Lunice is a thousand miles away from his roots but, remarkably, he feels right at home. In London for a short visit, the Canadian producer is revelling in visiting old friends, in hunting down record shops and playing a special one off show – free entry, and just for fans.
Musically, Lunice and London seem to be cut from the same cloth. “It's the progressiveness, really,” he tells Clash. “It's how every single night there's something new, almost. I've always looked at London as the hub for a lot of progressive sounds in general, and ideas.”
Lunice is certainly an artist drawn to progressive sounds. Based in Montreal, the producer’s take on instrumental hip-hop fused with a low end bias drew him into the orbit of LuckyMe, where he formed a close partnership with Hudson Mohawke. The two formed TNGHT, a project that drew enormous acclaim and allowed the pair to tour the world.
New ‘180’ EP is resolutely a solo endeavor. “The project itself is really something for me to bridge onto my full length album which will be looking forward in 2016. It's something I've already been working on for the last three years, but I've realised in time that it would be better if I put something in-between that time because give the people the right idea.”
For those used to Lunice’ explosive stage presence as part of TNGHT, ‘180’ could come as a slight diversion. More cinematic in scope, the material was whittled down from more than three year’s worth of music. “In terms of how I chose it, well it was a bunch of songs from over the years that I made but these were the ones that give a better idea of the type of sonics I want to go for.”
“The song 'Burnt' has a movie, kind of soundtrack, intro to it. Which is something that has translated a lot on my album, and gives you an impression of what kind of sound I'm going for. 'All Clear' is the more recognisable song in terms of what people have heard in 2012 and 2013. 'Nite Bells' is a bit more, I would say, developed in terms of structure.” Curiously, the EP’s closing track ‘Dial’ has a swung 2-step feel – more at home in the system culture of East London than his native Montreal. “It’s just something that I've always loved doing, just making 2-step rhythms and using all these different sounds. Which is again what influenced me in London, too. And it's those kind of sounds that they play in clubs. So that's just me being a fanatic of that kind of sound and how progressive it is and wanting to give my rendition of it.”
Lunice – 3rd December 2015 by Nts Radio on Mixcloud
Lunice is a certainly a fanatic. Growing up amid Montreal’s hip-hop culture, the producer then began to absorb elements of the city’s astonishingly fertile house scene. Somewhere between the two – and incorporating countless other elements – lies his sound. “House music has always been the core energy of Montreal, in terms of underground sound. So it was only in time that I would eventually crossover to that scene and discover all these different artists and be influenced by that.”
“That's pretty much the reason that I ended up relating a lot of my sound to London's,” he continues, “because of Montreal's sound being somewhat European in a way, with it being French-Canadian. Just that alone already differentiates us in terms of language,e and when that language comes to culture, so that mixes up with the Anglo and Francophone culture and that just comes up with cool ideas in general.”
Brought up in a Francophone city but continually looking outwards, Montreal acts as a background and framework for Lunice’ approach. The city’s dense creative community allowed him to experience different disciplines, something that continually appears and re-appears in his work. “I used to do theatre and do a lot of performative stuff onstage. I used to work in film and I used to do soundtracking and stuff like that for friends. A lot of that is where I learnt to put emotion – and how you can really play with emotion – and sounds. Whether it's making melodies or not. It could literally be a sound effect that makes a person feel a certain way. So I made sure to be really aware of that when working on the album.”
“That's pretty much where I'm coming from when I say I'm making it more cinematic,” he says. “But also, in the time of me starting the album I've started putting in mind that all the music I would make, I would keep in mind how it would sound like out onstage and how I would perform it, as well. Then because of that, that's what made me start to compose everything from a performative standpoint. Rather than from a sonic standpoint, where somebody may think about a drop or whatnot for a song or a bridge… I'm not thinking about that as much, it's still like, I guess the structure of a song in general but it's not my main concern it's more about the timing and how a listener might feel at a certain point in the song. I could switch it right there because they might wonder what's happening, and why it doesn't loop one more time. Just these little changes. So it's starting the show, it's making it more dynamic.”
That in itself owes a debt to the experience Lunice gained as part of TNGHT. “I really learned that from the TNGHT shows, from how we play it out and how it sounds like. When we would play like 'Oh' and I would go in front of the stage, and interact with everybody. At first, it used to just be me walling out but not I've paid a lot more attention in terms of, OK it's a little bit more than just me walling out. I could do more things with it now. I could stare at people longer, or use my arms in a different way – almost be like a choreographer of my own in the sense of doing these sort of cues for certain parts of songs.”
“It's just one of those things where you analyse the situation, you know that everybody is looking up at the stage for the lightworks or visuals,” he continues. “Everybody uses visuals, everybody uses lights, so I'll try something just a little bit different… just to see what happens. Just out of curiosity. I'm a very observant kind of guy. I love to observe people. Then 90% of the time I'm like: OK, I see how this works, let's try it your way. Since everyone's looking up at the stage I might as well give 'em something to look at, within my own context. I do understand that if I only played house I probably wouldn't be wallin' out like that – I'd be behind two decks, keeping it real! With low ceilings. No lights. Smoke machine all out! Making it really claustrophobic. It's all about the aesthetic.”
Currently focusing on his solo output, Lunice has no plans to enter the TNGHT gravitational pull once more – but he admits that the opportunity is always there. “It's pretty much that the reason why we separated is that we both finished our own projects. He's finished his album release, he's touring off of it right now. I'm going to finish mine and then put it out. Then I'll be touring. But it's no problem for us to start working – we can find time, easily. Despite our schedules. That's what it's all about. We both make time for each other in terms of getting some work done. When the time is right.”
An explosive presence onstage, Lunice is rather more reserved, focused in conversation – that said, ideas seem to spark off his every observation. Discussing a number of non-musical plans, the producer clearly regards Montreal – it’s network of languages and underground styles – as a unique base for his imagination. “It sort of gives a lot of opportunities – business opportunities, I guess – if I wanted, in terms of starting things out of Montreal. That's definitely something that I've always had in the back of my mind, but everything needs to sort of come incrementally. It can't all come at once, because then you don't have a back up plan. So we'll see how it comes out. I've got my album project, and how I'm trying to build everything for the future and go from there.”
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'180' EP is out now.
