In this exclusive interview with KALW Music, electronic artist Bolis Pupul discusses his latest album, Letter to Yu, and the journey from studio creation to live performance. Bolis opens up about his creative process, the inspirations that shape his sound, and the unique experiences that have influenced his music. From incorporating field recordings in Shenzhen to channeling the energy of Jimi Hendrix, the Belgian musician offers an insightful look into the making of his solo work and what lies ahead on his artistic path. We caught up with him backstage at Cafe du Nord ahead of his live show.
Marcus: This album that you put out, which is a really awesome album, is very much something new to you. How has it been going from making the album to touring and playing it out? What has been the vibe like?
Bolis: Yeah, I think what I always try to do when I prepare a set for a live show is I really want it to be energetic and dynamic. That's one of the things I think is very important and especially in electronic music, it becomes very easily a bit generic, I think. So I really want to have that energy. And there's always one artist that I keep in the back of my head. It's Jimi Hendrix. He's far out, like one of the most dynamic players out there when he was still alive, like that energy is something that I keep in the back of my head when I try to make a set.
Marcus: You have worked with the guys from Soulwax and of course, Charlotte Adigéry, what other influences have you kept in your repertoire, in addition to Jimi?
Bolis: I've never seen him perform live, only on video, but Cornelius, the Japanese multi-instrumentalist. I love his music and also the visual of his live shows are always amazing. And I'm a very big Beck fan as well. I prefer, of course, the Beck from the 90s and early 2000s, perhaps. Still he's an icon to me and I respect him so much. He's one of my biggest heroes. He's the reason why I started making music.
Marcus: Do you have a favorite Beck song?
Bolis: It's always hard to give you one, but like Whiskeyclone Hotel, I forgot the name exactly, but that's one of my favorites. It's from Mellow Gold. And it's like the beginning of that song, the phrases of the lyrics, “I was born in this motel, washing dishes in the sink, magazines and free soda, trying hard not to think.” I think it's beautiful.
Marcus: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your approach to using field recordings. I know they're really prominent in your record. How did you go about that?
Bolis: Actually, basically, it was me discovering a city and my heritage at the same time. And out of fascination of what I was seeing and hearing I was making videos but also sound recordings and those ended up at the record when I was looking for extra texture. I think in electronic music as well it adds this extra texture to it that is making it more alive and, again, less generic.
Marcus: Were there any particularly profound field recordings that you used? I'm sure you had a lot of field recordings.
Bolis: Yeah, I still have a lot that I didn't use. But I think I'm really happy with the one from the doctor. I was walking around Shenzhen. It's like just across the border from Hong Kong. And I had a bit of a backache and there was a doctor standing outside and I started to talk to him and he invited me inside. After five minutes I was laying on his table in my underpants and he was adding cups and like a barbecue on my back and he was talking the whole time and the more I screamed, the more he was laughing and he was like, “No, but this is good. This is good.” So I was just following his lead and at the end I just asked him “okay but now you gotta tell me what's wrong with me. I want to know what you've done.” I recorded his voice to play it for somebody who could translate it to me. Afterwards I was in my studio working on music and when I was working on the instrumental of the song I thought it needed a vocal and then I thought of the guy who was explaining to me my physical identity.
Marcus: So I know you've mentioned the idea of letting songs ripen over time. Can you share an example of something on the album that kind of changed significantly from its earliest inception to what it turned into?
Bolis: I think maybe the last song on the record is “Cosmic Rendez-Vous.” It started out when I was just playing piano in a park in Hong Kong. I was trying to transfer my feelings onto a keyboard. I took it back home to Belgium and there I figured out how to add some drums to it, adding melodies and structure to it. And when I was finalizing the album, I was talking to Stephen and David [of Soulwax] who co-produced the record and we noticed that we didn't have my mom's voice on the record. And then I started to dig in my archive and realized I don't have that much of her voice recorded. But then there was this one tape that I found and I decided to go through the tape and choose specific parts from her voice to let her be vocal on the record as well. And I thought, I'm so happy that we had the idea to put her on the record as well because to me, it's also the last song on the record and she has the last say on it.
Marcus: How has it been performing these songs out especially given the nature of the album and everything we talked about regarding dance music?
Bolis: It's something that is growing naturally and I've been playing in Europe quite a lot with this record already. But I still feel like every show something changes and you add something or you leave something out and sometimes you're more energetic and sometimes less. But yeah, I just think when you have a record and you have to start playing it live, it gives you a chance to reinvent your songs or to give them a second life and that's what I’m trying to do right now is just giving them their second life. What works on a record doesn't necessarily work when you play it live so you have to find solutions for tracks or sometimes you don't play them because they don't work out well live as well.
Marcus: Has this album and the tour so far given you ideas about new things you might want to try in the future or just new ways of approaching music?
Bolis: Yeah, but I think just being alive is an inspiration. So wherever I am, I try to find inspiration and being on the road as well, seeing things, like we were in LA yesterday, we're in San Francisco today. Sometimes I have the chance to go and see things and the thing that I like the most is just to walk around on the street and observe people and sometimes you see things happening on the streets and those things can inspire but f at the same time you can go to a very well respected museum and look around there. So there's plenty of things to be inspired by.
Marcus: What else do you have coming up?
Bolis: Yeah, I'm planning a tour in China. And I'm really looking forward to that one as well. I'll be DJ'ing in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Seoul as well. And then I'm recording with Charlotte [Adigéry], we're working on new stuff. So we're both very happy with the things that we've been making. We went to Martinique for Charlotte to figure out her heritage and trying to fit that on the record as well, but we still have a lot of things that we want to explore and figure out. I'm quite happy with the way we're approaching this one. It's a bit different from the previous album. I'm really looking forward to releasing new stuff.
