Interview: Scratch Massive

While Scratch Massive was formed back in 1999, the duo’s sound has grown from lo-fi guitars with drum machines to wide-screen synth operas featuring guests like falsetto-toned singer Jimmy Somerville and Kill The DJ’s Chloé. Last year the pair released their fourth album Nuit De Rêve, which found them in full control of a style that has been maturing for well over a decade. We caught up with São Paulo 2002 participant Maud Geffray on the train, as she and Chenut headed to play the Electron Festival in Geneva, and discovered a world of 1960s erotic literature wrapped in 80s thriller noir soundtracks.

I noticed there are quite a few years in-between your releases. How do you prepare for making a new record? Is there a usual writing process?

It’s right that we take time between our albums, certainly because we do other music stuff on the side for images and movies, we’re big fans of cinema too. To write a track, we don’t have a usual method. I could say we write some kind of pop tracks with electronic stuff inside. I mean, melodies and a chorus are really important for us, but we like to be free in the building of our tracks, which in a way keep to the spirit of electronic music. Nuit De Rêve, our last album, is nearly composed as a soundtrack for an imaginary 80s movie. It’s a trip into our scary feelings and our memories, but there’s a lot of hope inside it too, in a strong imaginary world.

So which movies or soundtracks inspired you for Nuit De Rêve?

We were inspired a lot by all the 80s thriller soundtracks, like the incredible work of Jay Chattaway (Maniac, Invasion USA), John Carpenter (Assault On Precinct 13, Village Of The Damned), and some works of Michael Nyman too. Also all the synth pop of the 80s that we love so much. We’re really interested in soundtracks in general. We did the music for the first long movie of Zoe Cassavetes, Broken English, and we are preparing her second long movie. We’re also working on the soundtrack for a French thriller, totally in the same kind of mood as Nuit De Rêve. The director called us because he wanted that mood for his movie.

I read an interview where you said “The only [songwriting] approach is to look for our most buried emotions, deep and not superficial.” How easy is it to get into that mood to make tracks?

Yes, it’s the only way for us making music, to get deep into our emotions, our memories and ourselves, while trying to reach people in this trip. In general, emotions in our music come from a certain deepness, a darkness. I mean it’s not a choice we make, or the result of a long reflection, it’s just what we have inside of us.

Do you find making music has some therapeutic effect? 

Making music has a kind of therapeutic effect, for sure, killing the devils inside of us, the dark side, or something like that.

What was it like in the studio of Agnès B?

Actually, we still have our own studio inside the Agnès B company in Paris, and we spend a lot of time there, it’s like our second flat! It’s a place where a lot of different things happen besides making clothes, like exhibitions and concerts. Agnès B likes mixing art, clothes and meeting people from all walks of life.

I liked your selection of record covers you chose for GQ Magazine a few months ago. Why is cover art important for you?

We really like artwork and covers in general, it was a really essential part of an album in the era of vinyl. Since the CD appeared, and more since the digital era, covers are less important: a smaller format and less and less money for that. For Nuit De Rêve we were looking for some artwork, and as a big fan of this old magazine called Plexus (an erotic literature magazine from the 60s), I thought of this cover by Jean Pierre Alaux. He’s a French Surrealist painter, in the same movement as Salvador Dalí. I really didn’t know how I could reach him, and he’s 84 years old, too. But after I called several different numbers, I ended up reaching him directly, we spoke a lot and he finished by giving us his painting for free for the sleeve. We were so happy about it!

So, you’ve seen a lot of changes in the music industry since you first started? How have these changes affected how you approach releasing a record? And are you fans of new technology?

Yes a lot of things changed in the music industry since 1998. Music is now free, in a way. There’s less money in creation, so money has to come from other things like synchronisation on advertising and concerts. But on the other hand it has created a new dynamic situation, it’s created a new approach for us as musicians. Music has become more direct and spontaneous than before. Speaking about releasing a record, most of the artists now don’t even need a record company. They can create their own platform through all the networks and communities offered on the web, and they can launch their music, artwork and videos, all 100% the way they want to present themselves. Concerning technology, we use a lot of computer stuff of course, with some vintage analog too. Virtual synths are good, and all the plug-ins that come with them, but sometimes you need to come back to your roots, and to face a real machine. It’s good to forget the computer screen for a moment, and change the whole process of composing.

Somehow it seems that as music consumption gets faster and faster, musicians can appear and disappear just as quickly. In this respect, your 13-year career is quite an achievement. What advice would you give to musicians looking to make music for the long-term?

It depends on the kind of music you do. There are no rules except to try to reach your own real style. Not to copy your neighbour, and not to be too influenced by the tendencies in the moment you create your stuff.

I read another old interview where you said, “We do not intellectualise music a lot…” Does that apply to your own body of work? Is it interesting for you to look back over your first singles and see how your sound has changed?

Honestly, I nearly never listen back to our music stuff, except in other people’s flats or at parties. And it’s funny, I prefer to listen to it like that. But I prefer to listen to other people’s music than mine. It’s more surprising, isn’t it?

Finally, what is on the Scratch Massive schedule for the rest of this year?

We have two movie soundtracks, and a load of live and DJ gigs. That’s all, folks!