Now here’s a joyous sentence to write: the first full length record from Jacques Greene finally, officially exists.
It’s sitting right here, on this desktop; it’s on streaming services, waiting to be heard; and it’s out there on record shelves, the vinyl version trafficked across continents, to be unwrapped and enjoyed.
So when Clash finally gets the Montreal producer on the phone, one question springs to mind… why has it taken so long?
He starts to laugh, and then pauses: “I agree… it was a long time coming!”
“I guess I’m fortunate enough that I’m working in a genre in the world where it’s not like… sometimes it’s expected, but it’s not required,” he explains. “I tried making a record a couple of years ago and it didn’t totally feel right. I made about seven songs, and the rest of it didn’t fully come together. And I thought, maybe I’m not an album guy!”
“There was this part of me that thought that maybe I was never going to make one. Until it was: oh my God, of course I’m making a record! The kind of songs I was making in the studio, it was like: of course this is not an EP, this is building towards a full length.”
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It’s no surprise to hear that the process behind the producer’s new album ‘Feel Infinite’ was entirely natural. As a listening experience it’s remarkably fully formed, the sleek lines and contours giving way to moments of dissonance, the flavours intermingling to create something rather grander than the sum of its parts. It’s an album in the classic sense, but also a remarkably individual act.
“I think I was making songs that all complimented one another,” he says. “I don’t know, I feel like there’s a really comfortable ebb and flow to how it starts off, it peaks, it valleys, it peaks again. There’s a method to the madness of how the sequencing of the record work.”
A French-Canadian producer signed to a label that began in Glasgow, Jacques Greene is part of a globalised clubbing generation. ‘Feel Infinite’ acutely reflects this – R&B vocals are fused to a techno chassis, French Touch house is re-tooled for a 2k17 viewpoint. It’s a mosaic of influences, one where the openness of the approach is in contrast to the taut creative techniques underpinning its construction.
“I weirdly enough come from a design background,” he explains. “I never thought I would make music for a living. I wanted to go into fashion design and stuff like that. So I like the auteurs. The auteurs in any medium. The people who you can sense their identity and fingerprint on every single thing they do. I think if you walk up to a Corbusier building, or a Corbusier piece of furniture it feels like a Corbusier.”
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I like the auteurs... The people who you can sense their identity and fingerprint on every single thing they do.
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“I like someone who is so hard-wired into their own vision, someone who will will explore these strong opinions to the end. And I guess I end up feeling the same way with club music where I have this very specific set of emotions, things I’m trying to convey, and I end up looking very inward, and try to build on things that I know, in my practise. Rather than following a trend of some record that came out six months ago.”
Recording was split between Montreal and New York, between the producer’s own analogue synths and the tracking gear he would use to channel his ideas. Known for a certain warmth in his work, Jacques Greene continually aims to explore space, to provoke human feelings from his machinery. “I predominantly make my music with these cold machines – which is why I’ve always really, really liked the workflow of chopping up human voices. I think that ends up being this really handy shorthand to get at emotion or this human tracks.”
“I ended up really thinking about how fucking privileged I was to be able to share my music all the time in a physical environment, and to be in a real space, in the real world, with either 50 people or a couple hundred people, or a couple thousand people. And so I think that when I’m talking about this human side of dance music I simultaneously mean that I have huge errors, this weird shit happening on filters as I’m playing the knobs. But then also I like the physicality of actually playing it to someone, and that response happens to you in your body in a human way… and that’s awesome.”
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‘Feel Infinite’ conjures a vast plethora of feelings, from the onward rush of ‘Fall’ to the intricacy of ‘Dundas Collapse’ and ‘Real Time’, and the subtle nuances of ‘Afterglow’. It’s a record to be explored, one that itself engages in exploration. Coming of age during the internet’s first explosive phase, Jacques Greene is often pegged as a post-genre producer, a process of erasing creative barriers that he feels is far from completed.
“I have a lot of friends who definitely are really into house or really into techno,” he asserts. “And I think if you go to a record store or Beatport or Juno you’ll find that a lot of music still resonates with people. Like: this is a tech-house record, this is an early night techno record, this is a late night techno record… not so much blending outside of that.”
“It’s strange,” he muses. “I would imagine that a natural response to music these days is to have the stuff blended all the time, because I grew up with the internet. I remember downloading music on Napster.”
“If you look at most people’s playlist at what they listen to day to day it’s quite varied, and so I would imagine that the music you would make would then be quite varied. I don’t think it’s that natural for a lot of people still. I think some people still like these categories and these genres. Hopefully it’ll go away because I find it to be a sense of order and conservatism that isn’t really required for what we do.”-
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I grew up with the internet. I remember downloading music on Napster.
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Jacques Greene’s work is certainly ordered, but it could scarcely be considered conservative; after all, ‘Feel Infinite’ is a club record that finds room for avant R&B artist How To Dress Well.
“How To Dress Well’s records are very different from mine but we got along on a deeper level and really became friends,” the producer explains. “If we’re in the same city we’ll definitely grab food. We’ve been to the gym together. I like him on a level that is so fucking comfortable!”
“I’m really happy he’s on the record because we both have this deep love for R&B but are maybe too bad at it to make perfect versions of it. Which to me means that we’re both outside the realms of contemporary commercial R&B but when we work together there’s this interesting edge in that kind of experimental side that we both have.”
A record that continually operates on many different levels, ‘Feel Infinite’ is both a universal statement and something that could only come from the feverish creative environment of Montreal. The internet, he contends, creates this multi-layered identity, one that is both highly individual and part of something great.
“It’s interesting. You have your friends and your community in the city but, actually maybe for the better – there’s not anyone else in Montreal making Jacques Greene records. So I end up having to find my community a little more online. But that fosters a beautiful in-person community in the city where everyone is on their own tangent and follows this pure sense of: what is my identity? What do I want to do?”
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We both have this deep love for R&B but are maybe too bad at it to make perfect versions of it.
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“So I think, in it’s best kind of way, this interest access and internet education will allow people to be their truest self because they get to find people online that speak to these micro-sensibilities that you have. As opposed to someone in your city making something similar, so you think: oh shit, I need to be part of a scene. So we end up making music that is so weirdly insular but then ends up being kind of necessary in a big part of our cities, and a big part of who we are.”
Despite his international commitments Montreal continues to play a huge role in Jacques Greene’s life. Returning to the city to work on his live show, the producer worked with a number of close friends, people who he has known since High School but who have gone on to excel in their chosen field. The sheer range and depth of talent on display, he explains, both astounds him and feels completely natural.
“It’s not even about knowing someone for a long time, it’s not like that!” he exclaims. “I have these friends from back home who are now doing such incredible work that I’m honoured to work with them when I can. And that’s a fun feeling, to be able to have Montreal people involved like that.”
Working on something innately cerebral and wholly physical, genre-less and a style of its own, Jacques Greene never fails to surprise – whether that’s in Montreal or across the world.
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'Feel Infinite' is out now.
For the latest Jacques Greene tickets click HERE.