Air & Mellow: Air

Walking down a typical city street in Paris, passing cafés and shops, one wouldn't guess that on the same block, down around a back street and through a small courtyard, is a private recording studio where one of the most popular French music exports these days is being created. Air is a curious duo of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît "JB" Dunckel, whose interesting early singles quickly led up to the fantastic debut album, Moon Safari, much of which was tracked at Nicolas' apartment ("Around the Golf" studio). Since then the two have been in a number of studios, eventually building their own cozy place to work. A continuing theme of Air's studio work is a desire to change their sound, find new sounds and confound listeners' expectations. If you haven't heard Air's music you should check it out — rarely does something sound futuristic and familiar at the same time.

So the old studio was at Nicolas' apartment, where you did Moon Safari and the singles — what were you recording on there?

A sampler. An Akai S1000 and then after three songs we moved the first tracks to a Fostex D80 digital 8 track.

Then with mixing and strings...

We went to a real studio for mixing [Plus XXX, Paris], so it's on an SSL, but now we prefer the Neves.

Stéphane [Briat] mixed those?

"Alf", yeah. We call him "Alf".

And you worked with him for quite a bit. Is that because he worked at the studio or was he someone you knew before?

We met him one day at our record company and he was the first one to mix "Casanova 70". We have tried with a mixer before and we were not satisfied, but when Alf did it it was sounding very well. He had this ability to do a cream of sound. He was able to mix all the instruments together.

He understood your music more?

Yes.

You did strings on that. Did you transfer the Fostex to another unit to add more tracks?

We had the digital tracks, so we went to Abbey Road and transferred them to tape.

Was that fun going to Abbey Road?

Yeah. Nothing has changed. The same paint on the walls.

When people are mixing your stuff, Stephane and Nigel [Godrich], are you always there?

Yeah. Always in the back.

How much guidance do you give? Do you try to let them come up with something new or...

It depends. On some songs we know exactly what we want. On some songs we have no idea.

Are there times where songs are rearranged during mixing?

We try, for the mix, to have everything done. In the mix we get rid of some thoughts more than we invent something. We make it more clear.

Do you find that a good mixer helps you decide where to open it up?

Yes. That's why we have to trust the mixer a lot, because if we don't we can't make a choice. Because sometimes, you know, the artist is not the best to make good decisions at a certain point. It's like if an actor would direct his own movie. It's really hard to see what could be good.

Better to have someone look from the outside and push you...

Yes. Because sometimes you say, "I want to keep this guitar, because I love the guitar, the C note after this chord." But the C note is not what's important. What's important is if the whole part is good, and you forget that, you know.

You guys obviously like working with Nigel.

We trust him. Other guys, too, like Tony Hoffer [on 10,000 HZ Legend]. His mixes were incredible.

You've done string sessions now at different places, with different arrangers. How have you guys felt about the evolution of your string session overdubs?

At the beginning we were not controlling them. Now we know what we want there. We found someone in L.A. named Roger Neil, and he can do anything. When you have no ideas, he has good ideas. When you have your own ideas, he's managed to make them real. If you want a pad, there's a pad, but if you want something more harmonic or melodic, he can do it. He knows all the instruments, the flutes, the strings, the harp. It was amazing. We couldn't believe what was on there when we didn't ask. But we kept it all.

Do you have an engineer that works with you here, Yann Arnaud?

Ah, yes. Sometimes. When there's a deadline we can work together, but when he's not here we can hire someone else if we have to finish. So it's more for that.

That's good. Do you track drums in here?

No. 'Cause we don't have any drums on this new album! [laughter]

Will there be on tour?

Yes.

What did you use instead of drums?

Drum machines. Linn 9000, [Korg] Electribe, Roland. Sometimes we do beats with people on other instruments and loop them.

When did you get the Pro Tools HD system running?

About nine months ago. Before, we had just the Pro Tools Lite, Digi001. The problem was we were losing stuff sometimes. Especially when you do some edits. When you want to move a part you can do it on this, but the computer can't do it because it's too weak. So you crash.

This is a lot more powerful.

But the plug-ins aren't working with this.

Oh yeah, the old ones won't.

We are not using so many plug-ins because we prefer to record the real thing.

Has the gear accumulation been sort of slow and steady since Moon Safari?

Yes. Now we just buy the best things. We are not keen on buying cheap equipment.

Except drum machines.

Yes. But some aren't cheap.

Do you find that buying new instruments or equipment leads to new songs? That messing around with something sparks ideas? Or are you creating songs the same way you always have?

I think new equipment gives us new ideas, so it's always good to buy some new stuff. But then you have too much stuff, so the more you buy the more you have to sell back. Like, sell the old ones to keep the new ones. It's good to buy something that's not obvious that you need to buy. It can change your world. We are only into touching equipment. We like simple things to touch. When we program the beat box, we like to do it when it's physical and you can play it with your hands. It's like a game, like a toy. We don't like to spend so much time in the menus, the screens.

I think a lot of people are like that — more tactile. Neither of you really sing straight up on your records, do you, besides the vocoder?

We don't do lead voices, but we do some voice parts.

How come neither of you wants to sing lead?

We're not supposed to do it. We don't speak English very well.

You've had a lot of different people singing on your records. Are there very many on the new record?

No.

I like the vocoder singing.

We tried so many ways. [laughs] I think honestly there are too many vocoders in popular music right now, and it's too obvious. People expect that from us, so we try not to do it.

Go the other way...

Yeah. But you have vocoders, you have so many other things... We feel like the voice is like another instrument — it can be treated like any instrument. You can make it strange and funny and dark.

Do you run anything through synths?

No, we use sometimes the Moog fader.

Do you find yourself collecting lots of little stomp box pedals?

We don't collect. We really only buy what we use.

That's practical.

Yeah. Actually, in France, you can find anything you want. I don't know why, but in Paris there's like 17 music shops, it's crazy.

Does anyone else ever use your studio?

Just us, we did a compilation for Record Makers, called I Hear Voices. And some people have asked us to mix and to record. But basically the configuration is made for us. It's how we like to work. We want to keep it easy and direct. We work fast, you know. That's why we don't work with too many sound engineers. It takes too much time. [laughs]

Did Yann have to learn a lot of the way you're set up?

He knows it now.

Do you guys bring in separate ideas for songs, or do you start off collaborating?

There's no rule. Sometimes we begin with a beat, or with a piano chord. We don't search — we just find the song. When we're recording we know we'll find some cool things to go on there. The production is very important for us. Sometimes we'll find some cool chords with cool melodies, but there is no production, no ideas behind the production, so we don't use it.

Do you work on a lot of ideas that end up being discarded?

Yes. Many. We destroy them.

Do you sometimes save ideas from stuff you've destroyed? If there's one good idea?

Sometimes, yes, but when we destroy it we're fed up with thinking about it. So we know that if we start again on this idea, we lose time for others, and we know there's a problem on this idea that we can't fix...

Have you two thought about producing another artist, or have you been asked to produce a record?

No, we'd like to do it, it would be interesting. But, you know, the problem is it would take so much energy. Because we'd give the same energy as we did for our album, so there is a price to pay, and the price is to lose six months of your life. And a producer has a technical role and a political role, and it's too much energy to protect the ego of the singer or the band and to get everybody to work together. For us, it would be okay just for the music, but for the ego of the band...

You work as producers when you have guest vocalists, though.

But we tell them what we want. And we choose them. We know before what they will do because we chose them. I think for a girl it could be okay, because of the sexual aspect. If it's a girl with a boy producing there's always something charming between you, there's a sort of seduction between you, and seduction is always very important in music. But with a boy, there would be more...

Competition?

Yes. [laughs]

When will the record [Talkie Walkie] be out?

January.

Mixing with Nigel in LA. When does that start?

We don't know.

How much more do you have to do for the record?

I'd say one percent. The hard one percent!