Published
Name: daoud
Nationality: French
Occupation: Trumpet player, composer, improviser
Current release: daoud's new album ok is out via ACT. It features a wide range of collaborators, including Silvan Strauss, corto.alto, Ludivine Issambourg, and Rosie Frater-Taylor.
Current event: Catch daoud live at one of his German tour dates:
4. November, Gretchen, Berlin
10. November, Mojo, Hamburg
Things I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: Football. It’s the greatest form of entertainment ever invented.
[Read our Silvan Strauss interview]
[Read our corto.alto interview]
[Read our Ludivine Issambourg interview]
[Read our Rosie Frater-Taylor interview]
If you enjoyed this daoud interview and would like to stay up to date with his music and current lives dates, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, and Facebook.
For a deeper dive, read our earlier daoud interview.
Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc. play?
For me, there are two ways of expressing love for the people around me: I can cook for them, or I can make music for them.
And cooking for millions of people is just too hard for me.
For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?
I like to do some research before I start writing.
I want to have an idea of what I’m going to talk about, but I try not to go too deep into the research so I can keep doors open and change direction if the music takes me somewhere else.
Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?
I make demos and charts that usually come either from voice notes captured in the wild or from sitting at my synth or piano.
That’s usually when the form and melody start to take shape.
Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?
Not really.
When I talk about creativity with students or other artists, I tend to say that I try to avoid having to be creative. Instead, I make myself more sensitive to the world and try to capture ideas as they come, storing them on my phone or laptop until I need to make an album.
Then I just have to take the ideas I’ve already had and build on them.
For ok, what did you start with? If there were conceptual considerations, what were they?
ok was the start of a journey exploring our ability to endure and get back up.
Self-denial and its many forms. Overcoming dramatic or painful events and surviving.
Tell me a bit about the way the new material developed and gradually took its final form, please.
In all sorts of ways. The funniest one was “soda”.
It came to me in the shower, so I had to jump out and sing it into my phone. I already had everything in my head, including the harmony and the tempo change at the end.
Then I made a demo, and we recorded it a few days later.
Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?
I’m very lucky to regularly collaborate with incredibly talented musicians. I like to give them a loose framework and let their own vision shine through.
A great example is “ck”. Rosie only had a piece of written music to work with, and she sent me all these guitar parts and vocals, reinterpreting the melody.
She really made something beautiful out of the music that I would never have created myself.
There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?
Only when I finally feel moved by something we’ve made.
It happens more and more as I learn to align myself with what I create and become more vulnerable.
Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?
I work really fast, from composing to releasing, so I don’t dwell on things too much.
I also mix in analogue, using lots of outboard gear.
So once I print a mix, our mixing work gets erased, and we can never recreate that exact same mix. It helps me make final decisions and live with them.
How do you think the meaning, or effect of an individual piece is enhanced, clarified or possibly contrasted by the EPs, or albums it is part of? Does each piece, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?
I like to think so.
But I do it mostly for myself. I know that most people won’t listen to the album as a whole, and that’s fine. I just want to look at my album as a somewhat cohesive work. Very selfishly.
What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (performance)?
It’s essential.
I produce my own records and co-mix them with the wonderful Olivier Cussac. I like to be present and actively involved in the mixing and mastering process.
Music and the accompanying artwork are often closely related. Can you talk about this a little bit for your current project and the relationship that images and sounds have for you in general?
For this particular release, I had to work within the framework of ACT’s very strict visual identity guidelines.
I wanted something intimate and personal that would still work with the label’s signature white background and font.
After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?
It’s mostly a feeling of relief for me. I work very fast, and the process of making an album can get really intense.
When it comes out, I’m just happy that it’s done and that the work of promoting the album and touring the new material can begin.
I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about or the impact it had on them – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”
The wonderful thing about instrumental music is that it leaves a lot of room for the listener’s own interpretation.
Some people have found that some of my “saddest” songs triggered happy feelings, and vice versa. It’s always fun to hear what resonated with people and why.
Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?
It’s all the same.
We wake up, we make things, we share them.
