Golden Bug is nothing short of a truly incredibly multi-talented artist; delivering consistently excellent levels of disco-tinged house and electronica for the last ten years on labels like La Belle, Les Disques de la Mort, Höga Nord, Gomma, Multi Culti, and Kompakt.
EG caught up with Golden Bug to learn more about La Belle Records’ new ‘One Night Stand 3’ VA compilation, his process in the studio, and more.
EG: Hi Antoine! Welcome to EG. It’s a pleasure to have you here with us. Where are you based right now?
Golden Bug: Thanks for the invitation! I’m actually based between Barcelona and Paris, so I live between the sun and the rain.
EG: So, congratulations on the release of ‘One Night Stands 3’. What has the initial reception been like?
Golden Bug: We are delighted with the first feedback and the support received by the DJs, the radios, and the press! We put all our heart to elaborate these compilations, so it’s really great and it motivates us for the rest of the La Belle Records adventures.
EG: And what can your fans expect to find on ‘One Night Stands 3’? Is there a particular concept running through this one? How is this one different from other previous installments?
Golden Bug: The concept behind our ‘One Night Stands’ compilations is very simple: We just want to release music from artists we love and put a spotlight on new talents.
On volume 3, we decided to orientate ourselves on more deviant pop formats, even if the idea is to mix the genres so that the coherence remains intact and that we can listen to it as a global work and not as a simple patchwork of tracks.
EG: You’ve actually curated ‘One Night Stands 3’ yourself. How much work goes into a compilation like this one? Did you have to “commission” certain tracks?
Golden Bug: The idea on ‘ONS’ is to have only exclusive tracks, so in some cases, we ask artists we know to compose a track specifically for the record, and in other cases, they send us tracks that are just out of the oven.
After that, it takes us a lot of time to find new talents around the world who share our taste for hybrid and mutant music, so we spend a lot of time listening to music to build a cool and attractive release.
“We put all our heart to elaborate these compilations, so it’s really great and it motivates us for the rest of the La Belle Records adventures”
EG: ‘One Night Stands 3’ also features a collaboration of yours with In Fields, ‘Water (ft Phoebe Coco)’. What can you tell us about this cut? What were the sessions like?
Golden Bug: I have known Ed from In Fields for a long time now. We have released 2 EPs on La Belle and his musical approach has always interested us because it is very singular. I’ve been wanting to collaborate with him for a long time and we did it by releasing an LP called ‘Vibrations Métallique’ on Swedish label Hoga Nord.
The track ‘Water feat. Phoebe Coco’ is part of a logical continuation as we continue to work together on new tracks, and this one ticked all the boxes to be on the compilation. In terms of technique and composition, we used the same formula as usual. That is to say that I start skeletons of tracks and Ed adds stems that I edit, and then we decide together on the finishing touches and arrangements. In reality, our collaboration is for me a huge breath of fresh air because the creative process is very fluid and the result is often surprising. He has the gift to take my bases in sound landscapes that I could not reach without him and his talent.
EG: Of course, ‘One Night Stands 3’ is out via La Belle Records, of which you’re a co-founder. How is La Belle Records doing? Any future plans you can anticipate on that front?
Golden Bug: We created La Belle to release music from artists we love and also to develop long-term things that we care about.
The label has been around for over 10 years now, we’ve never really been in the spotlight, nor a trendy label, but we’re very happy to continue like this, quietly releasing the music we love without any real strategy.
For the last 3 years, we decided to focus on vinyl compilations and to gather talented artists to compose a sound range that underlines our musical tastes and release it on a physical medium because it makes sense to us. We still put as much heart into our work by trying to offer releases that share the same DNA.
We are also very excited to release an EP by Spanish artist Azaria, who we discovered while searching for new talent for ‘One Night Stands Vol.3’ and who will be released in 2023 on La Belle.
EG: What does your studio look like at the moment? Have you recently picked up any new soft or hardware you’d personally recommend?
I’ve been working the same way for a long, long time. The brain of my studio is still an MPC that sequences all my machines. I consider from the beginning that accidents are the key to making good songs, and I like the playful aspect of machines that communicate with each other and that you try to control as if you were on the back of a wild horse as you try your best not to get hit by a tree in the head.
I like to have fun making music, turning knobs, pressing pads, and opening auxiliaries. I find the tactile side enjoyable and that’s why I use hardware machines rather than a computer, and not by snobbery, because in music only the result is important, the process remains really secondary. If I had to recommend a machine, I would choose the Pulsar 23 because its texture is unique and its possibilities infinite.
EG: What are your thoughts on the current state of the scene? What would you like to see more and less of?
Golden Bug: I find that the current scene is overflowing with great productions and I try to listen to as much as possible but there is such a flow of releases that it’s very difficult not to saturate.
I would like to go back to the time when there was a little bit less and we took the time to listen, to watch, to read for more than two minutes without having the need to move on so quickly. This is for me the main problem nowadays and it affects all artistic and non-artistic disciplines.
“I would like to go back to the time when there was a little bit less and we took the time to listen, to watch, to read for more than two minutes without having the need to move on so quickly.”
EG: What is art and why do we need it?
Golden Bug: I think that art helps us to express and to understand the world around us. We are unique in our human drive to create and engage with the arts and historically, humans have been visually expressive beings. Experiencing art also gives us a reason to think and be reflective or may inspire us to get up and dance. Art provides a release, a place for reflection, and a way to engage our whole selves.
EG: What’s next for Golden Bug? What particular milestones are you looking forwards to now? Where can your fans catch you next?
Golden Bug: I’m working on the sequel of ‘Piscolabis’ and on the live version to showcase it this summer. I will also be touring Spain in early 2023 for a series of parties to promote our compilation ‘ONS Vol.3’, with Madrid’s Azaria and Marc Piñol. We’ll be in San Sebastian on January 20th, in Vittoria on January 21st, in Madrid on February 2nd with Hot Spell, and in Barcelona on the 24th and other dates will be confirmed in between.
EG: Thank you so much for your time, Antoine! We wish you all the best for the future.
Golden Bug: Gracias y hasta pronto!
La Belle Records’ ‘One Night Stands 3’ is out now. Purchase your copy here.
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