In this interview spotlight, I chat with DidJaws about the latest music, technology, challenges and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)

I am not far from Paris, in France. I make electronic music, but I am not very good to precisely describe my actual music.

Previously, I’ve recorded a lot of techno/house/bass and experimental stuff but now I try to write something more “mental” and “spiritual”. A mix of ambient and dance music with a psychedelic approach, if you like.

What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?

I’ve started to make music because my life was boring. It became a kind of regular practice, like a sport. Now my music is an outlet. It helps me to endure daily life. By the way, Stroboscope talks exactly about that: a guy who wants to escape from his unbearable life.

How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?

I think Stroboscope is better written than my previous releases. I’ve put more narratives elements. Now there is a story, an ambience, like in a movie. I’ve took a new way to make music, now I use multiples algorithms and synthesizers to craft my ambient layers. I use a lot of field recording: it’s very important to set a background in a track.

And this is my first real music video too. With Shimon Souffir (the director of the clip), we’ve worked a lot to transcribe the creepy atmosphere of Stroboscope into a video. It could never have been possible without him.

With Stroboscope, I’ve tried to make something more immersive. I’ve been focused on the conception of the musical atmosphere. It’s something very important in the music for me.

Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?

As a music maker, it’s difficult, in our era, to create an identity for an album, an EP or a single. We have super-powerful computers with an infinite quantity of software, samples, plug-in etc. It doesn’t really help to be creative, according to me. We must put limits and constraints in our tools to make interesting music.  It’s difficult to be unique too. There is a lot of indie musicians now, with the selling of music on internet, you can find an infinity of new subgenres every month now… It’s a true challenge to create something unique now.

The technology helped me a lot to use innovating tools to create music, like the time stretching, or the granular synthesis for example. This kind of techniques is impossible or very difficult to be applied on analog hardware.

What was the last song you listened to?

I’ve listened to Réflexion 2 et 1 by Jean Guérin, extracted from his album Tacet. It’s an amazing mix of experimental, free jazz and electronic music.

Too I’ve listened recently to the new split tape of Bernard Grancher and Projet de Vie: Vision Sur Plan, released on Tom Val Records. It’s a beautiful album of cold-analog electronica music.

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

I listen a lot of music on vinyl, I like this format. I generally listen to the whole album, instead of one or two tracks.

I use Spotify, BandCamp and YouTube to listen to unfindable albums on vinyls, or to discover new musicians.

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?

BandCamp is the best place to buy and sell music on internet according to me. You can get hi-res files, and the musician is really paid. In addition, you can easily set a selling of CDs, tapes, vinyls, USB keys etc. It is an advantage for a record label or a musician. Unfortunately, the big mainstream artists do not really use this platform.

Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?

You can find my music on BandCamp of course. But it is always available on the major platforms like Spotify, Apple Music etc. I am active on Instagram too.

Anything else before we sign off?

Take care of yourself and your relatives, especially in these times.