Q: When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?
A: I’m different from my fellow band members who see things like you. To me it’s more about feelings and concepts. So when we talk about music with Marco (bass) and Maxime (drums), we can talk about the same ideas but we experience them differently. When we jam I tell them for example that it sounded like “a trip through a magic forest or a middle Eastern army marching in the snow” but I will not see that. It’s a thought and a concept. The others will literally see these things. Eyes open or eyes closed, when music touches me deeply, nothing can get between us.
What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?
I think that my skills have improved but the spark has not changed. It’s there or it’s not. To me being an artist means loving your art very deeply. It’s an expression of the sublime, something otherworldly, almost religious. Can you train that? I’m not sure. Some people are very skilled but are not artists because the spiritual element is absent. There is no harm in that.
According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?
From age 13 until 15 I did not like music. Everybody at my school was listening to Hip-Hop and it did not appeal to me. There are things I like today but back then I did not like the fact that everybody was listening to the same music. I never liked mass movements where people don’t choose for themselves. Not listening to music was sort of a small rebellion in itself. And then a schoolmate showed me some punk music. I thought it was pretty cool and bought some records. My mom overheard that I was listening to guitar music. So she told me to sit down and listen. She said: “Let me show you a glimpse of the best”. She put on “Have a Cigar” by Pink Floyd, “Stairway to Heaven” and “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin. I was mesmerised. My life had taken a different turn in that very moment. I thought that it was music made by the gods. I was caught up in misty dreams. Nothing else mattered anymore. I started listening to music all the time and spent all my money on physical albums.
What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?
Well actually, I was not only a music fan when I was 15 but also a failed preacher. Because I started walking around in my school with headphones and wanted to show people that rap music was not the only music. I wanted others to be able to feel the intense emotions that music is able to generate. It was not a very successful enterprise. I realised that trying to put headphones on people’s heads was not the best way to preach my newly found fate and that is when I naturally picked up a guitar. And this was a new illumination. From the first notes on, I started creating and writing music. I never really learned other songs. The new melodies just came to me. This was the right way to transmit my love of music. I was now able to write the music I wanted to hear. That’s perfect. I’m now 35 years old and my love for music has not changed. I love listening to music, I love writing new music and today I’m able to transmit that burning passion on stage. This is the basic drive. The key ideas are: authenticity, passion and keeping all doors open. With every new song an entire universe opens up. It would be too bad to impose limitations to the infinity before me.
To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?
I would like to quote the title track on our new album Dreaming in Dystopia which is an expression of my love of music and answers this question in the second verse:
“I can see life as it should be.
Follow the melody, deep into the sea.
Where there’s a magic song waiting to be freed.
And together we can make eternity.”
Music is infinite and writing great songs is simply unlocking a new hidden treasure chest. By diving deep within yourself, you can discover new melodies and new songs. Sometimes the melody just comes to me in my sleep. I just need to let it guide me and a new song is born. Again, the key to unlock these hidden treasures is intense burning passion.
Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?
I don’t really listen to our records. Here is the typical journey of a song I write. First, the musical idea comes to me. This puts me in a state of trance, fullness and happiness. Then I need to work on the idea to make it into a song. I write lyrics and from an early stage on, I work with the band so that everybody is able to put a part of themselves into the song. The song is not mine anymore, it’s ours. We then work countless hours on arrangements and finally we’re able to record it. Then there is a long process of mixing and mastering. After that, I think I honestly spend too much time working on the song order of an album. I become totally obsessed and try hundreds of combinations. By that time, I have listened to the song over a thousand times. When the song is released, I consider that it doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to the audience and to whoever wants to listen to it. The song is dead to me in this form. But the beauty of death is resurrection and it’s on stage that the song continues to live and evolve. It takes on new shapes but the basic idea that once put me in a trance survives the process.
Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?
I think that the sounds found in nature are all beautiful and they guide our choices when we’re mixing music. We want music to be organic and natural. That is why we do not add frequencies that don’t feel natural. For example, it’s very rare to hear very low sub frequencies in nature. Most of the sounds we hear are in the mid frequencies. They are the ones that give character and texture to sound. It’s maybe an explanation why our music is mostly mid oriented. It feels more real and more magical. When I hear too many bass frequencies, I instantly think of a recording studio. And that is not something that allows evasion and freedom.
From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?
I love contrast. I like light and shade. I like variation. That is why I don’t like over compressed music because it’s in direct opposition with contrast. A boeing 747 makes a lot of noises but it’s constant noise. So you don’t feel the power. But if you are in a silent environment and all of a sudden there is an explosion, the effect is totally different. So yes extremes are important in music.
Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?
The creative process can take multiple forms in our band. Every song has it’s story. Here are two examples that show how broad the possibilities are. The track “Lost my Mind” on the new record Dreaming in Dystopia came to me in a dream. I wrote it in one night. We worked on it with the band and in just a few session we were able to record the final studio version. On the other hand “Insomnia” (the track that comes right after this one on the record), has been on hold since the creation of the band. It was a long instrumental jam but we knew it had the potential to become a great song. Years passed but every time we tried something was missing. We didn’t do the idea justice. The idea got stored on our shelf of great ideas that should become songs one day. It was there, not really alive but still somewhere in our collective memory. One day I wrote a small ballad about insomnia, It was good as it was but the idea resurfaced from nowhere. What about combing that jam that is waiting on the shelve with this ballad to make it an epic track. We tried and it worked. We instantly knew that this was it. “Lost my Mind” was written in a few hours and recorded not long after that while “Insomnia” took 15 years. Both tracks feel complete and I like them equally. They just have a very different story.
Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?
We do what feels right. We try to follow our instincts. Sometimes we experiment with sound, sometimes we feel that we don’t need to. We’re just trying to stay open and always do what will benefit music the most.
How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?
Music is an integral part of my life. Sometimes my own life doesn’t even matter. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing. My social life and love life greatly suffer from it. Because I’m able to express my emotions through music I don’t have much left in my daily life. Don’t get me wrong, I am a super happy person. I feel full and complete. I’m just not able to make the distinction between music and life. They are the same thing. I actually use sports to understand things about myself.
Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?
Music is the expression of the sublime. I haven’t found other ways to express this. Maybe through words but then it becomes music again.
Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?
I have an artist that does that to me: Frank Zappa. I wouldn’t even say he’s my favorite artist (one of the favorites, yes). When I get into a Zappa phase, I can’t listen to anything else. Everything else seems without substance. The crazy thing is that Zappa’s music is not charged emotionally. And emotion is what touches me the most. Zappa’s music is charged intellectually and with moments of grace and music genius. It’s like he’s so smart that he’s over emotions. So yeah his music has a strange effect on me.
If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?
I would like more variety. I would like the music to become important again. For the future, I wish we would go back. Back to something less digital, more emotional and more human.
From: https://www.15questions.net/interview/fifteen-questions-interview-dirty-sound-magnet/page-1/
