Artist Spotlight: Meet Julien Delaye
Can you talk about any specific themes or motifs that run throughout 'Open Air Desertlike Discotheque?'
‘Open air desertlike discotheque,’ I think, speaks of themes that we find precisely in a discotheque...addiction and alcohol, but also music and encounters, hope and disillusionment.
There's always an interplay between light and shadow, false pretenses and the multifaceted side of a disco ball.
Which song(s) from the album do you think best represents your artistic vision?
There are the singles “Directions” and “Bitterness,” of course, but you always end up denying them a little. I'd say I really enjoy writing darker songs like “The Convoy,” where I'm quite proud of the final orchestration, but also “The Perfect Clown” and its hypnotic second verse with elements of composite rhythms while the drums stay straight.
What was your favorite moment in making the music videos?
It's true that as a graphic designer and video artist, I also make my own music videos. For “Directions,” I was totally alone in a very old camper van belonging to a musician friend, Benjamin Quartz. It was a lot of fun filming everything on my own, but a bit of a hassle.
“For Bitterness,” I did have a videographer friend to film me and, of course, the dancers in a cabaret right next door to me, so all I had to do was play my guitar and put on a show, which was a lot easier.
But my favorite moment is during editing, when I can see that it's taking shape and that the music video is going to be good. For example, I really enjoyed it when I saw that the special effect of my own death was totally working on “Directions!”
What inspired you to pursue a career in music?
I've been making music for as long as I can remember and for free! So, I guess I can't really say that I'm pursuing a career in music. At least not as a real job, even if I'm just starting to try and professionalize this solo project. But on the subject of why I make music, I think it's a kind of outlet for emotions that I don't necessarily show otherwise, and I also really like the idea of leaving a legacy, something to remember me by when I'm mad or dead. Hehe!
Can you walk us through your creative process when writing and composing music?
That's a very good question because I wanted to make a little video about it. It's all thanks to my smartphone!
In fact, I hum little melodies that come to mind and I record them using the voice recorder. I've got tons of them. And I often laugh when I listen to them again, because most of the time they're just mouth rhythms or gibberish vocals.
I select the best ones and recreate the melodies on the guitar, which I then re-record on the smartphone. It's at this point that I find the final vocal parts and write the lyrics, or at least part of them. Then I go into the home studio version, where I record the guitars and vocals cleanly, and move on to the orchestration, with the drums first and the keyboards and electric guitars, the bass often coming last. I often save all these parts except the drums that we record for real with my friend Benjamin Surrel in the stud then mix everything.
