfortable. And I'm never comfortable. And I think one of my biggest inspiration is to see my best friend, David Guetta, the tribe that he has and how many hits this man has. Oh my God, he's a monster. And he still tribe that he has and and how many hits this man has oh my god he's a monster and he still works like he has nothing yeah he's a sweetheart of a human being too he's the best human being yeah but i never seen somebody work like sometimes i look at him and i feel bad about

myself because i think i don't work you know because i'm like this guy could retire right now with so many hits yeah and he's still working like he's a little kid. But this is what I'm talking about. He's always putting himself in a situation that he doesn't think about what he has. And he keeps going. That's amazing. You know, so many athletes, celebrities, A-listers, entrepreneurs, they dominate their game for a short period of time. And then they lose it.

I think it's really interesting to hear that you actually had a two-year kind of hiatus where you were wandering around and then you finally just said, you know what, I'm going to go back to my roots. I'm going to make music for my friends. And then bang, it happens to you again. So I think for the people that know you, they know about your music career. I certainly know about your music career and I love your songs, love your music. I've danced to them for years.

Not very well. I'm a terrible dancer. But talk about the transition into movies. You've done four movies. You've been on four movies with Mark Wahlberg. So obviously a really interesting actor. How did that transition occur? Well, to be honest with you, my friend David Gretman helped me a lot of my career and introduced me to right by the way he's yes he's been a

massive force in my career yes amazing he's the best Dave Gruttman shout out to Dave Gruttman he's the best in the in the business with that and he's a friend and he's looking out for me every time he's on your side he's on you he's always introducing me to the right people he introduced me to Michael Bay and to the Peter Berg and became friend with this's a dj but he'd be a good actor yeah i started what i did is i started making music so in pain and gain i got two songs uh um in the movie and then michael threw me in the movie you know doing something that was a small part and then uh one time peter berg was doing this movie deep water horizon and me and

gruttman went up and uh got in the movie and we had a each one of us had a scene in the movie uh it was it was amazing amazing experience working with kurt russell uh mark warburg and uh kate hudson too which is a good friend now and so we did that and then after that i mean obviously dave doesn't care about these things right you know so after that peter peter did another movie a mile 22 uh went to colombia for a week with him i became very close to peter peterberg i love him he's a genius love what he does and um he actually did this movie um on um painkillers which is on Netflix right oh that's the one on that's Peter Berg oh really opioid crisis correct yeah which is incredible if nobody seen it yet you have to watch it it's incredible so I went there shot

that Mark Wahlberg again and then we did Patriot Day yeah we did that so it's a thing that I'm doing because i'm friends with them it's fun to act but it's not really my career it's just like you know i do those things on the side but it's it's amazing you know my father he's a salty old navy captain and he used to say it was the best definition of life i'd ever heard and he said you know life is what happens to you when you're on your way to doing something else yeah right so your biggest song happened when you were kind of on your way to doing something else. Yeah.

You know, there you are, you're making music for your friends and then you're like, holy shit. Yeah. I got a top 40 song. I got a Grammy in my hand. I mean, this is crazy. I'm acting next to, you know, Mark Wahlberg. And I think, you know, a lot of times we put a level of expectation on ourself, just like

you said, and we create this expectation. We set ourself up for failure because we don't let our passion drive us. And we set this unrealistic expectation, and then by not achieving it, we start to have less and less confidence in ourselves. So I think it's a great point to say, get back to what you love to do relax yeah and and enjoy and let life be something that happens to you when you're on your way to doing something else exactly um you know i want to talk about our journey for a minute because you know uh being a dj world-renowned dj and traveling in the nightclub business isn't particularly known for the place of optimal health, right? Drugs, alcohol, late nights, especially for a DJ,

the travel, the time zone changes, just the hours that you've gotta be on set. And the fact that you have to be present enough to put the right energy into the crowd. I mean, you need to show up. You don't have a choice. So we started our journey about two years ago. I remember when we first met, you were saying, look, my goal is I want to be as optimal as possible.

Exactly. I want to be a superhuman. And I mean, you don't drink, you don't do drugs. So you don't have the bad habits anyway, but you were like, I really dial the diet in the hydration the supplementation we pulled 74 biomarkers in your blood we pulled another five genetic markers and you started on the protocol for supplementation what have you so talk a little bit about how that's impacted your life and like what are some of the rules that you have for travel for for staying in a hotel for trying to keep up with your sleep your diet what have you well when when i started i was not

worried about any of that so i was going you know when you're young you don't really worry about anything so i was traveling uh i was not sleeping very well i was was sleeping two hours a day. I was eating very bad and I was getting sick a lot. So when I seen that my career was doing better, I started thinking I have to change something if I want to keep going in this. So the first thing that I changed, I mean, that we changed when we started working, I mean, I started making changes by my schedule, the way I fly, right? I wanted to make sure to get my sleep. Because you fly a lot. Yeah, I fly a lot.

So I wanted to make sure, like, that I could sleep at least eight hours every time, you know? So no early flights, no two hours of sleep anymore so i i changed that my dad you started scheduling your scheduling my travel around my sleep yeah to have better sleep right so that's very important but for me the sleep is the most important thing and i think you talk about this like an important sleep is uh to work out to make sure that when i get to the city i get my workout in because i became very big and working out every day which i was not working out at the time so you're planning like the hotel that you might stay in i have to make sure the gym you have the gym correct as the gym get my workout in that i continue from the week that i started on monday

i keep my workout in everywhere that I go. Before, I was not working out at all. I was not sleeping, and I was eating bad. I changed my diet. I started intermittent fasting. Right. I remember when we started that. Yes.

So we started intermittent fasting, which very changed my life. At the beginning, it was very hard. And then I could not live without it. If you tell me right now, have breakfast at 9 in the morning, there's no way I can do this. It will ruin my day. And I remember you weren't like that. And I know everybody is not a candidate for intermittent fasting.

We looked at your blood work and you had, there's a marker in the blood work called hemoglobin A1c. It's a three-month average of the blood sugar. This was elevated. The insulin was elevated. And we talked about it. And I remember you said, there's some ways that I can get this down.

And I said, well, you could do intermittent fasting. And we started talking about a fasting program. And I remember it was difficult for you in the beginning. Hey guys, if you've been watching the Ultimate Human Podcast for any length of time, you know that one thing I do not do is push products. I do not just let any advertiser into this space because I believe that the products that appear

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is at three in the afternoon last meal sometime even more four or five in the afternoon last meal 8 p.m that's my that's 8 p.m 9 p.m sometime uh depends where i'm at um the food that i eat when i'm in town in my house everything is organic nonGMO organic, like you told me to do. Fruits, very important, like you talk about, that is very important because of the pesticides that's on it. And I remember you told me that when you wash the fruits, you can actually reuse the water and pesticide again all the fruits with it. Yes. This is how bad it is. Yeah, in non-organic.

Non-organic food, yes. So you go organic on your fruits. You're eating in a window from 3 to 8 p.m., so about a five-hour window. And for people that have never intermittent fasting, talk about how much of a struggle is that now? It's just what you do. This is just what I do. It's part of my life. It's very easy. Yeah, it's easy now? It's just what you do. This is just what I do. It's part of my life.

It's very easy. Yeah. It's easy now. It's very easy. The only thing that's difficult for me is when I travel to control what I eat. So I try to, for example, when I get to a city, I make sure my tour manager goes to Whole Foods and gets me the organic foods, my water. I only drink Mountain Valley water, which is in glass bottles, one of the best water to drink. Very true.

I also change that. I carry my non-GMO sea salt with me so I can use that. The guy is carrying his own sea salt, ladies and gentlemen. So this is what I do. I carry my some next level here i'm very big on not using any seed oil sunflowers and everything and as you know a lot of restaurants are cooking with that so one thing that i learned if i eat at a restaurant i'm going to ask the chef to cook with butter right if i do a steak i'm going to mention that i want the steak to be cooked in butter which is much better for you than the seed oils right so there's a lot of tricks

like this that i can do so would i i would love to be home all the time and follow my diet but i cannot so that's what i try to do on the road and stay healthy and what kind of impact has that had on um the wear and tear that travel takes on? It changed my life. I mean, one thing that I can say is I don't get sick anymore. Yeah. I do not get sick since I've been on the program with you and I changed my diet and, you know, the supplement that I'm taking. I'm sincerely, I'm never getting sick. No, you look amazing.

And, you know, when you look at blood work, there's something in there called the CBC, the complete blood count, and you can look at how strong some parts of the immune system are, you know, what your blood counts are of certain white blood cells that help you mount an immune defense, and that has improved dramatically in your case. values like sugars going from high to low or insulin going from high to low or the amount of blood fat triglyceride going from high to low and relate that to how it's impacting your life and so when you're when you're on planes so you're you're fasting on airplanes i'm fasting on airplanes uh that's why i try to travel in the morning. So I get to the city and then I can do my things. And yeah, I'm fasting. It's very easy on the plane. I drink a lot of water, coffee. Yeah.

It's funny. I had dinner at your restaurant, Matamushi in Aspen the other night with my wife Sage and your wife. You were out of town. She goes, oh man, Cedric's a pain in the ass. When he orders, you're like, I want my steak cooked in butter. She told me the exact same thing. That's what I do. She

hates sitting with me. But it makes such a difference. And do they ever have a problem accommodating you? No, never. You can always ask a restaurant. They will do it for you. Yeah. And these are some of the little shifts that people can make to totally change the trajectory of their life. And I talk about, I like, you know, talking about little shifts that you can make that make a major difference in your life. Because there's people listening to this that don't travel at all. So they work a nine to five, Monday to Friday. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. And they have, they, And they're not consistent at home

about what they're eating. And yet with your travel schedule, which is different time zones, different cities, different countries, different food, you set up like some rules and you stick to those rules and it's helped you in your career and it's helped you with your sleep and your immune system. I'm more focused, i'm getting better sleep uh better energy at everything you know and i see

it i see it it changed two years ago i was not like that so so so now we know you've made you this is the next big shift you've made in your life and i want to get back to that conversation about what makes somebody transition from having a moment to having a career how are you staying interested in music right now how are you staying interested and passionate about your career what do you what do you key into after having such a long career in in music winning a grammy and acting like what's next for cedric gervais in my head i still haven't made it really that's why that's why i'm still hungry i'm still hungry i haven't made it i i don't think i accomplished anything yet that's why i keep going and if if i would put my manager here he would tell you that i'm a crazy man because every time I call them I call them like I haven't

done anything and really and and I I harass him like we need to do something we need to do this we need to do that we need you know and he's like you need to chill out you need to like and and this is my mindset right right I'm not comfortable I'm not where do you where are you getting your creative inspiration from now like earlier in your career you got it from wanting to just make music for your friends yeah um so where are you listening to other people listening to going out listening to djs uh listening to the music out there and and and performing in front of crowds every weekend that's very you get energy from the the beauty of being a dj is which i think a lot of producers don't have right is we can make music and try it in front of a crowd on

the weekend oh in real time in real time yeah and then go back to the studio in the studio go back to the studio and change the thing that you want to change and go back to the following weekend and try the record again and perfect the record all the time i never thought about that see what i mean so there's a certain connection you have with that crowd like a certain energy and you're like they're catching this you see if a record works and it doesn't work as some producer like massive producers are going to make a record in the studio and then they're going to be like okay let's let's release that and see what happens yeah see how it goes yeah exactly right which is you can just you can fail in small increments yeah you can see some record works some record don'tments. Yeah, I love that. You can see. Some records work, some records don't.

Some you have to tweak, some, you know what I mean? And that's the beauty of DJing and being on the road. What do you think makes the difference between a good DJ and a great DJ? I'll tell you what somebody told me one time, and it made a lot of sense. Roman Zago, who was a partner of mine in a nightclub years ago called Mint Lounge. I remember when he was trying to get DJs and talent, he would say, the difference between a good DJ and a great DJ is the transition. And I was like, what do you mean the transition?

He was like, the transition between songs, because the crowd should never feel an abrupt stop and an abrupt start again, right? Like if you break things up too much, then you sort of break the momentum and the energy of the crowd right but what do you what do you think makes the difference between a good i think being being an amazing dj is like there's two different i mean there's so many different djs right you have the for me it's like when you're a dj you have to tell a story

right you have to like take people on a journey like have you know i used to i come from a different era of dj which i have to start from the beginning of the night warm up the room get people walking in have them dancing take them somewhere to the end of the night right right for Right. For like five hours, six hours. It's a long process. It's a long journey. Yeah. Now you have this kid coming. They get success, they get put on, and they play for one hour. You know what I mean?

Right. So it's very, I think is, there's an art in DJing. You know, it could be a hip hop, it could be open format, it could be any kind of music there's always like telling a story and keeping like people dancing and having a great time are you ever adjusting in real time like you have to adjust the crowd you're like they're not feeling this i'm gonna you have to adjust i had this plan but i'm gonna shift you can't i mean you can tell when you walk to a place i can tell when i walk to a place. I can tell when I walk to a place. I'm like, I'm going to have to change my style.

I'm going to have to play different. Really? I'm going to have to go in a different way. But this is when you have this in you, right? Right. This is not. But then you have DJs that have a pre-recorded set that goes everywhere and play the same thing. Right.

Those are producers that became DJs. Right. It's a big difference. They had a big record, and then they put on the road being a DJ and they have no idea what they're doing. They're learning as they go. So it's... You really are in live format. And you're in that booth sometimes and you go, I was going this direction, but based on what I'm feeling from the crowd, I'm going to shift up. I'm going to go in a different direction. I never know what record I'm going to play. I'm going to play the same record many times, but in not the same order.

You never know when I show up what I'm going to play. Even here I live, when I play Live My Residency, I never play the same song in the same order. You're going to hear the same songs, right? But never in the same order because you have to create a vibe. And some people, sometimes you don't know, they start drinking. You don't know at what level they are. You look at them, you don't.

And sometimes you show up, the energy is insane and it starts right away. It's always different. So you just start pounding on the crowd right away. You feed yourself with the energy of the crowd. And then this is something that you have to learn how to do. I imagine you can't really stand on a crowd too hard for too long like you got to kind of give them a little bit of break i mean depends the amount of hours you're playing right it could be i remember this dj danita neglia which was a legend from new york he used to do like 10 hour sets 12 hour sets at space yeah god and he would

take you on journeys. Like it would be like fast beat and downbeat this and that. And people would dance for like 12 hours, but then you would give them rest and then go back up. It was just a crazy experience. Now all the, you know, everything is like very short, very like they want it now. Now everybody's there with their phone watching, you know.

Right. It's a different era. Yeah. I mean, and that's got to be an interesting part of your career too because when you started, cell phones were not in the nightclubs. And they went, they heard that music, they went home. But now, I mean, I've been in the DJ booth with you. I mean, it's like thousands of phones just pointed at you.

So all that's out all over social media everywhere. You play a song, they Shazam it, they know what it is right away. Yeah, yeah. They Shazam it right away and then they're recording you. So again, so now that you're at this point in your career, you're focused on your health, which I'm a huge fan of yours and I'm a huge fan of the discipline that you've shown because you have been very, very disciplined. You know, sometimes when I'm working with different people, you try things, they go off the wagon, you know, they go back on the wagon. You basically got on the wagon and never got off. If anything, you've improved the wagon. You know, you've got travel hacks that you

use. You've got sleep hacks that you use. You look great. You're in fantastic shape. It's obviously affecting your career. So again, where do you see Cedric Gervais? I love the fact that you said, I don't feel like I've done anything. Because I think that mindset, that hungry young mindset that you're sort of tapping into back when you were in a small club in France at 19, um, is a different mindset than, than the one that you tap into after you've won a Grammy and you're like, Hey, I'm already here. Yeah. Um, so I, I, I love that because people can actually reorient the way that they approach their career and they can try to find that hunger again

for their, for their business, for their music, for their career, for can try to find that hunger again for their business, for their music, for their career, for their marriage or what have you. So what's next? Where's Cedric Gervais over the next five years? Where does he go? Cedric Gervais 1 I'm making a lot of music right now at the moment and also doing different businesses. Steve Chiotakis 1 I mean, are there artists that you have

a... I would love to work with this artist. moments and also doing different businesses i mean are there artists that you have a i would love to work with oh this artist so like you could work with one artist like who would it be i think i think would be the weekend the weekend yeah i love the weekend bruno mars is one of my yeah favorite artists there's many artists he's one of those two i mean obviously i know some of some of his songs but i was in uh vegas with this swedish house guys and they're like hey we're going over to or with alesso and he's like hey i'm going over to the the weekends concert and i was like i'll go over there with you and then i sat there and i was like he does that song he does that song he does that song he's

massive he does that song i couldn't believe it it was like nine of ten songs i the weekend is yeah he's so you'd love to do an album with him? Not an album, just a song. I would love to do a song. The Weeknd, I mean, The Weeknd, I don't know if you know, but The Weeknd started his career as giving his music for free. He was signed to nobody. And you would sign up to a website, which I was signed up to the website.

And when he would drop an album, you would get it for free. Wow. Back in the days, yeah. And I would get his album for free. And when he would drop an album, you'll get it for free. Wow. Back in the days, yeah. And I would get his album for free. And he was producing that music. He was producing everything, singing everything, and giving it away to his fans for free. It was signed to no label.

They don't want to be signed to anybody. And that's how he blew up and created his crown. Wow. And so would DJs like you take that music and use some of his vocals and things like that? I was just listening to his music. I was a fan. But then he became massive after that.

Who are some of the, in your career so far, who are some of the favorite artists that you've worked with? I mean, working with Lenny Kravitz must have been pretty cool. Yeah, that was very cool. I mean, that's a living legend. That was very cool. Lenny, by the way, is a very, when it comes to health he's very oh yeah he's a friend now and he's very strict with his health he's the same you know he's an amazing amazing guy and i've been down the rabbit hole on that yeah no he's unbelievable uh him lana del rey So him, Lana Del Rey, I worked with Miley Cyrus. Working with Madonna was pretty crazy, you know.

And when you collaborate with these artists, is it kind of their way or the highway, or are they really coming in and kind of collaborating with you? What's it like to work with some of those iconic legends? It's always different. Okay. You know, Lenny was very cool. I did Stillness of Heart from his album. iconic legend it's it's always different okay you know it's not lenny was very cool i i did uh

stillness of heart from his album um worked with him um so you took a song of his and then yeah and did in my version then i went to his house played for him and he actually he was listening and i was like i didn't know what he was thinking he was listening to it and he goes you blew my mind man this is incredible no i was a little kid i was looking at any credits like this i was like oh my god did you just say that yeah yeah yeah so you know some artists they just let you do it like i worked with juanis which is a an incredible uh legend from colombia we did a song together and he came in we worked together and he was like he didn't understand because he's a rock artist right he's like how are we going to do this so i just told him i said listen just write a you know one of the song that you will write like a ballad and then just give me the vocals when you're done

and then i've done the song brought it back to him and he was like oh my god this is incredible you know what i mean because that's the cool thing about your style of music too, because you can take rock house, hip hop, you know, pop, even like a funky blues tune. And you can kind of put your spin to it and really put it on a different stage. Yeah. You know. Hey guys, as you know, I do not push products on my podcast or my social media unless I use them in my everyday life.

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for all of their products. They've got great electrolyte protein combinations. My favorite is the perfect aminos, bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate. And now back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. So Lenny Kravitz, you know, some of these other artists, who did you say was an artist that you- Miley Cyrus as well. Miley Cyrus. Yeah, it was cool to work with her other artists. Who did you say was an artist that you... Miley Cyrus as well.

Miley Cyrus. Yeah, it was cool to work with her. Yeah. What did you guys do together? So we did the song Adore You. She wanted me to work on that song. And at the time, I think I was saying no to remix that song. And I remember one time...

Why is that? It was at the time that she started. She was a little crazy and doing all these things. And I was busy doing other things. And I remember I get a phone call. I'm like, yo, what's up? Why don't you want to work on my song? I'm like, who's this?

She goes, it's Miley. No way she called you. Yeah. It kind of sounds like something she did. And she came down to miami with her mom i went to engel with her i live and then i did the song i i remixed the song adore you which is an incredible song and she's super cool but the fact that she called and asked and yeah i love that when she was such a huge artist i thought it was super cool because why would she call me you know what i mean right and and i did it she was such a great uh and the song did amazing so yeah well fantastic yeah well you know um I mean the health journey

the music journey you're clearly almost in your mind at the beginning yeah again and I think that's a great point for people to leave with um is there anything else that you want people to know about Cedric Gervais and your career? And what's one piece of advice you would give to a young DJ that start now at 19 years old is to really work on your craft, right? Don't look at the because right now, everybody sees is is this this guy up there on stage, putting his hand up in front of 1000s of crowd and the kids are like, this is where I want to be. That's what I want to do. But I think they have to see the work that goes into that to get there, right? Because it was not handed to me, right?

I had to work for it. And some gets handed to them and then they're here for like a quick minute and then they're gone. So really put the work and see how much work you have to put into and then they're here for like a quick minute and then yeah so really put the work and see how much work you have to put into this and what comes into it and this it comes to like when we're talking about athletes right there's so many few athletes that are there and the best in the world but why are they the best in the world right cristiano ronaldo messi lebron james tom brady why is their

dedication to the work right the hours they put in day in day out right when they're not on the stage yeah and this is why they're on top and this is why they're the best in the world right kobe bryan like all these people and i think that's what a kid should look at. And what comes in, and I mean, look at David Guetta. David Guetta comes from the same background that I come from, from nothing, DJing, learning, producing. You know? Was there ever a time that you really just wanted to throw in the towel and quit?

Were there those low moments along the road where you were like, screw this? Of course, many moments, many moments. Because everybody, you have to understand this, everybody loves you and you're as good quit were there those low moments yeah no of course many moments many moments because everybody you have to understand this everybody loves you and you're you're as good as your last record yeah that's it yeah so when when your last record is getting old people are like oh whatever yeah and you start feeling like so you you feel all this love and all of a sudden you don't feel this love anymore and you start like questioning yourself and you're like, oh my God, what's going on here?

Where am I going? I have to keep producing. Yeah, there used to be this show. I used to love to watch it called One Hit Wonders. Yeah. And you would always know the song. And these people would spike and hit, you know, they would have this one hit wonder and then you'd never hear about them again. And that's some of what I hope we tapped into today.

Cedric, this has been amazing, man. I'm really appreciative that you took the time to come on the show today. I end all my podcasts the same way by asking every guest what it means to them to be an ultimate human. What does it mean to you to be an ultimate human? To me, it means that I'm 44 now to be an ultimate human? What does it mean to you to be an ultimate human? To me, it means that I'm 44 now and I feel like I'm 20 years old.

Awesome. That's what it means to me. Awesome. Yeah. Well, we're gonna end with that. And as always, guys, thank you, Cedric, for joining us today on the Ultimate Human Podcast. You're an absolute beast. Thank you, my brother. You're a good friend. And as always, that's just science.