Lost And Sound
Lost and Sound is a podcast exploring the most exciting and innovative voices in underground, electronic, and leftfield music worldwide. Hosted by Berlin-based writer Paul Hanford, each episode features in-depth, free-flowing conversations with artists, producers, and pioneers who push music forward in their own unique way.
From legendary innovators to emerging mavericks, Paul dives into the intersection of music, creativity, and life, uncovering deep insights into the artistic process. His relaxed, open-ended approach allows guests to express themselves fully, offering an intimate perspective on the minds shaping contemporary sound.
Originally launched with support from Arts Council England, Lost and Sound has featured groundbreaking artists including Suzanne Ciani, Peaches, Laurent Garnier, Chilly Gonzales, Sleaford Mods, Nightmares On Wax, Graham Coxon, Saint Etienne, Ellen Allien, A Guy Called Gerald, Jean Michel Jarre, Liars, Blixa Bargeld, Hania Rani, Roman Flügel, Róisín Murphy, Jim O’Rourke, Yann Tiersen, Thurston Moore, Lias Saoudi (Fat White Family), Caterina Barbieri, Rudy Tambala (A.R. Kane), more eaze, Tesfa Williams, Slikback, NikNak, and Alva Noto.
Paul Hanford is a writer, broadcaster, and storyteller whose work bridges music, culture, and human connection. His debut book, Coming to Berlin, is available in all good bookshops.
Lost and Sound is for listeners passionate about electronic music, experimental sound, and the people redefining what music can be.
Lost And Sound
Étienne de Crécy
Étienne de Crécy is one of the architects of the French Touch movement—those lush, filter-heavy grooves that shaped house music in the ‘90s, right alongside acts like Daft Punk, Air, and Alex Gopher. But his journey didn’t start in the clubs. Before electronic music, he was a punk bassist, navigating Parisian record shops that looked down on house music before the scene exploded worldwide.
In this conversation, Étienne reflects on three decades of pushing electronic music forward, from his groundbreaking Super Discount series to his latest album, Warm Up. This new record marks a shift—more organic, more vocal-driven, and carrying a double meaning: a reference to its sound, but also a nod to the global moment we’re in. “We are just at the warm-up… for the climate, for politics.”
We talk about his creative process, his mathematical approach to composition, and why he avoids the easy route of plugins in favor of crate-digging for samples. Plus, the story of how he unearthed a long-lost collaboration with Damon Albarn, recorded twenty years ago and now perfectly fitting Warm Up’s aesthetic.
As electronic music culture shifts—where younger generations lean into harder, faster sounds—Étienne remains committed to a philosophy: “What I’m learning is to stay simple and to be amazed by simple things.”
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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica
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Lost and Sound title music by Thomas Giddins
lost in sound is the podcast where we get deep into the minds of innovative artists shaping underground music and underground music culture. And there's a certain je ne sais quoi about this week's episode because I'm joined by the legendary french house pioneer, etienne de crecy. But before we get going, a shout to my sponsor, audio technica, a global but family-run company that make the headphones that I'm wearing right now as I'm sat here talking to you on a bench in Neukölln in Berlin, and they make the mic. You hear me do every interview through. They make studio quality yet affordable products, because they believe that high quality audio should be accessible to all. So head on over to Audio-Technicacom, wherever you are in the world. Okay, so let's do the show. Thank you, hello, and welcome to episode 164 of Lost in Sound.
Speaker 1:I'm Paul Hanford, I'm your host, I'm an author, a broadcaster and a lecturer, and Lost in Sound is the weekly podcast where I chat with an artist who works outside the box, from global icons to trailblazing outsiders and emerging innovators. We talk music, we talk creativity and we talk perhaps the most daunting part of being an artist the praxis of life. Previous guests on the show have included Peaches, suzanne Shiani, jim O'Rourke, cozy, funny Tootie, mickey Blanco and Thurston Moore. And well, yeah, it was. It was my birthday last week. I was 51 and me and my partner went for a lovely little trip to Potsdam, which, if you don't know Berlin and Germany, is like a little mini city just on the outskirts just outside Berlin, but it's got a totally, totally different vibe to Berlin. It's like it's sort of like cute and I got to be 51. And one of the things that I love about doing the podcast is that I get to chat with people whose music has had an impact on different parts of my life, from different eras of my life.
Speaker 1:And this was very true of today's guest, etienne de Crussy, the pioneering Parisian-based producer and DJ and one of the key architects of what became known in the 90s and since then as the French touch. So a little recap loosely the French touch relates to a wave of producers who took house music and gave it a distinctly Gaelic spin. You know, think disco loops, deep bass lines and a certain hard to define but sort of instantly recognizable chic. Think darth punk, cassius, alex gopher, dimitri from paris, mr ozzo and very certainly etienne de crecy. Etienne was there right from the beginning, one half of motorbass with philip de zeda, who later became cassius, and their 1992 track, trans funk, has been noted as where it all began. I tried finding a copy of that to go back and listen to and all I could find was it on YouTube and it sounds so raw and you can kind of see, listening to what you're going to hear Etienne talk about, you can kind of see the kind of converging influence of Detroit techno and this kind of more 90s sort of chic sample-based culture. How it all began.
Speaker 1:Etienne is best known for the seminal Super Discount which really defined the sound and attitude of the movement. I remember when Super Discount came out in 1996. I was living in Edinburgh and Super Discount was everywhere. I was living in Edinburgh and Super Discount was everywhere. It was the album that you would hear in the coolest sort of proto-hipster bars and clubs. It was what you'd hear in the record shops. It seemed to sort of epitomize a sort of cool urbane take on house music. And Super Discount was also a smorgasbord as collaborators with at the time emerging French artists like Air and Alex Gopher. And since then Etienne has cemented a legacy, whether through club-driven releases like the other two Super Discount albums, or slightly more introspective disco works like Tempo Vision or his dj sets.
Speaker 1:And now the reason that we're having this chat that you're about to hear is he's got a new album. It's called warm up and I think it's great. I think it's a. It's a big melodic electronic pop record it's. It's an album that feels very, very colorful and it's got lots of featured guest vocalists on it, ranging from alexis taylor to damon alban, and the alban thing is quite interesting. Actually we do chat about that a bit, because I think the closest comparison I've got when I listen to Warm Up is that it reminds me in the best possible way of Gorillaz. That sort of idea of having like an intelligent electronic pop record with lots of featured artists and something kind of like colourful, vaguely cartoonish and sort of like cheekily satirical, a little bit like gently political, poking you in a very, very subtle way, like almost that you don't even notice you've been poked, Like was I poked, poked by a record. Anyway, what the hell am I talking about?
Speaker 1:Before we get into it, as always, lost and Sound is a one-person operation. I'm super lucky to have the sponsorship of Audio Technica, but all of the work, that's all me, all of the researching, the interviewing, the editing, the, the putting out there online, and I love what I do. And if you love what I do, please do subscribe if you've not already. And and if you want to be like you know it was my birthday last week you want to be extra special nice to me. Leave a review and a rating on your, your platform, wherever you listen to, lost and Sound on, be it like Apple, amazon, spotify or any of the others um, it really, really really does help. But anyway, back to the episode.
Speaker 1:So we had this conversation on tuesday, the 11th of march 2025, and we got really deep into it. I mean, he's a really, really charming guy and I should also, uh, add that we that the beginning of the interview. There's quite a descriptive sort of like. It helps if you're there about like his studio. His studio does play place quite an interesting sort of perspective on things. Um, you can always see what his studio likes by following me on instagram at paul hamford. That's where you know I'm promoting this, where I promote the shows, and you can see what a studio looks like there. But don't have to do that if you're not an instagram fan or whatever. Just enjoy the chat. I I did. This is what happened, etienne, thanks so much for joining me today. How are you doing? Oh fine, thank you. I love the room that you're in. It's my studio actually. Yeah, I mean just for the listeners. How can you describe this beautiful light and this kind of shape to the background there? I mean, how did that come about?
Speaker 2:Okay, the light in my studio. There is some arches and in each arches there is a lead stripe. You know, then there is some light at each arches and actually the arches are. You know, the arches are the shape of, they are synced to the rack in my, in my studio, then it's a 19 inches.
Speaker 1:Right, it does look. I mean, do you have sylathesia at all? Because I, I don't know. To me it does look like it has the look of like a lot of how your music sounds, to me, like I feel like I'm watching a music video of some of your music you know, actually, when I, when I am, I asked the architect, they designed the studio and they first designed something really I mean normal.
Speaker 2:And then I asked them. I said, okay, I want to be proud of my studio, I want that, that people are amazed by the studio. And then they came up with this, this solution, and, um, first there were no colors. When I saw all the arches, I said maybe because you know, I can.
Speaker 2:You know there is a lot of colors in the oh wow, it goes for a whole spectrum yeah, it's not really the whole spectrum, but you know there is the colors from the tr808 first and after the colors from the moog source. Then, yes, the reference are really audio, audio, yeah and is this where you recorded warm-up?
Speaker 1:yes right, okay, I mean I'm loving warm-up, I think it's. I mean it's a really interesting title as well. Was this like a play on kind of creating warmth, because it is a very warm sounding record?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, actually, um, actually I was. Actually it's one of the first projects where I didn't get the name before I made the music. Yes, the album is really warm and that was on purpose. You know that was a decision before I started the music. I wanted to explore again this kind of music I made with Tempo Vision, using samples, to have something really organic and warm.
Speaker 2:But then I started to find the names. That were pretty difficult because everything was too obvious. And then Warm Up actually came out and I used the title of my songs or album usually to to. It's the only way I make politics in music, you know, not really engaged. I mean, I'm engaged in the life, but in music not that much. But the title, you know, super discount or my contribution to global warming. On my titles, our politics on the warmups. That was perfect for the sound of the album to global warming and my titles are politics and the warm-ups. That was perfect for the sound of the album and for the state of the world right now, which I think we are just at the warm-up right, okay, you mean in a dark way.
Speaker 1:You mean in terms of in a dark way?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, in a dark way but in every way you know, for the climate, for politics, and then I felt that the name was fitting with, you know, with the era and the music.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a really good point, actually sort of dealing with politics in a very subtle way, like that. It doesn't come through necessarily in the lyrics, do you think?
Speaker 2:that, um it's, it doesn't come through necessarily in the lyrics, do you think? I mean, I I think it's important that artists are making statements in their music, but I, I'm not doing it very, uh, I'm not smart enough, you know, to do it in my music, because you know you have to be careful. Sometimes you think something is really right and you know 10 years after you realize that, oh, I was totally. You know I was wrong, and then that's why I I usually don't take position in my music, but I think in the, in the title, that was more as, as you said, more subtle. It's my way to communicate what I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I share a similar kind of ideology to you in terms that politics are a big concern to me, but I feel that's not where my strong point with how I articulate myself is. There are people that are so sharp when it comes to talking about politics and I'm not one of them. You know I. I know what I'm good at and I feel that every time I try to do something like that, it's it could miss the mark, it could be misinterpreted, and you know yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It's pretty hard to be really, uh, um, to have a strong position. It's not hard, but, uh, it's hard to to print it on an album that will stay for years.
Speaker 1:You can be ashamed because once something is that, once a piece of art is out into the world, that's what it is, isn't it? There's, it's you. You can't really particularly change, unless you're George Lucas and you go back over your old Star Wars films and add in CGI yodas.
Speaker 2:The streaming service loads that. Now you can change your albums years after. You just deliver the streaming platform again. You can change the mixes, you can change everything in your album. I know that you can swap a track, you know, on the platforms. The only thing is it has to have the exact same time. Yeah, then you can change totally. You know the version. You can mix again and again. You can have now a new mix. It's a pretty strange feeling. You know when you, you, you know you, you can improve your music all the way through. It's it's. It's strange.
Speaker 1:I don't want to to to do it I mean, actually, having said that, I was speaking with an artist a little while back and he does he was telling me that he'll go in the middle of the night sometimes and alter little tiny bits on the band camp files and put them back up, like maybe just tweak a drum here or there. Yeah, yeah, but it was interesting. He's saying that there's got to be exactly the same sort of amount, you know, the exact same second. So it's like the streaming platforms don't notice and it just looks the same to anyone else who might be going online to look at the music but if you do, you know, step after step, you can totally change the, the track.
Speaker 2:You know, this process is process. I mean, george lucas, as you said, you know, made it for his movies. I think, as an artist, to me it's like a nightmare if you start to imagine you can change your work because at the time you have to, if it's possible. You have to because when I listen to the mix from Superdiscord 1 or Tempo Vision, I'm really not happy with the sound. I'm like, okay, that sounds shit. You know, now I could have done it really in a better way, but I, you know, I forbidden myself to start thinking like that, you know. Otherwise, it's, I think it's, it's, yeah, it's a nightmare yeah and I changed the past totally, totally.
Speaker 1:Like terminator and I, I'd love to ask you a little bit in a minute about super discount, but I mean I guess you know something like that. Like I mean they, when music does have an impact, it does have a connection to a time and and I think that's important for people listening as well to to connect it to the time that it came from and understand the culture and through the sounds that were coming out at that time yes, totally, and the sound is a big part of this, uh, a big part of what you receive as a listener.
Speaker 2:You know the sound and the mixing. But you know, last year or two years ago I had the opportunity to put again on the streaming platform the album from Motorbass. Then for that we made a new mastering. You know, with Alex Goffer we had to remaster the album and then we were pretty annoyed because the sound of the album, you know, there were really not enough bass at all. It was really when we made it. You know, at the time, 20 years to 30 years ago, the sound was good. I mean, for the time the sound was really good.
Speaker 2:And now we were at the mastering studio with Alex Goffer and he said, okay, you have to listen to the new master. I made a lot, I put a lot of bass because there were no bass. That was hard to decide, but I decided to put more bass. And if you listen to the master now, I mean it's normal, it's the sound he should has his shoot sound. You know it's ok, you listen to the album and if you don't make a, a, b, you say, ok, this album always sound like that and actually not at all.
Speaker 1:That is really strange, because I think we keep the spirit, but we improve the sound that's maybe do you think that's a little thing about like memory, like how we remember something as well, like maybe you know, um, like I was listening to super discount this morning again and I remember going out to my local record shop and I think 1998 and buying a copy of it and I think at the time as well I was living in Edinburgh and the whole that this whole sound of it felt so it was so on trend. You know, at the time you know everything was like so smoky and you know seductive and um, and and so I guess there's a little bit of an element of like we remember things in a certain way and do you feel like you were trying to do that with adding a little bit of bass? Like was that how you remembered?
Speaker 2:it exactly. Yeah, actually now it sounds as I remembered it exactly. Yeah, right, I didn't change. I didn't change the mixes. Actually I was notable because that was we were recording in a old way, you know, on dat and I we had no stems for motor bass.
Speaker 2:That was just, you know, the, just the mixes, and I think we were naive, you know, at the time we were. It was really fresh. The way we did the music was really like. We were surprised by, by, by, uh, by ourselves, and I think you can listen to it, you. You still can listen to it in the, in the, in the music, even with the new mastering yeah.
Speaker 1:so I guess it's a bit like comparing it to george luc. It's not like that. It's just like when, say, maybe you get like a Blu-ray of an old film and they haven't changed the film, they've just like sort of polished it a little, you know, cleaned the surface of how it's transported, rather than the music itself.
Speaker 2:But you don't change the scenes but you don't change the scenes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I mean with the new album. I mean like it feels. It feels like you know you, it's not all of your music in the past has been club orientated, but a lot of it has. And I feel like the new album. There is this you mentioned something about like wanting to kind of create something for like more at home listening with like what. What was that about for you?
Speaker 2:Actually the idea came from the fact at the end of the COVID, you know, all the clubs were closed in France and in everywhere in the world. You know the clubs was the last one to be open, you know, in a. Then I was at the studio and trying to to do some electro music for clubs and there was not, uh, I was not able to do it because, uh, all the clubs were closed and there were no festivals. And then doing this music I feel like you know that was pointless. I have no, no vibe for that.
Speaker 2:And then I started to make some, some slower tracks, and then that made me remember at the, at the beginning of my career, you know, with Super Discount and Tempo Vision, the electronic scene were more open with all this kind of tempo. And then now we are more focused on certain sounds. You know, like I don't know, take house. There is more niche now in music, in electronic music. We were more open-minded at the beginning when I started to make this slow songs. They were not songs yet but I was like, ok, that's good, it's a part of my work.
Speaker 2:I didn't explore for a while because I was more focused on the peak time and then I felt I have to explore again this part of my work. And then the reference were more like this tempo, vision, era, and then I started to work with samples not loops but samples to have the same kind. I mean, the music lately is really plug in music. I think it's good, I love all the new stuff, but I think I had an experiment, you know, with samples that maybe young people don't have. I thought that was maybe my singularity, my skill to work with samples with this kind of sound, because I'm old now. Then maybe I have more. I don't know the word in English, try a few different words.
Speaker 1:I think experiment no experience, experience maybe so did you use like old techniques that you used to use for this new album?
Speaker 2:no, no, I use a, I use a sampler, a plug-in sampler actually called XO from XLN Audio and it's a sampler very smart, because you put all your sound into it. It scans everything and it can recognize the kicks, the snares, the hi-hats, the percussion, and then there is a sequencer in it and you can sequence some beats and if you want to change the sound, you can change all the sounds and you recognize the kicks is always a kick, the snare is always a snare, but on the percussion changed. But it gives you a lot of inspiration because you can have a lot of accident, and always happy accident. And then I use that and after I mix and record, my studio is 100% analog. I have a mixing desk, it's a Trident 80. Then everything else is analog, analog and you know even the, the, even the plugin. I put it on my desk and I record every samples and then it's it's uh, it's really uh.
Speaker 1:It's a hybrid where um yeah, I mean, do you miss the old way of working, like because you know a lot of the early work was done using sort of just like a lot more hardware? Now you mentioned, like using plugins now, uh, more plugins. And you mentioned as well earlier on about like how people now do have this like I guess, like you know, maybe I'm sort of running with it, but the unlimited amounts of plugins, you know you can have whatever moog that you wanted just as a download. Um, do you miss the limitations of of how music was in the 90s and early 2000s?
Speaker 2:actually not that much, because I tried to uh for this album. I tried to work with the old gear, you know. I tried to reopen the, the old samplers on the, and it's a nightmare. It's too hard, I mean too long. You know the process is. You know, with SP, sp12, it's all kind of samplers. No, it's too hard. I mean you, you too much time on on on things. Then I can't make it all the way like, like in in the past. It's boring.
Speaker 2:I think my limitation now was more in the choice of the sound I use, because I use all the vinyl behind me, you know, and I sound a lot. I made my own library of sounds. When now you know the software gives you a lot of sounds, now the software gives you a lot of sound, I mean all the sounds are really good. Then I see when you do music like that, you do music like everybody else. I mean you sound like everybody. And now when you go on Bitport to buy some music, it's okay, but for me there's too much music sounding exactly the same and now the melodies are the same and the bass lines are the same. I mean it's okay to do music like that, but I'm not amazed by this process and I prefer to struggle with my sounds, with my melody of bass, and it's a bit longer, but uh, I have fun when I'm doing it yeah, I can.
Speaker 1:I can imagine that, like I feel is the difference between, perhaps, going to a supermarket and you want a certain kind of bass sound, so you go to the bass aisle of the of the supermarket. Um, whereas like, perhaps like the older style and the style that people still do that are like more really like in love with, like the rich world of sounds, it's more like traveling to places because you know there's a really good market there that you want to check out and dig into.
Speaker 2:Yes, I prefer working in the factory, you know Right.
Speaker 1:From the source. Yeah, okay, that's a really good analogy. And I guess the other big element with the album that kind of comes across to me in the most immediate way is the amount of collaborators you've got in the rich range of collaborators. You've got like you know you've got Damon. The rich range of collaborators you've got like you know you got damon albarn, masterpiece, alexis taylor, um, every track you know there's a rich variety of collaborators. I mean, what was? Was there like a particularly unexpected thing that you got from working with such a rich rate, rich range of people?
Speaker 2:uh, actually the the idea to have an instrumental for a club track. It's okay, because you know the music has a function. You have to make people dance with the music. Then you can make it with an instrumental. It's okay For a down-tempo track. There is no purpose of the music. I don't know. I see myself as a technician. I provide some material for DJs, then they can make people dance.
Speaker 2:To have a slow tempo track. For me that was like wow, what is the point? That's why I sent the instrumentals to singers Actually was the first one and then he sent me back some vocals and that was like obvious for me Okay, I have to make some songs with these down-tempo tracks. And then, after I had three or four songs, I said, ok, I want songs on every track of the album. That's the first time I released an album like that. And there I sent also the dance track to people and actually the choice was pretty easy. I took my you know my my top 20 in Spotify, you know the top 20 track I'm listening to. And then I sent my request to the 21st. Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 2:I mean it's just people that are listening to the music very much, because I know there is now a kind of contest in featuring for electronic music. I mean for me that was really important to ask only people I'm really a fan of.
Speaker 1:There is a different kind of profile, you know, and they are all talented yeah, I mean with the damon alba on track, there's that whole thing, because I feel like, um, what he was doing with gorillas was like pretty much like the template, in a way, for making credible electronic pop music with lots of guest vocalists and lots of, you know, very conceptual. Uh, with that, again that touch of politics in the theme, but not like too overtly. I mean, what was it like working with with damon? Um, what was your reasons for approaching him?
Speaker 2:the story of this track is pretty. Uh, it's pretty funny because we we recorded it 20 years ago. Oh wow, right.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:That was a project I had a long time ago, before Superdiscount no 2. It was a musical. I mean, I wanted to make an album with a lot of featureings and I had to ask people some lyrics. To ask people some lyrics, I thought that it could be easier to send them a scenario and say you use this character and then make a song with this character. And then Damon was one of the first ones to answer the request. And then we answer the request and then we recorded in his studio 20 years ago and I mean the process was too long for all the other people. And then I made the super discount number two and then I I came back into club scene and then I had a lot of things to do on.
Speaker 2:This track didn't fit in any of my release, you know, since then, then the track was somewhere in my hard drive and I almost forgot it. And when I did this warm up, you know, suddenly I remember I have a wonderful track that fits exactly in this album. And then I asked him if he was okay and he was, and then it's a. It's a strange story, yeah yeah, it is, isn't it?
Speaker 1:did it? Did it sound like how you remembered it to be? Excuse me, did it sound like how you?
Speaker 2:I changed, I changed the arrangement a lot yeah the arrangement was really not that kind of arrangement. But yeah, I reworked a lot on the edit that's amazing.
Speaker 2:I mean the song was there. Yeah, the song was there. And then, yes, that was really impressive. I mean, working with Damon is really. I mean, it's so easy for him. You know, when he came to the studio, sent the track, he said, ok, the lyrics, because in the scenario I wrote, the lyrics are perfect. I mean, even though they are so perfect that even if you take it off the scenario, the lyrics are still good, you know, even if you don't know the story behind, it's still good. And for the melody it was so fast. I mean, that was like, so easy. That was really really impressive.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, because he is such a sort of like. I guess he's like a machine of creativity. Really, isn't he Incredible? It's incredible.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's so many. You know his production I also. It's always good and it's always original and, uh, it's always a surprise.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm, I'm, I feel I'm really lucky, I, I, I was able to work with him yeah, I wanted to like go back in time and ask you a few questions about, like you know, how music came into your life. You know so you were. Was it like? Your entry point was that you were a punk bassist? Am I right in thinking that I might be totally wrong in this information? No, no, you're right you're right.
Speaker 2:Uh, I'm starting making music, uh, playing bass. I was punk in a punk band because I was not good enough to play anything. The punk way.
Speaker 2:That's why we chose, you know, with my friend Actually we were like 16 or 17. And my friend, pierre-michel, one day we were already a fan of music. We said, ok, you buy a bass, I buy a guitar and we start a band. And then we did it. That was really, that was funny.
Speaker 2:But when I started playing bass on him guitar with a rhythm box, that was like an epiphany. That was immediate for me. That was like, okay, I want to do music, I love that. Um, my mind is like mathematic, where you know, I'm uh, I'm pretty, I was pretty good at school in mathematics and science and it's a way, I think it's a really analytic, and I saw in music something very, because there is something really mathematic in music, even in the rhythm box. That was a Dr Boss. And then I saw, you know, you can put some little dots in the you know somewhere, and then it makes music and I was like it's so good and I mean doing music is really a way to, in my mind, I feel like I'm tidying the room, you know.
Speaker 1:Ah, okay, it's really. You're putting things in a way that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, and in an easy way.
Speaker 1:I mean, to me it's easy, you know, to put this has to be there, and that there, and uh, it's my way to do music, and then it's um, it's a strange way, but uh, no, I, I get a real connection with that, I mean in terms of how I interpret it, like, uh, because I used to have one of those doctor boss samplers and with the different, with the different buttons, and you could allocate samples to different buttons on it and it's a very orderly way of like yeah, like, like you say, sort of arranging a room or arranging a space, you know, and it's, it's a um, I know I couldn't, yeah, I could never really connect with like how to do music in a kind of scholarly way. You know that just no interest in in trying to figure out notation is just like, yeah, well, and then as soon as, like I got a sample, it was like why do I need to know that?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, we don't need notation anymore you know, now we can record music, then we don't need notation anymore. You know, now we can record music, then we don't need it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean so like were you living in Paris by this point.
Speaker 2:Actually, when I really started the music the band I was in Versailles.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, yeah, and what was the? This was like the early nineties.
Speaker 2:Uh, the band? Yes, maybe in uh 91, not one. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Actually I was graduated in 89. That was 89. Yeah, I was in the same high school with Air, you know, nicolas Godin. I was with Alex Goffer too. I was with Arnaud Robotini. We were a bunch of young fans of music, same high school. The year after I moved to Paris, and then not my colleagues, and we were not able to rehearse anymore. I was the only one, I from the this, this group of friends in versailles. I was the only one to move to to paris, and that's, that was when I started to work in a recording studio and I met philips da, and then we discovered electronic music and we went straight to the wave straight into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you mentioned all these people there and now, collectively in history, we have this idea of like a movement, or like the french touch, being like this this uniforms, not uniform scene, but like a kind of a collective scene. But what was it like when? When, like you know, most of base was happening, when you were starting to get super discount together, what? What was the sort of atmosphere like? Were you, was there a bit of a scene, or was it more just like okay, this is the time and place and we're all just working on music and ideas starting to happen?
Speaker 2:uh, we didn't see the scene. You know, we were working, we were sound engineers with philips da, and then the music was really a side project for for us and uh, uh, no, we see, we saw the scene when daft punk arrived with the, with the album, and then then there was a locomotive for everybody else and for air. We saw the scene at this time, but before we were just doing music and we were amazed by, I mean, that was easy, because that was really the beginning of electronic music. And then you had a sampler, you put electronic music and then you have a. You had a sampler, you put a loop and then a kick and a snare and the sound that was sounding new. You know, I mean because we were the first one to do it and actually when we discovered techno music, that was in Paris, music from Detroit was really was really huge in the rave scene. It was really niche. I mean techno. Yes, we were more techno. That was techno, more with synthesizer and rhythm box. And then, because we were sound engineer with Philippe and a hip-hop band like MC Solar, and then we saw the hip-hop producers working with samplers and then we started to make techno music or house music with sampler.
Speaker 2:And that's why I think, as we we use some samples from, you know, funk or soul records, easier for people, normal people records, easier for people, normal people, to get it to, to get into this music. Uh, because the sound was more more easy to understand. You know, uh, we were living in a, in a, we were roommates, we were living a lot of people in the same apartment and listening to techno music all day long, and the normal people when they came at the apartment they said, okay, what are you listening? The music is so. That was too far, you know, that was too far. And then nobody understood.
Speaker 2:And when we they was listening to our music, they said, ah, that is okay, you know, because they can recognize, you know, the brilliant instrument in the samples. And and then for us that was, yes, that was new, that was easy, because that was new and I think. And then the scene maybe we, we had a a clue when English journalists called us for our music, but that was at the beginning. I mean, we made like two EPs and we had some phone calls from England, from London, and we were like what? There was just two EPs, like 500 copies, and we had some phone calls and some English journalists said, okay, I take the Eurostar and I want to interview you. And we were like what the fuck? That was really unexpected, really unexpected.
Speaker 1:Wow, did you feel like it was? Maybe like the journalists were getting a little bit ahead of themselves in creating?
Speaker 2:that vibe I think for them it was really crazy to have good music from France. I mean all the English people for English people, the French were Johnny Hallyday or you know really old stuff and they were really surprised and amazed. And that's what is really appreciable in your culture in England, that you are really starving from the new. You know it's not the same in France. Oh really, you know the culture is to have some new stuff always. You know.
Speaker 2:So the top 50 in the UK, you know you get the first place at the beginning and after. In France, the top 50, you know you get the first place at the beginning and after. In France, the top 50, you know you grew up very slowly to the first and then you stay like for years and then after. You know it's really not the same. English people, they love the new stuff. The pop culture come from England. That's why I love this culture, I love it so much. And then we wear the new stuff. At the time that was amazing because the French journalists were like what, what is happening in our country? And we didn't see it and that was for us. We are still really proud of that and I mean the French people still now are really proud of the French touch. I mean, it's a national proudness. Now you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love the way you're explaining that and like the way it kind of traveled, like this sort of Detroit, and then there's a translation of it, like you know you're doing, and then the English people again like hungry for new things, snap on it and then the loop, the loops that go on there. I feel like there's. I think you mentioned a little bit at the beginning about the political angle of super discount and was there a sort of playful sort of satire to calling it Super Discount? It reminds me of like supermarkets and offers what. What was the context of that?
Speaker 2:actually I found the title before the music. You know, super Discount. I really small group of electronic music lovers in Paris and there were a few record shops where you can buy, you know, this music. That was a bit snobbish, you know, as the Parisians can do it, you know. And then when you enter the record shops there were the famous DJs and you know the sellers and they have some importance and I mean that was people were taking them really seriously. And then I had the idea to come with a super discount and that was really funny.
Speaker 2:But the first idea that was to have the super discount music. I wanted to make it like a sleeve, a golden sleeve with really heavy vinyl and something really expensive under the name of Super Discounts. I don't know why that was a vision, maybe a bit stupid. And then Pierre-Michel Lavalois, the label manager on my Associate at the time, you know that was our label and he said, okay, we are a small label, this is our second release, maybe we don't do something very expensive yet, and that's why my idea was to make four 10 inches and then when you have to buy the four 10 inches and then the cover will be will appear only if you have the four of them, you know, like a puzzle. The first 10 inch to be released was really enigmatic because I was just a quarter of the logo. You know something, you, I was amazed by, you know, giving something really sharp, really cutting edge and funny at the same time. But that was more to make fun of the snobbish guy in the record store.
Speaker 2:I couldn't imagine the album would have a commercial success At the time. We were too much niche, that was more to the record shop in Paris. And then, after the first 10 inches were released, then our distributor said okay, you have to put two more tracks and we make an album. We have some amazing feedback on that and the album will work very well. And I was not confident. Ok, if you want, we can do it, it's OK. And we were not expecting this kind of success.
Speaker 2:And then after I mean that was, I mean the logo, the Super Discount name, that was a joke at the beginning. And after one day I met, you know, ralf Uther from Kraftwerk, yeah, and he said it's a really good record sleeve, you know, we could have done it. And I was like whoa and he said, and actually I think Kraftwerk. And I didn't realize that at the time, but I think the record sleeve from Kraftwerk are really the. Didn't realize that at the time, but I think the records from Kraftwerk are really the same kind. It's always a very simple logo and it speaks about, you know, for Autobahn it's Autobahn logo. For radioactivity you get the radioactivity symbol and I think if they have made an album about distribution they could have used, you know, this Super Discount logo and I was really proud of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing. I think that's probably the highest accolade, one of the highest accolades that you know any artist could have making electronic music. Is Kraftwerk going? Oh, we could have done that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I realized then the influence kravak hasn't me. You know, I didn't yeah I didn't realize before he says that to me yeah, and what?
Speaker 1:because there's been three editions of super discount, now three volumes of it. Like what? What is the? What is the? Is there a? What's the thread that connects them all together? That makes them different? From you saying, oh, I'm going to do like TempoVision or going to do like WarmUp. What is the thing that makes a super?
Speaker 2:discount, I don't know. In fact, the thing is the two and three super discounts. That was more like um, because, because, what? What happened, um, I mean after tempo vision. You know, in the in the year 2005, all the french touch stuff was stinky, you, you know, for French people, for people in music, that was French touch was, I don't know, in English that was okay, that was not the thing, and you know there were electro clash.
Speaker 2:There were era of producer, producer, more fun on less disco, on less club, and there was more, you know, rave and uh and back to the source of electronic music. And I was amazed by this uh, by this scene, you know, by this new thing. And then that was to. I thought, okay, I want to make a super discount too. Because I wanted to say, okay, okay, superdiscount is still good, you know, it's still a good, still a good trade. And then I made an album, really electronic, more electro, you know, more more synthesizer and rhythm box and but I wanted that was maybe stupid because in France people didn't listen to the album, but I went to. That was maybe stupid because in France people didn't listen to the album in France but everywhere in the world, that was okay. I made a big tour, you know, live with Alex Goffer and Julien Delphaux. We had a big tour, live for Superdiscount 2 in big stages, except in France.
Speaker 2:In France, superd super discount was too much associated to French touch. All the trendy guys in France didn't want to listen to it. They discovered it like two years after and said, actually it's pretty good. And then I started to make super discount is a photography of a French, of a excuse me of club scene at a time, you know, and I, I said, ok, I will do super discounts. When I think there is a new, a new scene and I want to fit into this scene, I will do super discounts. You know, 10 years after for super discount, super discount 3, there was this new scene. Like this scene, I will do Super Discount. You know, 10 years after for Super Discount, super Discount 3, there was this new scene like house music was cool again. And then I said, okay, I want to make a record in this direction. But now, you know, I think I like the trilogy. I'm not sure I will do Super Discount 4 because I don't have the color for the for the fourth one.
Speaker 1:Right, that's a really good way of framing it with the color, and there's something about trilogies that have a power that they get a little like they, they, they get a little bit diluted, like when Alien 4 came out. I'm thankful there's not a Godfather for like uh and and you know the the sorry about my English here, but the three colors trilogy, the Troy color uh trilogy. You know that there wouldn't be a four version of that you know, yeah, but I yeah, there will be a fourth one Right, okay, well, you never know.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm not.
Speaker 2:You never know, maybe there will be a new scene. I really want to, but you know three. Yes, you are stable on three feet. There is always one. You know four feet. It's not stable Three, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, yeah, yeah, feet it's, it's not stable. Three it's okay, right, okay, yeah, yeah, I mean like reflecting back. I mean how do you feel that paris has changed since, say since, like you know, since you're beginning with, since electronic music first kind of really like we think of the 90s, we think of super discount, we think of the french touch um, how do you feel that, like the city has changed for electronic music in the time since that, like you know, how is? What is it like now?
Speaker 2:uh, there are still a lot of producers and very good producers in in, uh, in paris and more in france. Now I mean it's a little more, a little smaller Paris and more in France. I mean it was more Parisian stuff at the time but now you know it's everywhere in France, everywhere in the world, I don't know. But now it's hard to say because I come from a time where, you know, electronic music was really niche and now for kids in Paris, you know electric music was really niche, and now for the kids in Paris you know electronic music is music from old people.
Speaker 2:And then, but now there is a strong I don't know if it's the same in UK, but in Paris there is a strong scene in a really hard, really fast techno music. You know like 150 BPM and the new wave on the high energies. It's really strong in France. Now it's interesting because it brings young people into electronic music. I mean the last years all the young people were more into hip-hop music. French hip-hop is really huge in France and all the kids were into hip-hop music. French hip-hop is really huge in france and all the kids were in into hip-hop music.
Speaker 1:And now hip-hop music becomes music from the daddies, the young they go to, really a big wave music is pretty hard, really speed, but it's a, it's really interesting that's really interesting because I mean, I'm from the uk but I live in berlin and obviously berlin has this reputation as a big club city and I can definitely reflect on what you're saying. It is very much like that here. Since the pandemic, there's been a big generation of young people that want to listen to super fast club music, you know um and and perhaps a little bit more eclectic than it has been for a few years as well. Like maybe going back to what you were saying about how dance music was in the 90s, like I feel like Berlin has been traditionally so rigidly like minimal techno.
Speaker 1:And now I feel like there is a little bit more of an influence of different sounds and genres coming in, which is hopefully a good thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a good thing, I think, all these kids, they are getting into the electronic music and then they discover the music by this way and they will discover all the I mean the scene is really rich and they will discover all the music, maybe not mine, but any kind all the music. Maybe not mine, but any kind of electronic music for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what would you say just finally was the biggest way that you feel that you've changed as an artist in your time.
Speaker 2:Oh, I changed as an artist. Actually, I don't know. The thing is, you know, when I started electronic music, that was easy because that was new. And then, as an artist, my work now it's more to refine this enthusiasm about simplicity, this enthusiasm about simplicity. The worst thing for me would be to complicate my work to have some fun, because the simple things I made it so many times and it's hard to have fun to stay simple. I know that what I'm learning is to stay simple and then, as I know that I what I'm learning it's to say stay simple and to be amazed by simple things.
Speaker 1:It's pretty hard right, yeah, I mean, there's so many distractions in the world as well to, yeah, it can stop us staying simple atn, thank you. So thank you so much. Thank you so much for chatting with me, thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that was me, Paul Hamford, talking with Etienne de Cressy, and we had that conversation on Tuesday, march 11th 2025. Thank you so much, etienne, for speaking with me there and sharing your thoughts. I really really enjoyed having that chat. The new album, warm up, is out now on uttian's own pixadelic label and if you like the show and you haven't already, please do give it a subscribe.
Speaker 1:Give the show a rating and a review on the platform of your choice. It really really really does help. I know it's like sort of one of those sort of um naggy type things, but like every little review and rating really really does help, boost, boost things. Um, if you want to check out other stuff I've done, you can check out my radio documentary the man who smuggled punk rock across the berlin wall, by heading on over to the bbc sounds app or on the world service home page and lost and sound is sponsored by audio technica, the global but family-run company that make headphones, tur turntables, cartridges, microphones. They make studio quality yet affordable products because they believe that high quality audio should be accessible to all. So, wherever you are in the world, head on over to AudioTechnicacom to check out all of their range of stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the music you hear at the beginning, at the end of every episode of Lost in Sound is by Thomas Giddens. Hyperlink, as always in the podcast description, and so that's it. I hope you enjoyed today, if you're still listening. You've really stuck around, haven't you? Um, have a wonderful one, and I'll chat to you soon, thank you.