Pablo Nouvelle is a Swiss musician turn film-maker who released his debut single ‘Is it Ok?’ last month.
How long have you been making music?
That’s hard to say because I’ve always been making music of some sort, playing piano as a kid, and then I bought a computer and started making beats and was really into Hip-Hop up until about ten years ago and from there it evolved itself into what it is today.
How long has the project been going, have you always made music by yourself?
Yes I have, this project started in June last year after I finished my studies in animation and moved back to Berne and got a room to study music. I had a few artists in mind to work with, but I had nothing to do but music, so I got up every morning at 8 o’clock and made music the whole day whilst I was trying to get in touch with the artists I wanted to work with. So either they never answered or they were slow, so I was just going on and on by myself, so I ended up just sampling a lot of the artists I liked. So it was kind of an accident the way it happened, but no one wanted to make music with me (Laughs), so I would just have to do it on my own.
You’ve recently released the single, ‘Is it Ok?’, what’s the plan for the rest of the year?
There are some more songs already mixed and produced, there’s another one due for release in July, and then a third towards the end of the year, maybe September. We’ll see how it goes, if it gets around a bit then I will definitely try and do a full-length and get it in stores, hopefully it could be done by the end of the year, there are eleven songs that are finished. But what I originally wanted to do before that was to make an album of remixes and my own sampled stuff, and just put it all on the internet.
Are those eleven songs all built around samples?
Yeah, it’s going to be the same direction of sort of melancholic pop music, but there are two songs in particular that are faster, more disco/electro songs.
How did you meet Fiona (Daniel)?
She’s a singer/songwriter from Switzerland, she had her first album out last year and she’s a friend of my girlfriend, and I really like her music so I’ve always wanted to work with her. She wasn’t convinced at first, so I just sampled her song and did a lay-out of my ideas and showed it to her to try and convince her and then we eventually made the song. So then she’s given me more of her stuff, so there will be a second song with her coming this year.
Do you think your background in Hip-Hop and beats orientated music still makes itself heard in your current stuff?
I think so yes, I always saw myself more as someone in the background, so this is the big change now that everything’s under my name. I think the music is still influenced because the drums are always still quite heavy, I’ve always thought about putting it together in other ways to make it more light, but I think I will always end up with that kind of sound.
Is the live show something you’ve thought about?
I’ve thought about it but there’s nothing really planned yet. I actually dreamed of a concept with a friend, who’s a great drummer, and singer, and guitarist, and makes really good music so I thought of a concept where he’d sing all these different songs from different singers and I’d be on the mpc and piano. But they’re just thoughts for now.
When you think about playing live do you think about the visual side of it, do you think your film and music compliment each other?
Erm, yes and no, because I generally hate it when people put loads of music in films, especially in the dramatic twists. But at the same time there is a great influence on my music from my film and the other way around too. Also, the video for ‘Is it Ok?’ was actually a short film that a friend did and we just put the music to it.
What comes first to you, music or film?
Music, it’s definitely the more intuitive passion. I never really intended to do film, I just wanted to combine my music with something more visual, so I made an animation about four years ago now, just because I was bored at school, and then this animation won a prize and it was at the same time where I didn’t really know what I wanted to study so I went to study animation, so they now they’ve sort of both doubled up together and it’s going great.
How long do you think it will all continue, forever?
Yeah, I’ve always been doing music so I don’t think I could stop. But there’s still a great exchange if you’re doing music to then go to do something else, especially if you’re producing and composing, sitting on your own all day, it gets really hard after a few weeks, to have new ideas every day. But then if you go and do something else, like go to make a film, you’ll come back and you’ll find yourself very hungry. I find it very inspiring, the exchange from both sides.
http://soundcloud.com/pablo-nouvelle
http://pablonouvelle.com/
