Anthony Gonzalez, the person behind M83, the group that helped outline electro-pop, fears for a music business that more and more desires artists to be influencers.
M83 has had a string of worldwide hits and critically lauded albums, with the 2011 music “Midnight City” clocking up greater than 800 million listens on Spotify.
In the phrases of music website Pitchfork, the group’s mixture of dreamy electronica and emotive rock has “become the base stock of most popular indie acts”.
M83’s new album, “Fantasy”, is one other ecstatic slice of electronica that mixes futuristic sounds with nostalgic emotion.
It’s about “escaping the daily routine, the macabre news environment, and leaving some place for the imagination and dreaming,” Gonzalez advised AFP.
The B-movie horror masks on the duvet highlights the truth that Gonzalez prefers to remain hidden behind the controls, rejecting the net tradition of over-sharing.
“These last six years (since previous album, ‘Junk’), the music industry has changed. Social networks have taken up more and more room. You basically need to have no modesty,” he mentioned.
He created his personal label in response, Other Suns, designed particularly for artists “who cannot put out data for the time being as a result of they’re requested not simply to make good music, but additionally to be influencers.
“I hear from a lot of artists who can’t find a label because they don’t have enough followers, I find that tragic,” he mentioned.
His occasional ventures into social media don’t reassure him.
“There are people that follow me probably because of ‘Midnight City’… well, I have a feeling of being more and more averse to a certain section of my fans, which scares me,” mentioned the French-born musician, who now lives in Los Angeles.
The leisure business feels more and more like a rat race, Gonzalez added.
“We are losing the mysterious side of artists. These days, unless you release an album every year and headline festivals every summer, it’s like you’ve disappeared. I take my time when I make my albums. It’s partly out of timidity, I don’t want to force my music on people all the time.”
That reticence is probably why he’s much less well-known in his native France than he’s within the United States and Britain, regardless of being an exemplar of the dreamy “French Touch” scene alongside bands like Daft Punk and Air.
“Many people (in France) don’t know that he’s French and had a massive career in the US before ‘Midnight City’,” mentioned Paul Langeois, head of Beauregard competition, the place M83 is enjoying this summer season.
For Gonzalez, who was born within the French Riviera city of Antibes, his considerations in regards to the trendy world make him all of the extra dedicated to creating one thing that evokes a time earlier than all of those points.
“When I was a teenager, I listened to albums that made me want to scream in my bedroom. I wanted adventure, freedom. That’s what I wanted to create on this album — an escape hatch,” he mentioned.
© 2023 AFP