Dissidænce Calling

In his 20-year career, Vitalic has become a cornerstone of international electronic music. We had the chance to catch up with him ahead of his show in Vienna.

Vitalic /// Yann Rabanier (c)

On the occasion of his Viennese live set at O - der Klub on January 28th, Pascal Arbez-Nicolas aka Vitalic granted Bohema a long interview straight from his Parisian studio. The Frenchman, whose much-noticed album DISSIDÆNCE Episode 1 (Citizen Records/Clivage Music) was released in October 2021, talks about his new tour, his studio projects, his vision of creation and distancing himself from the sacred underground techno hype. A portrait of an artist for whom dissidence is not an empty word.

“Happy to be back on the road”

Bohema: A new album at the end of 2021, already a new one for 2022, the rebirth of your alias Dima, a tour of major venues in France for your 20 years of career, an international tour with a show in Vienna... It's a huge agenda! Did you need this exhalation after those difficult moments for the music industry?

Vitalic: Well, actually not necessarily! Even if it's a lot, it's all been a fairly classic process. There was the album, then we set up a French tour which is always a bit bigger than the international one. All this while alternating between clubs in winter and festivals in summer to showcase the different projects. I was of course happy to be back on the road, and even sooner than expected! We've just adapted a bit all with the lockdowns moving around.

B: In your many tours abroad, you have already been to Vienna. What memories do you have of it?

V: I have very good memories of the last time I was there. Even besides the venue, I remember that I decided to walk back to the hotel, because the city was really beautiful! It wasn't very far from the club, and I didn't want to take a taxi, so I walked alone, it was cold, it was winter too. But it always went very well in Vienna, very nice gigs!

B: What can we expect from your show on January 28th?

V: I'm going to present the album, but not only. I don't want to do showcases anymore. As I have 20 years of career and a lot of material, I tended on the last tour to play my songs as if I were playing a traditional concert. I want to go back to what I was doing when I was younger, that is to say, show up with fewer songs and improvise a bit more. This way of doing things creates dissatisfaction like “why didn't you play this, why didn't you play that?” But it's a choice. The show includes naturally a few classics, but I'm going to focus on more improvisation that time.

“Interviews are like a little psychoanalysis!”

B: You released DISSIDÆNCE Episode 1 in October 2021. It's maybe your most raw album, it exudes frustration. Is that something you wanted for this opus?

V: Well, I didn't realise that right away. But it's true that interviews are like a little psychoanalysis! (laughs) But the general theme is indeed frustration. It's an album that was written during the pandemic and the lockdowns. There's of course no song called “pandemic” or “lockdown”, but without realising it, I wrote about everything that comes from that. Basically isolation, loneliness, restrictions, lack of a clear view on the future. That's what it's about, not the pandemic itself, but the frustration of living in our time. So, yes, frustration, even if it's not explicitly named.

B: One thing that struck me from the first track of the album was the use of your native language, French. Apart from “La mort sur le dancefloor” on your album RAVE AGE, this is quite new for you. Can you tell us about it?:

V: It just came to me, there are things that you can’t explain. I never thought I would write a song in French! “Haute Définition” for example. I had the instrumental, I searched for hours or even days for something to say in English. Nothing came out. And just after a few notes (sings the first notes), I immediately got those words “en haute définition, tu fixes tes idées noires”. At first, I thought like “that sucks to sing in French!”, but as the lyrics came out of nowhere, I thought it should be like that and not otherwise. There's a very 80's disenchanted feel to it, I would almost say something from Jeanne Mas.

B: Is it you who sings on these tracks?:

V: Yes! I only have one guest on my two episodes, it's Kiddy Smile, I wanted to do everything myself, like in the old days.

“The dissidence is to have carved my own niche.”

B: As you mention it, you've already announced a second DISSIDÆNCE episode that should arrive in early 2022. What can we expect from it, will it be in continuity, or are you preparing a dissidence within the dissidence?

V: The two episodes are part of the same whole but seen through two different lenses. The first one is more on the pop side. The second is the evil twin brother, the one that turned bad! (laughs) The tracks are either much shorter or much longer. There are still lyrics, but it's got a more industrial vibe. There are two quite melodic pieces, the rest is very rhythmic, very heavy, very dark.

B: Your two albums are called DISSIDÆNCE. It's a term you've been using for several years now in interviews. What does it mean to you in aesthetic terms?

V: As a musician, it means to assert yourself as a free spirit. With all the good and bad things about it, because it's always more comfortable to belong to a church, to a movement. I've never really liked being categorized as a techno or electro artist. I don't feel things like that. I think being an electronic music artist is wider and more realistic when it comes to what I do. The dissidence is to have carved my own niche. With my sound, with my way of writing, my themes, and the way I tackle them. There's a little bit of Don Quixote in there! (laughs)

“Somehow my music has no groove!”

B: I have the feeling that the Vitalic project is trying to conceive what techno could have been without the traditional Detroit-Berlin axis, am I wrong?

V: There is some truth in that. This very harsh and warehouse techno really is back in fashion today. I don't know about Austria, but the huge events in Paris are all about that. And that was never my thing, that's true! I've always stated that I don't make techno, or at least that I'm not polished in my way of making techno. I'm not a techno ayatollah! I'm not interested in being one.

B: Is that what you mean when you say in an interview that you couldn't make techno like Marcel Dettmann? :

V: Yes, I couldn't.

B: Do you consider him to be a stylistic opposite?

V: I’ve heard that Dettmann plays a lot of new wave and disco when he performs very long sets. I've never had the chance to experience that yet, but everyone around me says it's amazing. But yes, if we're talking about a Berghain type of techno, kinda “stream engine” one, I wouldn't know how to handle it. I don't think I would be good at it. I mean, I know, I've tried it before... I don't have the groove for it, somehow my music has no groove! (laughs)

B: What do you think of this warehouse techno revival?
V: It's a bit of a trend from what was going on some years ago, especially in Spain. It’s basically a bit like old makina music, which we listened to in car parks while drinking cheap vodka. That's fun! It's easy, it's not heady, the idea is not to seem like a scholar, it's pure fun. But 160 bpm at 4am... It isn't really my thing, I'm more of a new wave guy.

“With an analogue synth, you were really a poor mouldy dinosaur!”

B: Can you tell us more about your creative process? Do you try to calculate, or do you leave a lot of room for instinct when you make music?

V: It's a bit of both. I often already have an idea of what I want to do, but positive accidents are naturally welcome. One thing I did a lot on DISSIDÆNCE that I had lost a bit was to go into recording mode and then play my synths. I wanted to get back to something more instantaneous. I spent more time producing tracks on the last albums than making music somehow.

B: Beyond a technical detail, your instruments are an integral part of your universe. You like to surround yourself with rare synths, like the GRP A4, some Buchlas... Are these choices consciously made to get atypical textures?

V: I think that with synths, it's always a bit of an encounter. You can give me any synth; in the end it sounds like Vitalic. Even virtual synths. I learned to program a little bit by doing random stuff on synths without presets, to know which button did what. Synths are also a way to find a source of creativity. It brings different grist for my mill, but it remains the same mill!

B: You talk about virtual instruments. Do you see a difference with analogue?

V: No, I don't see a difference. You can make beautiful analogue sounds with software. And then with studio processing, I don't see a difference anymore. I remember around 2005-2007, with an analogue synth, you were really a poor mouldy dinosaur! And then 10 years later, you absolutely had to have the little handmade module from Germany, you know! So, it's all fads, all the time. And dissidence is a bit like that again. “I do what I want”. I've always used a bit of everything. I do my own thing and then that's it.

“I've always made political music”

B: Is snobbery something that annoys you?

V: No, it's part of the game. I remember a phrase from The Hacker, I loved it! He used to say “la mode, c’est moi”. He would get into a room and say really loudly “look out, fashion is coming”. That kind of nonchalance that just flirts with snobbery, I’m fine with it. It even helps me to take a step back from things, without pretending to be something I'm not.

B: In some recent interviews, you talked about the soundtrack of an Italian film you're working on for Giacomo Abbruzzese. You already worked on La leggenda di Kaspar Hauser by Davide Manuli, can you tell us more about this new project?

V: It's not the same kind of film at all. It's still insane, but it's not the same way. There's something very realistic in the work of Abbruzzese. He is Italian, but he talks about France, about French borders. He talks about immigration, the Légion d'Honneur, Africa and our relationship with Africa. It's quite political... It sounds boring and sophisticated as I put it, but in fact it's really not that quite difficult. There's also magic in it. It's a political piece and a crazy thing at the same time.

B: What is your relationship with the idea of politically committed art?

V: I've always made political music, but in my own way, always with filters. I don't feel comfortable when it's too direct. One of the best examples is my album Pony Part 1. It's about animal suffering and nobody has understood it, and yet the lyrics are very clear. You know, there are a lot of musicians who suddenly discover a passion for commitment. It's for sure a very good thing, but as long as it doesn't serve as a bit of a sales pitch.

B: Are you trying to avoid being too marketing-oriented in this respect?

V: I try to avoid it on the one hand, because it's not really me. And on the other hand, I don't hide anything about my life in Paris, the scene I'm in, homosexuality, all that. But except for when I talk about it with clearly socially committed media, is it something I really want to put forward? I just don't think it's my style! I just feel like sometimes it's a bit too prosaic.

Vitalic is playing O - der Klub on January 28th. His forthcoming project DISSIDÆNCE Episode 2 is expected to arrive in early 2022.