Enfnts Terribles

Your album Escapades will be released on June 25. How do you feel about this first release?

I can’t wait for it to come out. I finished it a while ago, so I have to admit that I’m a little bit nervous. It’s the home stretch, and I still have a few things to do with it, but I also want to start making new music. But I’m happy; it’s a good synchronicity with life starting again too.

Could you tell me more about this project?

It’s an escapade on several levels: it’s an escapade outside of a duo, outside of what’s going on musically in our time, and it’s also a kind of experimentation just to get out of the classic pop format and to offer people music that is less restrictive in terms of imagination and message. I have the impression that today there is a lot of music where the message is important. For me, the message is open and a bit less didactic: there is no language barrier; it’s more of an emotional message.

This project seems utterly introspective. What are the themes you explore with this new music?

I believe that the interesting thing here is to let people express what they want in these tracks, according to their personal history and their musical culture. Then again, it’s a record that is not at all abstract nor demonstrative: it’s not free jazz, it’s not concrete music. I believe it’s quite accessible. I have the impression that whatever the time or the place, you can always be touched by a melody or an atmosphere. For me that’s the main goal: I want to transmit clear emotions in their intention. And so that’s why the record goes from epic moods to melancholic moods, to almost naive moods at some points. Because the music I like to listen to is often like that and because I like outrageous feelings and not lukewarm things.

This record seems rooted in your desire to do more cinematographic works and to create visuals to support the imagination of the listeners. What’s your take on this?

It’s a little bit different in the sense that my favorite movies have very little music. Even if I like a lot of movie soundtracks, I find that music in movies—when it’s badly used—is often a kind of mental rape. The director forces you to be sad when he wants you to be sad, or to be happy when he wants you to be happy. I personally prefer films where there is no music, but I like the aesthetics of soundtracks and original soundtracks from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s because there is a style exercise of having a recurring theme that is arranged in many different ways. That’s what I find interesting musically: having a melodic theme that you twist in a lot of different styles. That’s something we did on this record as well.

A few weeks ago, you dropped an introduction video for your track “Hey”. What did you want to convey with it?

The message is clear: there is no other message than a horseman playing the violin. (laughs) It was the first image I had in mind for this song when we were doing it in the studio. So I had this image of a Mongolian rider playing the violin on a horse, and so we just followed that first visual idea and did that. What I find interesting about the format of these videos, which are quite short, is that people can imagine what happened before or what will happen after, without being too explanatory and without having to tell a story. It’s like surreal vignettes that suit the music well, I think.

Again, it’s all about allowing your audience to let their imagination speak and create their own narrative, right?

Exactly, it’s a bit like the cover. It’s giving support that’s a little less mundane and a little more fantastical than just my head on the cover. (laughs)

On this record, you also worked with the composer Victor le Masne. How did this collaboration come to life?

Victor and I have been friends for a long time. When I started to want to make this record he was very encouraging and supported me a lot. I believe it’s also because we have the same musical sensibility—even though he’s much more trained than I am. He went to the conservatory whereas I can’t read a score. (laughs) But yes, he is a very good arranger and also it is really pleasant to work with your friends.

I also worked with a sound engineer called Michael Declerck. We spent all our time in the studio; we were as excited as kids in a toy store. We could try all the synths we wanted, all the instruments. It was a joyful atmosphere because we didn’t really have time to get bored of the tracks as they were recorded in a very short period of time. It was really fun to record; it was just proof that you don’t have to make music under pain or stress.

You have been active in the Parisian electro scene for several years. How did this scene evolve?

I must confess that I have no idea what the Parisian scene is becoming because all the clubs are closed and all the new artists who were ready to go on tour couldn’t. It must have been very hard for them. In music, there is a question of momentum and timing that is extremely important. So actually, I don’t really know what’s going on, but I’m not really interested in what is meant by electro today, and it’s not really a source of inspiration either, at least for this record.

Then there are a lot of things that are called “electronic music”, and it’s a very broad term that includes Aphex Twin as much as David Guetta, so it’s a bit of an overused term that doesn’t mean much anymore. Then again, there are a lot of electronic artists that I like and that do interesting things. But it’s not what feeds me musically speaking.