You can purchase the Breathe 20th anniversary remixes: Here
How are you, whats good and bad in your world right now?
I’m good right now, spending some holidays with my kids in the middle of a forest..
This pandemic has been a particular experience, we have released our new album “Everybody Breaks The Line” in September 2020 and as it was impossible to tour we made a lot of new demos.
I think the planet with this virus took a break from us, no planes, less pollution..
the bad mostly is money wise.. a lot of musicians right now are struggling with money problems.
What can you remember about producing the original breathe single 20 years ago? where and when was it written?
We made that song in Paris, the instrumental demo had already something special with that specific tb303 groove. I have met Angela McCluskey (the singer) in NYC a few months before at a concert where she was covering a billie holiday song.
What did you aim to do when writing it, was there a specific plan for it or did it just emerge from jamming in the studio?
At the time Telepopmusik was a side project, the idea was to produce music we were not used to do, using a sampler (we’re all coming from indie pop bands).
So the only plan was to mix together all of our influences from jazz to acid house.
Breathe is like billie holiday meeting daft punk (homework) on a beach in Ibiza.
Did you know when it was done you had a stone cold classic on your hands?
After finishing the production, we knew we had something special but the song took all sense when came 9/11, people, specially in the US needed a recover song. I’m still amazed of how this song is touching so much different people all over the world, with different culture, background and still today 20 years after.
A gift from god as Angela said once..and probably the right song at the right time!
Who wrote the lyrics, and how important are the lyrics themselves?
When we asked Angela to come to Paris to be involved with a session in our little studio, we were all smoking inside and she was having problems to breathe correctly.. so while jamming with her in the studio, she wrote the lyrics instinctively..
How have you changed personally and musically in the 20 since it was made? do you still recognise the sound of that single?
I think you don’t change musically, you still fantasize the music you were listening as a teenager but personally I like getting old not being the same as 20 years ago, not repeating the same patterns as going to never ending after parties (ahah!)…I’m spending now more times with the kids and I’m more concentrate when I’m making music..
How did you decide on who to ask to remix? What made people right?
We decide with Tom, our A&R at Universal to propose a large spectre of remixers to show how “Breathe” can works with different styles.
As i’m a Dj myself and playing a lot of indie dance, I’ve asked Krystal Klear, Moscoman and Speaking Minds and I knew Digitalism were fans of our first album.
Tom, has proposed Mounika, Juicy Cola and Kid Francescoli
How do you feel about the results, is it weird hearing the single in different ways?
I love remixes, it’s like a new birth, we asked a lot of remixers on our new album as Whitesquare, Zombies in Miami, Tone depth, Reznik & Mikesh, Bawrut, Alan Dixon…
What else have you got coming up/are you working on?
As i said before, we have wrote a lot of new demos recently.
releasing those new remixes of Breathe is closing a chapter.
Let’s produce now the song that will make people dream for the next 20 years.
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