CloZee Returns to Envision [Exclusive Interview]

All Photos from CloZee’s Facebook

CloZee performed for the third time down at Envision Festival in Costa Rica. One of the highlights of the weekend, her set united everyone under what looked like a million stars. Everyone stepped from side to side and hands swayed in the air, as her unique sound filled the jungle air late into the night. At the end of her performance, she even came out to the front of the stage to hold fire herself and stand with the performers. It was an incredibly connected moment between the crowd, the performers, and CloZee herself.

Before her set Saturday night at Envision she took the time to answer a few questions from Festival Squad about her love of food, upcoming projects, and on collaborating with her younger brother.

Festival Squad: You have performed all over the world, from your home country of France to four US tours to India. Now here at Envision for the third time. Where is one place you performed that you never expected to?

CloZee: Playing in Costa Rica was quite unexpected actually. As a French girl, it was on my wish-list of countries to visit. I also played my first UK show at the reknown King’s College in Cambridge (to set the mood: it was where they shoot some of Harry Potter’s scenes) that was an interesting place to play a set.

FS: You started with the guitar at 11 and then making electronic music at 16. As you’ve aged, how do you feel like your sound has evolved? What about where you are at this stage of life affects you creatively? What influences your sound today?

CloZee: My music is very inspired by all the experiences I have in real life. Since a few years I’ve had the chance to travel a lot, discover new landscapes, new ways of living, different traditional music. I also met incredible people and artists that really influenced my sound and contribute to the evolution of it.

FS: I saw you are working on a soundtrack for a video game, Forest of Liars. How has this project differed from others? Do you have any other special projects you are working on right now?

CloZee: Creating a video game soundtrack was one of my dreams, as it’s a totally different approach of composing music, telling stories. I love to play games that transport me somewhere else and the music has very often a big role: I love how important a sound or melody can define the way you play. With Forest of Liars, I’m not trying to compose music for people to dance at festivals, but for people playing a game, who are taking decisions and trying to progress through it. It’s so exciting! The atmosphere of the game is also totally matching with my influences (Nature like in Miyazaki’s movies, taking place in feudal Japan..) so it was the best way to start this new experience in the video game world.


FS:
I read that you love food, more specifically that you like to cook and wish you could do it more often. What kind of cuisine do you like to cook? What would you choose to be your last meal?

CloZee: I like Fusion Cuisine, the one with no boundaries (yeah I know, it kinda sounds like a description of my music, but “you are what you eat.” My last meal would be probably a homemade “pot au feu” made by my grand parents, because it’s a meal full of memories for me.

FS: In your free time, you like to look for dope new music on SoundCloud. Who are some up and coming artists that you are paying attention to? (CharlesTheFirst, from Lake Tahoe, California has done a lot of remixes of her songs and collaborated on a track called “The Mist.”)

CloZee: I have many favorites, a lot of them are included in my last remixes album (Tor, Giyo, Axel Thesleff and more) but I also listen to a lot to Ofdream, Frameworks, Sublab, Nicola Cruz, VOLO, ESCPE, Lil Fish, and the list goes on. And yeah, Charles’s music has always a particular place in my heart haha.

FS: I heard your brother plays guitar and saxophone. Any chance we will see you two working on a project together soon?

CloZee: We already kinda collaborated, as he did a lot of saxophone parts in my music (Secret Place, my remix of ‘Two Suns’ by Tor, ‘Time’ by CloZinger..) He’s playing a lot of different instruments and is already composing on Ableton, it’s so much fun to watch him grow! We very often jam together and I’m always blown away by his faculties to come up with a melody or chord progression that sounds good quickly. He learns fast, and he’s very curious of new music. I’m excited to see where he will go.

FS: How do you get in your creative zone? Do you have any creative rituals? Any vices, like a cup of coffee that you need to get in the right mindset?

CloZee: I don’t have a particular creative ritual, except that I need to finish all the non-creative stuffs of the day like answering emails, administrative papers before trying to get in a creative process. I usually do all those stuffs during the day and I compose by night.

FS: You have achieved so much. You been on 5 US tours, sold out major shows, performed at huge festivals, released an incredible EP titled “Harmony”, and have many artists name you as their inspiration. Is there a musical ceiling for you? Like any goal where you’d be like, I can now leave music.

CloZee: I will never be able to say “I can now leave music.” There are so many things I want to do and try, and I’m sure many opportunities I never thought about could come. I just go with the flow and take each day as it comes.

CloZee will be at various festivals like Okeechobee, Lightning in a Bottle, Electric Forest, and many other festivals across the states this summer. See more festival and tour dates here.

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