French future rock solo artist Ephemeral Machine evolves to new cosmic heights with the debut of his first solo concept cyberpunk/interstellar rock masterpiece SINGULARITY.
When it comes to the birth of an artist, it takes one spark of inspiration to create some of the best musical talents the world has ever crossed paths on. For emerging future rock artist Ephermeral Machine, it took discovering the Starset to realize the possibilities were endless and a bright future for being an artist in the music industry was in the cards for the French native solo artist.
“I wrote SINGULARITY as fiction and tried to take distance from my story to be completely neutral, but during the mixing, I realized how well these lyrics resonated within me. It's a part of who I am that I had never put into words before, and despite that, I’ve just poured pieces of me intertwined in this sci-fi story. Apart from my taste for sci-fi, the mix of technology-themed lyrics and more personal elements is something I appreciate a lot because it allows me to talk about serious things wrapped in lighter themes.”
While Ephemeral Machine is best known for his top-tier remixes for artists such as Jay Ray, Soul Extract, and The Anix, Ephemeral Machine felt there were much bigger plans on the horizon than just remixes. Debut album SINGULARITY is a project that not only steps beyond those boundaries but also is a powerful story and collection of gritty, cinematic, electronic rock that tells an emotional tale of an A.I. searching for purpose in its dystopian realm while also trying to escape those that created it. But dig a little deeper there is a bit more to this conceptual masterpiece than what it leads on. Evolving between innovative metal anthems, denuded interludes, and gorgeous atmospheric synthwave additions, this otherworldly concept album offers a kaleidoscopic range of vibes that create an immersive universe from which it lives.
𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝑰𝑵𝑻𝑶 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑽𝑶𝑰𝑫 𝑬𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑴𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆! 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄? 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆?
Thank you for having me on board! I think the story goes back to the day I discovered Starset in 2016. I didn't pay attention to the music scene and except Linkin Park, I had no particular tastes at that time, it all came through Starset. Coming from a musician family, there was always this sort of expectation of me becoming a musician, just like my parents, brother, uncle, yet I hadn’t found the spark before. Hearing Starset’s music unlocked something in my brain that made me want so bad to write songs too and gave me a purpose.
For a moment I just wrote down ideas of songs without knowing how to make them real. I then found Soul Extract on YouTube, and I was amazed by what he could create. I chatted a bit with him, and it made me realize you can make music without being signed to a major record label or owning a million-dollar studio. All it took was a laptop and passion. I started learning music production by myself. After putting out weird demos no one listened to, I started liking what I was creating and launched myself to streaming platforms in 2018.
𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔? 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒌/𝒄𝒚𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒖𝒏𝒌-𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕, 𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒚? 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒕𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒑 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍-𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒆. 𝑾𝒆 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒍, 𝒔𝒚𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒘𝒂𝒗𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒕.
My biggest influences are mostly Starset, Celldweller, Carpenter Brut, and Hans Zimmer to keep the list short (although there are many metal, synthwave, soundtrack, pop, or EDM artists that influence me as well). I try to take my favorite aspects from each of these artists and arrange everything together with the ultimate goal to create the song that would describe my personal tastes perfectly as if I was my own biggest fan. I’m mostly inspired by the way they create complex and detailed soundscapes, either with the excessive layering of elements or constant melodic changes, and that’s what I’ve been chasing since.
As a bonus, I am also subconsciously influenced by most of the things I hear actually, I experiment more and more, and some of my upcoming tracks are even influenced by house, hip-hop, and trap genres. Even though I’m not really into them, I love producing such things because of the particular emotions or images they can convey. I think this wide range of influences is what results in this blend of grittiness and violence with sweetness and beauty you can hear throughout SINGULARITY.
𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒂 𝒃𝒊𝒕. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒂𝒑 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒎 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎?
I am a huge fan of cinema, filmmaking, and storytelling, so the idea of a concept album has stuck with me from the start. Instead of doing a couple of tracks with no correlation, I wanted to create something bigger, that would live beyond the music and create a visually appealing universe. My original idea was to write up a cool sci-fi story that would give more depth to my sound and bring something cinematic to my work. SINGULARITY follows a self-aware AI in its quest to understand itself and the world surrounding it. I wrote all the tracks revolving around this theme and shifted this concept to make my universe. Though, later on, I realized the music I was creating was really introspective, that the machine I wrote about, was in a certain way, me.
I wrote SINGULARITY as fiction and tried to take distance from my story to be completely neutral, but during the mixing, I realized how well these lyrics resonated within me. It's a part of who I am that I had never put into words before, and despite that, I’ve just poured pieces of me intertwined in this sci-fi story. Apart from my taste for sci-fi, the mix of technology-themed lyrics and more personal elements is something I appreciate a lot because it allows me to talk about serious things wrapped in lighter themes.
It helps writing about life without being too straight to the point. Some people will stick to the dystopian story and the story of the AI, some people will choose to see beyond it and see how it applies to human beings who try to understand themselves and who feel out of phase with their world. In the end, it gives different levels of analysis, and I'm happy with whatever listeners take from this.
𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔?
Being currently 20, I started this project by the age of 17, so there hasn't been much beforehand, no projects I could really compare with E.M. But I've learned a lot. Running Ephemeral Machine reminds me to see the big picture. It helps me realize that ambition leads to success because sometimes, a quick message can lead to a 70k streams remix. I step out of my comfort zone and reach out for collaborations as often as I can.
This project also allowed me to meet amazing people from all over the world, some of who I work with regularly now and who changed my vision of things, and one who even became an incredibly close friend. Funny to say that being isolated with a laptop and a synth has connected me more than ever before!
𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒃𝒊𝒈 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒔 𝑱𝒂𝒚 𝑹𝒂𝒚, 𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒍 𝑬𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒏𝒊𝒙. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒖𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒊𝒈 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔. 𝑫𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒐 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌? 𝑰𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕, 𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏?
Even though I appreciate being solo, I’m genuinely grateful for every collaboration I’ve had so far. I believe artists cannot survive by being 100% on their own. Eventually, they start running in circles. Collaborations help reach new audiences, and they also bring a whole new look to your project as they bring new mindsets and vibes. And as you mention pressure, of course, there always is. Solo releases themselves cause pressure as you wonder how people will react to your new work.
But when it comes to such collaborations, the pressure grows because there’s someone else in the equation, because it’s not just about you anymore. When you release a remix from your favorite artists, on your favorite label, you wonder if you belong here. You ask yourself if you’re good enough to be considered for such a place. I’m sure everyone knows what imposter syndrome feels like! Some bigger artists also have die-hard fans, and the response to a remix can be brutal. But I’m glad that my releases have been pretty much appreciated so far, and it gives me more faith in keeping the adventure going!
𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎?
I hope they can relate to the story of this machine and find pieces of humanity inside of it. I hope some metaphors will speak to them as much as they spoke to me when I proof-checked the lyrics, and I hope that they can see this album as a glimpse of life, the brightest lights hiding in the darkest depths. But on the pure music side, I also want them to get to know who I am. SINGULARITY is made of demos I gathered since 2017, and this album testifies to those experiments in trying to find my own sound. It shows where I come from and where I'm going.
I hope my debut album can give people a taste of my universe and bring more people on the journey. There will be more experimenting, drifting away from cyberpunk rock, but if they like this first record, I’m sure they’ll connect easily with the following releases. It will only get better from now on, more immersive, cohesive, and personal.
𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒂𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒏, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓?
I will release the instrumental version of SINGULARITY next month and enjoy a short break. Then a couple of remixes from some talented artists will release in early 2022, leading to a remix album, and I'm so excited for that! I can’t wait to show people what’s in the works and how I will explore different soundscapes and themes more intimately soon…