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Born and raised in Paris, Julien Chaptal ventured abroad to the USA and Canada before finally finding his feet in Amsterdam. It was there that his musical career began in earnest, first with his band Le Clic before knuckling down to become one of the Dutch techno scene's leading protagonists. Having released his debut album and recorded for eminent labels 20:20 Vision, 100% Pure and Remote Area, Chaptal's Apple Woodoo EP is his latest work and Helen S caught up with him.
Pulse: Hello Julien, what are you up to right now? Julien Chaptal: Having breakfast and trying out an old piece of hardware I just bought to sing through. It’s really great as it seems to actually make me sound like I sing in tune, plus do the odd crazy effect a la Easy Lee. Can’t wait to take it out to live gigs!
You're an Amsterdam resident, what are your thoughts on ADE? ADE was fun this year again. It’s a place where you see people you haven’t seen the whole year, or people you see in different places of the world but then all in one place for a week. I think I can safely say that it’s the biggest party in Europe, there is so much happening during that week.
What was behind the move to Amsterdam? Why did you not feel you could settle in your native France? I first came through Amsterdam in 1997 after living in the US for a year, a friend dragged me to the Dance Valley festival and it was a real eye opener for me. Parties on such a massive scale was something I had only seen here and I was quite keen on coming back. And so I did after spending another year in Paris then Montreal. The plan was to stay for a year but then I started to work as a sound engineer for club Melkweg and a dutch music TV show and started to feel more and more at home; Plus I had a dutch girlfriend at the time. This city has a way of settling travellers down. Life in France, or let’s say Paris rather, is a bit stressfull at times and that started to get to me when I left. I mean, going from one place to another can easily take up over an hour and so I felt I was always just spending my time going places in a city where everyone did the same and didn’t look particularily happy about it. Here, I can cycle on the other side of the village in 15 minutes.
Le Clic, your previous band, was really successful off the back of one single. What did that success teach you and how have you used it in your current artistic guise? Le Clic was a project I had started with a friend of mine, Noah Pepper, and then later on we took on Aron Friedman as an MC. Ninca Leece was singing for us as well towards then end. The project actually took off after we participated in a national Dutch contest for electronic live acts, I think this was in 2004. We bought a car and started touring in the weekends, I think that lasted a couple of years. We spent an incredible amount of time rehearsing, playing and producing so I learned a lot about performing live with computer and machines but mostly about working with other people. To this day I still find that hard sometimes cause I always need to have my own way when it comes to music. I play with a band now called Amsterdam 661, they all love to call me Napoleon in the studio.
Many people see you as part of the 'Dutch techno' movement- how do you feel about that and who do you regard as your contemporaries? I like to think that I am one of the people who started something new in Amsterdam a few years ago. This was the time when the german minimal sound was at its peak, and we brought a bit of funk and soul to an otherwise clinical sound. Nowadays I think things have changed a little and although all the people who started this thing back then are still good friends of mine and we spend time in the studio and touring together. Lauhaus, David Labeij, Kabale Und Liebe, Boris Werner, Melon, and quite a few more; all these guys are close friends so I think we’ll keep making music together for a long time. Having said that, I didn’t release a record for over a year because I felt I needed to look into new things and develop a sound that is more personal. At the moment I feel really free to explore the sounds I didn’t take the time to get into the last few years, I think you can hear that in the last 2 releases on Intacto and 2020Vision and hopefully too on the next ones. I have been working on a project on the side, it’s downtempo music that reminds me a bit of Nightmares On Wax stuff; I listened to that kind of music a lot in the 90’s and I was actually influenced by it a lot back then. Another thing I did when I started making music back then is to first stick to playing the black notes, then the whites, and then both together. Now I’m back to square one and playing black notes, on my old synths, not quantizing any of it to keep that raw feel; making these tunes gives me a lot of energy to do the other stuff, it’s important for me to have the variety to keep things exciting.
Is there anything in your sound that you'd attribute to your French background? The cheese maybe? I mean, seriously I think I’ve taken in some of the music I’ve heard groving up of course. The whole French filtered disco house era was and is still big for me so I guess you can hear that in the tunes I make sometimes.
You've recorded on many labels in your time, from your first releases on Remote Area to Toolroom to 20:20 Vision, do you feel any loyalty to any of them and why the spread of names? Actually I don’t believe I have been releasing on many labels if you compare to most producers out there. Remote Area has been my home from day one and I released there exclusively for years. After I produced a Remix for Simon Baker’s Way Out Of My Head in 2009 Ralph Lawson asked me if I wanted to release an EP on 2020Vision. I have been playing so many of the records from the label over the years and it felt like a real honor so I just had to say yes. We did another one this year and so I feel that these 2 labels are really my homebase at the moment.
Tokens was your first album, how do you think your music has changed since then and who influences it now? At the time I wrote Tokens I was very focused on a particular sound, although I think the album was more than a collection of dancefloor tracks it was certainly aimed at that. I don’t think my music or approach has changed so much since then but I feel more compelled to explore other territories as well in my productions. The influences are always the same though, red wine and blue cheese.
What did you grow up listening to? As most people do I’ve always had a real fascination for music, and it took me quite a few places, even as a child. I Started listening to my parents music but what stuck the most with me amongst all the records was disco and funk. I had periods listening to rock, grunge or hip hop but that was never so big with me at the time. Growing up in France I didn’t understand a word of english so all song based stuff didn’t really come to life in my head I guess, funnily enough to this day I have to force myself to pay atttention to lyrics. Disco and house lyrics of course were never too hard to comprehend and it was always about the groove forme.
Tell us a bit about your latest release for 20:20 Vision. This last release is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, it’s a collection of tracks that represents what I’m about in music. The title track, Apple Woodoo, is a jazzy like easy going low slung house track that actually manages to ignite dancefloors everywhere I’ve dropped it so far. Then I made a track called The Drunks Come out where I sung the silly vocal line and also the bassline because I couldn’t manage to get it out of my head straight on the keyboard. I wrote the notes later on to layer a proper synth bass on top though but you can still hear me humming away on the macbook mic in the back. It’s a pretty old school sounding straight up house track. Then there is a track called Sun Goes Down, which is reminding me of growing up in Paris and the French Touch day. I feel that it’s a personal EP and I’m very proud of it.
Where have you enjoyed playing recently and where can we see you playing in the next few weeks? I have to say that I have been blessed with great gigs the last few months so its hard to name the better ones. If I have to pick one that would have to be the annual party I throw together with David Labeij at Studio 80 in Amsterdam for our Birthdays on Halloween. That was an absolute mad house! The next few weeks are looking bright as well, I’ll be playing mostrly in clubs I’ve never been to before so it’s time to explore; in Poland, Sweden, France, South Korea and Japan for Chrismas. A lot to look forward to!
