Interview: Lifelike
- Feb 19, 2009
A few weeks ago one of my writers had a chance to interview Lifelike and it went off wonderfully so I thought that I would share it with all the Virgin readers. Check out a snippet of the interview below and click through to read the rest of the interview:
There's something to be said about a musician who can almost effortlessly captivate you within just moments of their sounds gracing your ears. Whether you're drawn in by the hypnotizing arpeggios, sweeping emotive strings or invigorating bass lines â“ the music of Laurent Heinrich aka Lifelike can simultaneously serve as the quintessential soundtrack to both a daydream and a night to remember.
With a discography of sonically impeccable original works and remixes drenched in unforgettable melody, its no mystery Lifelike's approach to music has produced one of the most acclaimed sounds in recent memory - definitive yet timeless.
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview him and inquire about his musical beginnings, process of production, inspirations and what the future holds for the France based producer.
Killahbeez: Let's start with your name; Lifelike. What's the significance behind it and/or how did you come up with it?
Lifelike: I wanted to do a little remix for myself of a track from Depeche Mode "Master And Servant". I had sampled a short part in a break of the song where Dave Gahan was singing "Like life" I chopped it and swapped the words round to make "lifelike", and thought that would be a cool name for my music project.
KB: From doing a bit of research I discovered that you have some classical training in piano and also played bass in high school â“ how and when did your relationship with samplers, drum machines, sequencers and of course synthesizers begin?
Lifelike: Yes I learned piano for 3 years and had a short career as a bass player in a band at school. It's when I was playing in that band that I bought an Amiga computer and a sampling cartridge called "perfect sound". I used music tracker and started to do my own music. It was quite simple at that time with only four tracks and a limited memory. Once you had sampled something in that computer it was never sounding like the source because you had to economise the memory to be able to have enough room to make enough samples to use. But I have good memories of this time. From there I went quite normally to buy a synthesizer to connect to the computer, and that is how I started to compose little tracks a bit more seriously.
KB: How influential would you say your early musical experiences were before you started producing electronic music?
Lifelike: It had and still has a huge impact in my way of seeing music. I still think in terms of doing a pop synth track more than doing something like "techno" if I can still use that word today. But at that time I wanted to do like my idols, the same music, I was sampling Cabaret Voltaire or Simple Minds, or whatever sounded great to use those loops and sound in my little tracks at home.
Read the rest over at Killahbeez.
