Part 1

Name: Joan-Mael Péneau aka Maelstrom & Louisa Pillot aka Louisahhh

Nationality: French (Maelstrom), American (Louisahhh)
Current Release: Maelstrom & Louisahhh's Sustained Resistance is out February 10th 2023 via RAAR.

If you enjoyed this interview with Maelstrom & Louisahhh and would like to find out more about their music, visit their respective Instagram profiles: Maelstrom; Louisahhh

We also highly recommend our earlier 15 Questions interview with Louisahhh and our conversation with her about her creative process.



For many artists, a solitary phase of creative development precedes collaborative work. What was this like for you: How would you describe your own development as an artist and the transition towards your first collaborations?

Maelstrom: We both work on sketches on our own before starting the work, so that when we do get started there’s already a flow of ideas we can choose from.

Generally, I’ll record a few barebones hardware jams in the studio, nothing finished, just loops, timbre ideas, that kind of thing, and then send them to Louisa who will write and record vocal ideas on top of it. Once that’s done, the vocals and the instrumental ideas are expanded into something a bit longer, to see what might work best or what might be missing.

The second phase is just the both of us in the studio all day for a few days working on the structures, and filling in the gaps where needed. It’s important that this part of the work is done with us physically present in the same space, since it will generally trigger something that wouldn’t have happened if we had worked remotely.

At the end of a session, that’s where we generally record our ‘best’ tracks, meaning, the bravest things we’ve done are done in one take and in a few hours. So the initial back and forth between us is more of a way to set up the mood and a direction in order for us to be able to improvise later down the road.

Louisahhh: I keep a running note on my phone of potential lyrical ideas, and transcribe more fleshed out ones into a private tumblr so it’s easily accessible anywhere. When I receive an idea or show up in the studio with Mael, I’ll have some ideas ready to go from this arsenal.

With this specific body of work (Sustained Resistance), because we were moving quite quickly, a lot of it was written on the fly; we’d work in the studio in the morning on a musical idea and then I’d go for a walk after lunch, playing the song on loop, and come back ready to record a vocal.

I think that level of immediacy gives the work a sense of raw urgency that lacks preciousness, and it feels somehow like a clear channel of inspiration. This is generally the feeling we are going for, especially in that we are forced to trust the process.

Tell me a bit, about your current instruments and tools, please. In which way do they support creative exchange and collaborations with others? Are there obstacles and what are potential solutions towards making collaborations easier?

Maelstrom: I’ve got a setup that’s very much hardware based: Elektron boxes, a couple of synthesizers, some fx pedals. Nothing fancy, but it allows us to try new things really fast. In a matter of minutes we could have a new idea ready and print it down.

On the other hand, I’ve got a UAD soundcard which allows us to record Louisa’s vocals with good preamps, so it’s the best of both worlds really: hardware sequencers and synths for the workflow, and then great plugins and preamps for the editing and mixing. The hardware / analog aspect of the work also allows us to use the equipment as an instrument: running a drum kit in the red in a mixer’s preamp, getting a vocal to clash with a bass tone in a distortion pedal to see what will happen, these kind of things.

The collaborative aspect is not that much about the gear, and more about trust and knowledge of each other. We started working together 10 years ago, and so we’ve spent weeks or months in the studio together, we also played hundreds of hours back to back in the clubs. That’s what makes our work together so easy in a way today … We don’t need to tiptoe around each other’s feelings anymore, we trust each other enough to be able to communicate with honesty around the music we’re doing, about where we want to go next.

Even if I’d think something would sound crazy to anyone else, I know Louisa will understand where I’m coming from and trust me to try it out, and that works both ways.

Louisahhh: We typically record at Mael’s, but if I’m at home I have a few nice mics and a little Apogee Duet and an Electron Analog Rythm (that I sadly rarely use).

At the beginning of this journey, I had just moved from America and really didn’t have any equipment in my series of horrible furnished rentals, so I would go under a blanket in my room and record into the laptop mic. Happily, I think this incredible lack of technical prowess gave our work a unique feel and punk energy that we cherish, even though we’ve (gladly) improved our tools since then.

I think the principle of making limitations into features instead of glitches is one that guides us and has definitely made our collaboration more delightful. One of our mottos is ‘Fail Better’.

What were some of your earliest collaborations? How do you look back on them with hindsight?

Maelstrom: We literally met in my studio 10 year ago when Louisahhh first moved to France. She came straight from the airport to my house in Nantes, spent the week living with me and my family, and we recorded her first solo EP for Bromance (“Transcend”) within that week. I’m still super proud of these tracks, and they’re a testimony to how much we had in common without knowing it (yet).

Everything we’re doing now is already there somewhere, but obviously, there’s also a bit of shyness, you can hear how careful we were about what we were doing and how we were doing it, but that’s what make these tracks even more important for me. Like an old photograph in an album that’s got artefacts, is not properly lit, but still contains years and years of life encapsulated in an instant.

Louisahhh: These tracks are still some of my favourites because they mark such a specific time, and I do feel like that they hold the seed of everything that we are about as a duo; it may seem like we’ve arrived at a really different place than where we started, but I hear a lot of continuity from these early tracks that I am really proud of.

Besides the aforementioned early collaborations, can you talk about one particular collaboration that was important for you? Why did it feel special to you? When, why and how did you start working on it, what were some of the motivations and ideas behind it?

Louisahhh: It’s funny because I don’t necessarily think of our work together as specific points, but more of a stream that carries us through phases of creative or personal evolution.

That being said, certain tracks definitely marked our careers like RAAR’s first release, which included our own track “Holy” allowed us to break away from the confines or security of releasing on other peoples’ labels, and “Silence is Violence” carved out a sweet spot in the techno-punk landscape that we try to occupy.

What are some of the things you learned from your collaborations over the years?

Maelstrom: If you don’t trust each other, nothing will ever happen. If you’re trying to prove something to each other nothing will ever happen. Collaborative work requires transparency, trust and honesty, otherwise you’re wasting your time (and other’s).

Louisahhh: What he said.

How do you feel your sense of identity influences your collaborations? Do you feel as though you are able to express yourself more fully in solo mode or, conversely, through the interaction with other musicians? Are you “gaining” or “sacrificing” something in a collaboration?

Maelstrom: Louisa brings the best out of me musically – and that’s probably a question of trust (again). Because I trust her judgement and her vision so much, I’m allowing myself to go much further than when I’m on my own – there’s someone in the room who has my back, who I know will tell me if I go too far, or if I’m not pushing hard enough, and that gives me complete freedom to fully experiment in ways that I would never contemplate if I was by myself.

Louisahhh: I feel like it’s definitely mutual - Mael brings out my best self, and that while we can have something interesting or different when we work individually or with other collaborators, there is a magical thing that happens together. It’s specific to this co-created thing, and like any good relationship, in a lot of ways I think we become better versions of ourselves (creatively, even personally), from the support of the other.

DJing, or electronic music in general, can be such a solitary endeavour that to have this haven to play and especially to grow in together has been deeply life altering (in the best of ways).