Elegie: finding inspiration in the least expected places [Interview]

“When I produce, I aim for a deep and hypnotic sound, trying to evoke profound emotions while driving through solid basslines. I consider myself more on the underground part of the electronic music spectrum,” says Elegie of her creative process.

Coming from a scientific background, Elegie has had a unique start to her music career, which has in turn lead to the creation of a sound that is unmistakably hers, and hers alone. Walking the line between commercial and underground sounds, her precise creation process has garnered the attention of music lovers worldwide, and she’s just getting started. To find out more about how she got to where she is now, we sat down with Elegie to get all the information.

Talk to us about your scientific background, and what made you want to pursue a career in music.

“My passion for music has always been there, but things haven’t always been easy. I don’t come from a privileged background, so I had to prioritize and make some hard choices at an early age to build a more “secure” career and gain independence and freedom – which was very important to me. But then life happened, and I came to the realization that it’s now or never: I either give up on music completely, or I’m going “in for the kill”, as La Roux would say.

While it can be scary to start a second career later in life, and a lot of sacrifices need to happen behind the scenes, I saw this as a chance to finally do what I’ve been dreaming of, and become the person I wanted to be. Interestingly enough, my mom sent me a video a few days ago of when I was about 10 years old, performing with my friends. Believe it or not, I was already wearing a hat in all my “shows” (which I totally forgot about)! I became quite emotional when those memories came back.

As I’ve embraced my spirituality more strongly in the last two years, I like believing that the universe has been sending me signs and protecting me all along. Just a year ago, I would have never thought I’d be interviewing for magazines – so I am truly grateful for this journey. “

What are your main inspirations for the sound that you’ve created?

“It really depends! It could be watching a series like Stranger Things, which inspired my ‘Born Slippy’ remix and helped me create a vibe which has been described as downright creepy – with eerie synths piercing through the relentless rhythms like monsters lurking in the darkness. ‘Neblina’s [Fog in Portuguese] sounds on the other hand, were inspired by the dense, eerie, mysterious fog on the top of the mountain where my getaway cabin in Brazil was located. I was aiming for a strong, bass-driven sound, so that I could build the tension up to the point where the melody starts during the break. This is the moment when the listeners get to see the fog “lift”, and to imagine what’s hiding behind it. Three years ago, I recorded my beloved English bulldog snoring in her sleep which, through some processing and designed FX, gave me the opportunity to “immortalize” her later by creating an interesting “howling” sound which you can find in my ‘Running To The Sea’ remix. 

I can comfortably say that inspiration for sounds is everywhere and sometimes comes from the least expected places.”

Can you tell us about the technical aspect of your creative process? What does a typical track creation process look like for you?

“I don’t really have a single way of working on my productions. I can start a new track sequentially on the intro, first break, etc., or I can start with the main drop by choosing all the main elements and then go back to the beginning of the track. However, in general, I often get an idea from a real-life event and then start working on creating the bassline, the kick, the drums and so on. I would then look for the right melody by sometimes creating some chords that I might not even end up using in the project later on, and find the right vocal samples to go with it. 

If I work on a remix, I generally only use selected vocals of the original song. Sometimes I use the original melody and/or chords as a way to help the listeners make the connection, but the rest of the track is entirely new.

Good sound design is extremely important to me; I sometimes spend days just creating my presets and drums so that when I start a new track, I can quickly get to professional-sounding results with my new ideas. 

I also enjoy manually doing automation on my music. I feel that when recording, I get results that are more “alive” when I’m manually recording the parameters on my synths, filters, or whatever hardware I have at my disposal.”

You recently released a remix for The Irrepressibles ‘In This Shirt’. Can you tell us why you wanted to remix this track, and what it was like to remix it?

“‘In this Shirt’ is one of my favorite songs of all time, so I decided to make it a tribute to my English bulldog Edgy, who suddenly passed away two years ago. It was completely heartbreaking. The lyrics are about heartache and loss, so they resonated really deeply with me. I only used a part of the vocals and leveraged some of the original melody to tell my own story. 

I’m very happy with the result, because this track is so deeply emotional and so close to my heart. But of course, I aimed to produce a techno version of it, to really put an Elegie spin on it. This time my approach was different though: I started by creating a long intro to build up the tension, and arranged two significant breaks to progressively introduce the vocals supported by arps. I added a melody aiming for an epic mood and for the last drop, I came back full-power with a groovy bassline and all main elements of the track for the grand finale!

Of note, the original bpm of this track was around 160 – so making it work at 126 bpm was a whole challenge by itself. But this is living proof that the possibilities in music production, combined with all the tools which are currently available, are practically infinite. You just have to experiment and most importantly never give up – especially when a track is so dear to your heart.“

Aside from remixes, your original tracks like ‘Neblina’, ‘In Verse Correlation’ and ‘Full Circle’ have gained a lot of attention. When you create your own original tracks, what experience are you trying to give the listener?

“When I produce, I aim for a deep and hypnotic sound, trying to evoke profound emotions while driving through solid basslines. I consider myself more on the underground part of the electronic music spectrum. But at the same time, the underground purists would not find me “underground enough”, while the more commercial-sounding folks would find me “too underground”. So my sound might strike a balance between both – which sometimes can make it difficult to categorize, but I like thinking about it as having the potential to explore both of these worlds!

Interestingly, my original tracks were described in a recent review as “trippy, melodic darkness evolution locked into a spacious groove” and “a deep, moody, ingenious progressive voyage with unrelenting basslines, incorporating trance-inducing vocal motifs and elegant FX”. I think these descriptions are very accurate! 

As I mentioned before, I really like to dig deep into sound design. And many times, the right ambience can get a sound to sit right in the mix. So in order to keep the ideas concise, when sound designing I like to use similar delays, reverbs, reverse reverbs, etc. throughout the channels, to get a more cohesive ambience which helps to make everything sound as one.”

Not just the music side of things, you also excel within your DJ sets. When people come to see an Elegie set, what can they expect?

“Thank you! My overall philosophy on DJing is delivering a unique performance and sound. I spend a lot of time looking for new tracks, discovering hidden gems and less well known artists, and editing the tracks which are more popular to make them “my own”. So often, the audience will think they recognized the track and then will realize that it’s not the version they know, and ask me where they can find it – which I will answer with a quirky (and proud) smile, well, you won’t find anywhere! Ha! 

I will also admit that my taste is pretty eclectic. This has translated quite a bit in my performances, when I would switch techno genres quite easily during my set while maintaining a solid story line. When programming a set I always try to map out the roads to the unexpected. In order to keep the possibilities original, you can always expect to hear a lot of my studio work on my sets. Nowadays there are only a few tracks from other artists that I will play without any changes, usually they are my own remixes or mashups. “

In terms of DJ sets, what is coming up for you?

“I’m now building a brand new set, which will be filmed in a very special location. I’ve been working very hard in the studio these last couple of months to make it as unique as possible. It will be my first set made up almost entirely of Elegie’s new tracks, remixes, mashups, and edits, and I plan to release it mid-year. Stay tuned!”

What else does 2024 have in store for you?

“I have been working on two original tracks which will also incorporate original vocals. This is something I’ve never done before, so I’m excited to have started this learning process and of course, I can’t wait to hear the results! In parallel, I’m exploring software development to eventually be able to build new plugins. I don’t know how far I will go here but no matter what, I’m enjoying the intellectual stimulation more than anything else. 

The idea is to get back performing as soon as I’m done filming the set. Stay tuned for more details on Elegiemusic.com!”

Listen to ‘Neblina’ below, and keep an eye out for what’s coming next for Elegie.