Seuil: Sonic Chameleon

As his debut album, Chamaeleonidae, hits the shops, we catch up with Paris based DJ and producer Seuil to get the lowdown..

There's a collection of Parisian artists who are beginning to become known to us, the outside world, more and more in 2010. The sometime trippy, organic and late night house sounds of people like dOP, Noze and Le Loup are appearing on compilation CDs, party line ups and in DJ charts left right and centre.

Sure to focus attention on the French capital even more intensely is Seuil (known to his mother as Alexis Bénard) whose debut album, Chamaeleonidae (which comes after a string of sexy minimal house singles for Freak n'Chic and Moon Harbour ) is heady, anytime stuff that melts your mind with its wavy, drawn-out and liquid horizontal spread. Slowly shifting timbres, heavily EQed bass and subtle, hidden and intricate rhythms characterise it from start to finish, and once you really unravel it all after a few listens, it makes for delightful listening.

We caught up with the man to talk about the album and it quickly became apparent just how fully submersed he is in the music world and keen he is to share that with anyone who'll listen. Read on, then, to learn how to pronounce his name; about the quality of drugs in Paris; about why he prefers London to Berlin and about his dubstep work in progress...


You at home in the studio then did you say?

Yep home is studio for a while now... but sometimes I go work in the dOP studio. It's hard to find a studio here. Everything is really expensive. I’m waiting for one good plan for myself since I lost my old studio.

So did you write the album at your home studio?

Yes, mostly, though some of the tracks I made in the old Freak n’Chic studio we used to have.

Did the Paris and home environment effect/influence the sound at all?

Yes, I think so. When I'm at home I can push the sound where I want it to go but sometimes it can be kind of frustrating...You can really get into the track and do it good; when you feel it and work on something deep and precise, it's cool to feel good and comfortable and, being at home, for me it's great for this.... I feel really at ease.

You’re relaxed and 'in the zone'…

Yeah, but I'm still working to find a place / studio where I’ll feel at home too.

And musically what influenced the album? What were you listening to when you wrote it and did that effect things?

I used to listen lots of things, hip hop, disco, soul, funk, but this album was something different from what I would do for a real album because it's like one long piece, same BPM all along and it really fits to the Masomenos project.

I just expressed my feelings on this album, just made deep home listening music, but more weird than just chill out stuff. It's mental, but not for super "intellectual" thinking... it was more like with the album I was just finishing off producing in that polished, deep style before getting into another bigger, more musical world.

So it’s not made with a dance floor in mind?

To be honest, I’ve already moved on, I’m already far from that album in terms of style because the thing that interests me a lot is production techniques… I like to find different ways to EQ and compress this music and find a way to have something pleasant at home and good for the club too, like living room teshno or something

Teshno? That’s my blog!

I know, but it came from [Bruno] Pronsato in the past. When the US guys - Seth and blabla – were talking about the tesh I was already there...and I was making this kind of stripped down stuff.

So where do your influences come from?

I come from Reunion Island. It’s a French Island in the Indian Ocean: the music there is the Maloya - the music from the slaves - with percussion and vocals. I was really in that stuff for a long time, plus all the 80s and 90s kids’ music, from hip hop to funk, soul, Michael Jackson, Prince, Kriss Kross ... so cheesy stuff too. Because I was born in 82 I grew up to a lot of the 90s stuff.

So the Maloya music – it has many complex layers like your music?

Yeah, sure - all music from my roots touch me a lot.

So do you have any electronic influences? I’m thinking Perlon stuff maybe… Villalobos?

Yeah of course, this is where I come from. Actually, I started to produce in 2005 (I mean more intensively – I was DJing a bit before) but on my island in the end of the 90s all the parties were just hard techno, trance, rave stuff in the woods and in the clubs it was just cheesy tech house. So, when I got in Paris in 2001, I began to discover this entire new scene, the French one with Ark, Cabanne, the Kataplut people, and of course the Perlon crew. It was a revolution for my ears - this weird music that’s groovy, sexy, and cerebral.

It’s weird but that’s really what I liked the most… I remember Villalobos playing a crazy set with a Korg EMX1, adding his own loops and weird stuff at Nouveau Casino with everyone on pills and no fucking cokeheads, everyone was just dancing in the weirdness.



Is that anything to do with drugs may I ask?

Actually I totally missed this - of course - the drugs parallel. I mean, the party is going on and the drugs made it but it depends who you have at your party whether it’s going to run good like that, or bad…So many places you play you can see this group of static people who just take too much C. I mean, I don’t want to be the big judge but when I got into that shit; this music, I was there to DANCE!

C? Do you mean K? Ketamine? Or coke?

No, by C, I mean fucking cocaine  K is cool for dancing!

Coke’s not so popular anymore I find…

It is in the good places.

Paris?

Pff nope, too much there, and it’s shit - so people don’t understand if it’s good or bad - they dont know anymore what there are taking - this is serious but people don’t care.

It’s a shame it’s about drugs more than music for some

Yeah, totally

So, back to the album and its emotion: It’s lovelorn and melancholic to me…

Yesss! It’s about love of course and it’s melancholic of course. I just love minor tone!

So where did that melancholy come from? Just a love of minor tone?

Yeahhhh but also it’s all about girls, especially because I have a daughter who is 4 years old! But yes, the album has this down mental feeling I think, like melancholic…

But it’s beautiful at the same time…

Yeah, I’d like to think it’s saying something like "it's some hard time now... but don't worry, it’s gonna be better soon"

Yeah I get that from the album exactly, it’s sad but optimistic…

Kind of futuristic melancholy, yeah, I think so. It's kind of parallel to my production where I’m still learning a lot. I started making records in 2005, then released early 2006 where a lot of new producers wait 10 years before putting out a record. I was a young kid like 23 and it was cool for me to release music with people like Cabanne who was a big influence for me. If I could have my time again perhaps it would be cool to waited these 6 years before releasing music so I could have improved my production skills. I'm OK now but I want to be better. I’m really hard with people who release music with bad sound… you know, like just rendering shit from Ableton and things.

Instead you use real instruments? And play them all or..?

On the album the sax is played by Damien Vandesande from dOP. I mostly play the keys and I have lots of gear here I like to make lots of little sounds from all of it. The beats are mostly MFB boxes, or Jomox 888. I have a Roland TR-909, MC 303, shit like that.

It makes such a difference. The sounds just in Ableton are not only boring but brittle - no soul to them, not like stuff from real instruments.

I think so, but I’m just really starting to get to know how to compress the analogue stuff to get the best from it... so my coming stuff will sound better. I’m happy to be growing up – production wise - step by step like this. I’m working more in a musical way and trying to find some singers and stuff.

And the name of the album, can you just explain that?

Because I feel like kind of a Chameleon of house you know – having many possibilities to change your ways, your skin and your layers – that was all the point of that shit on the album. The hidden depths.

So you’ve released a lot - where do all the ideas come from?

From listening to lots of stuff. I'm really influenced by all my friends around me making music in Paris like dOP, Le Loup, Yakine. Paris mainly gets more head banger music… the new kids are more into Justice.

I hate that shit. It’s for kids with ADHD!

Heheh, yeah, I respect them because they make lots of money, but it's not the sounds I like when listening to music. I was young; I can understand the new fluoro kids who like this big room music.

If you do want to go a bit mental though, let of some steam to some loud, instant, music - not so subtle like your own stuff - what would you listen to? If you were angry or wanted to head bang or...

Ha! Right, so I think I really like all the well produced stuff. I mean, I love Justin Timberlake…

Who doesn’t…

All the US vibe - the mainstream but really good music, but also the folk movement with people like Coco Rosie, Devendra… I really like acoustics shit.

If you like good production I wonder if you like (or even know?) dubstep people like 2562 and Peverlist?

Sure, of course, I was coming to my dubstep. I try to make some. I started this new label Panam but I don’t really tell people it comes from me too much. It’s something between deep techno and the Berghain vibe with dubstep feelings. I’m working on a lot of breaks stuff with Damien from dOP who, like me, is a big fan of Kode 9, Burial, Scuba…

I’m working on an EP for Circus Company and there is a track which is gunna be kind of breaks with a dubstep feeling but it's 125BPM so not real dubstep but using this rimshot "a la massive attack".

What influenced the breakbeat?

Probably my love for hip hop. I mean I love J Dilla and all that stuff, but the dubstep sounds arrived and made me think a lot. I mean, I know this stuff from the first Burial album, and I was like ‘this is amazing stuff, I love it.’

Yeah, it came out of nowhere…

But at the time I wasn’t ready or prepared to make it or play it out. I don’t know too much the history of 2step etc etc from the UK so I wanted to understand all that and the bass culture feelings before I started making that sort of music. I love the UK - big music inspiration there. More than in Berlin!! Berlin is club, club, club and nothing else. England is full of music…These guys making those beats - especially Burial or Shackleton – had all that history inside of them, it’s a part of them; that raw street vibe from the UK. I love it, want to make it and get it, but I don’t just want to copy it and sample so I’ve waited and followed the sounds.

But I also love all the Trus’Me, Floating Points, Linkwood stuff, I'm really on that shit right now.

You’re on everything!

Yes, always. Sometimes I lose a whole working day in the studio just listening to new stuff.

So do you ever worry you are spread too thin across many sounds? It’s a lot to keep on top of…

Yeah, I worry about this spread, but I mostly let Seuil do some Seuil then move on. Even right now, for the upcoming things it’s going to be different...I mean I was more minimal at the beginning; dark sometimes, and then I got more loopy last year. I think I was probably searching for myself in all that stuff… I’m sure that I don’t want to make club music all my life so that’s why I’m always changing.



Back to your music. I have an old single of yours ‘Lost in the Soul Shower’ playing. It’s very sexy - can you tell me a bit about it…

I made it coming home from Berlin after a big soul shower party with Shaun, Ryan, Seth and it was a hot night. I got totally wet coming out of the club. It was like I really got into a shower. I fucking love showers and wanted to convey that.

It was my point to be sexy... with this groove the melody is again melancholic, like we talked about on the album… ‘it’s gonna be better; the sun will come back’ but you still feel the love. I’m really proud of this one - it says something.

Where does the Seuil name come from and how is it pronounced?

So, it's not really a big meaning. I was young; I wanted my name to be a French word. ‘Seuil’ is ‘threshold’ in English - like on the compressor for the music so it's kind of a limit of something - of me perhaps.

It’s a pain for everyone to say it. Spanish say ‘say will’ Italians say ‘séoul’ Germans say ’zoile’ but a phonetically equivalent French word is ‘feuille’ [meaning a piece of paper]!

I was going to ask about trends stuff - how things are popular one minute minimal deep house whatever then hated the next but I don’t think it applies to you…

I never made big hits intentionally but some singles have got to that stage. It's not my point to break the dance floor, I just love to share special moments and hope people like it.

Was the album made to play live?

Yeah of course. I mean I made it with dOP who feature in my live sets at The Rex . It’s amazing, like a big scene with lots of synths and computers with Joe on the vocals and a new EKLO [Seuil’s label] artist who sings, too. His name his Aquarius Heaven - you have to keep an eye on him [he has an EP coming on EKLO after summer if you’re interested]

I’m already thinking of my new album, too. It's really important for me to have some points to work on and I’m already working on it plus 2 other projects. The new group we made with 2 guys from the dOP crew which is more new future soul r&b orientation. And the second project is with my young buddy Le Loup. I wanted to start a new label with him and this time I'm gunna sample, but in a good way. I'm gunna try to make this moody Andrés vibe but in our way with what we know from disco, soul, funk and make it live again. Give it some modern things.

And in my working on my DJ sets. I’ve brought back the cool old vinyl from Zip and Ricardo’s time when we use to get the craziest sounds and I want to make my live set more complex with an MPC 1000, synths…real live acting.

Kristan J Caryl