Why Techno RuleBreaker Avalon Emerson Traded Club Bangers For Featherlight DreamPop
Avalon Emerson has spent the last decade creating techno that is as complex as it is overworked; Jewel-toned synth melodies and pastoral epics more suited to Wubad than nightclubs. The Arizona native is particularly popular for his bold, genre-bending DJ sets, where the blindfolded hyperpop of industry legend Coil Two Shell pats Shell on the back and the Cocteau Twins find common ground with Italo Disco. He loves spirited vocals, thoughtfully placed samples and the occasional eyebrow-raising curveball.
But with his new project, Avalon Emerson & the Charm, he's transitioned from eclectic club music to a singer-songwriter style so naïve he doesn't know what to call it. "I think 'pop' is a lazy generic term, but it's also generic enough to be precise," he tells me on Zoom from Notting Hill, London, where he rehearses with his band. In keeping with his forthcoming debut, the sunny textures have a warm, Balearic feel thanks to London's Bullion (Nathan Jenkins), who covers the album; The record's offbeat, retro feel is similar to the work of Westerman and Nilufer Yania.
Emerson has wanted to expand beyond dance music for some time, although he also recognizes the risks of picking up the mic as a first-time DJ. ("It's that bad, isn't it?" he laughs.) When he and his wife, Hunter Lombard, moved to Los Angeles in 2019, he envisioned a new phase in his career, working behind the scenes to keep other musicians afloat . . His first two sessions were with Romy du xx. "The most beautiful angel," said Emerson. "We worked in a great studio and I just didn't know what I was doing. It was late February 2020. I remember a conversation like, "This weird thing I'm reading on Reddit seems pretty serious."
For Emerson, the consciousness "My God, my work is done" becomes " I like my work". During the epidemic. The breakup meant he got off the hamster wheel of late nights and international flights and instead devoted himself to songwriting. He repeats chord changes and breaks down the verse/chorus/verse structure; Equally important, he sought "creative stability" so that his new skills could take root and bear fruit. The record was edited and edited, first with Lombardi and then with Bullion at his London studio, with the help of collaborators including multi-instrumentalist Kevon Hobeider and guitarist Joe Newman. Emerson almost exploded on some of his sketches. "It's not really a song, just a crazy little piece of wrong board," Emerson recalled telling Bullion. But with the support of his friends, even the most fragmented ideas emerge. "It was eye-opening to know that it's okay to bring small pieces," she said.
When I spoke to Emerson in mid-March, he was learning another important skill: the art of playing with an orchestra. "I can't sing live or anything," he admits. "We don't have that formation phase that a lot of artists have where they can get their sea legs with live shows, so we're going to start 'soft'. On the first night of a month-long stay at a London members' club with closed shows every Wednesday, there were about five viewers including his manager and a few close friends; It was the first time he sang in public. "Now I respect the band infinitely, infinitely, infinitely more," he says, "because it's a whole different arena."
Pitchfork. Your new project seems to be a pretty sharp left turn. Can you tell me how that happened?
Avalon Emerson. I've never been one to listen to dance music in my spare time. I've always wanted to make something that could be played plug-in style on an acoustic guitar or piano and still stand up. I made folk guitar music in high school and when I moved to San Francisco I started making dance music and DJing. I've gotten pretty good at it, so it's been the focus of my music career for the last ten years. I don't want to say that my desire to do pop music comes from a negative context, like "I don't like dance music anymore". I still love it and am still inspired by it. Admittedly, that happens less and less to me these days, but it's still a part of me.
Was it difficult to write original songs after making dance songs for so many years?
It was a black box puzzle for me. I went to Wikipedia and looked at different song structures and analyzed all these songs that I liked. I taught myself music theory, learned chord progressions. A couple of times I felt my head bang against the wall, feeling like this wasn't the right path. I've worked with a few other producers and songwriters, but it didn't really work out until I started working with Nathan.
How do you get along with Bouillon?
When I was living in Berlin, my friend Nathan took the microphone and said, "Now you have to listen to this song." He goes on YouTube and releases "Blue Pedro" and we both say, So when I started DJ Kicks Long Forgotten Tales, I thought, "I want to do this cover and who makes good covers best? Broth." So when we started working together. He's got this nice alchemy of hard and soft skills. He's not very technical and not very bossy. I have to make fun of him sometimes, like, 'Good song, that's something ." He said. "Those words are weird when you sing them like that, it sounds a bit cheesy, maybe we can think of something else." It was so comfortable.
Your production and DJs can be very heavy and loud, but this record is pretty sweet in many ways.
Ever since I got involved with dance music, this arms race has only accelerated, and it's not really something I identify with. This performance release that people find when they interact, I understand and respect it and participate as a DJ. But when I listen to music I think the perfect record is a Cocteau Twins record, sweet and beautiful. I wanted to make it a smooth and beautiful record, but lyrically I think it's all dark and sad and very dark at times. This combination is important because something beautiful can emerge from a place of pain. I think that's the best art to be honest.
You've had quite a successful career as a DJ, but it's only now that you're taking the time to record a record like this and do a live show. Was it scary to say, "Okay, I'll put down the phone and do something else?"
Confirm. It's a financial risk. I have a newfound respect for the band. It's probably unnecessary to hang up, man. I just got on a plane, me and my thumb are driving. In the club world, you can quite reliably fill a room with hundreds of people every night without knowing the artist. I don't know how many people are in this club in Belgium, I only knew DZ who I really am. They come to the club to have fun and dance with their friends because they are not obsessed with my latest EP.
It's really hard to make money playing live games. The shows we do, well we might suffer for a while because there are optimistic plans that we can make money from other shows or festivals in the future. But overall it's a big risk. Will people come? We have to sell these tickets, otherwise there won't be any rush.
How has your approach to DJing changed?
I think DJing is one of those skills that you get better at as you get older. When I first hit the clubs in San Francisco, all of my favorite DJs were mostly older guys like Francois Kay and DJ Harvey who had heard a lot of music and knew how to play it. I was 19 years old and when I first heard the song "Get Close" by Valerie Dore, I said to myself, " What is that song? But Harvey has been playing it forever, probably since it came out.
In recent years I have become an archivist. At the beginning of my DJ career I was trying to find songs to play that weekend, like "I'm going to play at Panorama Bar, I need to find some good bangers." But nowadays it's more like that. "This song is important and I should have it in my record box, even though I'll probably never play it."
In fact, the last time I played this six hour game these days, I played an hour of all this late 90's early 2000's indie-indie stuff. I think the indie sleaze is back vibe belongs to the millennials. my age and a little older constantly shaming Gen Z; "Your lace isn't great, your skinny jeans aren't great, your music isn't great, you're not great the way Bacon likes it. ". We're constantly told that we're old and not cool. So when the indie sleaze is back thesis came up, all these millennials were like, 'I used to be good and you're good. Come on, you have sex with the ZZ boys."
I'm actually too young to have any personal memories of these songs; I graduated high school in 2007, so I was more interested in post-2000 ed bangers and all that. But it's all stored. I played Austra's Still Going remix of The Beat and the Pulse, House of Jealous Lovers, Morgan Geist's LCD sound system version of Yes (Krass Version). Then you have to play something modern at the end. It's important to have a dialogue between the present and the past so it's not just 100% retrograde like "it used to be better". So I played "Girls" by The Dare and it was great
Have you played Girls on the Dare? Avalon, this interview is over.
sorry i know But hey, let's go.
Originally appeared on Pitchfork
