9+1 Q&A with Echoic Memory

What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.

I always feel and felt a strong inner excitement and drive to express myself musically or through music.

As a little girl I was touched by motown music, especially the typically recorded female voices made me dream. I was on my own from a very young age, which often overwhelmed me, the music always had a comforting function for me (like for many I think). I see music as a saving island, a way to open closed chambers of your true self, and an opportunity to free yourself from an imposed pressure at any time.

I have always communicated through music and I am passionate about discovering music since I was a teen. I collected music and made mixtapes or sampler (for others or myself) to be able to communicate in richer facets. I’ve been playing Dj sets since a long time. Music simply means a lot to me.

Before I started playing solo, I paused my music project, the wave-rock duo ‘Germinal’ and began focusing on synths, and I realized it was a good way for me to communicate the unconscious, making visible invisible details of existence, I guess. Maybe synthesizers are just made for that.

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

The 6-Track Debut EP ‘Animal Shadows’
https://echoicmemory.bandcamp.com/album/animal-shadows

Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?

When I was seventeen I was deeply moved by Emile Zola’s novel ‘Germinal’. I was gobbling it up by candlelight in my first apartment and still regularly remember the strong images that the words created on me.

But also philosophical trends like Albert Camus have impressed me in my younger years. What shaped me a lot was to see our own relationship to the universe as something completely and fundamentally absurd. That was my first liberation. Classical sociological theory from my studies and the feminist classics influenced me of course. I’m actually reasonable and down to earth, but at the same time, I always had a strong curiosity for the unconscious, especially for the surrealist aspect of things. Dreams and their language inspire me a lot. By experimenting with dreams, I gained much of self-knowledge. When I started photography, I was able to process or grasp many of those topics.

Therefore I think the main interest for this project is to interpret the soft absurdity of existence and its parallel worlds of dreams and poetry. The music reveals many hidden details in that sense, and aims at dealing with the dark hidden sides of them. And explore some other strangenesses…

In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?

I wish to communicate a mix of sensibility and questions, here where the music today I think is crystallizing itself in over-liberalism, non-perspectivism and commercial success.
It’s a recall of the relative independence of creation, that mixes hard themes with sour-soft music, or the opposite.

Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…

It’s very difficult. I really listen to different types of music, from soft & deep, hard & raw all the way to some ‘machine’ music.

I don’t like to reduce that down to only a few, but I think I really like those two films, ‘Wings of Desire’ and ‘Persona’.

I like to read ‘Patricia Highsmith’ very much, I think there are only a few books left by her which I haven’t read yet. But there are many more writers which I like, unknown ones might be better for this island, I guess.

Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?

It always depends on mood and atmosphere.
Basically, there are very different conditions for me.

When working at home with my devices, there is a more focused inner dialogue, and enough time to receive and recognize emotions, to let yourself be carried away by imagination, and my head is always awake and available for decisions. I get most of my energy mainly from being alone.

In live performances, it’s more automatic mode and there is only the present and the tension, you are a little more animal.
For me it’s always a challenge, an uncertain case that I surrender to because taking the chance is important. I like the possibility to experience an invigorating electric current or on the other hand to risk a kind of gentle traumatization through overstimulation.

Live performances cost a lot of energy, but they also make you feel alive and force you out of your hideaway. Studio work can of course also be exhausting, but at the same time you process internal questions and gain energy. Working solo also differs somewhat from my experiences in a band.

Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?

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Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?

Every track has a different story for me, however many people react especially to ‘Amber Room’.

Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?

Sure, the track ‘Amber Room’ will soon be released on a compilation tape on NYC’s Lost Soul Enterprises label. There will be tracks of Echoic Memory released on a limited edition 12inch vinyl on the german label Minimalkombinat. Other tracks for compilations and the release of new songs are planned as well.

Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…

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Photo credits: Johanna Marie Bodeux (1st one)

Curated by: Christos Doukakis

Recommended listening:

Connect with Echoic Memory:

Facebook Page: https ://www .facebook .com /echoicmemory .music /

Bandcamp: https ://echoicmemory .bandcamp .com /

YouTube: https ://www .youtube .com /channel /UCRCEBRu –KxWcEvaJKGYOarA /featured ?view _as =public