Welcome to Introducing, where we look at the best up and coming talent in electronic music. This week we spoke to Toulouse native Hunvre. The French artist is part of Alert Collectif and has made waves recently with his emotional, atmospheric minimal productions. We sat down with the young talent and picked his brains on his productions, his work with Alert, and the challenges he has faced.
For a lot of people a career within electronic music isn’t always their first choice. What was it that pushed you to pursue this as a career?
I have always organized events, whether for friends or in associations, so being part of a collective and organized party was the logical continuation of all that and my involvement in the musical world as well. Locally with the ALERT team we have organized a lot of events since the creation, whether in bars and clubs in the city or in the mountains in the Pyrenees, and other less official parties.I got involved in musical production in order to be able to reach a wider audience and to share my emotions and influences which have been shaped through my involvement in music.
For our readers, who haven’t heard your music before, can you give us an insight into the type of music you produce and enjoy playing?
To illustrate the music that I produce, I suggest you listen to my last release on the Parisian label Stamp records, for this EP I have collaborated with Constratti, a producer who is doing well at the moment. This release is quite representative of my style and what I try to convey in my music.The two tracks and the remix are very different atmospheres levels, Eor is quite energetic while Amanenn is rather planing, the Constratti remix brings a Rominimal twist, that’s what I try to do in the production, to have several environments .
Regarding the music that I like to play, it remains essentially minimal, most often quite pressing and joyful and soaring and quite dark when the time is right.
You have showcased your sound around the ‘pink city’ Toulouse where you are currently based, with your collective ‘Alert’, can you tell us about the collective?
The collective was created three years ago, basically it was a band of friends that I met at festivals and that hooked up directly. We started with a residency at “Tasta Aquo”, a bar in the city where we cut our teeth for over a year. Then we started to organize evenings in clubs like the “cry of the seagull” but also in a circus tent “LE LIDO”. As often as possible, we organize events with other associations in Toulouse. We are also part of the organization of the Pampa festival, an event that brings together local actors for a weekend in the woods surrounded by nature.
Besides that we have a residence on a local webradio “EGREGORE” on which we post mixes from each DJ every month. Our collective really brings together very different personalities and styles of music which was very cool to organize some parties because we always had someone who fits the mood in the group.
Today there are 8 in the team: SOYOUZ & DOKOMODO who are producers and DJ’s, then there is DJ OKOCHA, SAF & CHISANA who are all DJ’s, Clément our graphic designer, Yoan (our former president who is in Germany now), and finally myself.
What artists have had the greatest musical influence on your career?
I started by listening to a lot of techno with artists like Laurent Garnier, Jeff Mills, Manu le malin or Sven Väth. But if people talk to me about my influences today I think a lot about the minimal scene in Romania with artists like Rhadoo, Rareh, Arapu, Priku, Mihai pol and many others, this scene is incredibly rich and I try to listen to as much as possible from their homes.
What do you believe is the biggest challenge facing up and coming artists looking to get their career off the ground?
Visibility is definitely the hardest thing to get when you start in music, especially nowadays where you have access to a lot of stuff. Djing and production have become very accessible to everyone, so you have to stand out from the crowd by finding a ‘musical paste’.
If there was one club you want to play in at some point in your career, what would it be and why?
If there was a club I would like to play it would probably be the BLITZ CLUB in Munich for their Void acoustics sound system, I think it must be amazing to play in a place like that.
Finally if you could produce a track with any artist who would it be and why?
BARAC, for its atmosphere and its very singular musical palate, each of the tracks are absolutely incredible whether in terms of creative complexity or simply beauty.
You can buy Beajiñ EP here.
