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Chris Fortier Q&A

Author: Patricia Escalon
Friday, July 6, 2007
TranZfusion caught up with Chris Fortier to discuss his new album 'As Long As The Moment Exists', his previous compilation 'Balance' and why it's important to stay removed from genre battles.

'As Long As The Moment Exists' is the first album with music composed entirely by you. Why has it taken so long-
I don't think it took too long. It's generally not a thing a lot of people try to do. It hasn't taken me that long to do it. I took a decision to work towards this goal a year ago. It took me twelve months to do it all. A lot of people think it's something I've been thinking of over 15 years.

What made you decide to finally compose your own album-
Essentially, I've been making music for a long time. I have done a lot of remixes for other artists and original productions over the years. It came to the point where I didn't want to make one track, two track releases and have them come and go every few months. I wanted to make something that had some substance to it, something that had some teeth to it. Something more involved. I wanted to move myself to the next level as an artist, a real artist. And a real artist makes albums, not just singles. I wanted to create something of an experience beyond something that just DJs would play.

What influences did you draw upon for 'As Long As the Moment Exists'-
I have 15 years of DJing and record collecting to draw from. Influences come from everywhere and anywhere. I listen to a lot of abstract music on planes or down time, but also love listening to old records too. Not just old records, but early house and techno stuff. From records to old DJ mixes. I think that those old vibes had an influence, but I have always drawn from old and new music since I started. But regardless of what I heard or thought of in terms of ideas, or where inspiration came from, I always wanted to take the inspiration or influence and try to push it to a new place. I wanted to try hard to twist the classic influences with new modern influences.

Which particular songs have been influenced by particular eras-
I'm into a lot of kinds of music. I don't just listen to house music or dance music. I like a lot of abstract music "Sunday is a Travel Day" and "As Long As The Moment Exists" are ambient soundscapes. I really listen to a lot of that music anyway, and I play a lot of that on my iPod, so I was happy to express myself in those areas.

Believe is influenced by Detroit techno. It's actually cover of an old Octave One track called "I Believe". "Deep Throbmostess" is more dubby, but still influenced by the Detroit sound. "Don't Hide What You Believe" is influenced very much by it. Tracks like "Fattback" are heavily influenced by old Underground Resistance records and Red Planet records. It's real Detroit electro vibe, not this electro house crap that seems to be popular now, but real bass driven classic Detroit or German electro.

The whole album is a mish mash of eras, influences new and old. I didn't set out to make one thing or another, I just let the music come to me. I don't just go in with one idea. As you're in there, in the creative process, things just happen. There was never a case where I had one idea and the whole song was in my head. I take that back, "Under Your Nose" was one idea. The rest evolved from being in a creative mindset.

What techniques from Chicago do you take-
Certain things from the percussion, claps and snare programming, things like that. The energy that the percussion would bring to a track, even the slower tempo. It would really add something.

How long did it take you to work on each song-
At the end of 2005, I had the idea to take on this kind of project and make an album. I set a timeline starting for January 01, 2006 and ending December 31 that year. At the end of the year I would evaluate what I had in terms of music and direction. Meaning if I had a bunch of random tracks or if I had created a concept or
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