ContirbutorEarlier this month, French duo Betical made their debut on the iconic UK label Renaissance Records, as they collaborated with the recently launched MODEM project from Julian Wassermann and Raphael Mader. Following the release of ‘Marginal’, we’re pleased to be chatting with Betical today.
Hello guys! A pleasure to be chatting with you today! How are you both doing and where abouts are you right now?
Hi man, pleasure to meet you too! We’re doing great thanks. We’re producing in our studio in Lille at the moment (North of France)
How is the music scene doing there right now given the effects of the pandemic?
We can say that this summer we came back to something almost normal. In some of the gigs we played despite the sanitary pass, the conditions were great and that was a priceless feeling. We may have another round of restrictions but in any case we imagine it will be complicated to close everything again. On the other hand, lockdown has influenced a lot of artists to explore new horizons in their sound.
We’re chatting about the release of your collaboration with MODEM (Julian Wassermann and Raphael Mader) on the iconic UK imprint Renaissance Records. It’s a brilliant collaboration, can you tell us how it first came about?
I think that was Raphael who reached out to us and explained his upcoming side project with Julian. We were really excited to work on a track together, they sent us several demos and ‘Marginal’ came out as an evidence.
What was the creative process like working with MODEM? Had you ever worked with them before?
It was the first time working together, and to be honest it was the first time we talked to each other ahah. At the beginning, ‘Marginal’ was an ambient track, we thought there was great potential so we tried to turn it into a break track, we then added vocal samples and melodies quite naturally. It was a great collaboration with great great producers!
What’s your own creative process usually like outside of collaborations? Do you have your own roles in the studio or is it more freelowing?
It varies a lot, we start ideas on our own with something precise in mind or sometimes jamming around with the machines, but we always finish the tracks together. In the process we have different preferences like Martin is more into the producing / mix part and Max is more into the chords / melodies and artistic direction. We have a strong complementarity.
Being brothers, we’d love to hear the story about what inspired you to start the Betical project?
We started producing at a young age and we were producing on the same computer but only on our own. We were kind of fighting to get access to it ahah. We quickly realized that was quite ridiculous… and we decided to do it together.
Who are your main musical influences? Do you share the same influences or would you say you both bring your own individual tastes to the project?
We’re listening to tons of music with no specific genres. It helps us to bring new ideas and to stay open minded. We have different tastes also, but we’re completely on the same path regarding the Betical project. Our main musical influences would be artists like Bicep, Jamie XX, Moderat and George Fitzgerald.
Thank you guys, it’s been great to chat with you today. Congrats on the Renaissance release and we can’t wait to hear what’s next from you. To round things off, is there anything coming up from yourselves that you can tell us about yet?
Thanks a lot guys, it was a pleasure too! We’ve been working on lots of music during the year, expect a lots of new music and big collabs for 2022
MODEM, Betical – Marginal is out now on Renaissance Records
Buy / Stream it here: https://lnk.to/REN21013D
