Harold Boué a.k.a. Abstraxion is set to launch his second LP on Monday (October 10). She Thought She Would Last Forever evokes images of landscapes and forests. A stretching dark and dystopian atmosphere pervades the album, but he still manages to mesh the melancholy with an overarching and swelling euphoria. Contrasting themes of melancholia and exploring the tensions between expectation and reality.
We asked Abstraxion a few questions.
Bonjour Harold. How busy is your schedule the moment?
Hi. It’s a bit busy as my new album is going to be released soon, so a lot of exciting things around this!
She Thought She Would Last Forever. Does this title apply to some specific woman?
No, it’s more a concept.
You sung on three tracks on your first album Break of Lights. Why didn’t you sing on new album?
I did actually. There is my voice on She Thought She Would Last Forever, Just What I’ve Always Wanted – it was important for me on this album to keep expressing feelings with different ways, using my voice or guitar, piano, synths…
Rinjani sounds a lot like Stephan Bodzin or Ten Walls. Would you agree with such comparison and what’s your opinion about it?
They wouldn’t be the ones I have in mind if I’d try to compare this track. I respect a lot Stephan Bodzin’s work and there’s probably some similarities in the intensity – I tried to add textures on this music from recordings that I made when I was hiking Rinjani’s mount. Many sounds come from the forest.
How hard it is to compete on deep house scene and stay relevant? Any tips for novice producers?
I’m not sure if this is a deep house album. It could be called many different things, electronica, techno, alternative… on those 10 tracks it’s more a journey, and the most important thing is not the genre but what it’s expressing.
It seems that there’s always some kind of rivalry between France and Germany after WWII (in dance music as well). Now you have a track called Spazieren, Mike Lévy names his project Gesaffelstein (he’s very popular in Lithuania at the moment)… Does this mean armistice or you’re simply aiming at German market?
For our generation it’s not relevant anymore… I’m going often to Germany and there’s no rivalry at all. Spazieren means to walk, and it was more a tribute to Wim Wenders work.
You mentioned Dan Snaith (Caribou) and Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys) as good influences in one interview. Could you please name a few examples that you won’t like to follow?
I wouldn’t be confident in myself enough to judge other people work and pretend that the way I’m doing things is better than any other producer… But anything that is racist, homophobic or hateful is definitely not interesting to follow…
What would you say to those people who claim that most of deep house music is boring?
It’s like any kind of music you can find interesting things if you take the time to dig.
