Artist Profile – The Clamps – (France)
Toulouse born Julien Carbou, known for his involvement with Neuro outfit Burr Oak is also a solo artist in his own right. This year sees him celebrate 10 years producing under the moniker of The Clamps, and he celebrates that milestone with a four track EP out on long time label mate Kosen Production. Always frank and open and with a lot to say about life and music, we were thrilled to ask the man some questions about life in general, and of course about the brand new EP.
Welcome to INSIDE DNB Julien, this release, out on December 20th, sees you celebrate 10 years as a solo artist alongside your other projects. Did you see yourself reaching this milestone 10 years ago?
Hello Daniel, I’m really glad to have your attention! I always see the music as a long road with no ending, something where you can learn all your life, about yourself and about everything which revolves around music. So it’s a yes and a no at the same time, considering I have had and still have many different aliases and projects, and I didn’t know if I could keep one for this amount of time. I really appreciate the long journey I’m doing with The Clamps and where it’s bringing me.
How would you best describe your growth as a solo artist over this period of time?
It’s like a parallel life. The more I’m growing as a human and becoming older with the “disadvantages” of old age, the more I’m feeling young in my music. I’m still going extreme but with a little more wisdom. I love how music can help to cross the ages.
When you look back on your output over the last decade, it’s quite a legacy you’ve created there!
I guess I am writing my own biography. For people who know me well, they can understand most of the choices in my career and the symbolic meaning of each song. I’m trying to bring some people with me in my journey and I love what I’m sharing with them. With all the years in studio, I’ve learned so much in terms of production techniques, which have help me to go nearly where I want/need in music, but with this obsession I still have so much to learn and I’m hungry of it. I am never bored creating and listening music. I love the old music as much as the very modern ones.
If you understand my music, you understand my life choices.
On to the EP then. Kosen’s 55th release on your first decade anniversary release. You’re still very tight with Kosen as a label?
Yeah Kosen is my family. Céline, the owner of the label is one of my closest friends, and she gives me all the freedom to do what I want (as well as on Karnage Records, when I’m doing Hardcore Techno stuff). Freedom is the main thing for me as an artist. Society is already so full of constraints. I don’t want to have those when I’m telling my stories in music.
Kosen Team lets me expose my music as I want, letting me have my own Artworks (which are from my very good and talented friend Yan “Deerhill”), my own promo and everything around. They help me a lot to feel comfortable when I’m giving a part of myself in my music. Plus the team is managing my gigs, bookings etc, so it’s easier for me as I’m a very anxious person.
The first track on the EP, Under The Saw, is about anxiety. I know a lot of people with the condition and it can be extremely debilitating for anybody who suffers with it. When you really listen to the track in great detail, you can really hear the emotions that anxiety creates coming through the music. There is the insistent knocking at the door of consciousness, the twisted anguish of over empowering emotion, the light and dark and the torment, and yet there is fleeting happiness in those small synth trills that litter the track. It’s quite a rollercoaster.
For years, I’ve had a generalized anxiety disorder, and it’s very hard to live with it and to understand it. I’ve been anxious since I was young, but around 10 years ago it went mad, uncontrollable. I tried many therapies and changed lot of things in my life, trying to create a different vision of myself with illness. I live with it, probably forever, but I still try to be optimistic, and to see the light in the dark.
Happily, I’m not ashamed of my weaknesses, I speak very easily about it to anyone. It helps me to stay strong against this disease. There are some days where it’s impossible to live, it happens even during some gigs. Sometimes I wish I could have a magic wand to solve that. It’s a long journey with pains and sorrows, but I have a good entourage of friends and family and they help me a lot to stay worthy.
So how do you deal with these oppressive feelings? Others may be able to benefit from your experience?
I speak a lot about it, it’s the main thing to not feel alone. I’m doing some mental exercises I learned with meditation and respiration. Doing sport helps me too to feel more physical than psychological. But yeah, the main thing is to have trusted people around me. They don’t judge me, they just help me to feel better when I need it, and sometimes when it’s too dark, I tell myself that’s not a finality. It’s not that easy when you’re in crisis, but I’ve no choice. Don’t let the darkness control your thoughts, you always can find a balance, don’t hesitate to try different ways to find it. And compassion for and from the others is a good help.
Track two is an ode to the Mediterranean island of Corsica. There is a beautiful blend of (what sounds like) Middle Eastern or religious chanting on the track, as well as lots of atmospheric sounds. What is your connection with the island, and why is it so strong that you felt like dedicating a tune to it?
Some of my closest friends are from this beautiful island. I was lucky to discover this completely new country (even though it’s a part of France, it’s a whole other culture). I spent some time in the hinterland, where everyone I met and everything I saw was very authentic. I could live here to be honest. It’s close to my hometown, I mean I’m from the hinterland in the south east of France (la Provence) and Corsica shares some part of the same culture, but still with something more raw. I love the sincerity I discovered there, whether in the inhabitants or their environment.
About the vocals you can hear in the track, it’s a polyphonic song called “A Tribbiera”, which accompanied the peasants during the wheat threshing with mules and oxen. You can hear all the hardness and magnificence of life.
Terror Machine is a full on beast of a tune. What was the motivation behind that one?
It was a funny thing in my Studio. One a of my studio chairs makes a weird noise when you are balancing on it. I was working on the main groove of the track when the noise appeared. It worked so well with the groove of the track that I recorded it and put it in the track. You can hear it in the drop as the lead synth, the one which sounds like a squeak. And basically it works on most of the tracks I work on here. It’s so weird how my chair is in harmony with the music produced here. So yeah, the chair is the terror machine!!
The final track, Wisdom & Beliefs is a blistering workout, but I feel that maybe only you know the true sentiment behind it. As you’ve also used this title for the whole EP, what is the story behind the words?
It was the first track wrote for this EP and I was nearly to the end of the story telling when I started to sing some onomatopoeias, or scat. So I started to record my voice with no real sense of language. It worked so well to my ears. It accompanies the vibe rhythmically, a bit like the scat is doing with Jazz Music. I added some true sentences but still with no real sense, apart from the one you would like to understand. A bit like the beliefs interact with the wisdom.
The world is a truth strewn with strangeness and the more I’m going wise, the more I’m going crazy.
After this final release of 2021, what have you got planned for the new year?
I’ve several remixes forthcoming, and few collabs, plus more EPs, and I have lot of things coming with Burr Oak, Forum and Third Colony. I will do some extreme noisy music and some more chill ones.
With the Pandemic still causing lots of upset everywhere, can you see yourself spending more time in the studio again next year?
I think, and it’s for my healthcare, I’ll spend a bit less time in the studio. I need to find a balance with life and my extreme need to make music.
Finally then, congratulations on 10 years as a solo project with The Clamps! Can you see yourself doing another 10 stretch?
I’ll do for sure, maybe with some of the others projects I’m involved in too. Thank you very much for the consideration, and I hope you’ll all have a great end of year.
As ever, Julien Carbou delivers an honest account of life in and out of music, never being afraid to open up about both the struggles and joys of life.
