We changed a few kind words with La Fraicheur about her latest Ep „Petit Matin“ on Leonizer Records.
Independent Groove: Hi Perrine! Nice to have you here.
La Fraicheur: Hi!
Independent Groove: Your typical Berlin breakfast is?
La Fraicheur: Well considering my lifestyle and rhythm, late lunch is my breakfast, and i make a mean lasagna.
Independent Groove: How did you get the idea of your artist name La Fraicheur?
La Fraicheur: It was my nickname as a teenager, “fraicheur” or freshness in french, being what we called girls at the time. Since i started djing pretty young and didn’t want to go through the ordeal of finding a name, i just kept the one people had already given me. It felt more natural and sticks to who i am so much that it allows me 15 years later to still be ok with it even when i think it’s dumb. It’s like your face, even the days you get tired of it.. it’s yours! What are you gonna do about it? Nothing. Get up and get to work. What you look like doesn’t matter just like what your name is really doesn’t either. But what you do does.
Independent Groove: Where do you get the inspiration for your music?
La Fraicheur: Inspiration comes from a lot of things, depending on what i work on. It can be from a person, what they represent to me or what they go through or what i wish i could tell them. It can come from the time i spend in nature hiking in the wild, either a sound or melody i hear there or just the fact that this is where i empty my mind which creates space in my brain to come up with ideas. It can come from music i listen to, usually from other genres than the electronic music i make, but rather while listening to post rock, soul, or pop, an element used there that i think is interesting.
Independent Groove: First record you ever bought?
La Fraicheur: I have the worst memory, so actual fist, i’m not sure. But i have the vivid memory of the MC Solaar “La Concubine de l’hemoglobine” album which i listened to over and over when i was about 12, knowing every single song by heart. When i started djing i would go to paris to see my sister from time to time and would go record shopping and from those beginnings i remember Pepe Bradock’s Deep Burnt and Peppermint Candy’s Chocolate Girl. Two “second wave french touch” tracks very representative of the sound i was raised in as a dj and that had a strong influence on me and that i still play very often.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opvopULDhVI
Independent Groove: Your impressions of your gig at the Fusion Festival & other Festivals this year ?
La Fraicheur: This set was magical and not just cos it was my first fusion gig and that’s what you expect people to say. It honestly didn’t start well at all, i had just landed back from my gig in Yangon, Myanmar where i had caught a bad infection from the water. i was exhausted, jetlagged, sick. I had blood tests done the day before, i was really not supposed to even go to Fusion but there was no way i was gonna miss it. I couldn’t really enjoy the festival, i was just trying to get as much rest as i could before i played, my entire body was hurting, i was super weak, my legs could barely hold me, when 15 minutes before i was supposed to start i felt like fainting i honestly didn’t think i was gonna be able to make it. And then this magical thing happened that happens a lot when i play, is that i am so immerged in the music and the crowd, so focused on creating that moment, so totally in love with what is happening that i forget, or the adrenaline or whatever it is, makes me forget pain and exhaustion, takes over my body and i had an incredible 3 hours of probably the most epic set i had done in months, so connected to the people who were on fire and giving me life, dancing like a maniac, singing all the lyrics of a very upbeat acidy tech-house set. When it ended it took me an hour to get down from that high and then i was back to being too sick again i had to leave the festival…
Last weekend i also played in the south of france at Rockorama Festival by the mediterannean sea and ended up playing 2 sets since one of the “headliner” didn’t bother showing up on the last day and i like the exercice of having to create two completely different sets for the same crowd in order to give them a different experience. I’m super looking forward to play at Feel Festival this saturday on the beach stage in the afternoon, therefore slower sunnier smoother tracks that i usually play and in Seattle in August for the Bottom 40 event, a new record label i’ve just finished a remix for.
Independent Groove: Describe your new EP in one word?
La Fraicheur: Petit Matin? hmm… „OpenAir“
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Independent Groove: When came the inspiration for your new Ep „Petit Matin“ & the video idea?
La Fraicheur: When i work with Greg Kozo we don’t have anything planned before hand. I land in Paris, get to his studio, plug the Moog Voyager and let’s go. We start playing around and see where it takes us and trust our instincts and follow the flow. We don’t edit much, we don’t do second takes, we don’t look for sounds forever, we just do what comes naturally. It’s fun to be directed by the music rather than the opposite.
For the video, it’s all the work of Mexican artist & film maker Manuel D. Lira. he had already created the video for my solo track “Confusion” last year and once again i gave him total freedom to do whatever he felt inspired by. He is my creative soul mate and always ends up creating pieces that really feel close to me and resonate with my experience in an even more intimate way than if i had directed him. For this video Manuel D. Lira wanted to capture on video these three young people for being unapologetically themselves. They each have a way of openening up the gender spectrum to make it less binary and more “anything they want” and through this confidence, they make it easier to trust that the world will be an OK place in the future. To be so young and yet so sure, it feels like they were born in a different dimension, where no bullshit rules are set in place, where you’re free to travel the fluidity of the being.
https://vimeo.com/169963412
Independent Groove: Which releases from other labels have influenced your style on long terms?
La Fraicheur: I don’t really know how to answer that question because i’m not sure my style is very defined yet to start with. I love to listen and play so many different things that i think when i produce, the same mess is represented. so far i have done melancholic electronica as well as dark spacy tech-house, aerial bright deep house, pumping electro and i’m working now on some political vocal deep house, some jack and some slow sad as fuck not-club oriented electronica. So to pin point labels that lead to that is hard. The other reason, which comes from my experience as a history of art student, is that exhaustive, detailed, academic knowledge ruins all the fun for me to a point where i can end up hating what i loved the most. When i left school, i didn’t go to a museum or an exhibit for something like 5 years afterwards, they had killed all the love i had for it to a point i was physically nauseous going into a gallery. So when i started my musical career, i promised myself it wouldn’t happen again and adopted a very protective behavior. Now i voluntarily discover music in a very intuitive, instinctive way. I don’t research labels, i don’t want to know who’s behind which moniker and from that information branch out to other projects they might have, labels they might have founded or whatever. I usually barely even remember who created that track i play and never knows what year or on which label it was released. to me it’s “the record with the blue logo” or “the record with the face on it”. I don’t want to dig too deep. I know it means i will most probably have incredible gems pass me by, i will have huge gaps in my musical culture, i will be late on certain trend trains, but i honestly don’t care. What matters to me the most right now is not knowledge, is to keep the love and the excitment intact.
Independent Groove: How did the contact materialize to the REMIXERS?
La Fraicheur: I always pick remixers for the diversity they can bring to the EP in order to be able to offer in one release, a wide variety of styles, people that usually do the opposite of what i (or we if it’s a collaborative EP) had created. Kaptain Cadillac and Elisa Bee’s ghetto tech style i am a huge fan of and could never do myself so it makes sense to ask them to participate. Club Bizarre’s signature 100 bpm club sound is another exemple. I have no clue how they do this! so i just let them work their magic! i just work on instinct and ask people i know and have played with, friends i love, artists i respect and look up to for their own style. One important component in my choice of remixers is that i want females to be well represented. No matter what i do (book djs for my parties, create the tracklisting of a mixtape or chose a remixer), giving equal opportunities to women to show their skills and reclaim space they are often kept away from, is something that matters to me a lot. i strongly believe in “if you’re not part of the solution then you’re part of the problem”
Independent Groove: Plans for the future ?
La Fraicheur: Well the summer is pretty busy with gigs, in festivals and cities i love so i will be touring a lot. and the few days i will spend home in Berlin here and there in between planes, i will be in the studio working on my next 3 solos EPs. The past months have been so crazy busy that i haven’t had a moment to myself but now there’s a lot i want to do and i feel like i can’t wait any longer. On top of that there is also more collaborations with Leonard de Leonard, Nark, Lila D. from Signal Deluxe and Aantigen in the works. My main wish right now is that time didn’t fly by so fast cos there’s so much i want to do.
Independent Groove: We thank you for your time and wish you much success with the Petit Matin Ep on Leonizer Records.
