VOLTAGE Podcast 29 - Mac Declos

Interview

Can you tell me a bit about your selection for your VOLTAGE podcast? How did you design the set?

I designed the selection with mostly unreleased/promos that I recently received! I also included a lot of tracks from the upcoming Mama Told Ya release, and added some unreleased tracks of my own. Artistically I built the set around the groove, I went through different styles but I really wanted to keep a link between the tracks.

In this podcast / in general, do you prepare your sets in advance or do you let yourself be carried away by the moment?

In general for the podcasts I prepare the tracklist because I think it is important to know where I go when I have only one hour of music. On the contrary, during gigs I do not prepare the set track by track because too many factors come into play (the crowd, the soundsystem, the slot, the lights etc...).

Before falling in love with music, you trained as a contemporary / Hip-Hop pro dancer. How did your relationship with dance influence your way of understanding electronic music?

According to me, falling in love with dance is falling in love with music because there is no one without the other. Moreover my dad is a guitarist and my mom a dancer so I never experienced one without the other.

Even if I am more focused on the music today, the objective remains the same: to make people dance. When I was dancing intensively (on the hip-hop side) I was mostly practicing house dance which is a club dance coming from the US. It's really through this way that I had my first clubbing experiences. And that really taught me not to forget that as a DJ we are here to make the dancefloor vibrate, and that sometimes you have to adapt and raise your head to connect with the crowd.

The Mac Declos sound is a groovy one that pushes you to dance, to bounce, like few artists manage to do. What's your secret to a good groove?

You need to ask the secret to my parents [laughs]. Maybe it's the 18 years of listening to Prince at home all day long. More seriously, there is no secret, I think it's something that feels natural to me. That's why I play lots of different styles, as soon as it bounces I feel like playing it quite easily. The groove can't be explained but you can definitely feel it. I really understood that by spending hours dancing on the dancefloor, after a while you get into a turmoil that, for me, can define groove.

Last summer, you released your Nelly Furtado edit "Give It To Me (Nelly X-Rated Edit)", together with Lacchesi, which now has 3.3m listens on Soundcloud. Can you tell us a little bit about this track and the influence that its release had on your career?

This edit. It will forever remain, even with such big stats, a simple track made with my buddy while we were just messing around and enjoying ourselves. And I think that's why it worked well because it was something that was not calculated but really natural and good-natured.

In terms of the repercussions, it was incredible to see our song being played by so many artists. And it really surprised us that we were able to reach these numbers, as if it were a pop music song, which is rare in our scene. It really allowed us to get known in the scene. After all it's just an edit, the best is still to come!

In her interview for her VOLTAGE podcast, u.r.trax described the lack of sound diversity on the Parisian scene, and defended the need to see more variety in the musical styles offered to the public. Do you share this vision? How is the Parisian scene doing according to you, and what changes would you like to see in it?

I stopped relying on the Parisian scene a while ago, in the sense that music has no boundaries in my opinion. In Paris I'm connected with people who have the same vision as me, who push me and with whom I advance. In particular I’m thinking of Lacchesi, François X, Anetha, UFO 95, ABSL or Elise Massoni.

I'm not trying to convince people of what is good or not, each of us has their own vision and each one makes people vibrate in their own way. As far as changes are concerned, I think that we clearly lack places of expression and freedom of expression.

You recently joined Mama Loves Ya / Mama Told Ya, which handles your international bookings. How is this collaboration going?

It is going very well! I really appreciate the collaboration between Raise Agency and Mama Loves Ya. I have the chance to work with people who believe in me and push me every day (shout out to Jakob, Jules, Joy, Melissa, Yann & Xavier).

Any upcoming projects you'd like to talk about?

A lot of new music is coming up including my EP that will be released on MYST in early June and several releases on Mama Told Ya <3.

Next up: Lea Occhi

Editorial Team: Noah Hocker and Michiel Demeulemeester
Interview: Jeanne Briatte