Hi, great to have you with us today! How are you and where are you chatting to us from right now?
Hey thank you for having me! I’m good thank you — I’m chatting to you from my home studio in rainy England.
Can you give us a bit of background about your journey in music so far?
I started making music as L’Étranger back in 2010. Before than I was in various bands as a teenager and over the years I’ve released music under quite a few different aliases in various genres.
What is your attraction to the French house sound, and why do you think it has enjoyed such longevity in dance music?
I remember there being a lot of French-House on the Radio growing up in the 90s and I rediscovered all those tracks in my teens. For me it has a lot of nostalgia attached to it and I imagine the same for a lot of people my age too.
Apart from the obvious candidates, Daft Punk, Cassius etc, are there any more underground artists working in your domain that we should be checking out?
My friend dJJ is well worth checking out for his take on the crunchy lo-fi Crydamoure esque sound.
A couple of contemporary artists I’m digging at the moment are Mike Sandcastle and Lipstick who are both making very good French-House.
Sam Gellaitry’s new stuff definitely has that French House influence in there too.
During the pandemic there was a lot of talk about what things people would like to change in the music industry. Now that things are getting back to normal, do you see any major changes?
I hear about the closure of nightclubs and music venues which is pretty rubbish. I don’t DJ anymore and haven’t been to a club for a very long time, but they are a vital part of our musical culture. I really wish the UK government would provide the same level of funding to clubs and venues as they do to other National institutions such as museums, theatres and art galleries.
What’s on the cards for you for the rest of 2023?
Lots more time in the studio! I’ve got a fair few lofi hip-hop releases scheduled with Apple’s label PLATOON, as well as a follow-up single on my own imprint under my UKG alias Tom Fool.
L’ETRANGER LINKS
https://soundcloud.com/iamletranger
https://www.facebook.com/iamletranger
https://twitter.com/iamletranger
