Ghost in the machine

>> Fate works in aggravating ways for Joakim

LOSING IT: Joakim

by JACK OATMON

Serendipity’s a bitch. That’s what Joakim Bouaziz, French composer and founder of Tigersushi Records, found out when recording his newest album, Monsters and Silly Songs. After losing the entire master copy of the completed album, he was forced to start over, only this time employing a fresh approach and a full band to create a cathartic sonic foray into the nether regions between electronica, organic psychedelia, folky dance music and experimental noise. The Mirror queried Joakim, via cell phone, about just what happened to his album and how he went about rebuilding his creation.

Joakim: It got completely lost. I lent my computer to someone for five minutes and when the guy gave it back, the hard drive had crashed. I lost everything on the hard drive, I couldn’t get it back, and I had no back-up, so I had to do it all over again. The problem is, I didn’t really remember what I’d done, so it’s like a new album. So somewhere, there’s a lost album!

Mirror: Damn! So what’s changed between the two albums?

J: I can’t really tell, but I guess the process of making the music is different because when I started again, I already had the band with me for the live gigs. I felt that, since we’re playing together live, maybe we can do some live stuff in the studio too, which was different from the songs I’d done before. It’s really just the techniques that were different. The composition and everything was the same, but I could use more instruments with the band.

M:: Do you think that a lot of artists who make electronic music are tending to go in the live direction, with more instrumentation?

J: Yeah, but that’s not really a new thing. For a few years now, a lot of electronic artists have been bringing in live musicians. But for me, it doesn’t really matter. I could do a record using only samplers tomorrow. I don’t feel like it’s better or worse, it’s just a different way to make sound. I don’t think of it as a revolution. There are very good things in both worlds. I don’t try to oppose analog and digital, for instance. I try to mix the two, because I think that there’s something magical in all the analog equipment—the recording and the synthesizers just sound better. But then there are so many things that you do with a computer that you could never do with an analog synthesizer. What I try to do is really confront these worlds, like making very digital sounds and recording them on tape, for instance. I wanted to have this warm, organic sound that you can only have with vintage equipment.

M:: To me, the new album has a very melancholy feel to it. It seems very moody and emotional. What’s behind that?

J: I just feel the music that way. That’s precisely the kind of thing that you cannot explain or objectify. That’s just the way I feel things, and I’ve always been more attracted to sad songs. Even when I used to play classical music, I was more attracted by the dramatic rather than the happy music.

With cherry cola and mike d at Main
Hall on Friday, May 4, 8 p.m., $12