Nicolas Godin

Todd L. Burns

Hello and welcome to the second week of the Red Bull Music Academy in Paris. I’m very, very honored to be joined by a French music legend, I would say.

Nicolas Godin

Merci.

Todd L. Burns

Nicolas Godin from Air.

Nicolas Godin

Merci beaucoup.

Todd L. Burns

Welcome.

Nicolas Godin

Merci.

Todd L. Burns

Before we started, we were listening to a couple of tracks from, I guess these were the first tracks that you ever recorded?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, the first one ever and it’s the first time I listened to them for many years.

Todd L. Burns

One of them was “Modulor Mix”?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, “Modulor Mix”. It was an experimental track about architecture, because I was studying architecture at the time and there was this guy called Le Corbusier, he did a system called the Modulor. It’s a reference for all about habitation and architecture in housing and with measurements for every part of it. All lights, materials, heights, vents and everything. He never talked about the sound of the music, and I thought in a system if you build a house, I decided very pretentiously to make a song that could be played in this system of the Modulor inside Le Corbusier’s house. This track was as much a sound design as a composition.

Todd L. Burns

How much do you think architecture has played a role in the music that you make?

Nicolas Godin

I think a lot, because I really think music in terms of space. I’m in a studio and I create space with very small sounds. It’s a good sensation to be able to create huge space with so few sounds. If you select them well and you place them well in the mix, suddenly you have Argentina, La Pampa in front of you. You feel super powerful. You’re just in a little studio with cheap equipment, gadgets, and you can create something huge just listening to it. Also, there was something very important about architecture, which is that the walls are not that important. It’s the space between the walls that creates architecture, and so it’s negative always. It’s not a positive, it’s like watching a negative picture and I think I do music the same. I do music…the notes is the same, one note is not nice, but the space between two notes, that makes the chord. The chord is the space of the music.

Todd L. Burns

You were talking about what you were using to make music, very cheap gadgets.

Nicolas Godin

At the time, yeah, it was things you can buy in the street.

Todd L. Burns

You had an 8-track that you first started on?

Nicolas Godin

This one not even, I had just one sampler and with, like, maybe two or five seconds of sampling memory in it. Basically, I had to make a drum loop and I was not good at that. Especially I admire hip hop bands and they were making great loops, and I was a guy from Versailles and I didn’t know to make a great hip hop loop, it’s not my culture. I went in a friend’s house and I record some drums for like ten minutes, the same beat, and I put them in the cassettes and then I went back home and in the ten minutes I can isolate it back for three seconds. Maybe less than that, maybe one second and a half. That was playing rhythm. I looped it with a sampler, and I did a bass line, and I put two root chords and some samples, and then that was it. The memory was full.

I had just two chords and the only way I can make this very interesting, because you had to make a six or seven minutes long of the song, but you cannot make the songs evaluating. The only thing I could do was to make some cuts or to put some effects, some delays, start putting some life, and you can create a life in a song. On the second track, I did “Casanova” with the same equipment, and then Depeche Mode asked us to make the remix and we got well paid. I went to Pigalle in Paris and I bought the digital 8-track and then I started composing songs with verse, chorus, break, things that I couldn’t do before because my memory was too short.

Todd L. Burns

The arrangement of your early songs was based on the technology?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah but you’re limitations create your talents because if…Now, I think when everything is possible you don’t use your imagination. When you have nothing you just have to use your brain, you know?

Todd L. Burns

This first song at least, “Modulor Mix,” came out on a compilation on Source Records originally.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah.

Todd L. Burns

There’s like Motor Bass and La Funk Mob, other people in Paris and France at that time. Did you feel like these were contemporaries or did you feel like the odd one out on this compilation?

Nicolas Godin

It was very bizarre, because in this time in Paris it is big house music and club life at night, nightclub. That was a good energy in the town, we can feel that it was the place to be, and it was ’94, ’95, ’93. But I didn’t know how to make uptempo music. I wasn’t good at that, I liked to go out with my friends and spend time in night clubs but I didn’t know how to make uptempo songs. In the same time in Bristol there was the trip hop time with the Portishead and that Massive Attack, so people got used to listening to slow instrumental track and this was very new. Suddenly this music became commercial and there was a little window where you could produce music like that and have interest from the people. Once Source decided to do that first compilation, Source Lab, you could do music for dancing or music more inspired by trip hop, which means just calm down, going home after the nightclub. I think I was good at making to cool down after being out at night, you know? That’s why I did this song and I would have never had the idea to make something uptempo at the time.

Todd L. Burns

You were then asked to make a record after this EP that you put out. I mean, the way I read about it is that they basically asked you to make a record. They said you have to make a record.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, because these first two singles had a lot of success, which was crazy because as I said there was no composition. They were just loops with some effects on it. Then it became big and he choose them as single of the week, there was this kind of hype, and then we’d been asked to make remixes and then the record company wants you to sign a deal to make us an official artist. I always considered myself more of a producer. I mean, I like to be in the studio. It was in this time, the late ’90s, that music was made by producers, like Massive Attack, the Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and then Air. All these bands were producers, they were not artists. Then producers started to have artist record deals. It was very strange because none of us was like Mick Jagger or David Bowie. We were more like studio guys but suddenly the studio guys were the headliners.

Todd L. Burns

What was it like when you first had to go on tour?

Nicolas Godin

I was very stage fright and I was a perfectionist and I was shocked by how I couldn’t reproduce the music in the record on stage. It took me years. It took me three tours to understand that that’s not what the audience comes to see. They don’t want to…They have the record at home so what do they want, they want to have an emotion on stage, they want to feel something. Like, making a show there is two parts work. You do you’re job and the audience does its job. The exchange between both of you creates something unique. It took me really until Talkie Walkie I think, my third album, that I could relax a little bit by stage. I said, “Okay, obviously they like what I do, so let’s do it.”

As I said, I’m not a front man. I come from this category of artists like I said, the Chemicals or Portishead or Massive or the Daft Punk, we are not rock stars.

Todd L. Burns

You said, obviously, the music that you are making is downtempo. Was it difficult to figure out how to play those songs live and how to change them to have a sense of power in the live arena?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, because live has to do with energy and when you play downtempo music it’s very difficult, so you have to work on the setlist and sometimes we fucked up on the setlist and the show was failing. At some point we find a good formula and then we know this formula works, and then the risk is that you play that same setlist every night. The more you do albums you have categories of tracks and so you can replace in the same place in the setlist one of the tracks with another one from the same category. That’s how we try not to play the same song every night.

Todd L. Burns

What was the sure shot early on? What was the track you went to?

Nicolas Godin

I think whatever I was doing on my whole life people we always want me to play “Sexy Boy” on stage. When I’m in audience, when I go to see a show, if I go to see Paul McCartney I always want him to play his old songs. It’s your destiny, you know? As an artist you have to play your, because people, when they go to see a show, when you play an old track they remember their life. They remember where they were at the time and so they live the life again and it’s crazy. It’s like you feel like being someone who will make people able to live their live twice. It’s very strange.

Todd L. Burns

Well let’s play one of the non-obvious tracks then, from the first album. This is actually an orchestral version of “Remember.” It’s David Whitaker, who we’ll talk about a little bit after we listen to it.

(music: Air - “Remember” (David Whitaker version) / applause)

Todd L. Burns

That was the David Whitaker version of “Remember.” For those who may not know, who is David Whitaker?

Nicolas Godin

David Whitaker is a very famous arranger from the ’60s and ’70s and he did that track from the Verve, “Bittersweet Symphony?” He did all the string stuff and also the first version of “My Way” by Claude François. He did all the arrangements, but at the time you bring a song to the arranger and he was making everything, the strings, the drums. He had his own band and he was creating. That’s the golden age of arrangers. We decided to work with him on Moon Safari and this track was a very simple track. We composed it very fast, actually. We were supposed to do a collaboration with Jean-Jacques Perrey, a French legend of electronic music , and he was late in the station and I was with JB in my flat and we were waiting to pick him up, so we composed this track very fast waiting for Jean-Jacques Perrey.

We recorded for Moon Safari and then we asked Whitaker to do some arrangements, and what he did was too rich, but it was beautiful, so we said we shouldn’t put any music on the top of it. We should let the strings by themselves, and so we did this version just to not throw away what he did because we were very impressed by what he did, but we didn’t keep it for the album because there was too many sounds on the original track that the strings couldn’t meld very well. It was a big dilemma in the studio.

Todd L. Burns

What was it like after you’re recording on a digital 8-track and then going in to work with David Whitaker?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, so at this time, it is hard to believe now with Pro Tools and all these things on computers, but then we only had eight tracks to record audio. So on Moon Safari there was never more than eight tracks on the whole album. When we went to mix it in the studio, because we had a deal with the record company so we had all the money we wanted, and so we went in a big studio to mix the album. So we had this huge disk, SSL, and then there was eight faders on the top of it and that’s all. We were just mixing with this eight thing but there was like 48 other tracks not used. Then we went to Abbey Road. It was cool in the studio of The Beatles and it was the first time I was recording.

It was my first record so we never had to…Everything happened like magic. In Abbey Road you record with a full orchestra with David Whitaker and then it was like more a dream, but also I was stressed out because I was worried about the music. I was always very concerned and…

Todd L. Burns

You were too stressed out to be nervous, almost?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, sometimes the stress killed the pleasure. One of the highlights of my career I didn’t enjoy them because of the stress, and I think when I was in Abbey Road it was very stressful. In three hours we had to do the whole album and so I was worried something was going wrong. We had to make decisions in the studio while we were recording and the clock was… When you recorded an orchestra you have someone for the unions with a stopwatch and then when it’s finished it’s finished. That’s done. Not one second more. I was very worried.

Todd L. Burns

Have you learned how to relax and enjoy these career highlights?

Nicolas Godin

Not really, not really. That’s what I said to my friends. I remember when we did the Hollywood Bowl in LA and it was sold out, I was so worried that I didn’t enjoy it. When my friends Phoenix did the same a few years later I told them don’t worry, otherwise you’re not going to enjoy it, and then it’s done and it’s too bad.

Todd L. Burns

I think the thing about it also, though, is you keep throwing yourself into situations where you don’t exactly know how it’s going to end up. You’ve done film soundtracking, you’re doing this new, you’ve done a solo album now that’s a completely different thing. Is that also something that you need creatively is to-

Nicolas Godin

No, I wish I would not have that. It’s like if you pass your exams every day. The only exam that I passed in my life was at the end of college or high school and it ruined my whole day and now it’s like the story of my life.

Todd L. Burns

I’m sorry to hear that.

Nicolas Godin

Right now, I’m talking to you, I just think of Thursday night.

Todd L. Burns

Thursday night when you’re playing your show here?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah.

Todd L. Burns

Why don’t we go ahead and play another song, this one maybe people do know. This is from The Virgin Suicides. It’s called “Playground Love.”

(music: Air - “Playground Love” / applause)

Todd L. Burns

That was “Playground Love” from The Virgin Suicides, which is also a movie. Was this always composed with the idea that this was going to be for the movie?

Nicolas Godin

No, this song particularly…I mean, we did the melody on the piano for the movie, that’s what it was composed for, the track for the movie, but the other version, and you know, at this time when I used to go to the cinema, at the end there was a film with the soundtrack and then at the end there was the credits and there’s always a song that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie on the credits. And I said I would never, never, never do that. I think it’s too cheesy, I hate that, it’s not artistic. We recorded the soundtrack of The Virgin Suicides with Brian Reitzell, the music supervisor. He came to Versailles. We did the whole movie. We rented some equipment. He came, he played the drums and a couple of weeks later everything was done.

We sent it back to the rental company and everything was finished. Then he flew back to LA and then he called me on Friday night and said, “Hey man, it’s great, the music is great. We just need a song for the credits at the end.” I said “What?” I said, “No, no, no.” He said, “Yes, we really need that. That’s what we do in Hollywood,” all the stuff like that. I don’t know. He was gone, I had no drummer and we needed a song. We only sang with vocoders until then. We were in Versailles, it was Friday night, and so I called my friends from the band Phoenix and I said, “Man, we’re in trouble. We need to deliver a song by Monday. We don’t have anything. We don’t have drums, we don’t have lyrics, we don’t have vocals.”

At the time they were preparing their first album, so they came along. We met the next morning in the studio in Versailles. We used to rent a big old house from the 18th century in the forest. It was a beautiful place. Thomas came and listened to the track and he wrote some lyrics on a piece of paper and then he played the drums because he knows how to play drums, Thomas from Phoenix. We recorded what you hear in one take and then we didn’t have strings, so JB took a Mellotron and did the strings on the Mellotron, which is the ancestor of the first sampler. It was an old instrument from the ’60s with tapes of sounds like that. It was good, but there were these breaks in the middle of each verse, there’s a break and it was boring.

We said, “Oh my god, the break is boring. What do we do?” Thomas said, “I’ve got a friend. He plays saxophone. We can call him.” I said, “Yeah, let’s call him.” We picked up the phone, we called the guy. He came, a kid, like, 18 years old with a saxophone and this is the thing: I said I would never make a song for the credit at the end of a movie and I would never record saxophone on a track. That was my two mantras in my career.

Todd L. Burns

It turned out pretty well.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, and then that’s what we did actually. We had a song for the credits with saxophone solos and then we mixed it in the same day in the studio and then we sent it back to Brian and everybody was happy and now it’s a classic.

Todd L. Burns

Obviously you recorded an album’s worth of material and I rewatched The Virgin Suicides recently and there’s not a lot of your music in it, certainly from the album that was released.

Nicolas Godin

No, basically we used to record watching the movie. We had tapes. Like, every week they were sending us tapes from LA with some sequences, so it was not edited and no order, and we put music everywhere and then basically what they decided is…it was the beginning of the era of music supervisors, and I grew up in a world where the soundtrack was something that there’s a composer and he makes the soundtrack for the whole movie. Nowadays, music supervisors, they do a lot of sync music. They took songs from everywhere and they compose a soundtrack with it and then there’s a composer who completes this work.

That’s what I learned when I did that. Actually they just took this theme on the piano during the whole movie and another theme, more dark, and that’s it. They just needed the theme of the movie to just one thing.

Todd L. Burns

For one sequence they used a track from Moon Safari and I noticed that it’s actually sped up a little bit.

Nicolas Godin

Really? My other problem, I always make music too slow and so many things they speed up. And now there’s a little plug-in you can speed up everything without noticing and if I had that in the time my life would have been easier I think.

Todd L. Burns

You made The Virgin Suicides and then you go off to make…Did it feel like 10,000 Hz was a second album or was it a third album?

Nicolas Godin

Basically, when we did Moon Safari we had a lot of success and we were all in the hotel lounges all over the world. Some people thought we were DJs or a marketing thing, so with Virgin Suicides we decided to break our image and to do something very dark and something you want to commit suicide if you listen to it. It was the opposite of Moon Safari, basically. Also, yeah, so we decided to do that and also we wanted the album to be listenable without the movie so that’s why there’s more songs on the album than in the movie because we wanted it to be independent, not being bored if you listen to the soundtrack without the film. I don’t know if it’s an official second album or not, but maybe not, I don’t know. I consider it as a real album.

Todd L. Burns

The next album, 10,000 Hz Legend, I think it’s generally regarded as the experimental Air album.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, which is actually very easy to do, like, making an experimental album is not hard. It’s like if-

Todd L. Burns

Why is it easier?

Nicolas Godin

Because being experimental, if I decided to do only that for 40 minutes it’s experimental, you know? It’s not hard to make. I can say it’s my new album.

Todd L. Burns

It seems like you put a little bit more work into-

Nicolas Godin

Writing a hit single is much more harder because when we did some few hit singles like “Cherry Blossom Girl” and “Kelly Watch The Stars,” these songs, it’s harder to hit the radio and to make experimental music. Basically, that’s the rule in music. When you make your first album you’re fresh. You do something completely spontaneous and it works and then you say okay, now for my second album I’m really going to show what I’m about to do and then you do a horrible complicated thing, you know? That’s what everyone does. That’s what happened with 10,000 Hz.

Todd L. Burns

It’s horrible and complicated?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, it’s too complicated. The only not complicated song is “How Does It Make You Feel?” It’s the one that’s verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and that’s superb. The rest of the album is too complicated. It’s like, breaks all the time and changes and it’s like, if we do a contest with me and JB the one who would find the most complicated chord.

Todd L. Burns

Who won?

Nicolas Godin

At the time maybe him. Now I’m getting better but this song was very simple and actually we took a break with the musicians. We went to see the catacombs in Paris and then when we went back we recorded that track. It was at five o’clock Friday night, I remember, and we were just at the catacombs between 2 and 4 and that’s a good memory.

Todd L. Burns

Well, let’s listen to “How Does It Make You Feel” and think about the catacombs vibe.

(music: Air – “How Does It Make You Feel” / applause)

Todd L. Burns

At the end of that song there’s a female robot voice that says something like “I wish you would stop smoking.”

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, which I did.

Todd L. Burns

That was you?

Nicolas Godin

No, no, no. I stopped smoking.

Todd L. Burns

Okay.

Nicolas Godin

This track is very funny. There’s Brian Reitzell on drums and all the twelve tracks of the backing vocals are made by Roger Manning because JB had to pick up his kids from school. It was Friday night, as I said, and so another thing to learn: if you want to make a record don’t care of your family life because it’s not good. It doesn’t work together. Yes, we used a computer voice and we always were happy to use gadgets and classical instruments in the same time because there was traditional records and there was electronic music but we wanted to mix them all together, so we went in LA and we’d say, “Okay, this cheap electronic voice on the computer, we’re going to mix it with a big choir,” and we went in Capital Studios in LA. We had all these singers, you know? It was a good memory.

Todd L. Burns

I mentioned that female computer voice because I just always listen to it and I just find it hilarious. How important is humor in your music?

Nicolas Godin

I think it was important just to, I don’t know though, because we don’t want to do things too much seriously and not be pretentious, because that’s the worst thing when you make a piece of art, is to be pretentious. We always use humor to calm down when we make something too pompous. We put some humor in it. First it’s natural, we don’t decide to do it. It’s more like us, we just relax about it. We just have fun with it because after all it’s just music. It’s very strange because I’m very stressed out. I want to do the best. I’m very perfectionist in the studio but in the same time I don’t want to be pretentious. I think life is better than that. Life is more having a nice glass of wine and stuff like that. Humor is a help to balance the studio work and stuff like that.

Todd L. Burns

I guess at this point we should mention bass, bass guitar.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah.

Todd L. Burns

I should have probably said before we listened to it so people could kind of tune into it, but bass is your first instrument, correct?

Nicolas Godin

Not correct exactly. It’s more like my first instrument is guitar, and then I was born in music with the home studio world, so when you have a home studio you could do everything. You didn’t need a band, you didn’t need a drummer or a bass player or whatever. In the ’60s when you composed songs you needed to hire a band, but with a home studio you could do everything by yourself. I had to do everything: keyboards, bass, guitar. I realized by doing this work that actually my favorite instrument was the bass. Actually, when you play all the instruments you don’t know really what kind of instruments is your instrument. I understood my instrument was, I’m a bass player.

I discovered that for myself. I did my outing. “I’m a bass player, wow.” That’s great. I was very happy because when you play bass you feel connected with something stronger than you. It’s very strange. You feel like you plug it in the ground and you’re part of the earth. It’s the most satisfying instrument. I play everything and when I do some shows I play keyboards, I play guitar, I sing, I play bass and believe me, I can tell you, when you play bass you feel like the strongest man in the universe. If you stop playing the show is going down. The bass is the most important thing because you cannot make a show without bass. I just realized that the White Stripes does that all the time, but except them.

Todd L. Burns

Except for them.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah.

Todd L. Burns

Do you have a favorite bass?

Nicolas Godin

Yes, I’m a bass geek so I’ve got a collection. The best song I ever recorded is “La femme d’argent” or “Talisman” on Moon Safari, it’s a Höfner bass. The only problem that when you play it you look like Paul McCartney. That’s the only thing. I just keep it for the studio and on stage I had to find the same one but we could differentiate, and also I use a small bass because I use what we call girl’s base, small necks and you can play them like a guitar and you can go on stage in the light. That’s my favorite basses.

Todd L. Burns

Why don’t we just listen to 30, 45 seconds of that song?

Nicolas Godin

Okay, okay.

Todd L. Burns

Listen for the bass. It’s pretty unmistakable.

(music: Air - “La Femme d’argent” / applause)

Todd L. Burns

Can you pronounce that song title?

Nicolas Godin

“La Femme d’argent.” It’s “The silver lady.” That’s me trying to find a way to describe a dark-haired girl, a silver lady, compared to ladies that are more blonde.

Todd L. Burns

When you first composed that bassline did you think, “Yes, I’ve got it?”

Nicolas Godin

I said, “I’ve got something.” Yeah, it was crazy. I remember that moment. I was in my room in Montmartre. I put that drum loop and I took the bass and I did that just like that from nowhere, out of the blue, and I said, “Wow.” Then I set up everything to record it and then I took and I said, “I forgot it. Shit!” I was in panic in my room and just playing, “No, it’s not that, it’s not that.” Suddenly after I said “Yeah, that’s it,” and I got it back and I recorded it. I was so happy and I wanted to make just 10 minutes of that bass riff and JB told me, “Yeah, we should put something else on it.”

I said, “No, no, it’s great like that.” He said “No, no, we should put some stuff like we used to do.” I said yeah, why not, but then I still have that long intro and then everywhere I step in a studio, in a music festival in the world all the bass players come to me: “Did you do the bass of that?” I’m the idol of all the bass players in the world because of that riff. I think, yeah, bass is, I feel I can express everything from my heart with a bass without being… Jaco Pastorius is a very technical guy. He makes crazy solos and stuff, it’s just the way the sound… The way my finger hit the strings, just that. It’s all connected. It’s really creative to take an instrument and to feel you can do something very personal with it. That’s very great.

Todd L. Burns

That’s the thing I wanted to ask you about your bass playing is it’s very simple but it’s very effective. I mean, is it a question of you holding back or does that just come naturally to you?

Nicolas Godin

I don’t know. It’s something completely mysterious for me. As I told you, I discovered, I surprised myself. I never thought about it. I never decided to do it. I had to do it because nobody was playing bass around me and because I had a home studio I had to record all the instruments so I got something with the bass. When I take up the bass I don’t think but with all the other instruments I have to think. If I play a guitar chord or a piano chord I have to be careful not to make mistakes but when I take the bass I don’t think of anything. It’s like if I talk or if I walk. It’s the same thing, really. You don’t think.

Todd L. Burns

Why don’t we go ahead and watch a video clip in just a couple minutes. This will be from Lost in Translation, this film that you also contributed a couple of pieces of music to. One of them, which we’ll see, was soundtracked an entire scene, just completely the whole way, which I guess was a little bit different than your experience on the Virgin Suicides.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah because for the first time I thought I learned how to do a soundtrack. The Virgin Suicides was, as I said, we did an album and also I think I could do something more. It’s strange to say that but I think Virgin Suicides, I felt a little bit I think I could have done something better in terms of doing the job of soundtracking. I did a great record, I did great compositions, but as a job to soundtrack a movie I could have done something more efficient, I think. I think I learned that and Lost in Translation is the first movie I said to myself, “Okay, now I know how to do a soundtrack.” This is the first track and it has been requested, they sent us this scene because Brian Reitzell was supervising the music for the whole movie, and we decided not to work together because we don’t like to do twice the same thing.

I think both him and us, we wanted to the surprise the audience and then at the end of the movie he went to see us in LA. We were recording Talkie Walkie and he said, “Man, so I finished the score for Lost in Translation but there’s one scene, nothing works on it, so can you do something for it?” He showed us the scene and we did that track.

Todd L. Burns

Why don’t we take a look at it.

(music: Air - “Alone in Kyoto” / applause)

Todd L. Burns

That was “Alone in Kyoto” from the Lost in Translation soundtrack. Talk about the arrangement on that.

Nicolas Godin

It was the beginning of my love story with Japan. We had to do something that fit that scene and we did it very fast, because in the cinema they’re always short running of time. He’s like, “We need a song by Monday,” or whatever. So the mixing is not, I just realized the mixing is not great. We did it very fast and for the record we remixed it with Nigel Godrich, so it’s much better sounding. Then after that track I decided to explore more about the Japan music scales. It’s not the same scales in Western music so I decided to learn traditional Japanese music with a master.

It was kind of difficult because it’s hard to get in the connection to get the right people and I had to make my own instruments, to make them built by some people in Yokohama, so I had a beautiful koto and shamisen and then I had to find a teacher. I needed to be accepted as a Western man. They had to give me their secrets of this music. It was a lot of work to be trusted.

Todd L. Burns

What was so appealing about that music in the first place?

Nicolas Godin

As I said with the bass, is something when I stepped in Japan I said, “Oh my god, I can feel something strong inside of me.” I can feel like I’m connected with this place and I think there’s a strange connection between France and Japanese, because a lot of Japanese people comes to Paris and France and there’s something about a kind of a love of making things, get things well done just for the pride. Like in France, we have all these artisans that make things and they are very proud of what they’re making, and in Japan when they do a job they do it perfectly but just because it’s a rule they have inside of them.

You do things relevant for yourself, and then also in France we love things that are kind of sophisticated and Japan is a very sophisticated country, too. The way they make music is something that goes straight to my heart. But it was hard, you know?

Todd L. Burns

How long did it take for you to feel comfortable on these instruments?

Nicolas Godin

I think never. I think I gave up after I understood. I decided to make a whole album about Japanese music, that was Pocket Symphony, so I used my koto, my shamisen, and I came up with some tracks and then I understood that maybe there’s no interest that I do that. Maybe if a Japanese guy wants to learn accordions I would not like it. Maybe I was the same kind of guy. I was just a French guy who plays koto, there’s no point.

Todd L. Burns

Should we not listen to a track from that then?

Nicolas Godin

No, you can if you want. You can hear me playing the koto.

Todd L. Burns

Yeah, why don’t we take a listen. This is “One Hell of a Party” from Pocket Symphony.

(music: Air - “One Hell of a Party” / applause)

Todd L. Burns

You also played piano on “One Hell of a Party” and in an interview you said that you play like Sakamoto or were trying to.

Nicolas Godin

I try to, yeah. Jarvis Cocker sings and write the lyrics. Yeah, it’s kind of slow, the track is very slow. Music was very, I think I was tired when I was doing this because I just went out from Charlotte Gainsbourg’s album, and it was a lot of work, and then I was into this Japanese thing and it was hard to… When The Beatles recorded all the albums, they were making one and then because they were not going on tour, then they’d make another one after that. I always wondered how it is possible because I experimented with that. I did the Charlotte Gainsbourg album and then I did Pocket Symphony right in a row and it’s very hard.

Actually, that’s why touring is so important, because when you make an album you go on tour and then you burn the song on stage. You let them get out of you, and you make room inside of you to make a second album after the tour. I feel like if you don’t tour, you make an album and the songs are still in here and you don’t get rid of them. You need to play them live on stage and get rid of them, burn them. When they burn they’re ashes and then you can build something else.

Todd L. Burns

You said at the time the Charlotte Gainsbourg album almost broke the band apart, Air.

Nicolas Godin

We had to compose, I was very happy to make it because I wanted to… I was inspired by the robbery films, when they rob a bank and everyone has got his own specialty. There’s the guy who drives, the guy who watches out, the guy who breaks the safe and there’s the brain and everything. With Charlotte, I said “Let’s make a robbery film.” I will compose the track with JB, Jarvis would write the lyrics, Charlotte would sing, Nigel would produce. Even for the food we had specialties of the food. Everything had to be done by a specialist. It was a traditional album, because as I said I come from the home studio, and I said “Let’s make a traditional album with an arranger, producer, a lyricist, a singer, like in the ’60s.”

I was very happy making that and after that I was just, we did like 15 tracks for her and I had no idea to compose new tracks. My fridge was empty. I had no “B plan” or something and so it was very difficult to make the album after that.

Todd L. Burns

Did you compose differently for her knowing that there was her voice on everything?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, because we usually, as I said, we don’t compose songs really, because we do lyrics, very short lyrics like “Sexy Boy” or “Kelly Watch the Stars.” I think when Daft Punk started “Around The World” we had this new art form where you can do a sentence and make a song out of it. With Charlotte I wanted to do it the traditional way with real songs, with real lyrics, with long verses and choruses.

Todd L. Burns

Why were you so set on doing something traditional with her? Just because you’d never done it before?

Nicolas Godin

I think because, yeah, I had to do music, because of my own limits, to create a specific style and I wanted to feel how it is to make a normal style. That’s why I wanted to make this album.

Todd L. Burns

A couple years after Pocket Symphony you built a studio in Paris.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah.

Todd L. Burns

I guess why don’t we go ahead and listen to the first song that you recorded in that studio once you had it all set up. This is off of the album Love 2 and it’s “So Light Is Their Footfall.”

(music: Air - “So Light Is Their Footfall” / applause)

Nicolas Godin

Merci.

Todd L. Burns

It may be just the songs that I picked, but there’s definitely an energy to that track.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, that was the good point. When you change places to record you always have a new energy, and that’s why I like to change places, and that’s why I didn’t want to build a studio, because it’s good to change and I don’t like comfort when you record. I think it’s a bad comfort, for artists it’s not a good thing. I think it’s good when it’s improvised. You don’t know how things work. You plug something, it doesn’t work. I like that. I think it keeps you alert. We decided to make a studio because the music business was going down and we said, “One day record companies will stop giving us money to record.”

I think actually that’s what happens. We decided to make a studio in this beautiful place and the first day we had the key we stepped in and we plugged the equipment and we sat and we wrote that song and recorded it in the same afternoon. We had an intern guy called Louis, also a sound engineer, but some equipment was missing. The drum kit, some part was missing. That’s why the drum is very bizarre on this track. I was less perfectionist for that track. I think I was just happy to be in the studio and to record.

Todd L. Burns

That’s interesting, because I would ordinarily think that if you have your own studio and you can spend all the time in the world to get something done-

Nicolas Godin

No, I think if you look you always have to do things by yourself. When you get some success you get cut from what made you a star. You get someone that plays the guitar for you. You know, when I was watching DVDs of my idols, bands that I admire and I can see the bonus tracks on the DVD and they’re all in their amazing studio, but I remember when they did good records they were in shitty places. I did my studio because I know because of that I will be able to make music for the rest of my life, because I had somewhere, but on the other hand I would have preferred record companies still be record companies and give us some money to travel and to record everywhere because I think it’s better for the inspiration.

Todd L. Burns

How do you go about, then, guarding against those situations where it’s too comfortable?

Nicolas Godin

It’s a tough thing. You have to be careful every day not to get habits and it’s a hard job actually, because you get easy with comfort. You get used to it very fast and it’s still a problem for me, you know? I’m still fighting against that. I think it’s a big issue.

Todd L. Burns

I suppose the next project that you undertook as Air, though, is a good example of how to get out of these habits, which is you did a soundtrack to a movie that does not have a soundtrack. Can you explain?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, it was the very important thing is that they found the original color copy of the Trip to the Moon which is the first science fiction movie made in 1900 by Georges Méliés, and so it was a silent movie. At the time they were selling the film to a circus or stuff like that because there was no cinemas. The people in fairs, they were watching the movie and when it’s broken it’s broken. They were watching until it’s broken, so nobody ever saw it and nobody alive knew how it looked like because all the copies were burned or destroyed by the time. They found its color copy at the Barcelona Cinematheque and they restored it and they asked us to do the soundtrack to show the film to the Cannes Film Festival.

I felt, for the first time, I felt good about making a new record because we had a mission, and that’s what I need. I need to be called, to have a mission. It was very moving. I watched this movie for hours and hours and I could see all these people from 1900. They were actually some of the dancers in the movie used to work here at La Gaîté lyrique, at the Folies Bergere, the dancers were working in all these places and I was very moved to do that and I think I had some good inspiration. This track we’re going to listen to, at the end of the movie there’s a parade with a big orchestra, and we had to do something with energy, but the rest of the movie is very dreamy and it’s very cool. That’s when they bring back the alien to earth and they make a parade for him.

Todd L. Burns

This is “Parade.”

(music: Air – “Parade” / applause)

Todd L. Burns

I suppose one of the interesting things to me about this is how modern it sounds. I mean, this is a movie from 1900 and there’s no even nod.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, the funny thing is that the whole movie looks like the record cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They all dressed like that, with colors like that. In this scene there’s this big band in the street with trumpets and drums and big drums like that, so we had to do something that color. The difference is that the director, Georges Méliés, of course he’s not here anymore, so we could do everything we wanted, which is a good thing sometimes. You don’t have to impose your ideas and stuff like that. It’s a small movie. It’s like thirteen minutes and it’s like a cartoon in one way.

Todd L. Burns

It seems to me, obviously he’s working in cinema back then, he’s at the forefront of technology, and a modern soundtrack is actually probably the best way to pay tribute.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, but also we were careful to… Because the only thing I accepted to do with that job is because at the time when they did the movie, he didn’t give any direction for the music. It’s not that there was a score and we decided to modernize the score, but at the time there was no scoring and also no indication. He’d just say “Play the movie and play a tune that’s sufficient.”

Todd L. Burns

I suppose that’s a nice segue to your new album, which is based on Bach, called Contrepoint. One of the reasons that you said you were so fascinated by Bach is that there’s no performance markings on his music. You can play it any way you want to.

Nicolas Godin

It’s very interesting because before the recording studios era music did not exist really, except on paper. It’s like, if you go to the Louvre you can see statues, paintings, but music there’s nothing. If you are someone like Bach, for you a song is a sheet of paper with marks on it. Imagine like da Vinci, instead of painting the Mona Lisa, he just described it. Would it be a piece of art or not? That’s a very strong question that I asked myself and then the recording studios and the techniques arrive and then suddenly, like Sgt. Pepper, it’s not only music, it’s also a sound recording. Music became doubled. Music became writing and sound recording. It’s not the same thing.

Basically if you take Bach you can do whatever you want because nothing is written. Nothing. You can play it with an orchestra but you can play it with a harmonica. You are free to do whatever you want. It’s not music that is made. It’s like everyone can appropriate it and you can play it the way you want to. It will be music that will stay forever.

Todd L. Burns

You also said that Bach, unlike Beethoven or some other classical composers, is inviting as a composer. What’d you mean by that?

Nicolas Godin

I mean that, he’s obviously a genius, but he’s not a scary genius. Beethoven is scary, Chopin is scary. People like that, they just scare me, Wagner is scary.

Todd L. Burns

Scary for a lot of reasons.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah. Bach is like… I always wondered why for people Bach music was something to do with God or stuff like that. Actually, I think it’s because of that, because someone who takes care of you, who welcomes you. “I’m bigger than you but it’s not a big deal. You’re free to follow me.” The other composers, they say, “Okay, look, I’m bigger than you but you are a real piece of shit. Don’t even try.” You know? Bach is not the same. Bach is very cool. Bach says, “Oh yeah, no problem.”

Todd L. Burns

I guess you were originally inspired for this album by watching some documentaries?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, Glenn Gould. I think I was on tour and he said… I was watching a DVD on tour while bored during the transportation, and he says, I quote him, he said, “Yeah, I was on tour and I was bored and I understood I was a monkey in the music circus, a traveling monkey in the concert circus.” I said, “Wow, that’s exactly what I am.” I was fascinated by this guy just to show me the light. “That’s it, that’s my life.” I have to change that. Also, I thought he was very charismatic and the way he plays Bach is the opposite of anything that’s logical. He played it in a modern way and there’s some melodies that are new and some I discovered but they were in this course and he made that appear.

He changed the balance of the melodies between them, because basically in what we call the fugue, it’s the counterpoint, it’s several melodies mixed together. He made some decisions. You hear something that you’re not supposed to hear. He does the opposite. He does it its own way. I realized you can do your own way with something from the past and you can do something new with something from the past. I was experimenting with the fact that I did my statement as a musician with Air. I said, “Okay, I said what I had to say in terms of at some point in ’95,” I said, “Okay we should do that and we did it. Now I want something more strong.” It’s like drugs, you know? You want to get something stronger because after a while you need better music.

Todd L. Burns

Why don’t we take a listen to one of the tracks from the album. This is “Cantata,” right?

(music: Air - “Cantata” / applause)

Todd L. Burns

What was the way in musically for you to construct this album?

Nicolas Godin

Basically, I used to learn the works on keyboard, on piano, and in some of the tracks I could see some little elements that were a gate opened to a crazy world, and I wanted everyone to be able to experience that without studying piano, obviously. For each track of the album I wanted to prove to make a different statement of what I think about Bach music and for this song for example there’s two things in that song. The first chord was a very strange chord. It’s completely lost in the piece, in the corpus of Bach. There are hundreds of cantata, maybe 100, and this first chord nobody knew it, so I wanted just to start the song with it so everyone can understand how cool is this chord. After that I discovered by studying The Well-Tempered Clavier that all the pop songs that we know, everything is in it, like all the melodies, all the chord changes. Basically, if you listen to one of my favorite tracks, “Hey Jude” from The Beatles, it’s all the pop music, even when you go in the supermarket all the music you hear is, at some point there’s two bars in Bach’s music that it’s taken from.

If you don’t know it, people, of course, they compose original music, but Bach did it before. It was a big problem for me, because once I realized it I decided to make the album and to show that to the people in that song.

Todd L. Burns

I feel like that would be a depressing thought in some ways, Bach did it all before. How do you-

Nicolas Godin

The good thing is that I did my career before I understood that. It was a nice position for me to be able to say, “What the fuck? He did everything before but I did like ten records before that so it’s fine.” Maybe I would never have made a career if I understood before.

Todd L. Burns

This does feel like a new chapter beginning for you in general though, musically. Would you say that’s true?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah. I think it’s hard to renew yourself when you have a career and you make a band. It’s getting more and more difficult to do new things and to find new combinations of sounds. I try. One of the composers I admire the most nowadays is Steve Reich, and I’m looking forward to grow old and to get more mature and keep on making interesting music and that’s what I’m trying to do. I think there’s two different sides of a career. Now there’s the stage side when you go on tour because what you create is emotion to share with the audience, so it’s a different job. As a composer you try to find your chord and your notes and so this is two different experiences.

I think they can work together, so I think I want to keep on searching in the recording studio and also I don’t want to make albums that’s completely blank. I want to make albums that have a purpose. This one was I wanted to tell something about Bach music and the next one I will tell something about architecture and the next one…Each time I want to use music to explore a domain, but I would never make an album just to make an album because I think the world needs new albums, but they don’t obviously need new albums from me. Everybody can make a new album. That’s what people wants to hear. They want to hear new stuff. I don’t need, with me and my life, I want to, as long as other artists make great records I’m happy with it. That’s what the world needs and the world needs great records. They don’t have to have records from me. If I make a record it’s because I find something interesting to do.

Todd L. Burns

Bach and architecture seem like very related things. Do you feel that way in your mind as well?

Nicolas Godin

I think, yeah, the thing is that when I was born I was good at music, but maybe I’m not a musician, you know? Maybe I’m more interested in other things but the way I do things I do it musically, because that’s what I’m good at. I don’t think, maybe, yeah, in my mind I would have liked to have done something else. I don’t know. Just the fact that I was good at it and it’s a gifted thing. When you have that just do it.

Todd L. Burns

I guess I’d like to open it up to questions from the audience. Obviously participants first please. Does anyone have a question and do we have a microphone?

Hiele

Hello. Thank you so much, thank you for your music.

Nicolas Godin

Thank you for coming.

Hiele

You are a very big inspiration for me.

Nicolas Godin

Merci.

Hiele

I have a question relating to Georges Delerue. When I listen to your music I feel all these elements, that they are some kind of past, that it’s somewhere there in the music. Is it stuff that you listen to a lot? How did it inspire you to do what you do?

Nicolas Godin

I think you’re absolutely right. Those three names are big names for me. One simple reason is that I grew up listening to the music of these guys. When I was a child I was watching TV all the time and they were doing a lot of TV shows, films, and commercials on TV in the ’70s. Everything I know I learned it from watching these films. Then when I was a teenager I started to buy records and I started to admire some bands like Depeche Mode or Prince or whatever, but before that when I was a child I was not going in the stores to buy records, I was watching TV. So when I decided to make a record with Air it would have been weird just to make a pop record or rock record because this is not how I grew up. I grew up watching TV. The first music that comes in my mind was music inspired by Georges Delerue, all these great composers like Ennio Morricone, and especially these composers were very popular in France because the films they were scoring were very popular.

Everything that I learned in music I know it through them. Even classical music, because these people studied classical music, so by ricochet I learned a lot of classical stuff through them, and I think French composers at the time, they were very good. In the ’60s when the rock music and pop music showed up, obviously we tried to copy that and we became has-beens, because French rock is like English wine: stupid. It shouldn’t be there. I would never get ashamed to do rock music, although I like it. I prefer to do music that I know and am familiar with like Georges Delerue. It’s beautiful, the music. The music he did for Le Mépris, Jean-Luc Godard is one of the highest music every recorded.

Todd L. Burns

Did you take notice of those composers as composers or was it just part of the film that you were watching and loving?

Nicolas Godin

I think it was an era where, you’re really right, the soundtrack and the film they were working together as a piece of art. Nowadays it’s a different era. Nowadays it’s more like underscoring or drones. There’s no more, like, it’s not like a composer and the director work together on a movie. It’s more like the music only has a function but it’s more like sound design. In this time with these guys, when you go see an Ennio Morricone movie, I mean a Sergio Leone movie, they were working together. They were associated. Nowadays it’s not like that anymore. It’s different. There’s nothing you can do about it.

Todd L. Burns

Is there another question?

Luisa Puterman

Hello. Thank you, first of all, thank you for sharing deep thoughts about playing instruments, being respectful with music history. Slow tempo and sense of humor, I think those are pretty much foundations of music production and I’m wondering, was there a certain point like a day or an experience that made you believe that “I’m doing the right thing” or “This was what I was born to do?” Really connected with music in that sense?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, I remember exactly that day actually. Because I used to do music all the time and when I was a teenager I started to make bands, because when you’re young you make something with a lot of noise, like, you make rock. You have your hormones and everything, you know? Then I discovered something and then I discovered soul music, because you can take loops from great soul records and I started to make music more soul or more funky. Rock was not me, funk was not me, soul music was not me. The hip hop in the ’80s was starting to show up with all these great bands and I was obviously not a hip hop guy. Then I quit music. I decided that’s not for me because everything I do is a copy of something else. I wasn’t doing my own thing.

One day I moved to Paris, because I was in Versailles and I set up my equipment and for some reason, I’d been commissioned to do a song. Mark here was working at Source and they decided to do this compilation, Source Lab, and they said “Make a track for us.” This is going to be good. I was at home and I remember I had my sampler and I put my Rhodes, I did these two chords and it was okay. It was two Rhodes chords and I put a bassline on it, it’s okay, it’s the Rhodes with a bassline and then I put some Solina string ensemble pads on the top of it, and the mixture between these two things, it was that night in the speakers, something new was appearing. I was like, “Wow.” I couldn’t believe it what I had. It was very traditional instruments with very traditional chords but the mixture of these three elements together, I created the Air sound that night. I remember.

I couldn’t make more chords because of the sampler memory so I put the Moog and I put delay on the Moog to make some on the top of it and suddenly the Air sound was there, that one night. For the first time in my life I did something original that was not on any other record. Then I came back to music. I quit architecture and I decided to make records. Obviously I do not regret it. It was the beginning of something. It’s a very strong moment in your life when you have this moment. It’s like magic moments and I wish everyone to experience that one day.

Todd L. Burns

It’s interesting and great to hear, though, that you had tried for so long. You’d already been making music and then one day you finally come upon it. It wasn’t immediate that you got that sound.

Nicolas Godin

No, but you know that’s another thing about the ’90s, because in the ’60s and the ’70s if you think about David Bowie or Prince they make like four or five records before making the right one. But with the home studio you can do that at home. You don’t need to release and be ridiculous by making bad records before that. You can be ridiculous only in your bedroom, you know? Once you’re ready then you can show up, and what happened is that in the ’90s you need to hit with your first album because you’re super soft on all your experience before, all your bad albums. You have made them for yourself in your bedroom. Then if you think of the first Daft Punk album, first Massive Attack album, first Portishead album, first Air album, it was this time where your first album you had to be successful with the first one because of that, because you could experiment at home and once you’re ready you make your album.

Todd L. Burns

Are there any other questions?

Cosmo

Yeah, hi. Thank you for taking the time to be with us today.

Nicolas Godin

Thank you.

Cosmo

You’ve been making music with Jean-Benoît, JB, since you were teenagers probably and you both have solo careers at the moment. How did the collaboration change or evolve throughout the years?

Nicolas Godin

I think when you take two people that are very different that’s the tricky thing with bands. You need to be complementary with someone. If you make a band with your best friend, at least someone who can do exactly the same thing that you can do, there’s no point. The success of a band comes from the fact that you make music with someone that’s complementary with you. I don’t know the complementary term in English, if it makes sense. When you make music with someone that’s very different, there’s many combinations that you can do and you make a career by any album, you try a different combination. I think at some point in bands in general, I’m not talking about Air, but in bands in general, all the combination, you made them. Then you start making the same record all the time.

I always wondered with JB if we experiment all the possibilities between us and so there’s two solutions. Either we did and we will not make other records but we will make the same concerts, because we are happy of the records that we make. We will be always happy to play them live. If there’s another combination we can find then we will make another record. It depends really of the mathematic possibility. It’s a matter of probability.

Todd L. Burns

It seems like the way you described the last time you made the record, which is a soundtrack, is you needed a mission.

Nicolas Godin

Yeah, I think so, because at some point you don’t think too much. You just do your mission and I think like if someone comes to, like Jean Michel Jarre came to us and said “Would you make a song with me on my next album?” then we find a purpose and then we do it. I think that’s what we need nowadays if we want to make another record, when it’s someone to come look for us and ask us something precise.

Todd L. Burns

Are there any other questions?

Furtherset

Hi, thanks for being here. Before you mentioned Steve Reich and sometimes when I listen to Steve Reich I notice that he is very similar to the work of Bach for the use of counterpoint and some kinds of repetition, obviously Bach doesn’t use so much repetitions but his work is very similar, Steve Reich’s work is very similar to the work of Bach. You mentioned Steve Reich because you said that he’s one of your favorite composers. How does he inspire your work? What do you like about Steve Reich?

Nicolas Godin

He inspires me in different ways. First, he is about to take classical music and take it more far, because usually nobody’s able to do that with jazz, for example or pop music or rock music. You would never do better rock than the Stooges. So what he did is kind of unique in the world, because it did something that’s supposed to be dead, classical music, and did something new with it. Also, because I come from the keyboard world I used to build sounds with Moog synthesizers and stuff like that. He is able, with classical instruments like clarinets and horns and vibraphone, for example, mix them together and he creates a sound that was not existing before that. The combination of the sounds sounds like synthesizers or something like that. That’s what we called le timbre. He creates new timbres, and I’m a composer but also I make sounds, I create sounds. He’s the only kind of guy in the classical world who creates sounds like he had synthesizers, but he just has an orchestra. He creates sounds with orchestras. He used the orchestra like I used synthesizers and I’m very impressed by that.

Todd L. Burns

Any other questions? Over there.

Audience Member

Hey, this is a two-part question. Are you using more than eight tracks now?

Nicolas Godin

Yeah.

Audience Member

How has that affected your music?

Nicolas Godin

Good question. I still wonder if it’s a good thing or not. I really think limitation is good for you. I think if you can do all the possibilities then… This is how I learn, you know? I learn with limitations, but young kids now, maybe it’s a limitation that he has no limits and that’s another problem. That’s how he will make cool music as well. The thing is that you have to live with your time so I would never say you have to make music like it was in the past before. I don’t think it’s a good solution. I think you have to move on and to work with technology. I think each era created it’s own technology and for each technology there was a group of musicians that took it and made great records with it.

The only problem is that if it’s not the right people they will make bad records. The only thing we need is the good people with the good technology. For me I grew up with limits so that’s how I built myself. I think limits is great but maybe it doesn’t make sense for someone who was born with the Internet and Pro Tools or Ableton or whatever.

Audience Member

Thank you.

Todd L. Burns

Anyone else?

Audience Member

Hi. Obviously you are a big inspiration for a lot of people, 25 years after your debut your music is still living through people. Do you understand that you have created something bigger than you, like a legacy?

Nicolas Godin

Well, yes, I think so, in terms of when I was making records I wanted the record to be listened to twenty years later or thirty years later. That’s why I was very worried of the recording process because I was scared to record something that sounds ridiculous twenty years later. I was very paranoid in the studio because of that. It was not in a pretentious way. I really don’t care of me as my name. I’m just thinking of the product. I think the music itself should be kind of a legacy. When I was a child I was dreaming of making music and the fact that I did some classic albums, it’s like my dream is becoming true. I’m very happy on the personal point of view but I don’t care for we call the glory, all this kind of stuff. Musicians, they do that for glory or for being the best of the world or whatever, the most admired guy in the world, but you know, I think time is so short, the time you spent on the earth that I really don’t care of that.

I think the most important thing is to create a good product because this is my nature. This is what I like to do. I would not do that for legacy because once you’re dead you don’t give a shit about that. You’re dead, you’re dead. That’s finished so whatever, you’re a legend or not. Also, the real legendary artists, they are completely crazy. For my own sake I just stopped myself to be good at some point just to have a good life. I said I want to be a better artist than that because otherwise if you want to be a genius like Picasso or John Lennon, those people, they are tortured. I don’t want this kind of life. I prefer a good wine because I’m French. A good wine may be always stronger than my records for me.

Todd L. Burns

Actually I think that’s a great note to end on. Nicolas Godin, thank you very much.