Electrypnose is a music project created by Vince LeBarde in 2001. Predominantly oriented around the psytrance genre, his direction of music has taken many paths over the years. His sound has varied from the more ambient and chillout to techno and various kinds of progressive as well as dark nighttime trance. He recently sat down with 6AM to discuss his most recent album Crooked House and its creation.
Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions. What first got you into electronic music, and was there any defining moment that made you want to do this professionally?
Hi there and thanks for organizing the interview :) I guess I was around 15 when I first got interested in electronic music. It was the more well-known stuff at the start and then friends showed me some more underground styles. I got briefly into drum and bass and glitchy music until a friend showed me an album by Hallucinogen when I was about 17. I totally connected with it and went deeper into exploring psytrance. That same year my sister took me to a nice forest party organized by Psyberpunk who was involved in a good crew in my region. A couple of years later, I started to play around with various software and wanted to make music but didn’t really think about becoming professional. It just came little by little; starting to play at a small local event, at another one.. etc… and after a few years I began to have more opportunities to perform more often and abroad. I then decided to make the change and create my life around the Electrypnose project.
How would you describe your sound? In what ways has it evolved over the years?
It’s a bit all over the place I guess. I like to explore music in all styles that I can possibly make. It mostly stays in the techno/house/trance genres, though. It can be dark, deep or bright, minimal or maximal, quite accessible or quite underground, and everything in between. Techno, progressive and psytrance, including all their subgenres, influence me the most and are a part of the music that I produce these days. I also really like to mix ideas from one genre to another.
It has evolved over the years in the way that I’m more open to many styles and not specifically searching to make a specific type of trance music. My exploration and influences are wider. I really enjoy and try my best to make GOOD sounds, whatever the vibe of the track is. And I really think we need a diversity of vibes coming from a whole range of music depending on the time and the mood. My moods are constantly changing, so is the sound I want to listen to, so is the sound I want to create.
Your new track “Crooked House” is an absolute belter, how do you go about starting a track? Which programs do you use?
Thanks! Well, I don’t have a set procedure for making a track. I usually start by tweaking gears, then put many sounds together in quite a chaotic way, then start to clean up that mess of ideas and that is where the logic slowly starts to take shape. It’s the ideas that you put together, that will make the art happen. In essence, you control a certain amount of the creation process, but there are also a large number of parameters of a piece of music that are not fully under your control… so it just happens. I also sometimes take a preview track that has a good amount of reference elements and use it as a base. It’s good I think, to not always start from scratch, especially to be able to handle a good quality mix.
The software I use: Cubase, is my main DAW. I also rewire Ableton and FL Studio to Cubase for various reasons. I have started using Bitwig also which is great. They all have different purposes. Cubase for editing and arranging, Ableton and Bitwig to deal with loops, for live performance or jam sessions with the modular and FL studio is my favorite sampler.
Having released numerous times on Digital Structures, do you feel a special connection with the label?
Oh yeah, absolutely. I’m a big fan of the label owner Yuli Fershtat’s work since the time of his album ‘Free Clouds’ under his Perfect Stranger project. Since then, we have shared a few festival stages and become friends. Now he is like a big brother to me. He is really helping me to improve my sound. After a few single tracks and an EP that I released with him, I actually asked him to host this new LP on Digital Structures, which he was keen for… I’m very happy and thankful that we made it happen!
You teach an online course, has teaching affected the way you look at music and production?
The course project is still under construction but it is definitely a nice project to develop. Even though, since the pandemic story started, there is such a huge amount of courses/tutorials that have emerged.. I’m just one of them. However, I have been teaching for quite a few years now and it’s always been a thing I like to do, when I have the time for it. I’m not really sure if it influences the way I look at music, but I can totally say that when I explain something to somebody, it reminds me of specific things that I had nearly forgotten, or didn’t try for a long time… so it’s a great refresher for myself too.
Are there any artists who’ve really inspired your work as an artist?
So many and I discover so many more all the time. In every genre, electronic or acoustic, known or unknown, old or new. I don’t think I want to start making a list here because I would miss too many names that would need to be credited as my influences! Also, the list would be so long. We are lucky to have access to such an amount of great music!
Any final thoughts you would like to share?
Thanks to all those involved in the scene for their amazing job. I’m glad to be part of it. Thanks to everyone for enjoying the work I have shared. I’m keen on more adventures.
