Name: Damien Vandesande
Nationality: French
Occupation: Producer, songwriter
Current Release: Damien Vandesande teams up with Boubacar Samake for the self-titled debut album of their new duo Siraba, out via Secret Teachings.
Recommendations:
Alice Coltrane - Turiya Sings
Dmitry Glukhovsky - Métro 2033

If you enjoyed this Damien Vandesande interview and would like to stay up to date on his music, visit him on Instagram.  



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in production and technology?

My earliest musical experiences as a teenager were bands and orchestras. It was all about improvisation and creating our own songs.

At that time, I was not that interested in technologies, computers and hardware were not that easily accessible. Instead, we were learning instruments and how to play together.

What were your very first active steps with music technology and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

After many years of creating acoustic music, the cost of studios were too high at the end of the 90s and I decided that I needed to be able to compose and record everything by myself. It was then that I realised I was still missing a big part of the creative chain. That's what brought me to technology.

I also had doubts about whether trying to relive a musical experience that happened 50 years ago was the right path. My first steps were on Protools, and the feeling of producing a song from composition to my own bad mastering is still a vivid satisfying memory.

My generation normalised the home studio, from that, I discovered a whole new world that never ceased to progress in the last 20 years - new instruments, new techniques, new possibilities  My general knowledge of music has expanded and become so much wider.

Were/are you interested in the history of production and recording? If so, which events, albums, artists, or insights stand out for you?

Yes, I was and I am. I still have a huge passion for those topics and I keep digging for more knowledge all the time.

I admire the sound of the jazz labels, Impulse and Blue Note and all the recordings by Rudy Van Gelder. I was fascinated how they were created through the Miles Davis recordings from early 70s and produced by Teo Macero.



Also, the sound experimentations of artists like Lee Scratch Perry or Bill Laswell with Dub fascinated me. The sound of the ECM catalogue or the gear used by Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus for Rhythm & Sound.



[Read our Moritz von Oswald interview]

I have always been curious what was behind the records, where they were recorded, who did the arrangements, the gear, everything … and I still am.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches, and musical forms you may be very familiar with?

I use mostly hardware and not many pieces. I know them very well and push them as far as I can, it always brings surprises. The introduction of a new player, new instrument, effect or plug-ins also adds an element of playfulness.

I take with age more and more time to experiment. I take time to do a lot of analog processing. It’s long but when it brings something magical, I’m happy like a child with a new toy. Every record I’m working on is different and the creative challenge is playful to me since day one, like a chess game .

For your own creativity, what is the balance and relative importance between what you learned from teachers, tutorials and other producers on the one hand – and what you discovered, understood, and achieved yourself? What are examples for both of these?

I’m very grateful, I had a solid music education with great masters but it took me many years to be free of it and go my way.  After my music studies, I worked for the French hip-hop scene, where many rappers complained my material was too musical and I could feel and agree with them. And after that, with electronic music, it was the same.

I am now looking to realise what I hear and what I have inside me. I use academic knowledge and instincts to realise it. The balance is better. I always worked hard and after all those years I will follow my first instincts rather than the knowledge.

How and for what reasons has your music set-up evolved over the years and what are currently some of the most important pieces of gear and software for you?

In recent years, I tend to use analog gear that I am be able to play and travel with. For sure, Ableton has been at the centre for a few years for both the studio and live process. It’s a very creative software, really incredible and it keeps improving.

I love pedals to process sound, like phasers. I have a Mu-tron clone that I love. I love my Rat Distortion and my BAM reverb. My favorite little instrument is my handmade Dub Siren made by a friend for me.

I also always use some digital sequencers made by Alexkid, like the Seqund that are perfect for the use I’m looking for. They are complete and very functional to implement complex polyrhythms, randomness and probabilities.

Have there been technologies which have profoundly influenced, changed or questioned the way you make music?

Yes, the mathematic aspect of it - algorithms, probabilities, serialism. This addition to music creation influence has changed and questioned my approach to music.

While It has always been present in contemporary music and made by man, the use of digital processing to generate it creates new territories.

Already as a little kid, I was drawn to all aspects of electronic/electric music but I've never quite been able to put a finger on why this is. What's your own relationship to electronic sounds, rhythms, productions like – what, if any, are fundamental differences with “acoustic“ music and tools?

When I started to discover electronic music I was fascinated by the sound of synthesisers. Oscillators have a very unique texture and color, distinctive from acoustic sounds. They are not percussive, not made of air or strings, they are made of electricity, of energy.

I love the repetitive aspect of electronic music in general. A motif can repeat  “forever,” just  expression, modulation, details and mini changes make its beauty. I think it’s the major difference with acoustic music. Humans don’t naturally like to repeat when expressing themselves with an instrument.

Machines, on the other hand, do. Electronic music brings back the trance aspect of our connections with music and spirituality.

Late producer SOPHIE said: “You have the possibility with electronic music to generate any texture, and any sound. So why would any musician want to limit themselves?” What's your take on that and the relevance of limitations in your set-up and process?

I agree with her and it’s why I choose this path. And yes, I think no musician should limit themselves in one position. Depending on what role you want to have in this process.

But I also have a lot of admiration for the ones who master an instrument or a function in the music chain.

From the earliest sketches to the finished piece, what does your current production workflow/process look like?

As I like to repeat to my musical partners, creating music is the easiest part of the musical process; then I start the hard job. Indeed composition comes first - It should stand on its own in a very simple form. The soul of the entire piece is in there. Then I always take time to think about the narration. A musical piece is a story, and no one wants to hear the same story again and again.

I record parts while starting arrangements. A painter told me that a good painting is a painting that gradually arises, I think the same about a music piece, I don’t focus on details or little breaks at this point. I also find that all sounds that get in the pieces should be exactly how I want them to be. I process them to be as close as possible to the idea I have of their final forms. I don’t move on to the next sound until I’m satisfied. Then, I try to make a V1 and share it with the people involved to gather their feedback.

I make initial corrections, and then I let it breathe for a few days, sometimes more, depending on the situation. Then I always come back to it 2 or 3 times, dedicating a full day. I sculpt arrangements, take off elements and work on details and the spacing aspect of sound until it’s ready to mix.

Now from zero, it takes a few months to have the final version ready for mixing.

Rhythm, sound design, melody/harmony, something else – when do the different elements of a piece come into play for you?

A great song for me is when all the elements resonate between each other. The instrumentation with the words, the BPM with the theme and feelings, the key and mode with the emotions.

Great songs are made of it. When the storytelling surprises you and melts with the sonic adventure.

In relation to sound, one often reads words like “material”, “sculpting”, and “design”. How does your own way of working with sound look like? Do you find using presets lazy?

My pleasure is to create sounds and textures. So yes, presets are not my preference. I like the creative process with instruments without presets. I try to sometimes use machines with presets but I always end up discarding that channel.

But sometimes I explore plugins and something comes out of it. It happens. I’m open-ears to anything in general. Sometimes I’m a bit stuck or tired and I just type the key or a word in the finder of my computer and browse so many sounds until I discover something that I will use.

What, to you, are the respective benefits of solo work and collaborations and do you often feel lonely in the studio? Can machines act as collaborators to you?

I generally make music with people but I produce alone in the studio. I love to make music with people more than alone. Music to me is sharing, a collective expression, the best of it in fact. To bring it together on stage and experience it together is one of the best feelings I know on this planet. But the producing role is mostly on my side in every projects I’m involved with.

Do I feel lonely about it, I’m not sure. I think I like to cover this part alone. I need to trust my opinion for this part of the process and listen only to myself before getting back in the collective process. It requires a lot of discipline and determination, and I don’t feel lonely. I hear my partners playing and singing. They are with me.

Do machines come alive? I speak to them, they have souls, like instruments. They are inhabited with what you fed them with. I live and express with them.

To some, the advent of AI and 'intelligent' composing tools offers potential for machines to contribute to the creative process. What are your hopes, fears, expectations and possible concrete plans in this regard?

My hopes are that humans don’t loose musical techniques, knowledges and crafts. Music is an expression of the soul and spirituality. If AI is used in this way I guess I will like it. On the other hand it will bring more impostors.

For now, to say to a machine do a music in the “style of,” you are already in the wrong direction to me. Make music in the style of yourself.

If you could make a wish for the future directly to a product developer at a Hard- or Software company – what are developments in tools/instruments you would like to see and hear?  

For a software, a complex polyphonic sequencer.
For the Hardware, a Hit/impact machine for cinema scores with spring reverb .