Electrypnose chats ahead of Our Minds Festival

As far as Electrypnose goes…

Electrypnose is the musical stylings of Vince Lebarde, a Swiss producer and all-round tinkerer of sound.

Created in 2001, the project known as Electrypnose has been on a quest to explore all sounds, marrying different genres and styles in a harmonious and hypnotic flow; this you will come to know.

Beyond as well as parallel to the music is a man with the keen senses of exploring all this life has to offer; from building a studio to navigating the outdoors and of course creating music through multiple projects.

With over 16 years musical experience, this act will crush any preconceptions you have; let it take you to a place of hypnotic bliss. Catch Electrypnose at Our Minds Festival on the 10-11 November at Theewaterskloof in cape Town.

Experiment, try and learn new things. Do your best at being a good human, being yourself, with other humans and with nature.”

Hi, Vince! Thank you for taking time to answer our questions. In 2011 you played at a ‘Positive Vibrations’ party in Joburg, South Africa. Fast forward to 2018 and you will be playing at the Our Minds Festival in Cape Town. What are you looking forward to most about this party, which is their inaugural festival?

Electrypnose: Hi! It is a big pleasure to come back to SA and be part of the first edition of “Our Minds Festival” That “Positive Vibrations” party back in 2011 was excellent! It was a quite small and friendly event as I like them to be also. Then, not sure I can say much about what I expect for this coming event, because I like to come with a free state of mind and let me be surprised with what it is going to be. Of course, I expect to have a great time and everything to be nice, but I also expect from myself to deliver all I can for the people attending to my performances.

The music you make transcends ‘genre’ and ‘style’- flowing between moods and influences as it pleases. Is there a place for labelling music, or should we all, producers and listeners included, throw away the ‘boxes’ and rather listen to the music?

Electrypnose: I guess a bit of both. We can always kind of label the music, if it’s more coming from these influences, going towards this or that genre. but that is just to put words on music and be able to speak about it. I have many influences and I tend to blend them all together in no specific way depending on where creativity is taking me to.

Then the result comes out as a pretty unique piece, sometimes good, sometimes not really. Then my job during a performance is to try to make a sort of evolving story with all these tracks, which you can talk about if you want to… or just listen and hopefully have a nice experience.

Something quite intense happened to you regarding the studio you built that burnt down a few years ago. You then moved and started rebuilding your space. How are things going now? Do you feel rebuilt?

Electrypnose: Yeah, I have experienced better stories in my life than this one. But a lot of nice changes happened because of that incident. For several reasons, it took me about 3 and a half year to get back to a studio of the level of E7. But now the result is even a lot better that the previews studio. It is up and running for about 1 and a half years, and still improving. I feel rebuilt now with the studio, yes. But not quite yet about the amount of music I have been making in it. I’m working on a lot of things (too many…), musically and on other fields… and when you want to make things well, it takes time… I had to be patient to achieve what the new studio became… and I must be patient for any ongoing project too. Good work and sufficient time allowed usually brings cool results!

I’d say that most creative people have a home in the underground side of the culture…”

You have a solid love for the underground, freaky side of life, right? What about offbeat culture-the underground- resonates with you?

Electrypnose: Underground, freaky side… ?! hmm … I would maybe say alternative when I speak for myself as a lifestyle. I follow and see myself being part of many alternative movements that would be classified as underground, yes… where underground is versus mainstream of course. That means we want to be free thinkers and life actors, put our actions towards what we believe in, and not live what we are somewhat forced to. Long topic here…

I’d say that most creative people have a home in the underground side of the culture because it’s where most of the new and fresh ideas are laying. Then there are a lot of life related behaviors that will come along, as it will feel more coherent with the way we think.

Do you prefer making faster or slower music? I know each has its own magic, but if you had to choose one or the other, what would it be?

Electrypnose: Definitely slower!

I’m practicing now mostly in the 120-145 areas. I’m still attracted by the faster music and have done some, but I wait the right moment and the appeal to make some more… every time I work on faster music it is much fun though. Even I worked on a track at 193 bpm and was cool to do.

My faster music usually will stop around 160… anything faster than this is sometimes hard for me to deal with.

In an ever-changing scene, what are your hopes for its evolution and where do you see psy-trance in 5 years?

Electrypnose: I find the scene has been offering a very good wider range of styles in the last few years. I’m very pleased with this, not being stuck with the same music. However, I can’t tell how it is going to be in 5 years. I have no idea what my focuses in music will be then either… let’s see and make/hear cool stuffs, whatever the style.

… in a creative lifestyle, work and fun are very often attached together.”

You have a techno project called Cerebral Factory. How did it come about and what are your aspirations for this project?

Electrypnose: This project is a collaboration with my good old buddy Karash. We have worked back in the days on forest trance together, released an album, etc…

This new version of our collaboration is based on a recent new feature in Ableton Live, called “link”.

Basically, we can sync two computers perfectly now. From there we produce our own loops and we jam with them using many controllers. It’s a good feeling to play music really live. Every time we play a set, something different comes out. The musical direction here is heavy underground techno, a little bit industrial. But we are still at the early stage of this project.

What is your process when it comes to making a track?

Electrypnose: Well, there is not one way to do a track… And all manners can be good.

I’d maybe say that I work like someone experimenting with all the tools and matter that I can create something with, put it together and see what the result becomes. Then I select what sounds cool and try to organize all the mess I’ve done in a project. The results vary a lot from one project to another. Sometimes magic happens, sometimes you have to try again 🙂

What do you like to do for fun?

Electrypnose: Ping Pong, Hiking, DIY in many fields…

And well, in a creative lifestyle, work and fun are very often attached together. I can definitely say that my work is fun! Also working on renovating a house at the moment, it takes much of my free time.

What is your life motto?

Electrypnose: Work hard and results will come.

Experiment, try and learn new things. Do your best at being a good human, being yourself, with other humans and with nature.

Enjoy the now. Draw your own line… and hundreds more…

What would you like to say to your SA fans that will be jamming to your set at Our Minds Festival?

Electrypnose: A big thanks for enjoying what I do, and again I hope I’ll be delivering even more than what they could expect from me. Looking forward to being there with you guys soon!

Electrypnose chats ahead of Our Minds Festival