Two guys with a heavy past are hiding under the name of Deep Forest. After having worked several years in studios, they finally found a good way: collect, harmonize and broadcast songs of the world; an interesting enterprise has sent them on the trail to world success.

Coming from the north… of France , our two accomplices have no common points with those Anglo Saxons invaders endlessly sending us their banal Techno/Jungle/Trance songs. They are leaving the common forest paths and their difference comes from a more sensitive approach to technology, meeting ethnic minorities through forgotten ways. Picked up through the world, those voices carry an authentic message, a feeling they succeed to match to their music, never loosing the essence of those chants. A meeting with the white sorcerers.

How was born Deep Forest?
Eric Mouquet: Michel and I already knew each other. After a studio recording session, he invited me for dinner and asked me listen to his compositions, especially the harmonization of a song from the Salomon islands. Admiring such ingenuity and the emotional intensity I advised Michel to improve this song. Later he called me and asked whether I would like to work on that song with him. Enthusiastic, I accepted right away. After having worked on what would become Sweet Lullaby and several other tracks, we created little by little a universe corresponding to the melodies we wanted to write, something spontaneous, without pre-designed ideas, our aim was just to have fun playing music. When most of the songs were recorded we presented the soundtrack to several music-publishing companies. Nobody was interested except Columbia/Sony. Deep Forest was born.

The first album with voices from Africa was born from this meeting. How did you come by this idea?
Michel Sanchez: Well, I started to be interested in traditional music at sixteen or seventeen when I bought an album of forest chants, mostly pygmies chants. At that time, I was learning classical organ at the Conservatoire – counterpoint, fugue, harmony – and I wasn't able to understand the complexity of the African rhythmics on that record, but they were fascinating to me. Later, my taste for ethnic songs, with all those fabulous timbres – old men with a rasping voices, children singing with amazing virtuosity… - incited me in to having a big interest in traditional culture, especially Indian music.

Were you expecting world success?
E.M.: Not at all. But it can be explained by two reasons. First, that kind of music, very embryonic, was not really broadcasted, and the quite new sound was really welcomed by the people. Secondly, those songs were not in an identifiable language so they had more chance to be liked outside our borders. This explains that huge success in Australia , Japan , United States , Germany , United Kingdom …

With Boheme, your new album, you are exploring a completely new origin for sampling voices.
E.M.: That's true. It began with a record of music from Transylvania : without consulting each other, Michel and I bought the same album almost at the same time. With that new inspiring material, we both composed a song alone but with a common point: we used the sampled voice of the same artist, Marta Sebestyen – we both liked the same artist without knowing it. The way Boheme was written comes from there. Those timbres, so different from those of the first disc, those fabulous melodies developed and flourished, quarters of tones… directing us in exploring the music from eastern countries – Hungary, Transylvania, Byelorussia, Mongolia – mixing them with other references like songs of natives from Taiwan, the Intuits of Canada, and the Yuroc Indians of USA.

How happened your meeting with Marta Sebestyen?
M.S.: When the first song was composed – it later became Marta's song – we sent it to her via her music editor. Really surprised by the treatment inflicted to her voice, Marta was however captivated by the result and guaranteed she would collaborate with us. We invited her to come with us in the studio to record other songs. It was a beautiful meeting: we were in love with her voice and she was astonished to hear how we developed melodies with the sounds of our machines.

You are two. How do you compose?
E.M.: There is no rule. But we both have our own studio with almost the same equipment and the process is often this one: on of us begins a song, gives it to the other to add his own sounds, takes it back to improve it, etc. We have no specific role; we are really versatile. But we are able to compose a song alone, from the beginning to the end.

M.S.: Eric is self-taught and understands the music in a freer way than me. I impose onto myself too many barriers because of my classical musical education. So, the comparison of our ideas is interesting and meeting each other has allowed us to go farther and farther.

Concretely, how do you work with samples?
E.M.: That's a very specific technique. We let the singers improvise on a series of chords or on a simple noise to let their imagination travel. We record the result in the sampler and then we create a multisampling where the voices are cut in “strategic” places. This method allows us to make collages and constructions to create really amazing sentences, without neither cultural barriers nor physical barriers since we can, for example, endlessly lengthen a voice. That's the secret of the Deep Forest sound.

M.S.: We respect the original timbre and we exploit its flaws not to give a sterile message.

E.M.: We look for the “sounding” aspect of the recordings when we cut them, trying to emphasize the “strange” sounds that are often full of feelings. When we re-structure the whole thing to get a coherent sentence, sometimes we are surprised by the result: beautiful, or good for the garbage. We can really speak of experimentations. Our main pleasure when this is done is the re-harmonization of the song according to the voices, to put together all the emotional parts, without falling into the trap of instrumental overabundance: simple things are often the best.

What machines do you use?
E.M.: We almost have all the same equipment. The samplers are: S3000 and 3200 Akai for the voices and the K2000 Kurzweil, with filters and algorithms, for the instrumental loops. We only use the Mac and the Atari as recorders since we prefer to re-play instead of loosing time with editing; but sometimes on difficult loops we have to “quantize” to obtain a perfect result. The synthesizers I really like are the Wave of Waldorf, Roland JV, the Oberheim OB-Mx, the Prophet, the Moog… But I am really attached to the Hammond B3 and the piano.

M.S.: What is great about the new machines is the extraordinary sound palette they have. Treating traditional instruments through sampling to transform them and obtain strange sounds, is far more delightful for me than sampling a piano, for example. I like to make a distinction between the new keyboards that bring new possibilities of expression like the Yamaha VL-1, and vintage synths that give a lot of warmth to the compositions, to obtain a result very dynamic and warm when it is mixed with acoustic instruments.

You essentially sample existing records. Wouldn't you like to go and look for that “rough material” by yourself?
E.M.: Previously, weren't able to travel all around the world, stuck by our profession and the money required for such endeavors. It was so simple and “instructive” to ransack the “traditional music” shelves in shops and to travel at home without moving. Nowadays, things have changed. I plan to go to Bali and to the Pacific Islands this winter to collect sounds; Michel will go to South America this spring. The interest is to records voices, of course, but also to meet artists and get them to late come in the studio with us.

You are said to be respectful of your sources, but you also like to share with those who give them to you.
E.M.: Our project was successful so it was obvious we had to help them. After the first album we gave a portion of the “Royalties” to the Pygmy Fund in Los Angeles : we are proud of this since we know this money will be very useful.

M.S.: We met Jean-Pierre Allais, the man who is in charge of this foundation. He is a tremendous guy who lived his life with pygmies and even risked getting himself killed – he lost one arm while he was fishing with dynamite for them. This financial support is maybe just a drop in the bucket of generosity but if it promotes others to be generous too, then it's already worth it.

E.M.: With Boheme we wanted to help the tziganes of Central Europe via the György Martin foundation. Actually we are also working on a project for Amnesty International concerning women's right for obortions.

What do you say to people accusing you of being robbers?
E.M.: I answer to them, that nowadays, buying a sample of music from Auvidis or another label producing “ethnic music”, you are completely free to use it how you want – hoping that the label you bought it from will kick back the revenue to its legitimate owners! If Deep Forest proposes to an artist to collaborate, he will be paid like any other professional musician, credited on the sleeve and moreover a privileged connection will be born. That's why we want to record voices by ourselves and have direct contacts with artists working with us. Well, nowadays, many people would like to share their culture: that's not specific to our music; just have a look at jazz music…

M.S.: Traditional singers did not wait for us to begin new experimentations. Recently, we were at a session at Real World, the studios of Peter Gabriel: a hundred musicians from all over the world were there too. To see the pleasure of all those people playing together would certainly change the opinion of any critic. It's very enriching and will never prevent a pure musician from keeping his traditions… Are we allowed to say we debase a culture when we experiment?

Could Deep Forest take another direction than ethnic music?
E.M.: In fact, as musicians, we like to try different types of music. But as Deep Forest became an entity with a particular signature, I think it would be a pity to move away from that line, as long as we take pleasure in doing it. That does not mean that there is no place for other projects. Besides, Michel is working with a Cameroonese singer and I have project with Opera voices.

Why did you build your own studios?

Mouquet's Studio

E.M.: We thought of a better way to create our music after the success of the first album. As we spent a lot of time in sessions, the studio option came by itself: moreover we consider it a work tool. Now, when a musical idea starts to grow in our minds we only have to go into another room to make it concrete. We invested in what was the best way to be creative anytime, the dream every musician would like to realize.

M.S.: Moreover, we think that the choice of a reverb, a delay or a filter is a part of composition. That's the only way not to be frustrated and to really obtain the color we want.

E.M.: The choice we made to have a Euphonix in the core of our studios goes in that way: with its quality and its sound color we see this console as a true instrument. Compact in spite of her 120 entries, it gives us power and it is very handy with its automations.

You were asked to remix some songs. What did this experience bring to you?

Sanchez's Studio

E.M.: Exchange and meeting. We would never have been able work with stars like Jon Anderson or Youssou N'Dour if those propositions of remixing hadn't existed. All those artists have their musicians and there special production styles so we had to convince them with the only weapons we had: the “ Deep Forest ” sound signature and our originality. So far all the remixes we've done have always satisfied their commissioners.

We heard “Marta's song in the soundtrack of “Ready to Wear” directed by Robert Altman. Will you also ( compose music for movies?)
E.M.: That's already done. We had the great privilege of working with Peter Gabriel on a song for the original score to Strange Days directed by Katheryn Bigelow, a thriller produced by James Cameron that is going to hit the theatres soon. After having listened to our demo, Peter accepted to collaborate with us: the session took place in Paris . To give you an idea of the Hollywood attitude: the production team of the movie asked us do it in a “Portishead” style: of course, we refused! After this experience, if we are asked to compose the whole score for a movie, we would like to do a really artistic job, so that the music won't just be wallpaper. [Not a good translation of the sentence but it says what have to be said]

M.S.: We have a project to compose the soundtrack for a German production company next year, for a movie dealing with poverty. If it becomes official, our aim would be to work in an artistic way, trying to make the spectators aware, without raping them, to de-dramatize this “gangrene” nibbling modern society.

You apparently a project getting ready to go on tour. How is it going?
M.S.: That's true. We are working on it. This is a concept based on virtual and holographic images: the only problem is its amazing cost since we weren't able to find a financial sponsor. Otherwise, Deep Forest is completely transposable to the stage: we just have to find three percussionists, one drummer, one bassist, another keyboard player and singers, including Marta of course…

E.M.: … All the music would be played live, without any sequencing, allowing us to improvise. For the moment we are training, our goal is to play in the first part of the spectacle during the MIDEM in January 1996.

You have an Internet address (http://www.sony.com/music/artistinfo/deepforest.html). Do you think it's essential nowadays?
E.M.: An anecdote to answer this question: to compose the song of Strange Days we used a sampled voice, the voice of Kate Petrova – a Hungarian singer – to reply to the voice of Peter Gabriel. Trying to contact her, we had a problem: nobody knew how to contact her. So we had the idea of sending a message via the Internet: two days later, thanks to a Bulgarian academic teacher, results came back. It was impossible to know where she was but contacts were established with emigrant song teachers in the United States of America , and helped us to find out about Kate. As you can see, the Internet is a fantastic tool to communicate with, but the work still has to be done!

PS: Deep forest is looking for a Minimoog, a modular Oberheim and a Prophet-10. Write to the magazine that will transmit.

thanks to C-Real for providing us a copy of this interview