Michel Moers Talks New Album, Recording And More

 Synth-pop pioneer and TELEX co-founder Michel Moers has released his second solo album ‘AS IS’. We wanted to learn more about the record and he kindly agreed:

 

You have your new album ‘As Is’ out now. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

The approach has been sinuous and took a very long time. At first I wanted the music quite different from TELEX, a bit baroque with many layers and arpeggios, reverbs… Along the years I felt it was not me but just a reaction. I have at least 8 to ten versions for each song. At the end I have chosen simple ones as I wanted to make something intimately human though electronic. In fact even even TELEX never emphasized the robot side of electronic music.

Where did you record the album and who produced it?

I recorded it at home and at other places where I travelled and stopped. The only studio I attended was for the final mastering.

I produced it myself, not that I did not try to work with others but I have been so doubtful and slow that I was the only one patient enough.

And whatever the result is I’m fully responsible.

Your new single ‘Microwaves’ featuring Claudia Brücken is out now. What is the inspiration/story behind the song? How did the collaboration arise?

A friend, Alan Elettronico told me he was feverish and that his eyes were so warm they could reheat his pizza just by looking at it.

I just went further with the idea of it as someone’s job with its side effects.

I had booked a studio in London to record a female singer. The owner of the studio asked me if I would be interested to contact Claudia Brücken whom he knew. Of course I jumped on the idea, we got in contact, I sent the musical backing and she said yes. She recorded her voice in her partner’s studio. I love Claudia’s voice and wanted to put it really upfront. After having heard the mix we made in the studio I had booked she thought she could do better and recorded a new version.

To say the truth the actual version is not the one she put her voice on initially. As I said, I worked on many versions for each song.

She might be surprised to hear this one.

Meeting Claudia was thrilling, a bit like living something that should have happened years before if TELEX had been English or had travelled for making concerts.

What is your earliest musical memory?

I could say it’s an early kind of rap. At the age of 4 or 5 I happened to receive a white record, a publicity for a soap, mounted on the most simple record player, made of cardboard, with a sewing needle. There was an off-center hole to put the tip of a pencil and make the record turn manually. Then the voice would come and say “Vixil est un produit Persil”. I would play it for hours, enjoying repeated words and rimes, slow, fast, backwards, scratching… My parents could not stand my experiments and the basement became the first studio I attended. The garbage has been the final record destination as the sound finally turned to white noise, sewing needles are not vynil friendly.

(A friend has a collection of that kind of records, with Disney’s stories, I’m jealous 😉 ).

Who are some of your musical influences?

I come from far, my tastes and influences are so many and various that it’s quite difficult to pick one, I’m sure some well intended listeners will point some.

Did you have any particular recording equipment, effects, software that you used on the album?

I did everything on my computer with a program any one having a Mac can get. I’m not into making sounds from scratch, I like to be surprised by sounds I hear, sounds suggesting ideas and ready to stand transformations.

When people ask to visit my studio I just warn them that me and my studio are very boring , no modular Moog, no wires neither knobs.

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

Actually I do not plan to go on stage.

EUROVISION song contest was the only stage TELEX attended, millions listeners in one go, I do not need more stress 😉

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

Brussels is in Belgium, a small country that used to be the centre of Europe and for this reason invaded so many times as just the crossroad to other war bigger destinations.

5 words: cosmopolite

polyglot

ingenuous

in progress

chocolate freak

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

Something short as you noticed I am a bit slow.

One of my choices could be “The Way Up to Heaven” by Roald Dahl, a humorous perfect crime which comes to my mind every time I’m alone in a lift. Alfred Hitchcock made a short film of it in 1957 but I’ve never seen it. It would be fun to make a research and maybe try something, less ambitious than “Metropolis” of course.;-)

Do you have any interesting, funny or memorable stories from the album recording sessions?

AS I said I travel light with just my computer, a small keyboard and the usual traveller’s things.

I was visiting family in Costa Rica and working outside near trees used by monkeys passing twice a day, not paying attention to me until one day one noticed my sandwich. A capuchin monkey can be very aggressive. I had a hard time to keep him/it away, showing my teeth, trying to make me look bigger and making noise. Well, I must say that that wild being did not really smell good and whenever I see videos with people petting and even kissing monkeys I just wonder if they really have 5 senses.

No use to say I did not keep food by in the following days.

Do you have any plans for live shows in Europe/UK in 2024?

No.

Which of your new tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

a / Happiest: Back to Then

b / Angriest: Keske (tu veux?) which means “what do you want?”

c/ Most reflective: Pixels

Sorry I did not deliver any translations.

How do you look after your voice?

No smoking, no alcohol… and I do not use it that much 😉

What makes Michel Moers happy and what makes you unhappy?

Happy: When people are fair and take notice of each other

Unhappy: When they do not