This week we interviewed Hantise, a name that has been featured on Metalectro a few times with their tracks. Hantise is the musical project of Alex and Jerome, from France. Formed in the end of 2010, this French duo, born of the encounter between a techno DJ and metal musician was quickly spotted on the blogosphere for their powerful tracks and remixes. Classified between Boys Noize and Slayer, their electro trash is ready to burn your ears! With several official remixes and an EP out just a few days ago on Shax Trax, we thought now would be a pretty good time to get hold of them for an interview. So, let’s find out what Hantise is all about!
01. Hi guys! Would you mind introducing Hantise?
Hi guys we are Hantise, and we love Metalectro as much as we love producing and playing heavy and trashy electro! We’ll speak in this interview with one single voice, because you all know that we’re answering to this one behind our computers, so we don’t have to simulate a fake situation 😉
02. How long have you been producing as Hantise and how did it all start?
We started producing in 2010. Alex was a Techno DJ and Jerome a metal musician.
We both lived rough experiences in the past, so we wanted to start something together without restraints, a music experience that could bring us some fun !
So we combined our influences and it made sense for us to mix Electro and Trash Music.
03. How would you describe your music and who have been the main influences would you say that helped you shape your style and sound?
We’re mixing electro, metal, techno, sometimes dubstep… We always keepin mind that this music must be for jumping on the dancefloor! First of all, the motto is to make powerful music !
We listen to many music styles, from Rap to Metal, to Folk, Trip-Hopor Club!
What are our common influences? The Prodigy, SvenVäth, System of a Down, CypressHill, Depeche Mode or Metallica.
Alex’s favourite artists are Laurent Garnier, Vitalic or Jeff Mills.
Jerome prefers Rob Zombie, Queens Of The Stone Age or Neurosis.
04. Where or what do you draw inspiration from and what do you have to say to those who have described Hantise as “between Boys Noize and Slayer”?
Ah ah! We wanted to find two names that immediately meant something to people.We’re not particularly fans of Boys Noize and Slayer but it represents everything we hope to share with Hantise: energy, sweat, dancefloor!
05. You have already produced a few originals as well as remixes, do you prefer working on one more than the other for some reason and if yes why?
Working on “Despotic Freak Show” was particularly exciting because we knew from the beginning that it would be the song of our first EP. Why? No idea!
Working on “Clash” (the remix we made for or friends of L’Amère Conspiration, release May 15th on Shax Trax) was also very interesting because it all started with thes amples of Bulgarian vocals that we found and we wanted to use! When we discovered the stems of “Clash”, we knew that we would use this sample and be proud of this remix!
06. What is your biggest music achievement/highlight so far and what would you say has been your most embarrassing moment?
Our biggest achievement yet is the release of our first EP! It was a real goal for us.
As for embarrassing moments, there aren´t really many.. or maybe… the two times on stage when you cut off the wrong track or when you press the wrong button! But for the moment it was no big deal! We´ll let you know when one of us will be naked on stage or something!
07. Recently you have been coming up with some great tracks, originals and remixes, with your “D.I.E” remix and “Despotic Freak Show” being a couple of my favorites. Would you say these last months were just a warm up period for even bigger things?
Oh yeah, we know that we’re not the most original in our style, but we work hard, we are patient and we are only 10 maybe 20% of our potential ! This last year was just the beginning!
08. Your “Despotic Freak Show” EP was released recently on Shax Trax. A great EP I have to say with a great original and a few big remixes on it. Are you happy with the release and feedback you have been getting for it?
We’re really happy with Despotic Freak Show; we wanted these remixers, and they accepted right away!
We realize that no one is waiting for us. So with this EP we just want people in this tiny world of electro/trash/complextro to know that they can count on us!
09. Do you have any live shows coming up and how can someone book you to play a show? I also happen to know you’re working on a new collaboration track with Gor FLsh, would you mind sharing a bit more info with us about that?
We’re looking at a lot of gigs! It’s on stage or in the club that you can see what Hantise really is.
We love to make the crowd scream, we love that people come out of our gigs on their knees! Just look at the videos of our past shows on our Youtube channel !
We’re currently looking for a booking agent. In the meanwhile, you cancontact us on hello@baddrecords.com. We can go to any country in the world! So don’t hesitate to contact us !
We really love the work of Gör Flsh! All we can say, it’s that we’re working together on a banger track for our next EP. You’ll know more as soon as possible !
10. What other plans do you have for 2012 (upcoming releases, remixes, etc.)?
We want to release a new EP in September.
Before that, we’ll release remixes on various labels. We can already tell you that we’ll do remixes for our buddies macrowave, Needs or Beurk! Remixes for famous names too 😉
We’ll also produce a track for the next LP ofa crazy french singer, we’ll tell you later who it is!
But in the meantime we’ll work on our label, BADD Records. This is an electronic music label that we created with our brothers Mortimer Sanglier and Ben Watts. Here we’ll do what we want, we’ll release Electro, Club, Dubstep, Techno, Trash…No limit! The first EP is a free EP, The Despotic Remixes, 5 buddies remixed our track Despotic Freak Show.
11. Out of all producers/artists you can think of, who would you dream of collaborating with and spend a few days or hours in the studio with and who would you dream of sharing the stage with?
We’re dreaming of producing a track with Liam Howlett from The Prodigy. Slash (from the Guns’n’Roses) will be on the guitar, Noisia will help us a little bit with the bass, and Brian Molko will sing a few words.
12. Do you prefer working only with computers/sequencers or do you get your hands dirty playing and recording instruments? Do you use samples and what’s your opinion on sampling and copyright?
For now we only work on computers,but it’s only because it’s easier to make it sound better! We play several instruments, and currently we’re working to build our own home studio. There we’ll record guitars, keyboards, vocals …this will bring some authenticity and some soul to our music!
We use a lot of sampling! We really think that today music is for everyone as long as you don’t earn money by stealing melodies! 😉
13. What is music for you and what do you think about the way the music industry is changing?
Music is more than a passion, it is our religion. When we wanted to get away from it, it always came back to us.
Today the situation has changed, music became free… It’s really hard to sell music, except if people can see you on TV or hear you on radio!
Music has become a consumer product: people listen to a track, like it, share it,talk about you at parties with their friends, and they’ll forget you the next day because they just discovered THE new artist on social networks.
People are no longer loyal to bands, we think that it’s an idea that will disappear. Fortunately, some artists work hard, are patient and can expect to have fans but they will be increasingly rare …
14. Any comments about today’s mainstream music? Do you agree with Haezer’s “Commercial Music Is Dead”?
We think he’s wrong!
There will always be people who’ll listen to popular music, singing annoying choruses and dancing always on the same sounds! Last year in France, the top selling was a mole who spoke of her farts!
So, ok, France goes badly, but there will always be stupid ideas for selling shit!
15. Do you believe that an electronic music artist can earn his/her living from music nowadays?
Yes of course! Fortunately it’s possible! But it’s difficult, it always has been and it will always be! An artist can now communicate much easier than some years ago, and he can spread his work faster. Today he can make more money with his gigs or dj-sets. But he earns much less from salesof its tracks, like we said before.
But the biggest problem for DJs is that today anyone can become one. Anyone can download software and make transitions between songs. There is more supplied than demanded, so the artist must stand out differently now.
16. What are you listening to lately? Any tracks/artists you recommend?
Jerome: Ministry – “Relapse” and Meshuggah – “Koloss”
Alex: Laurent Garnier – “Timeless” and Sebastien Tellier – “My God is Blue”.
And we are both listening to the LP by Gör Flsh, the free EP “Transmission” by macrowave, and “Cryptocracy” by Huoratron.
We both recommend you to follow and listen to our friends Mortimer Sanglier, Ben Watts, Valy Mo, macrowave, Beurk!, The Phat Crew, Riotboy, Third2second or Fooks.
17. What’s the best and worst thing about working with each other?
The best and worst thing is the same: we never agree! We are constantly setting ourselves new goals and are always looking to improve on our skills! But it can be boring sometimes! But we’re friends so in the end, it’s always good.
18. If your studio was on fire what would be the first thing to save and how do you like spending your time when not in the studio producing music?
First, we’ll try to avoid meeting any black cats, walk under ladders, etc…
As for the rest, we’d try to save our laptops and hard drives first!!!!
When we’re not in studio we try to spend our time with family and friends, listening to music, watch some american series… like everyone else.
19. What do you think about the Metalectro blog and the music featured on it?
Metalectro is one of our favorite electro blogs! It helped us a lot when we started Hantise: It was the first blog who shared our remixes! So… Thanks Metalectro !
And we had the chance to meet Hanna at the Who’s Badd party in Strasbourg with Wasa3i. She’s got a really big knowledge of electronic music and we had a crazy night. We hope to meet again!
20. Anything else you’d like to mention and we forgot to ask?
Thanks to all the people who follow us, all the people who’ll discover us through this interview, all the people who will buy our EP… and all the people who will find a free link on mediafire or zippyshare… Because nobody steals bad music, so thank you for not considering us bad!