AN M3 FOR THE M83 - ANTHONY GONZALEZ OF M83

M83 have the enviable reputation of being one of the most innovative bands to have emerged this millennium, recognised for their trademark wall-of-sound, created by blending layer upon layer of synth lines and guitar parts. Thomas James met the man behind the music, Anthony Gonzalez, to ask him about his passion for vintage synthesizers and find out why the M3 Workstation is proving invaluable on stage, midway through M83’s latest tour of Europe and the USA.

“When I was a kid my mum and my older brother used to play piano and my father was a great guitarist, so I’ve always been fascinated by musical instruments,” reflects Anthony Gonzalez, remembering the events that inspired him to make music his career. “When I was 10, I really loved Iron Maiden so I watched a video of their Live After Death concert. After seeing that performance I wanted to be a rock star and play guitar, so I started learning!”

Iron Maiden may have been a catalyst, but M83’s music owes more to ambient and electronic influences than heavy rock. To gain inspiration for his latest fifth studio album, Saturdays = Youth, Anthony looked to the work of certain bands who’d helped define the sound of the 1980s. “I think the’80s is one of the most interesting periods for the music industry,” he insists. “I’ve always been fascinated by bands like Cocteau Twins, Tears For Fears and Talk Talk, so the aim was to make a tribute to this period of music; but, at the same time, I wanted to add something more personal so it would still sound like an M83 record. For me, it’s really important to keep our identity each time we make a record.”

When asked how he wants his records to sound, Anthony explains that his goal is different with each new project, but he still has a very particular idea of what defines an M83 record. “The definition is layers of sounds. When composing, I usually record a lot of tracks over and over. I like this feeling of being overwhelmed by music and surrounded by sounds. At the beginning it was only keyboards I was layering, but on the last couple of records I’ve been playing guitars as well. What is interesting is that I was recording parts that could have been played by guitars, but I did it with keyboards!”

Vintage Point
The track ‘Couleurs’, from Saturdays = Youth, is a particularly good example of M83’s extensive used of analogue synths, particularly those made by Korg. “There are a lot of Korg sounds on it,” Anthony confirms. “A lot from the Korg Poly 61 and the MS20, including a bass sound, and I also used a Korg Monopoly for one good monophonic sound. I am a big fan of Korg’s analogue synths from the 70s like the MS20, MS10, and I’ve also got a lot of analogue synths from the ’80s, including a Mono/Poly, Delta and Poly-61. These are my favourite Korg synths. On the album we only worked with instruments coming from the 80s – not new keyboards – just to recreate this feeling and production of an ‘80s record. And, apart from a couple of sounds, it was all done with analogue synths.

To help him achieve the sound of the 1980s, Anthony hired in producer Ken Thomas, known for his work with the Sugarcubes, Cocteau Twins, Sigur Ros, and many others. “He was able to give me a lot of great advice and it was really easy to work with him,” asserts Anthony. “He’s very clever and was really aware of what I wanted.” Also in on the project was Ewan Pearson, whose production credits include Ladytron and Tracey Thorn. Anthony: “Ewan is more modern and quite a young producer. I first worked with him on a couple demos in his home studio and after that the production team gathered in Rockford studio in Wales to make the record.

“I think the combination of Ken and Ewan brought something really interesting to the album. I wanted to work with Ewan because I really like the way he treats modern electronic sounds, on the other hand, I still wanted a 1980s sound and Ken is a more experienced producer who has worked on a lot of ’80s albums.”

Enter the M3
Already owner of so many of vintage Korg synths, Anthony recently took delivery of the keyboard version of Korg’s M3 Workstation, immediately integrating it into the stage setup of the current Saturdays = Youth promotional tour. “I really wanted to try the M3 because I’d read a lot of good reviews about it,” continues Anthony. “I’ve not had time to use it on my demos and records because I’ve only had it a couple of months, but for our live show it’s pretty good. It’s really interesting to have on stage because we are using the on-board sampler to play sounds sampled from my album songs. It’s really easy to do but I haven’t sampled all of them because there are too many!”

For larger gigs, M83 are taking a great number of the source synths on stage, but where FOH feeds and space is limited, the set list is modified and the M3 comes to the fore. Morgan Kibby, vocalist from US group The Romanovs, shares keyboard duties, leaving Anthony some freedom to play guitar whenever necessary. “It’s a four piece, including a drummer, bass guitarist and Morgan on the M3,” explains Anthony. “She has control of the M3 and is selecting the sounds. I can trigger the samples in the M3 with another keyboard, so it’s really easy.”

Although sampling has, so far, been Anthony’s main method of getting his M3 to output his favourite analogue sounds, his M3 is fitted with the optional RADIAS analogue modelling synthesizer, so that in the future many vintage sounds can be emulated directly by programming the workstation. “The RADIAS card is really interesting,” confirms Anthony. “There are a lot of great bass sounds which we are already using.”

The M3 real-time controllers, such as the joystick, ribbon strip and X-Y pad, are also proving themselves useful. “We are working on a song using some of the M3’s effects as we learn to use it. We are using the controllers to affect cut-off frequencies, resonance – stuff like that – and bit of delay as well. It’s really interesting. I also like the touch screen which is simple to use and especially good in the dark during the live shows. There are so many things you can do with the M3, but what I mostly love about it is the pads and big analogue bass sounds.”

Past and Future Projects
Anthony considers himself as a huge fan of Brian Eno, so it’s perhaps not surprising to find out that some of his other musical projects include both film soundtrack and ambient works. “Ambient music is one of my favourite types of music to listen to, play and compose. Now I’m working on a collection of ambient records which are called Digital Shades and a while ago I worked on a couple of movie soundtracks in France, so I’m quite busy these days! It’s been a good year for me.”

With a number of tour dates and festivals ahead of him, it will be a while before Anthony gets a chance to work on new material properly, but when he does, it seems like the M3 will play its part along side his collection of vintage Korg synthesizers. “There’s still much to say about it but I am just learning to use it at the moment. I can’t wait to use it for my recordings; I just want to get experimenting with new sounds.”

First Time Lucky?
Most people who have found success in the music industry faced a lot of rejection before finally securing that much-sought-after recording deal. Anthony’s case, however, proves that occasionally it is possible to strike it lucky first time around. “When I was 17 I worked all summer to buy an eight-track to record my home demos,” he recalls. “I made a demo and sent out five copies, a couple of which went to labels in Paris. I was excited because it was the first time I’d sent my music out, but it was just a small demo with no pretension.”

Remarkable, without asking to see the band perform live, independent Paris-based label Gooom Disques signed M83 on the basis of Anthony’s demo, soon after releasing the band’s eponymous debut album in 2001, and then the highly acclaimed Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts two years later. “That contract gave us the opportunity to get known in the electronic music industry,” says Anthony, “and I’ve been working on albums ever since!”