CloZee. Courtesy of Pierre Beteille.
Today, French producer CloZee released her latest album, Neon Jungle, on her imprint Odyzey Music. The 10-track body of work boasts ambient, worldly, rhythmic and lucid sounds in true CloZee style. The record, which is the first release on Odyzey Music, follows her debut album, Evasion, that was released in 2018. The world bass producer is well-known for fusing classical guitar production with freeform melodies. CloZee first came to fame in 2015 with the release of her breakthrough single “Koto,” and she has since performed at numerous music festivals around the world, such as Costa Rica’s Envision festival. Her inspiration stems from nature, dreams, paintings and weather, which can all be heard in Neon Jungle. CloZee took the time to share with Forbes stories behind how some of the songs were created on Neon Jungle, how she went from dreaming of being a firefighter to becoming a producer, and more.
Lisa Kocay: Can you describe your sound in three words? CloZee: “Peaceful, powerful, worldly.”
Kocay: What was the inspiration behind Neon Jungle? What does Neon Jungle mean to you? CloZee: “A lot of people tell me ‘when I listen to your music, I feel like I’m in a forest or a jungle.’ That’s very often where my inspiration is coming from: landscapes, nature, organic shapes and sounds. For this album and tour, I had the idea of bringing a small jungle (plants, leaves and vines) in an indoor venue. My shows usually have a lot of lasers, lights and visuals representing nature, so the name Neon Jungle was to me a great description of my music and vision: it has an electronic and organic feel, both visually and aurally. The album name directly came from that stage design idea.”
Kocay: Can you share any stories behind how some of the songs were created?CloZee: “The first single ‘Winter Is Coming’ is the second song I composed on this album about a year ago. I came back from the mountains Les Pyrénées in France, inspired to write something epic, with snowy mountain views. I had visions of people doing extreme mountain sports while creating it. It was also the beginning of the final season of ‘Game Of Thrones’ (I’m a fan), so I called it temporarily ‘Winter Is Coming.’ I decided to keep it because it was super easy to remember and some kind of tribute to the show.”
“Another story for ‘Us’ featuring The Kite String Tangle: I originally created the instrumental in Australia, beginning of 2019, inspired by my very first time in the country. About a year later, my team reached out to a couple of vocalists to see if anyone would be interested to collaborate on it. The Kite String Tangle was the one who answered right away, with the most amazing top line, and he’s coincidentally Australian as well. It just felt amazing to wrap up a song with a full Australian feel.”
Kocay: With the album comes the expansion of your brand as you’re launching your own label, Odyzey Music. What was the motivation behind launching your label? CloZee: “I always dreamed of having my own label, choosing how to spread my music and message. Music is not only my job, it’s my life, so this is even more important to be able to be artistically independent, choose your own timeline, budget and people you work with for any future music. I felt like it was the next fundamental step to keep a sustainable business and career. My album Neon Jungle is the first album to be released on Odyzey Music, but I wish to release music from artists that I love and want to support.”
CloZee is a world bass producer. Courtesy of Pierre Beteille.
Kocay: Your music has a really interesting and unique sound to it. What’s your creative process like and where does your inspiration stem from?CloZee: “My creative process is always different depending on the song or album. Touring, meeting new people, traveling to new countries, being infused with different cultures, landscapes, nature and dancers are the most amazing sources of inspiration to me. In between my travels or tours, I go back home, sit down in my studio and compose music remembering all those different experiences, images and sounds I collected during those trips. Sometimes I write some ideas down the road but only at the beginning of songs, especially since I don’t have my guitar with me when I’m traveling—it’s a pretty big part of the process of creation and research of melodies.”
Kocay: Before you got into making music, you had dreams of being a firefighter. What attracted you to being a firefighter and how did you make the journey into being a DJ instead?CloZee: “My wish of being a firefighter was when I was a child. I was a sportive and active kid who just wanted to help people. When I got into music, mostly when I started playing the guitar and going out to concerts, I became very passionate about the technical aspect of sound and the acoustic in general. So around 15 I wanted to be a sound engineer, and studied until I was 21 to graduate and work in this world. “Although, during my sound engineering studies, when I was maybe 18, I fell in love with electronic music production and decided to share my own songs on the Internet. Seeing the great feedback and after I got my first shows in my hometown, I just became obsessed with this art. I was amazed by its endless possibilities: sharing my music with people online, playing music for a crowd, collaborating with artists around the world, etc. I graduated in 2011, and decided I wanted to pursue my dreams and develop my CloZee project full-time and try to make a living with music. Since then I realized I’m still helping people with music, in a way, so that’s a common thing with my original plans as a kid.”
Kocay: When you’re not making music, you practice boxing. How are you staying fit these days in a socially-distancing and quarantining world? CloZee: “I used to practice boxing for six years but because of the extensive travels on tour, the jet lag, and hours spent on the computer with a very strange sleeping schedule (I’m a night music creator), I had to stop. It was too hard to start over on my physical condition every time I came back home from a tour.Quarantine has been actually quite hard on my body and mental health. My inspiration to do anything, including music, was down. I’m really looking forward to getting back into some physical exercises (running and hopefully some boxing sessions) when I’m feeling better about the world situation, between the pandemic and the fight for human rights.”
Kocay: For those who haven’t been to a show, what is your show experience like? CloZee: “I guess it’s a very personal and different experience for everyone, but my team and I are working hard to provide the fans a full audio-visual experience and make the crowd forget that they are in a venue for a moment. We just want the people to feel transported to another world and to be lost in the trippy visuals, lasers, lights and music that showcases so many different sounds and atmosphere from around the globe.
“Some people close their eyes and let their body be massaged by the bass and melodies, some are dancing hard, jumping, head banging, meditating or some are just standing in the middle of the crowd, lost in the lasers. I’ve seen so many different responses from people—that’s what is so beautiful about a crowd. The best compliments I had about the shows are ‘I forgot all my problems during your show and it saved my life’ or ‘your show makes me want to travel so much more.’”
