Over the past years French artist and Forest ill Records co-founder Nemo Vachez has been producing music based on several influences and emotions to make every artists’ dream come to true, namely to come up with an entire album. The eleven-tracker Epitome is released via Nemo’s own imprint and rings in a new cycle, maybe even a new era of the label as it showcases a more varied and complex side of his productions. With releases on renowned labels such as Truly Madly’s Mindhelmet, Sex Tapes From Mars, Mitch Wellings’ Space Tours or LOWMONEYMUSICLOVE, just to name a few, Nemo Vachez doesn’t need to prove that he could’ve released his debut album anywhere else as the artist is happy enough to enjoy a certain musical freedom, when it comes to his productions. Shortly before the HipHop, IDM, Breaks, Vocoder-album or maybe 80/90s infused album is dropping in stores, Nemo sat down with Torture the Artist to speak about Epitome, the early days of Forest ill Records and, of course, digging new music. Additionally you can listen to Look At You from the album.
Torture the Artist: Hello Nemo, tell us something about your day.
Nemo Vachez: Hi there, I’ve actually had a great days digging records and making edits, warming up fort he weekend!
Torture the Artist: Before we speak a little bit about your album, which is out on your co-run label Forest ill shortly, we’d like to draw the attention to the time(s) before and the label. How did you and Idris meet and when did you decide to found an own label, and why?
Nemo Vachez: We both went clubbing together like ten years ago, and after many years of partying and producing and mainly working on our own, we decided to have a label to release our music at first, but also in order to invite befriended artists with a similar vision of music, who wanted to release their music with us.
We didn’t have much money, so at the beginning we did everything on our own. I made the label design and we pressed the records in a factory in the Netherlands, also the distribution was done by ourselves on Bandcamp. Luckily our music was listened to by many people and we grew a bigger and could have a proper distribution. <laughs>
At a time when didn’t have enough money to buy records, I started to produce my own music.
Torture the Artist: Can you tell us a little bit about your life before Forest ill and before it was brought to its beginnings?
Nemo Vachez: I was a graphic designer, and I was always deep into music. I have been digging music for 15 years, can you believe it? At a time when didn’t have enough money to buy records, I started to produce my own music. Idris is a proper musician and plays many instruments so he helped me a lot in the beginnings.
Torture the Artist: What are some struggles that you have encountered as an independent label?
Nemo Vachez: As I said before, we were super lucky to find an audience really fast, so we didn’t have to struggle. The only thing that was really annoying – simply because it was loads of work – was the shipping of the records when we were selling them on Bandcamp.
Torture the Artist: Running an independent label also means – at least to a certain extent – to be idealistic. Is it more important for you guys to have full musical freedom and maybe suffer financially or do feel at some point you have to compromise?
Nemo Vachez: For us the main point is to release all the music that we want and have the complete (artistic) freedom over what we do. This also involves being able to maintain an organic workflow. All the artists we feature on the label are good friend of us, and we want to keep it this way and the rather old-school idea of a “physical” scene, where every artist knows each other and shares their visions. Even though we live in a world and time when we’re lucky enough to be able to communicate with artists everywhere around the world, we feel it’s important for us to keep the label a friend-thing.
Torture the Artist: The eleventh release on Forest ill is your album Epitome. An epitome is a excerpt of a work or works. What made you decide to release these works of yours as an album and can we literally imagine you making your choices from a huge collection of your tracks to put those together as an album or what was the procedure when compiling the album?
Nemo Vachez: This album is a synthesis of the last three years of my productions. As a music lover, I always get some new kinks in tracks also depending on the period of times I went through. The past years when working on music I was into a more spacey sound, then I also enjoyed vocoders, followed by HipHop and Breaks combined with some scratches and at the moment I’m really into 80s music, New Wave and Industrial. These trends influence my productions a lot, as you can hear on the album. Actually, you can find the different influences spread over the entire album.
Torture the Artist: What’s your favorite “epitome“ from the album, and why?
Nemo Vachez: I think it’s the B1, Forest ill Records. As before-mentioned I’m really into guitars and harsh sounds at the moment, so I’ve really been enjoying playing it over the past months.
Torture the Artist: What musical influences and preferences do you want to showcase with Epitome and what (hidden) side of yours can listeners discover?
Nemo Vachez: I don’t know if it’s hidden but you’ll hear a lot of my influences in this album, from EBM to Hip-Hop, Synth-Pop and even some Disco.
Torture the Artist: Can you name a few of your musical influences that you would put on the opposite side of your taste’s spectrum (e.g. era, genre, life phase)?
Nemo Vachez: Honestly, I’m proud of all my influences, I spent many hours digging electronic music from the 80s and 90 every day, because that’s the music I love to play, but at home I mostly listen to 70s psych music, electronic soul and a lot of lover’s rock/ dub versions of electronic 80/90s Reggae.
Torture the Artist: Why did you want to produce an album and not go with the EP format?
Nemo Vachez: I think it’s a dream of many producer to come up with an album, and after releasing several EPs I wanted to release mine, too. I felt the time had come and it was or rather is a good-fit to start a new musical cycle on Forest ill.
Torture the Artist: You’ve been producing music for a moment, how would you and your music liked to be perceived and has this perception changed over the course of time?
Nemo Vachez: Actually I don’t know at all, I’m just making music for me and my friends ,so I’m not really aware of the perception of my music by the people. I just hope that they enjoy it and have fun dancing to it.
Torture the Artist: Who listens to your music first?
Nemo Vachez: My girlfriend hears the entire production process, because I produce at home and we live together, then it is Idris who gets to listen to the finished tracks. Also a lot of friends, who are into music, receive the tracks a few minutes after, too. <laughs>
I just had to pick the tracks I liked the most and put them together to come up with a story
Torture the Artist: What is the easiest and most difficult choices that you had to make when producing the album and putting it together?
Nemo Vachez: Everything seemed easy, because I had been composing the music for myself for two years, so in the end I just had to pick the tracks I liked the most and put them together to come up with a story I want to tell with the album.
Torture the Artist: Let’s speak a little bit about records. Your album will, of course, be released on vinyl. Where does your fascination for vinyl come from and what was your first vinyl?
Nemo Vachez: Back in the days when we started the label, all of us were just digging and playing vinyl, hence it felt natural for us to release on the kind of medium that we were playing the most.. And all of our tracks were supported on YouTube by our friends so everybody could hear our music without buying the record.
Torture the Artist: In your artist biography it says that you have more than 1000 well-dug records. How many do you have now and what are the three most precious (not necessarily most expensive) ones in your collection?
Nemo Vachez: I stopped counting at some point, but I think I have 2000 or something around that number. I’ve bought less lately because I’m waiting for specific records to pop on Discogs, and I’m more focused on editing lots of 80s tracks from tapes.
Picking three records is difficult, but lately I’ve been enjoying a lot of records from Museum of Devotion, a Synth-Pop/ Industrial group from the late 80s, who found the perfect balance between danceable electronic backgrounds and perfect vocals, the album is called Wants Versus Needs.
From the 90s I’d pick All Night Long from Mood II Swing, as for me it’s the perfect House track and it made me cry several time when I heard it being played in a club.
And for the most contemporary music, I’m in love with the work of Geneva Jacuzzi, a New York musician, who create some crazy music, deeply rooted in 80s New Wave Electronics. You should check out Technophelia.
Torture the Artist: Where do you go digging for records and do you have a certain routine when it comes to searching music?
Nemo Vachez: I mainly dig online only. Discogs is a wonderful platform form me as it offers the opportunity to find overlooked records from different micro-scenes released in far away countries back in the days and also permits us to have an outright approach of a style. I try to spend at least three hours every day exploring and going through different styles year by year to get an overview of the music, and also to pick tracks who resonate with me.
Torture the Artist: What is the latest record you found yourself interested in, and why?
Nemo Vachez: I’m in love with this track from a group called Informatics, who released on an obscure Australian tape in 1983 and who were so ahead of their time.
Luckily the group did not forget to have it as a WAV and made it available digitally on their Bandcamp-side.
Torture the Artist: What’s a piece of advice that was given to you that you would like to share with aspiring artists?
Nemo Vachez: Just enjoy yourself and to listen to more music than they can. Creation comes from inspiration and it’s always great to discover new ways and go through a new door, which opened through listening to some dusty records.
Torture the Artist: We all have super powers or special qualities, what are yours and how do you use them?
Nemo Vachez: <laughs> I’m not sure, if that is a superpower really but I can spend several days partying without a nap.
Words by Holger Breuer
Torture the Artist 