Interview: BLUE ALIEN
BLUE ALIEN is a London-based project brought to life by French music producer Maxence Effantin in 2019. BLUE ALIEN takes you on a dark-pop sonic adventure through tales of European queerness. His sound is both filled with the grit of boot-trodden dance floors and the sweet naivety of idyllic 90s pop. Maxence describes alter-ego BLUE ALIEN as ‘a strange celestial body bathing in melancholia, distress, and sexual subversion.’ Landing in London at the age of 19 from Southern France, B.A. reveled in the creative freedom that city-dwelling brought him but couldn’t ignore the juxtaposition of living at the mind-numbing heart of an ultra-capitalist city: ‘Each song stands as a counter-argument to the end of another humdrum day in the City.’ BLUE ALIEN thus became a catalyst for the artist to explore the questions of love, identity, and sexual freedom.
Picture Credit: Celia Croft
What led to you becoming an artist?
I’ve always felt different since a very young age. I always had to face other kids’ and adults’ ostracization because my sensitivity and perception of the world were different from most people's.
I now see this sentiment as an ally as in this misfortune, I found a space for artistic sensitivity to grow. I didn’t receive any arts education, but the need to create and shape all of these things that constituted my worldview has always come across as a necessity. When the world denies your perception, there’s nothing better to give what you see and feel a shape to make it more valid and tangible. At the age of 4, I started drawing and I very quickly used this tool to create abstract characters straight out of my imagination. I developed a perfectionist relationship with drawing because I was obsessed with wanting to indicate exactly what was on my mind. I would waste dozens of paper sheets for each drawing and would not stop until I was more or less satisfied with my creation (or until I gave up). I have kept this creative approach in music production.
At the age of 11, when I had to deal with difficult, if not toxic, family situations, and music and singing quickly proved to be the escape route. Through songwriting that I began to explore the question of my gender, my sexual orientation as well as my relationship to others and society’s standards. Musical-making has been a refuge, a place of reveries as well as a way to recollect and review challenging situations of my existence. This is how BLUE ALIEN slowly began to exist as an alter-ego, a part of me, of my identity that could exist outside of all the constraints that society would exert on me. BLUE ALIEN could wear make-up, BLUE ALIEN could be open about his mental health, and BLUE ALIEN because of its name, didn’t need to justify its humanity in front of society.
What inspires your music?
Whereas I think I’m quite a shiny and joyful persona in real life, my music channels a darker side of my life and personality which I tend to keep concealed. I very much struggle to express negative feelings and show vulnerabilities in my daily living, even within my circle. I’ve always treated music as a temple – a place where I could meditate on these darker feelings and tame them. Whenever I go through a trial in love, friendship, or when I see society going mad, I need to withdraw and use songwriting to process what is happening and how it’s affecting me personally. I generally build a song based on a personal experience and turn it into a message, just so I can give all listeners the tools to get into my world. In a song like ‘Seared’ for example, I have addressed the issue of consent in festive places and the need to create spaces built on trust and mutual respect. I had a bad personal experience in the context, and I’ve tried to channel it in music to give it a shape, a form, and subsequently build a message that the listener can grab and make their own.
There was a similar creative process for the song ‘Time Will Do Us Justice’. I sent CRINGE (a.k.a. Luca Barbieri) a demo of the instrumental and told him:” I would love you to play around with this instrumental, write some lyrics and see what you can come up with.” At this stage, the instrumental was already called “Time Will Do Us Justice” but didn’t have any lyrics for it. The name just emerged from the structure of the song which has a strong build-up and an explosive electronic bridge. When I wrote this song, I was reading a lot of Black Trans Lives’ stories and this cause, which is very close to my heart, fuelled me with a different creative energy. When I finished producing the instrumental, I thought ‘Ok, this song structure is definitely made to communicate a strong political message” and “Time Will Do Us Justice” sounded just right. This phrase can exist in a conversation between two lovers as well as in a social movement. CRINGE decided to keep the title and built lyrics around it at his piano. He explained to me how his lyrics explore the need to overcome apprehensive feelings of self-love, desire, doubt, and frustration in contexts of physical intimacy.
The recording went very fast. He recorded his vocal and I added mine afterward to create these moments of dialogue and fusion between our two characters.
Who are some of your influences?
My influences are very diverse. I get a lot of my inspiration from the French such as Mylene Farmer and UK 80s with The Associate or Depeche Mode, as I think this era marked a climax in the history of songwriting. As I grew up throughout the late 90s and 2000s, I am also aware that bands like t.A.T.u, Placebo, or Marilyn Manson have left their print on me and my music. I have also been largely influenced by the London Queer Techno scene as well as artists like Gesaffelstein, I Hate Models, or Paula Temple.
In a nutshell, I’d say my music style built itself from the sexual subversion of 80s, the naivety of the 2000s emo-pop and the 6 am beats of a techno party.
What are some of your favorite memories from your career?
Definitely the release of my first Single Seared and the good reception of the track. I think that really gave me the strength and confidence to carry on making my music and giving BLUE ALIEN more space.
What have been some of the greatest challenges of your career?
Everything is a challenge, writing a song, producing it, mixing it, releasing it, waiting for reception is all in itself a challenge, but I would say that confidence grows over time and that music-making becomes much more intuitive. It becomes a lifestyle, an expression of yourself as an artist rather than a career goal. I realized I could not stop making music even if I wanted to, it is in my DNA and it is what allows me to keep a strong mental structure. As time passes and as you grow as an artist, you tend to stop having a vertical view of success. You start understanding that what matters is that you use your art to keep expressing who you are and allow strong messages to be communicated – those who want to grab will do, and you can feel grateful for this.
Picture Credit: BLUE ALIEN
Which of your songs/eps or albums is your favorite? Why is it your favorite?
Definitely, Paradize is my favourite track from a songwriting perspective. I think it’s one of these songs that I always wanted to write. It’s probably the song that defines best this blue-tinted world that BLUE ALIEN lives in. This song is a quest for absolution for two lovers who are trying to escape reality together.
The lyrics tell the story of a love that is left unfulfilled. BLUE ALIEN realises that his lover dwells in an artificial paradise, where most pleasures and moments of ecstasy they experience are induced by mind-altering substances.
Whereas B.A. realises that this is not the escape he is dreaming of, he yearns for more art, nature, and adventure outside the mind-numbing city life and its parties.
The chorus of the song comes in like a resolution to this melancholia and unfulfilled desires – ‘This is not the life I want, but I don’t care, because this love exists and I will embrace your world, build my paradise with you – ‘on the dark side of the sun’’ – and we will make this experience beautiful. This feeling of resolution was so strong at the time, and I like that beauty and poetry take over tragedy in this song like they did in real life.
The other thing I like about this song is that it is probably the only song I wrote that would still sound great if it’s played in a different music style and/or a different tempo. I actually have many versions and productions of this song, and I like when a melody never exhausts its flavours and that you can re-explore it ad infinitum.
“Time Will Do Us Justice” is definitely the second-best, as it’s probably my strongest production and it is a beautiful adventure between two artist friends!
What are you most excited to bring to your fans in the next year?
I am currently building myself a second base in Berlin so I am very excited to say there will be gigs planned in both cities, as well as brand new tracks that will be released throughout the year. All of them will involve some kind of collaboration – both musical and artistic.
What are your goals for this upcoming year?
I want to dissociate BLUE ALIEN a little more from my personal story and use the project as a platform of collaboration between different artists who want to explore social issues that are close to their art and tell their history. Music should be a catalyser for change by giving chance to many different voices to pass their message. I find a lot of purpose and beauty in using my music to translate other people’s feelings and exchange with other humans at an artistic level. When artists collaborate, it is almost like they get thrown into a relationship, it demands a lot of gut, soul, heart, and involvement, and I love that. So please, reach out if you want to make some art and music!
How can your fans best support you right now?
I would love the fans to stream the new single ‘Time Will Do Us Justice” feat CRINGE and share the powerful visual art created for the release by Creative Director Luca Barbieri, Photographer Celia Croft, and Make-up Artist Juan Moreno.
Picture Credit: Celia Croft
Photo Credit: Florent Basiletti