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Strapontin creates music that works in all settings and transcends genres. His openness to a wide range of sound is what has both made him a widely loved favourite, but also someone who operates in his own parallel musical world. We had a chance to talk to him, so enjoy your reading and check out his latest releases.
Can you tell us a little about your experience? Where are you from / how did you get into music? I'm a french music producer currently living in Brussels, Belgium, I studied visual art and learned music for 15 years. I always loved music, my teenage friends used to call me their "sound dealer" because I was digging a lot of music on the internet. I am also now composing soundtracks for contemporary dance shows. I make music for dancing bodies, on stage or in a club. I feel like the underground scene will come back strong. Do you think we can go back to "normal" events and festivals? The "normal" in our scene was problematic in many ways. I don't want to go back to normal. I hope this strange time will allow us to re-think what clubs really were: a safe space for people to have fun, meet and escape from our sick society for just a few hours. I can't be in that "boy's club" anymore: we need more women, more transgender people, more people of color, more everything that isn't cis straight white male in our scene. How do you feel that your music influences or impacts your listeners?
I don't see how it could be possible to answer that question. I just guess it'll make them dance or cry ( depends on the album ).
I actually hope they will connect it to a moment of their life. That would be the greatest gift for me: people making memories with my music.
What projects are you working on right now? What could you comment on Sasnal Park? Sasnal Park is my most intimate EP, I wanted to focus on feelings more than dance mechanism: deviate from my dancefloor side to explore new territories. It is released on french small record label Abstrack based in Nantes and I have some personal connection to this label and city. I asked japanese visual artist Makiko Furuichi to make the artwork. My partner Yvan Megal directed the music video and created a very intense video that has already made my friends so uncomfortable that I think it will perfectly fit the track : Family Diner.
This record is very coherent and I like that.
About my current projects: I 'm finishing an EP for a Brussels record label, but I can't tell more about it right now ;) David Shaw and myself also created a band called It's Complicated and we are working on an album. I'm currently composing music for 3 theater and dance shows: Mascus by Maxime Bonin, Ressac by Baptiste Conte and Tanegeri by Ikue Nakagawa. I'm also part of Poetic Punkers, a contemporary dance collective, so I'm also performing and composing music for its show. What did you want to convey with your latest record? Sasnal Park is a dive into inner feelings like melancholia, anger and sensual weirdness. One side of the record is the originals, the other one is filled with amazing remixes from A Strange Wedding, Vidock, Feon and Anatolian Weapons (digital) What are you goals with your music? Make people feel they are alive. Not sure I'll succeed though but I'll try. How is your sound evolving? I guess I'm getting older: one side is going more ambient /dreamy and the other side is getting very rough and acid. What pisses you off? Stupid people being famous. I'm not jealous of their fame, I'm just scared of the reach of their words and their power to affect people. Our capitalist society adores simplicity and dumbness and interesting people are always silent or underrated because they are not sexy enough. Yes I love big brains and I can not lie ! What makes you happy? Love, excelling oneself's fear, people smiling while dancing, experiments, compliments, good sex, good food and wine, groups of people working together (like dance shows or protests) and many other stuff... Do you have any final words of wisdom? Classic but always accurate: "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten." Andrew Weatherall.
