Julien Chaptal and the Amsterdam connection

Julien Chaptal and the Amsterdam connection

26 August, 2009 | 6.01AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: 100% pure, julien chaptal, remote area

Whenever Frenchman Julien Chaptal jumps on his bike and cycles along one of Amsterdam’s tree-lined canals, he’s never more than a few minutes away from a fellow house artist.

The ‘Venice of the North’ is at the centre of dance music’s current revived interest in classic house sounds because it is home to a large number of its most prolific producers.

2000 And One, Lauhaus, Boris Werner, Shinedoe, Kabale und Liebe, Daniel Sanchez, Sandy Huner, Melon, and Chaptal - Amsterdam’s community of house music producers runs deep, and their sound is unique enough, that it is now being refered to as a full blown Dutch underground house movement.

Like Berlin and its minimal before it, Amsterdam has become a hotspot for like-minded producers who share a passion for dance music, and who cycle from one another’s studios, like one giant village.

“I suppose we’re like one big community of producers on bicycles,” says Julien Chaptal, who seems charmed by life in the city. “A lot of us live in the same area of De Pijp, and we always meet up at each other’s studios to work on music together. And the city is getting better all the time. Even Joris Voorn and Edwin Oosterwal moved here recently from Rotterdam. It’s great.”

We catch up with Chaptal as he waits to pick up a new laptop for his studio.

How would you describe the sound that you’re a part of?

I think all of us here helped to create a new Dutch underground house sound. We were all influenced by the minimal coming out of Berlin, but also by Amsterdam’s Dylan Hermelijn aka 2000 And One, who has been producing his own style of house music for many years now.

Dylan’s approach is from the 90s and he builds tracks around loops. Similarly, our tracks are a lot more repetitive than minimal tracks, and are based on loops, whereas minimal generally changes every few bars.

Why do you think Amsterdam has become the focal point of the sound?

The Dutch house sound began around Dylan’s labels Intacto, Remote Area, and 100% Pure. It influenced a lot of producers here in Amsterdam, who also launched labels focusing on the sound. So it’s grown from here.

The Mannheim labels Cecille and Olso have also championed the style.

For sure. We are very close to the Mannheim guys, and we swap a lot of tracks. We also did a showcase together at Sonar. We don’t play exactly the same sound, but we are close to one another.

Together with the Mannheim guys, do you see yourselves as part of a new breed of house artists who are spearheading a direction that sits in between house and techno?

I guess, we have broken away from the traditional techno and house scene and developed our own thing. But I’ve never really thought of it like that. We’ve incorporated a lot of classic house and organic drums into techno, but really all we’ve done is recycle what has come before, only our tools and sequencers are much better than they were in the Chicago house days. Our tracks sound much louder and bigger than before, and our production and arrangement is more advanced than it was back then.

For years, I used to have to put a high pass filter on my basslines because club systems couldn’t play below 40hz and it used to suck a lot of power out of the amps. Now I don’t need to use a high pass filter on my bass at all, because the systems can take it

So more powerful sequencers and tools are one of the reasons for the Dutch house sound? What else?

Club soundsystems have changed a lot over the last 10 years. I was a sound engineer for years and did mainly live gigs, and I’ve seen club systems improve dramtically. Now systems like Function 1 are able to push so much more bass. For years, I used to have to put a high pass filter on my basslines because club systems couldn’t play below 40hz and it used to suck a lot of power out of the amps. Now I don’t need to use a high pass filter on my bass at all, because the systems can take it. That’s made the effect of the music on the dancefloor more powerful.

Do you think soundsystems will keep on improving, or have we reached a perfect point?

Soundsystems will most likely keep on improving, but I’m not sure if I would ever want to get to a stage where there was studio quality sound in a nightclub. Club soundsystems should be more hi fi, with booming bass.

The biggest problem I see in clubs at the moment, as an engineer, is that a lot of soundsystems don’t cover the club evenly in sound - some parts of the dancefloor will have no bass, other parts of the club will have too much mid. I’m hoping that over the years we will be able to improve the way sound is directed in clubs.

You seem to have some big theories about the continuing development of dance music. Do you discuss such things with other producers in Amsterdam?

We exchange ideas all the time, but I’ve never had this particular conversation about soundsystems before now. Later on, I’m going to Polder’s studio to work on some remixes that I’ve done and as always, we’ll share production tips.

Are you guys like one big happy family then?

We all get on with each other. We even have a band called Amsterdam 661, which is like a Dutch underground house supergroup with Lauhaus, Boris Werner, Quazar, Kabale und Liebe, David Labeij from Polder and myself.

It’s the same concept as Ricardo Villabos’ Narod Niki live project, and we perform together on five laptops, two electribes, and one mixer. Boris Werner used to be the mixer controller, but now Lauhaus does it. My laptop sends out a sync signal so all the other laptops to follow mine and we all work together to create one groove. We improvise everything, and play things completely live with no rehearsals.

Is that all done using Ableton?

Yep, that’s one of the reasons why I moved off Cubase to Live in my studio, because it’s so easy to export loops to play in my live sets. Now after every track, I export all the track’s parts as loops and put them in folders like, basslines, drums, hi hats. So when we play live as 661, I can throw any of those loops in.

Would you say that organic drums is one of the main distinguishable sounds behind Dutch house?

I never thought that we were just about organic drums. For instance, the first big hit on Remote Area, Dylan’s ‘Us’, was just based on synths. The label has always had an open policy and doesn’t just stick to one sound.

Steve Bug said recently in a Beatportal interview, that he disliked the way that dance music tends to copy itself, and it can leave the originators of a sound looking stale after the wave moves on. As the pioneers of a sound that is currently popular, does that worry you?

It’s funny, I actually had the exact same conversation with Steve Bug last week, as we played together somewhere. I get a lot of kids sending me stuff all the time, and they’ll say ‘hey, you’ll like this, it sounds just like you!’ Of course, I’m happy to influence other producers, but I would never want to play tracks that sound just like me.

Copying other producers though, is what dance music has always been about. As a teacher, I always tell my students to listen to big hits that they like and then try to understand how it was created. Try to copy it, as that’s a very good way to learn how the producer managed to create a certain style.

Once you understand how a certain track was created, you can then go on and try to create your own unique sound.

How is the teaching going? You lecture on music production, don’t you?

Teaching has been going well, but I’ve been doing less and less recently as I’ve become pretty busy after my album ‘Tokens’ came out last year. I was doing three days a week, but now I only teach one class per week.

How did you get into teaching? Is it something you always wanted to do?

I got into teaching because Gert Van Veen, who has been producing as Quazar for many years, was teaching and he invited me to fill in for him every now and again.

I was a sound engineer for 10 years, so I know a lot about music and production. But I never studied to be a teacher or anything.

What do you teach?

Sometimes I just show people how I made a certain track, or how I work on a remix. I also do workshops at Studio 80, which is probably the most exciting underground club in Amsterdam right now.

It’s housed in an old radio station, and it is owned by the guy who runs ID&T, the famous Dutch dance music events company. It’s a non profit and has lots of intiatives designed to promote dance music to young people.

Can you teach us something today? How do you make those killer drum grooves,sir?

Well, the organic drums are just samples. I don’t have any secrets really, except one tip is I layer a lot of drums to make them sound larger.

Most of my projects have between 60 and 90 tracks, and 15 of them will be just hi hat channels. Another four or five will be used for kick drums and six or seven for snare drums. That will make your drums kick louder.

What about the groove itself? Your tracks are full of hypnotic loops that really work on the floor.

I use the swing of Ableton Live mainly, but I also manually move notes to keep loops interesting.

Another thing, I never use headphones to produce if possible. My album was mainly produced on the train between the school where I teach and my home, as it’s a four hour train ride, but I only sketched the ideas down using headphones.

I know some producers can do mixes on headphones, but I really need studio speakers to perfect the low end.

You’ve had some big club hits this year, like ‘Mamdaye’, ‘Dancer’ and ‘Collider’. Have they boosted your profile?

My gig requests have picked up in the last eight months. After my album came out, it took a while, and then suddenly things got busy. I’ve played at all the clubs that I wanted to, like Fabric in London, Panorama Bar in Berlin, and finally, Rex in Paris. I’m from Paris, but had never actually played a gig there.

‘Mamdaye’ was actually just a loop I made for my live sets, but then Lauhaus asked me to make it into a whole track and Dylan heard it, and asked to release it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about creating a new style for myself and moving forwards. But I’ve been getting loads of remix requests, and every time I try to do something a bit new or different the label rings me up and says, ‘that’s not what we wanted. We want the Julien Chaptal sound’

How did you first hook up with Dylan?

I met him through my band Le Clic, which was a filtered disco house band with a friend of mine, Noah Pepper, and we decided to start performing together as Le Clic in 2002. We teamed up later with Aron Friedman who I had seen as an MC in an electro act.

Le Clic was really successful on the live circuit in The Netherlands, and around that time, Dylan asked me for some tracks for his new Remote Area label.

As one of the originators of the Dutch house sound, have you been thinking about what comes next?

I’ve been thinking a lot about creating a new style for myself and moving forwards. But I’ve been getting loads of remix requests, and every time I try to do something a bit new or different the label rings me up and says, ‘that’s not what we wanted. We want the Julien Chaptal sound’. And that’s understandable. But it makes it hard for me to move on. I blame myself for taking too many remix requests!

Can’t you just stop doing remixes?

Yeah, I have stopped doing them, almost. Another two requests came through this morning, and they were too good to turn down so I said to myself, I’ll do just these two and then that’s it!

I will only do remixes of tracks where I like the original and think that I can add something to it. I have done the odd remix in the past where I didn’t actually like the original and I probably shouldn’t have done them.

The good thing is, being on Remote Area I have complete freedom, and I’m hoping to start work on a new album soon which will allow me to do whatever I want. So I’m not cornered.

Five essential recent Julien Chaptal cuts

Julien Chaptal ‘Joel Starr’

“I made this track last August after my friend Joel Starr passed away,” reveals Julien. “I wanted to make a track for him, to remember him, so it’s a very personal record.

“I’ve been exclusive to Remote Area for years now, but Dylan kindly agreed to let me do this on 2020 Vision which was great.”

Julien Chaptal, Sandy Huner ‘If This World Was Mine’

“I made this track with Sandy very quickly,” says Julien. “We had talked about making music together for a long time, and we managed to crank this out in less than two hours.

“It’s funny, originally I gave Sandy the rough mix and was prepared to master it later, but Sandy, being an old skool producer, wanted to leave it rough. Dylan too, also said “don’t touch it”. So we left it as it was.”

Julien Chaptal ‘Le Chic’

Named after Chaptal’s former band, ‘Le Chic’ swings with 70s disco flavours and filtered funk.

Well below his usual BPM range, the track is a fun and French-influenced deep house cut that many may have missed as it was a digital-only track included on Chaptal’s ‘Mamdaye’ EP.

Ali Kuru ‘Wassa’ (Julien Chaptal Remix)

Typified by his rolling tribal percussion, Chaptal took the soulful laidback vibe of Ali Kuru’s original and turned it into a perfect mid-set DJ tool.

Julien Chaptal ‘Mamdaye’

Featuring a well known vocal sample from a famous house record (we’ve promised not to reveal its source), ‘Mamdaye’ is one of Chaptal’s biggest hits to date.

With perfect late night grooves, minimal synth lines, and infectious soul, it continues to dominate house dancefloors this summer.

Five glorious Dutch DJ tools

Microfunk aka 2000 And One & Dave Ellesmere ‘Pecan’ (Java & Gabi Newman 2007 Ibiza Rework)

Ok we’re cheating a bit, as ‘Pecan’ is not technically a full-on Dutch affair, but with local boys 2000 And One and Dave Ellesmere providing the original under the name Microfunk, and Spain’s Java and Gabi Newman on remix duty, the track became one of the biggest underground club hits of 2007. Beh, boo!

2000 And One ‘Funk That’

A masterclass in loop-based house, ‘Funk That’ is one of Dylan Hermelijn’s most useful DJ tools. With skipping beats, perfect hand claps, and serious groove, it’s impossible to fault.

DJ Madskillz ‘Samba Legacy’

Room filling samba drums, stunning sound FX, and haunting techno pads made ‘Samba Legacy’ a serious contender for best techno tool of 2008.

Kabale und Liebe, Daniel Sanchez ‘Mumbling Yeah’

The track that brought Kabale und Liebe and Daniel Sanchez major attention from all corners of the dance music world, ‘Mumbling Yeah’ divided critics and fans alike with its half-sung, half spoken male vocals.

Dripping with soul and swing, the track sat slap bang in between house and techno and caused a headache for record shop owners everywhere. The clubs loved it.

Anton Pieete ‘Players’

One of the biggest selling techno records of last year, ‘Players’ was a veritable crossover hit, with precision percussion and a devastating breakdown.

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