Now for the business side of the night, Anoraak! Most importantly there were people there specifically to support Anoraak and made the most of his appearance but occupying the front of the dancefloor, at least for some of the time, well when I was there anyway. Anoraak’s set was short but sweet. I don’t think the crowd were into the live set at the beginning, but people really warmed to their music, it has a great pace to dance to, nothing too far over 120 bpm, and the tracks are very catchy. I remember hearing “Nightdrive With You” and “Long Distance Hearts’ within the first few tracks, after that I wasn’t too sure about the rest but Toby (one of his true fans) told me there was some smashing song he was going to end with, I don’t know if he did end with it, but whatever he ended with was awesome! Overall everything I heard I enjoyed, so it probably doesn’t matter if I name the tracks or not, well I can’t anyway so just go listen to some more Anoraak.

On a more general note it was great to see some live electronic music again. There is just something so satisfying about seeing a drummer on stage (Frederik even says there may be a bassist soon!) I hope everyone gets on board with this ‘nu-disco’ wave, and we see some great nights return to Perth. Thanks to Limelite for making nights like Friday night possible, it was good fun, and they take a big risk having artists like Anoraak, so it’d be great to see continued support.

Anoraak (Myspace)

In Nantes is there a big following for the kind of music you make on the Valerie Collective?

Umm, my phone isn’t working very well, can you repeat that?

So I repeat the question and ta-da!

Yeah in France it’s super popular.

What about in your town?

I think it’s a little popular, but yeah sometimes we have some parties there and it’s really packed. It’s working well here but it’s not like the big time. We have plenty of people following it though.

Is that the same through the rest of France, or is your following from America and England?

Um I think the biggest following is from the United States. I see on my Myspace that about 50% are from the United States. I think it’s bigger in the states than it is in France. I think in Europe it’s mainly from the UK but it’s working pretty well. It might be a bit in Sweden too and the other Nordic countries.

Why do you think it isn’t as big in France?

Ah now?

Yeah.

Um, you know in France it’s a really special market. For example do you know the band Phoenix?

Yep!

I think that they began in 1998/1999 and they didn’t become really big in France since like 2006. Now they’re being played on the radio and stuff. It seems to have to be big first in the United States, the UK and Germany and then it becomes big in France. It’s always a bit tricky in France, the big things are always crappy stuff! Haha The big stuff on French radio is always found somewhere else first. I don’t really know why it is like that, something cultural I suppose.

It’s very odd that it’s like that, that the good stuff goes unnoticed!

Yeah I don’t have an explanation for it, it’s just the way it is.

How did you find out about Australian bands, like Cut Copy and Miami Horror?

I think I found Cut Copy in 2004 and I really liked what I heard.  I liked their first album. When I discovered the CD it was exactly what I was looking for. At the time I hadn’t found anything like this, and thanks to Cut Copy I got introduced to this new Australian scene and all these bands made a big contribution to incoming stuff now like chill wave with Neon Indian and Washed Out, which I really love by the way! I think that the first guys to make something that was like chill wave was Cut Copy.

It’s not what you want to do though it’s just stuff you like?

You mean is it like a big influence to me?

Yeah.

I think, especially Cut Copy, they had a big influence on me because they’re someone who I really like. When you make music you’re influenced by what you like. You kind of put some of what you like into your music. I think I can say Cut Copy has an influence on my music somewhere.

At the moment are you working on an album?

Yeah it’s going to be done in about a week and it will be released in late August. Before the album release we’re going to have a single out, and will put it out on the net.

Are you going to have any of your older tracks on the album? Or is it only new stuff?

It’s only new stuff. I started to compose the first part of the album last year in Australia!

Do you think you’ve changed the style of music that you produce?

I think the sound 2 or 3 years ago was a lot more instrumental, there was a real drum kit, real bass guitar and stuff like that. And it was a better sound, it was done properly. On the new album there are going to be a couple of tracks that are cheater tracks, were only one instrument will be used, and then some are completely electronic. But the sound itself hasn’t changed a lot. (I have to add here this wasn’t said in the way it sounds Anoraak was still happy with what he produced).

Do the other artists on Valerie influence what you produce?

Um, I think we’re just good friends, we all have a different vision of our own music. For example Russ has a special skill in a certain wave of music, we’re really close about what we like, but our music is really different. He is really into the dance music, club music stuff and remixing and I’m more into live shows and now I even have a drummer on stage and I play keyboards and guitars, it’s way more instrumenta;. Russ is really into the dj part. We write stuff every day and keep in touch about what we’re doing but I’m not sure if we influence each other. It’s just good to see what the others are doing.

You’re live show is a proper live show, with instruments and all?! (Seeing live with anything that is slightly electronic always makes me sceptical!)

Yeah exactly! There are two of us on stage, and we can’t play everything because it’s all heavy production music! Haha the bass lines are programmed etc… I think in the future we’re going to have a proper-proper live show but for now there are just to of us and we’re trying to make all the things we can make on stage. We still have a little electronic stuff, but I think it’s a good cross over between both live and programmed music.

Well that’s sounds pretty good to me! I can’t wait to see and thanks for doing this interview. I’ll see you in a few weeks time.

Yeah no problem

Then I added in that I would be playing a large number of his tracks that night at Run Rabbit Run! Hahaha he seemed pretty happy.