Interview: Eric Mouquet

Time passes very quickly, particularly in the field of electronic music, where fashions change at the speed of light. So it was necessary to ask Eric to refresh us on his history in music!

“The most well known thing I’ve been involved in the last few years is primarily Deep Forest. This is a group I created with Michel Sanchez in 1990, which became very famous in 1991-1992. We had the fortune of having a song entitled ‘Sweet Lullaby’ which was played throughout the whole world. Since then, we have not stopped. The following album allowed earned us a Grammy Award in the United States. Tours followed and the group’s popularity really spread, allowing me work on other projects, in particular as a producer with other artists.

But before creating this group (Deep Forest) I had already been a composer. I made songs for myself as well as other people. Deep Forest was a calling card which enabled me to continue this. Now I spend about half my time doing things for the group and the other half doing productions for other artists“.

Leave

Mmm… What he only says very discretely is that Deep Forest really broke all the boundaries of the international music market. Deep Forest is really one of the precursory groups of a unique style of electronic music, blended with traditional sounds and songs from remote countries! But, why always so far away?

“It’s more exotic for us! It’s the attraction of the voyage, going to other countries and looking for things that surprise us. It’s true that I’m also passionately fond of Breton music. In the 90s, I made an album entitled ‘Dao Dezi’ and released it under EMI. It was surprising because I had played traditional songs that Manau also played following me [Manau is a french rap group]! I worked with Tri Yann [a French Celtic group] and many other Breton artists of that genre. At that time, I was surprised to see that these musicians, as in all genres, were either very conservative or very progressive. There were those who were truly filled with enthusiasm by the idea of mixing Breton music with synthesizers, and those who said ‘What is he doing in our thingummy? He’s not even Breton!”

Electronics frighten people because they have the impression that it’s the Devil! Bretons are people who don’t like strength of character: they took a stand for either one or the other side, those who defended me and those who criticized me. It was rather funny!

This reaction never occurs with African musicians for example. On the contrary, they are always flattered and very open when one works with them, they want to share. Fortunately, Brittany is more opened today, maybe it was necessary that Breton music be played by Breton musicians… It’s true that I arrived with the image of Deep Forest, playing the keyboard… it was suspicious! We are always asked whether we are really playing or whether it’s the machine… People don’t understand samplers…This is something that still persists… For those people interested in listening to it, I think you can still find this album (Dao Dezi) in music shops!”

Spain

Presently Eric’s interest is on Spain, with Ana Torroja, the singer of the group Mecano. New voyage, another work.

“Apart from programming and production, I like making a simple song with piano and guitar. At the beginning I just suggested one or two songs to Ana that she recorded here. She liked them, and that was all. I think this was an exchange of ideas. So, passing time in the studio, we talked, we played music and she asked me to do the arrangements for a song I hadn’t composed. I accepted and little by little, I found myself working on the arrangements of half the tracks of her album. After listening to the songs, she asked me naturally, if I’d be interested in arranging the whole album, and if I had time to do it. This is how I embarked on that project for six months!

Ana and I already knew each other little because we had made a song together for Deep Forest on the album ‘Comparsa’. Everything went smoothly and we said that we would see each other again, and maybe work on something. Every time I have arranged an album, it was always after meeting someone at a party or in an airport! To work with artists like Ana, who live in other countries, really it’s necessary that circumstances like these arise.

I brought my personal view, and that may have been what Ana and her music company liked. I tried to work as closely as I could to Ana in an attempt to accurately portray the feel of her, i.e. when speaking with her, when listening to her sing, I am given the impression that she is a very sensitive person, delicate in a sense, who is incapable of singing about shallow things in her music and lyrics. This makes the job a lot more difficult, because it means we have to make more sophisticated music, than the usual songs created for the general public. We have to be thorough and leave nothing to chance so that we don’t feel like we’re taking the easy way out…

The melodies we composed together could evolve until the last day of the sound mixing to obtain the maximal emotion not doing inaccessible things. I like to try to make both quality and popular songs at the same time. In music nothing is set. That’s why this is difficult, because we’re not sure whether the album is finished, the temptation is big!

When we had finished, we still had a lot of ideas and we said if we had had another month to continue we would have redone a lot of things! Finally, what was exciting was looking for. That’s why I have a particular work technique: until we close the studio everything is still possible, even during the mastering. I like having this option, otherwise I’m bored, use accidents, errors or badly done code and start up, again .”

Working session

On the subject of working techniques: audio, midi, synthesizers, live, stored sounds… How did Eric work in the past, and how does Eric work today?

“Pro Tools is the recording system. Well, I use the Pro Tools’ audio hardware through Logic Audio and the console is a Euphonix one. I use less and less MIDI. I record the synthesizers in real time and afterward I use those recordings like samples. Before I only used MIDI synthesizers. Now I’ve changed technique because it allows me to work faster.

For the introduction of a song, for example, I aim to have a lot of quick entries with the same synthesizer. So I record a sound, I store it, I play something else, and I may not need the first one… In a way, I’m like a painter who applies touches of color, following inspiration, even if I don’t know where I’m going. Finally I’ll keep two or three sounds that I’ll use as basis, and then I can work on the song. In the beginning I have to let things go…If everything is done using a MIDI system then the synthesizer has to be reprogrammed when I want to change something. Anyway that’s how I worked on Ana’s album.

There are also many musicians, guitars, bass, drums and strings… It was all done here, except for the strings which were produced in London. What’s funny about the guitars is that I originally did them with a synthesizer! I have a theory on this subject, it is mine and it’s worth what it’s worth [french expression]… I’ll be criticized by guitarists, but never mind that! Many guitarists – and it’s normal, we all have our tics as instrumentalists – play with specific positions to the guitar. And that’s fine, but if one wants to deviate from that, it’s a process of creation and research that can be very long. And when the guys come to the session, they leave in the evening or the next day and we don’t have adequate time to do things in depth.

So I took the problem on backwards. I played the guitar I wanted, a bit swatted/fussed over but not too difficult to be played and I asked the guitarists to reproduce them. There were those for which it was a challenge, wanting to do it completely, and those who understood the spirit, but instead of trying to reproduce the notes, proposed something else to me. It was a very interesting experience for everyone. I kept the real guitar and behind it played the sound of the synthesizer which adds some substance. And thus there are fantastic guitars!”

Evolution of work

“I make a lot of sound recordings, but I know exactly where the things are. This technique is really different and I think this is an evolution in comparison with what we did on Deep Forest in 1990 when we worked only with samplers because the digital mulitrack machines weren’t really efficient at the time.

MIDI samplers were often requested and that’s why we had many synthesizers. We needed different tracks, all sounds that were in audio came from the S3000 Akai, with 16 outputs. We even had five! All the Audio sounds were processed like that, we couldn’t think in real time, we had to think little by little.

In regards to the software, whatever it might be. I imagine that when one uses it for the first time it can be difficult and boring. As far as I go, I use Logic Audio. I’m so in the habit of using it that I don’t even think about it, it’s a clear interface. Everyone can find software that corresponds to his own line of thinking… What’s important is the result.

I think I work on the synthesizers about the same as everyone else. When I have a sound in my head that I try to recreate, I always fail. Instead I find sounds that inspire me! 90 % of the work is done with the Yamaha Motif 7 keyboard, I use the Yamaha VL1 to for all the guitars. Next it depends on the sound I want to obtain. I look here are there, I plug in one synthesizer, I examine the presets, I modify some, I sample…

I used the Hammond B3 without modifying it for Ana’s album. It has a good stereo sound pick-up. I tried sounds of B3 coming from other machines, because, for example, in the Motif 7 the B3 are great, but it’s different. If you have a real one at your disposal you really hear the difference!”



EMM, an ideal environnement

Eric Mouquet Musique (EMM). Because he is generous, Eric no longer wants to keep his studio exclusively for himself, but instead wants to share it with musicians who have real projects.

“In the beginning this studio was designed for me, it was my work environement. I’ve worked here for a long time, but now I want to welcome other people because I like their music and in that case I let them work, or because I want to intervene as a producer or something else.

I want people who come here to have the same approach as mine and let themselves be surprised. Naturally, all those who came here to play were great musicians; we don’t do guitar contests, nor shows of synthesizers… But it’s open-mindedness. It’s really interesting to see people working on the same equipment, it brings inspiration.

Presently there are two young musicians working in the studio, and when I look at them using the Fruityloops software for example, I don’t understand anything they do, just like they don’t understand when I use Logic Audio. There is a sort of reciprocal motivation… I want to encourage such exchanges.

The musicians feel comfortable here, this is a quiet place under the light of day, it’s important. I want these artists to take music that is in their head and put it into concrete form!”

On the subject of meetings…

We understand now, Eric Mouquet like the exchanges. Beverly Jo Scott stepped in ‘Music Detected’, Deep Forest’s last album.

“My meeting with Beverly Jo Scott was quite unusual… I was in my car in Paris, I was going up the Champs Elysées to go to La Porte Maillot in order to get back home. It was about 11:30 pm and I was listening to Pop Club with José Arthur. Beverly was interviewed and began to sing, accompanied on the guitar, Mouloudji’s ‘Le Petit Coquelicot’ with an amazing rocker voice! When I heard that, I thought ‘But what is that?!’ I nearly went to the Fouquet’s because it wasn’t far from where I was, but I thought it would be ridiculous and I chickened out!

The next day I called my manager saying ‘Yesterday I was listening to France Inter, her name is Beverly Jo Scott, can you look for her phone number ?’ He told me he knew her very well and that they had worked together, and I had her phone number at once. I called her, and the first words she said with her cracked voice were ‘What would I do in your music?’ She was very straightforward, she asked ‘What do you want me to do?’ I simply asked her to come over so I could propose some ideas to her. She came and things immediately went well. It was extraordinary! We really like each other. There aren’t a lot of people I can create a song with in minutes. She took a pencil and paper, wrote some lyrics, started to sing, and I composed the music. We made a song really quickly!

Along with Michel Sanchez I have a project with Beverly. Michel is going to arrange five of the tracks and I’ll also do some, and we’ll put them together in an album. I think it might be done by this winter.

On the subject of the last album, someone found my e-mail addresses through my astronomy site. I’m fond of astronomy. He asked me whether I was Eric Mouquet from Deep Forest, and I replied that it was me, and we spoke about the new album. He said he was surprised by the style, and that it was quite different from the previous album. I explained to him what our approach was. We communicated a lot, he listened to the album again and…he’s still a fan of Deep Forest!

On the Internet, many times, people ask you judicious, accurate end technical questions, about things you never thought about. You have to really think before answering.. It’s very interesting.

I often use the Internet for astronomy. There are less astronomers than musicians… It’s necessary for us to find each other! I’ve put my name on a list named AstroChti (Chtimis are the people who live in the North of France). This is a community of foolish guys who make images of the sky using webcams… well, incredible things! I like those people who do offbeat things. Each part of the population is represented, but our mutual passion is that we like to look at the stars, and to photograph them… white points over a black background, this isn’t very serious! I could talk about it for hours! (www.astrosurf.com)

I don’t often use the Internet for music, only to send mp3 files. The news I need comes directly from the shops I know. I imagine that for people who don’t live in big cities it’s very useful to look for news. It’s a tremendous communication system!”



No solo album?

Well, he sets aside the time to work on other people’s projects and time to look at the stars. But when it comes to himself it’s another story…

“I envisage to make an album, it’s a project which I have had for years. I postpone it a lot because I always spare time to work on other people’s projects instead of mine, but I really want to do it next year. I already have tracks to propose, but I’m always shier when it comes to my own work rather than someone else’s. I always hesitate to make anyone listen, I have wondered for a long time whether this is a good direction… Perhaps I need a producer ?

For the vocals, I plan to use people I met during my travels from all over the world. I’ll also use the vocoder. The album will be instrumental , but in a different style than Deep Forest of course, Deep Forest remains mine and Michel’s baby but I want to explore new things. Musicians will come to play, because I don’t play music alone. What counts is the pleasure of sharing!”

We deeply thank Yuki and Eric Mouquet for their warm welcome, and François Bronic (BMG) who made this meeting possible!

Remarks gathered by Maritta Calvez and Ludovic Gombert.      

Special thanks to Nicolas who spent the time to translate this very long interview.