The French, Berlin-based DJ’s genre-defying sets are a hypnotic blend of tradition and futurism, weaving psychedelic layers of traditional music, free jazz, noise, dub, footwork, and breakcore. She has been lauded for her ability to captivate audiences with fearless experimentation and the ability to jump seamlessly between BPM’s and genres. Morphine Records,YOUTH & Ominira affiliate, Marylou has graced stages at Atonal, Intonal, CTM, and Berghain, and opened for boundary-pushing acts like Senyawa, Actress, and Valentina Magaletti.
Your background is in painting, cinema, and soundsystem culture. Can you talk about how did all of this come together and form your work?
Painting has been my language of choice since my very early years. During my studies in animated cinema, I fell in love with experimental directors such as Kihashiro Kawamoto, the Wan brothers, Yuasa, Norman McLaren… and early Japanese movies, and the Hong Kong scene, or Weerasethakul… I was fascinated by how these directors use sound as a whole narrative entity, almost as a character itself in their works. And also, the art of telling things implicitly. The finest way to reach people’s minds or hearts isn’t the obvious. Hidden meanings in the angles you shoot, lights, sounds, what isn’t told instead of what’s been told: Understanding this intricate vocabulary taught me later about the art of listening. My love for field recordings, sonic journalism, underwater sounds, bruitism, and movie dialogues that I frequently use in my sets directly comes from this. Perhaps also the collage style, pretty far from what’s expected from a DJ in a club context. The soundsystem culture has shaped my sound for sure and my affinity for the low-end sound spectrum, but mostly it has taught me the most important thing as DJ: The crowd is here to face the sound, and cheer the sounds. The person playing is behind and hidden, like in most of the old clubs.
DJing has been at the forefront of your practice. How did you start DJing, and how has your DJing developed over the years?
I started collecting records and music 15 years ago and started sharing them a few years later. I owe all my experience to community radios who trusted my weird tastes and I immediately found my freedom in the romantic situation of playing tunes for an unseen audience. The studios at Rinse France were my first encounter with a DJ setup. For me radio has always been about showcasing other people’s music instead of technical skills, or even making my DJ profile attractive. Instead, I chose to tell stories with my recent digging, religiously, every month. I never felt in a rush to learn those technical tricks that I saw every weekend or on every radio show or that all my friends were doing when DJing. Even if I was spending all my time in clubs as a nerdy dancer, taking notes, writing about it, and collecting music I heard, I always felt pretty distant from the club scene in my own music practice. I still feel that way, and sometimes a little bit misunderstood.
I think people are a bit scared of freedom in the context of a club. Because of this I guess, I ended up very often categorized as “Ambient” when proposing a seated set, when I was playing everything but Ambient music. I love seated audiences and third rooms, it’s where I thrive. But I also love to make people dance and for me it’s the most magnificent epiphany when it’s peak time, and you can play a drum solo or a noise track. It took a while before people dared to book me as a main or closing act, I learned slowly how to tame the dancer’s moves, and I love to do it. I’m grateful for nights like Codex in Berlin, or accidental meetings in Bristol (my second sonic home) proposing experimental acts in the middle of a club night. I understood that we must give all our trust to the crowd you’re playing for, be generous. I saw people in tears or rolling on the floor because I trusted them and trusting the audience became my motto.
What sort of DJ would you say you are – do you create moods and atmospheres, or is it rather the individual tracks that are important?
I think creating an atmosphere is inherent to the craft of Doing. What is caring more about the mood than the actual tracks you’re playing? DJ’s use “tools” tracks to reach that, to make everything sound smooth, but also to create relief in between the tracks that leave a mark. Even though I can’t play anything that bores me, and think every single track has to be filled up with intention, I also have my own tools like textures and noise, soundscapes. Creating a mood or atmosphere is what we all aim for. But we always start with a selection of very meaningful individual tracks, a big part of the fun is finding a way to compose something new with all of them. Caring about the vibe or the tracks, being a DJ or a selector, I think one can do both but it is hard and subtle work.
I adore DJs who slowly build up their sets, feel every dancer in the room, and can make you understand music a different way or like tracks you never thought you would. I hope one day I will too.
You’ve been close to Berlin’s Morphine Raum, an experimental space run by Rabih Beaini. In what way have you been involved there, and why is it important to you?
Morphine Raum will always be the ultimate school for improvised music. Rabih started this project during the pandemic and since I was already assisting him with the label/ brainstorming, archiving and shipping records, and event production I also gave a hand to give this space some life. It’s now a unique recording room: 24 channel neve mixer, beautiful space and lights, an integrated wood workshop to build prepared instruments. On top of his visionary ideas as a producer and sound engineer, Rabih proposed to do a public recorded session to the musicians coming. so it also became a live venue. Understanding the process of recording by such a master in production and following all his ideas was priceless teaching.
Do you also produce music, or wish to do so?
After a whole life surrounded by musicians and always being intimidated by the process, I started recently producing thanks to the FBM family. a life-changing experience for someone who has always been paralyzed by the infamous “I would never be good enough” thoughts. I’ve never had more fun and excitement. and I have a couple of releases coming up, stay tuned 😉
How do you see the role of a DJ nowadays? Is it harder to stand out, promote your work, and get booked as a DJ these days?
Being a DJ is being part of a community, helping it thrive. DJs are the only ones left buying music. It’s our role to help producers get known and make what we do with integrity and humility if we want the actual – and not sustainable – music industry to renew itself for the better. I keep a day job because I want to keep doing things with my weird approach and play what I want in the most sincere way. But I don’t think that people who want to “stand out” can be good DJs or artists. If you keep doing things for the right reasons, you’ll have more chances to have a long-lasting career to quote Jane Fitz. I’m still shocked when I see big festival settings or what the industry proposes at the moment because DJing is closer to a craft rather than art… We do use turntables, mixers, or other players as instruments, and we do tell stories, but I don’t agree with the industry wanting faces to worship only because it serves the business. It doesn’t serve the future of raves, dancing or listening together.
What inspires you at the moment?
A list of things that inspire me:
- my friend Nonogigsta crossing the Atlantic by boat to play her gigs in the US. She’s part of the StayGrounded NGO, and fights against the aerial means of transport, especially for DJ’s. She’s also the most inspiring and dedicated DJ I know.
- “l’Etreinte du serpent” from Ciro Guerra and “Dahomey” from Mati Diop
- My peers of Wheel of Fortune, a band / collective of DJ’s : rRoxymore, Ccl and Nonogista. We are going to host all-night-long sets full of twists and turns premiering at OHM next week in Berlin.
- Venues like Open Ground in Wuppertal , or Essaim, the new club opened by long time ago and don of the vibes Brice Coudert in Paris.
- The recent music by Serpente, Nakano Blu’s edits, Goat new LP on Latency.