Name: Sacha Khalifé aka Shcaa

Nationality: French
Occupation: Producer, composer
Current release: Shcaa's remix of deathcrash's "Beautiful Situation" is out now via Placidum.
Recommendations on the topic of sound: I recently read the famous Improvisations by Derek Bailey, amazing. Music of the Spheres by Jamie James is also an inspiring one on the history and philosophy of music.

If you enjoyed this Shcaa interview and would like to stay up to date with his work, visit him on Instagram, Soundcloud, Facebook, and bandcamp. 



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

When I’m intently listening to something, I’ll usually keep my eyes open, but I zone out. I’m focused on the visions in my mind.

Like you, music becomes a visual experience—it’s shapes and colours, not so much objects. More like fireworks or Pollock paintings, there is a fixed colour system and it’s moving forward. I see time flow.

Probably every week or couple of weeks, I’ll lie down in the evening and listen to a full record, eyes closed.

How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

I used to listen with headphones all the time in my teens. I gradually stopped using them—only when I’m travelling.

A balanced and natural sound system is just part of the music experience. It can’t be otherwise. We strive to recreate the most acoustic experience, even through synthesised sound and complex mixing, naturalness should be reached through a sound system.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

Miles Davis – In A Silent Way / Get Up With It (guitar tones)
Gábor Szabó – Dreams (guitar tones)



Nana Mouskouri – In New York (reverbs)



Eli Keszler – Stadium / Icons (percussion, textures)



Scout Niblett – This Fool Can Die Now (Steve Albini)



Low – Secret Name (Steve Albini)
Lewis Taylor – Lewis Taylor (edgy pop feel)
Jeff Parker – Forfolks (simplicity)



Ricardo Villalobos – Fabric 36 (edgy mixing)

[Read our Eli Keszler interview]

Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

I really love busy, natural soundscapes—maybe it’s my Mediterranean roots. Loud insects, waves crashing.

The beauty is that it always stops at some point, and then silence sounds amazing.

What are among your favourite spaces to record and play your music?

I love inside-outside spaces on warm days and nights, natural chiaroscuro’s and low-light situations that feel intimate and like you’re escaping time.

Music should trigger and feed beautiful conversations.

Do music and sound feel “material” to you? Does working with sound feel like you're sculpting or shaping something?

Yes, definitely. Dynamics and textures especially—they feel directly linked to touch.

I learnt a lot from my friend Traian Chereches, not being afraid to alter sounds, even to extremes, treat it as raw matter, EQing, resampling. I used to attribute a lot of meaning to a recording, but I would sometimes impose limits on myself, or secret rules.

The mixing stages can also feel very sculptural, especially in the reduction of it and the work on dynamics. Arranging is more like painting.

How important is sound for our overall well-being and in how far do you feel the "acoustic health" of a society or environment is reflective of its overall health?

It’s extremely important. I really struggle to stay in cities or hotels for long periods that depend on AC and other machinery.

These layers of artificial sounds (and lights) build up over time and slowly cut you off from real life.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds?

Southeast Asia’s insects, morning birds, the quiet after rain.

Many animals communicate through sound. Based either on experience or intuition, do you feel as though interspecies communication is possible and important? Is there a creative element to it, would you say?

Yes, 100%. It’s proven that different species adapt their sonic palette when they share the same environment, so each one find a spectral and temporal space.

Birds definitely react to music. I read that Tolstoy used to take a piano outside to play with birds (Henri Troyat’s biography).

Tinnitus and developing hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Do you take precautions in this regard and if you're suffering from these or similar issues – how do you cope with them?

I’m generally very sensitive to loud and low-quality sounds. The worst was probably having an iPod with bad earphones—I probably overdid it a little bit in high school.

I remember early on feeling uncomfortable with the loudness at festivals and clubs. Unfortunately, in my quest for sound, I got used to it. Studio mixing can be dangerous too.

A few experiences made me adopt better habits—I’m much more careful now. I get my hearing checked every couple of years. Officially I still have 100% in both ears and no recorded damage, but I know it was slightly better before.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

I would’ve agreed with Glenn Gould a few years ago. But now, maybe because I travel so much for work, I’ve come to really value silence. It’s mostly about information overload—there’s just too much.

Sometimes I wish we could go back to pre-recording era, or at least pre-digital, to bring back some magic and mystery to music.

And how often can we actually hear nature without any machine sounds, even in the distance? It’s incredibly rare now, and that makes me sad.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasised that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

A very good friend of mine cannot see, and he listens so much more—physically and intellectually. It’s a very different kind of sensitivity.

I agree with Horowitz—it’s more nuanced than vision in many ways. Learning to really listen probably brings you to a higher level of humanity.

Also, if we listened more, we probably wouldn’t have built these megalopolises where things are so loud we end up trying to disconnect from our surroundings just to get some peace.