Chloé: Artist of the Week

Chloé: Artist of the Week

16 October, 2007 | 8.19AM

• Section: Music News
• Written by: Terry Church

French DJ and producer Chloe has revealed a dark and sinister side to techno on her album ‘The Waiting Room’ [listen to it in the player below]. Sonically sparse and perfectly produced, it shows off Chloé’s ability in the studio and cements her reputation as one of the most forward-thinking producers in cutting-edge electronic music today.

Chloé is Beatportal’s Artist of the Week. We caught up with her in Paris.

‘The Waiting Room’ is quietly disturbing. What are you trying to say?

I like to work on textures and atmospheres, not only on club tracks.

This album is just a reflection of all my influences, of what I am, and my vision of life.

I don’t want to say something specific, I just hope that people listening to this album will take more time to think.

Actually, my first EP in 2001 on Karat (’Erosoft’) was also a mixture of styles and textures.

One day I decided I didn’t want to produce tracks only for EPs, so that’s why I decided to make an album.

I’ve been working for years on ‘The Waiting Room’, in between my gigs, EPs, remixes and compilations.

By collecting many sounds and writing songs, it shows the continuity of all my work.

I like to take time making things I love.

Today time is precious, I hope to continue to produce in this way for a long time.

So if time is precious and you were stuck in a waiting room, how would you kill the time?

I think I would take my guitar. I’ve played guitar for a very long time, but I’m not an amazing guitarist.

I wanted to learn guitar because I wanted to produce the music I was listening to at that time.

When I discovered electronic music and how to make electronic music, I wanted to do a bit more than just work on a four-track mixer.

There are many more possibilities.

I played all the guitar bits on my album, except on the track ‘It’s Sunday’.

‘The Waiting Room’ contains some fantastic sound FX – where do you get your sounds from?

When I started to produce I only used hardware like samplers, and MIDI controllers.

Slowly, technology has changed and new software appeared for electronic music production like Native Instruments’ software, Ableton Live and Logic.

Today, I work by using a combination of hardware and software.

It gives you many possibilities; and I like to mix organic sounds with electronic sounds.

Why is mixing live instruments with electronics important to you?

They both have their own personalities, qualities, and possibilities; mixing them all with my own personality creates many other possibilities.

It’s the perfect way to express all I want to reflect.

The track ‘Dead End’ sounds like a Alfred Hitchcock nightmare. How did you create those scary sounds?

‘Dead End’ is a short extract of one of my electro-acoustic pieces I did last year with a flutist.

This extract probably reflects the whole spirit of the album; it creates a weird atmosphere.

I didn’t use any synth for it, but I used many effects to decompose all of the sounds I had.

I’m a big fan of US cinema from the 1940s to 1960s but I didn’t realize I had expressed that in my music. With your question, I’ve now realized it.

You seem to know your way around a studio. Where did you learn your craft?

Probably not everybody does this, but I love to read a tutorial from the beginning to the end.

I shouldn’t admit this, as it’s probably a bit simple, but that’s the truth. Anyone can do it.

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