¿When and what exactly motivated you to become a music producer?
I didn t really choose. It happened. I went to my first party in february 1992, fell in love with "parties" and electronic music, and 3 monthes later I was already Dj in Paris (France). Talamasca came later, in 1995/96, and it was the logical following. I was a piano player, so very naturally i went from Dj into making my own music. The goal of course was to make the people dance, and it is still now!, since i'm a kid i knew that I was going to spend my life travelling the world. I m not sure 100% that i was destined to make music but i was definitly destined to travel and meet people from everywhere on this planet.
¿Why TALAMASCA?
Well my first artist name was Dj Lestat, ( from Anne Rice's Chronicles of vampires ) long time before the movie with tom Cruise and Brad Pitt ! I didn t know it was a famous book, i was looking for a name that sounds french when i was 17, but that no one had as a name: Lestat was perfect for this. And on the top of this, i was a "night creature" too, so i thought it fitted perfectly. Then, when i had to choose my "project" name, the idea of getting inspired from the same book came very fast. Talamasca sounds french, and you pronounce it the same way in brazil, moscow, japan, or any other place...and as the meanings were "cool", as the talamasca means "animal mask" in Latin language, and in the book of Anne Rice, is an order of people who have psychic abilities, and as I am myself mentalist and play often with people brains, when i play my music, or by doing magic in backstages, I didn t hesitate a second and has choosen
Talamasca as my forever trance project name....I can't split with myself right? So you will hear about talamasca for many more years :D
¿How did you start getting involved into the rave environment?
My friend from school Dj Mael, AKA Nomad, was always listening to this stupid electronic music, and i was listening heavy metal and punk ...and to be honnest, i was always laughing at him. We were 17 in that time...then I met him at the Metallica concert in Paris, and he convinced me to go with him to a "rave party" the week after...I remember it perfectly...it was the 2nd of february 1992 ...a big rave party with lasers everywhere people dancing like crazy, I just fell in love!
¿What artists you consider your major influences?
Without any doubt I would say that the one who influenced me the most is Jean-Michel Jarre ! Since I am a kid i love his music, and even when i was "spitting" on electronic music, I was already a huge fan . Then I ve seen his live in Paris when i was 16, and it changed me.
Beside him there are 3 other ones that i would consider as my "musical fathers" : Giogio Moroder, who created the music of the movie "Midnight express", which was probably the first electronic music track without lyrics that everybody was dancing on ! Of course, Vangelis Papathanassiou, who made the music of Blade runner, or "chariots of fire" ..and to who i already made a kind of tribute by making the "Running Blade" track on my "Level 9" album last year ...and to finish, I would add Gershon Kingsley, that nobody knows by the name, but evberybody knows the track called Pop-Corn, made in 1969 !!!
In my newest album, in the track called " The Time Machine", ( which is also the name of the album ) I make a tribute to them by remixing their hits together in a kind of "trance" version.
Now to finish, the track called "One of these days" from Pink Floyd is probably the track that influenced me the most in my life, and for the little story, when i told my mother that I love this song of pink floyd, she explained me that when she was pregnant, she was listening to it all day long, every day... this explains maybe that.
¿How do you describe your music and what is your current music gender?
This is a tricky question. I have never loved the names that people put on my music...from "goa-trance", in a time where I had never been to goa yet, to "psychedelic trance" which means absolutly nothing to me (even if i named one of my albums with this name..) through "Full-on", I have always thought that it was stupid names related to a period of time and not a style. Goa was in the 90's, full-on in 2000 and now we are "psy" as i said, this is meaningless for me. I do the music i like, at the Bpm I like...if you want to call it "trance", do it, if you want to call it "psy", do it...It's just a name...When people who have no idea of what electronic music is, i usually say that i make "fast music" for parties, but in a melodic way...but let's face it...for them it s just noise :p
¿How do you describe your improvements during the last years?
Well...since the first day in a studio untill today, I always learn ! there are new ways of working, new synths, new programs...in this "job", you have to keep updated !!! You see what happened to those who havent updated their "sound" in our scene...and they disapear ! So I will always be opened to learn. I would not be super honnest here if i was not mentionning the fact that Bart, (Aka Stryker/ XSI) who became one of my best friends among the years, helped me a lot ! I discovered XSI when I was running my label "mind control", they were kids , but i could smell their talent !It turned out that Bart is a "sound ingeneering" freak !!! when i read 2 or 3 novels in the week, he would read 3 instruction manuals for new machine, or sound design ! Today, he 's doing the "stem masters" of my albums, which means, to resume quickly, that he corrects my mix and my production and make it much fatter.
¿What do you want to transmit when you're performing?
Positive energy !!!! I think it is clear enough after all the years that I make "happy music"...it doens't necessary mean "cheesy", even if for some people, just to have 2 diferent notes in a track seems to be "too musical" nowadays there are 2 schools in electronic : the musicians, and the sound ingeniors ...the best artists are the one who have the best balance between those two ways of thinking the music. I m definitly more a musician at the start...so I guess that even if i learned how to make sounds, My goal is still to transmit feelings through music. Now, as i make music for PARTIES, i prefer if it is a positive vive of course ! I never understood the concept of making "DARK" music for PARTIES ! ...you can make "hard", "powerfull"...but DARK ? I leave this to others, and i loooove to play after them !
¿What do you think about the current music?
it is hard to resume briefly. I would say that today, of course, the production is much better and it s increasing every year because it is a technologic music, and as long as the technologies are evolving, this music will too .
Now, i have also to admit that today, the music is more...empty of feelings. But I know what happened, and it s a circle ...first it was the "goa", melodic and mystical...then after 4 or 5 years, people get tired of listening always the same, and Xdream came with their strong and straight basslines, with less melodies...then, after 4 or 5 years of this, people needeed a change, and I love to believe that we, with 3d Vision, arrived with the "full-on" style, which was a cross between the german basses, the israeli melodies, and the british underground...then again, the wheel was turning and melodies came back with Astrix and all the ones who tried to copy him after, but nothing stands forever....too many melodies made the "chemical crew" and Skazi emmerged from anywhere with a very agressive style...but then, to make the balance, the "progressive trance" became very strong...and unfrotunatly, as a balance, bring the "dark forrest" to the scene....and now we are in 2015, and I smell the "turn" soon and all generation have passed, and people need a bit more power than progressive at nights, and a lot of more music than the "dark" style ....well....here i am :D !
¿What do you think about the Mexico electronic scenario?
Mexico is whatever people think one of the biggest scene of "psytrance" in the world. Maybe the biggest. I heard for many years Dj's complaining about the fact that mexican people don't dance much, they come to "see" a show ...well...I disagree. i come for almost 20 years to Mexico, I ve been in many diferent cities and states, and I can say that mexican people are powerfull in parties...if they like the music ! And now I play with some Mexican projects such as Jiser or Mandragora, all over the planet and i can see that there are more and more mexican producers ..so Israel has to be carefull...Mexican could steal the leadership of "trance" with time ! :D
¿do you have alternative projects ?
I have a side project, which I already presented in Mexico, called CHECK-MATES, with an amazing guitar player from Buenos Aires. He lives there, but now with Internet, we can easily work together by distance and we plan to release an album early in 2016.
Beside this, I m thinking of making a slower project, and i m not talking about "psy progressive" here, which i consider more as "slow full-on" than "prog" ... ( you see how names are a bit stupid ? :) ) but maybe ambient music...i LOVE shpongle or OTT, so i m thinking of doing such a project...but the fact that it is not made to be danced is worrying me a bit...so maybe I'd try another style on my free time... who knows? the thing is I don't have a lot of free time.
¿What festival have left you a great memory on you?
Well....If i think "Mexico", the first thing that pops to my mind is the "atmosphere" festivals where I played few times...because it is HUGE ! i understand people who don't enjoy BIG parties, because of course, when you have thousands of people, you can not have "only" the beautiful people...I think everybody understand my point here... BUT ! In every country, you NEED a promoter like this, who will do THE BIG EVENT of the country..because it shows the autorities, and the "normal" people who can be afraid of electronic music parties as my grandparents were afraid of letting my mother go to listen "rock'n'roll", that it is a NORMAL music, there is a real audience, and then it is much easier for the more little organisers to rent clubs after that ...and for us, as Djs, to play for 30 000 people is something amazing !!! I can' t forget that....but....it is true also that the last party i have played in Playa del Carmen was so amazing, that it would beat any big festival . Sometime, the best party is not the biggest, but it s the one that happens at the right place, with the right people...but only a big party like atmosphere or fantastic festival can deliver such a huge line up ... Musically, this is the best option to listen so many confirmed artists from all over the world...So...hard to choose ...
¿If you were not musician what you think you would you be doing instead?
Originnaly, I wanted ot be an actor...when i was teenager...so I went to the theater to learn..few years ...but I met parties too early . and i don't regret nothing!. I was pissed off when i was kid because i was a piano player..but i was listening heavy metal ! So i wanted to be a musician for living, of course, but I couldn t see HOW...I didn t play the guitar, I am the worst singer you have ever met so I had to find another option, fortunatly I met with electronic music!
