Étienne de Crécy

ÉTIENNE DE CRÉCY:

It all started in Détroit and Chicago. Something new had been cooking there since the late 80s. The music playing at clubs had a special something we had never experienced before. I was a music enthusiast, so I knew the 3 or 4 boutiques in Paris that regularly acquired the latest hits. This sound was new, very captivating, and arrived with a technological boost. We were experimenting with laptops, keyboards and synthesizers. It was very experimental and it coincided with the birth of the internet.

ÉTIENNE DE CRÉCY:

With the launch of our first EP in 1993. Alongside Philippe Zdar, we cofounded the band Motorbass  Our music was different because we were ‘sampling’ tracks, as opposed to the Americans and the Germans, who were producing a pure electronic sound. So with our music, people were hooked by melodies they recognized, borrowed from disco or rap themes, and they would hold on to them while discovering a radically new sound. That was our ‘French Touch’.

ÉTIENNE DE CRÉCY :

I have two jobs, quite different the one from the other. 

 

On the one hand, I am a DJ. I play in clubs a bit everywhere. To compose my sets,  I spend a lot of time listening to different music so that I can imbue my music with something new. So, I’m sort of a music scout. It’s a long process, but it’s essential to be constantly listening to what’s going on in the electro scene because there’s something new coming out every minute. Not all of it is good, of course, so the selection must be meticulous, and thus time-consuming. 

 

On the other hand, I am an album producer and composer. I’m not a musician in the strict sense of the word, because I don’t play any instruments. However, I’m good at using any keyboards I have around me. After composing, I send tracks to people who sing and whose work I like. Some are very well known, like Damon Albarn for example, and others less so. They write lyrics to the tracks I’ve written and we see how they turn out. That’s how I make my albums. It’s a construction, a puzzle.

ÉTIENNE DE CRÉCY :

Nowadays, I don’t really have any expectations. I can’t think of anything more boring than writing prompts! AI makes electronic music from what has already been produced by others. So, from my point of view, it’s average. Not necessarily bad, but average. What I would find interesting about working with AI is if it could save me some time. Some of my electronic experiments take a lot of time, such as rendering calculations. If AI could allow me to speed up my process, then I could follow many more paths. In that case, AI could potentially add to my creative process, and from that point of view, it would be very interesting.

ÉTIENNE DE CRÉCY :

Back when we started in the 90s, music videos were very important. Music was broadcast on television. But because we were new, we would often find ourselves squeezed in between two artists completely different from us, like Zazie or Pascal Obispo! I still pay attention to music videos nowadays, even if they’re long, which the younger generation sometimes finds hard to appreciate. And as I’m also sensitive to contemporary dance, I wanted these clips to pay tribute to it in length, while embracing my music. I must admit that I think the result is quite compelling!