39 - Denis Violet

Giannis Kampiotis
January 03, 2023

Hello music people 👋

Happy New Year :)

Today in the spotlight, Denis Violet

Coming from France, he's got his hand on multiple projects, in and out of music. He likes the physical link with the machines and his creativity seems unlimited 🎶

Read Time: 9 minutes 📰

Studio

Gear List

Novation - Mininova
Moog - Mother-32
Moog - Sybharmonicon
Moog - Werkstatt 01
Moog - Theremini
Korg - MS-20 mini
Korg - Elecrtibe 2
Korg - Nutekt NTS1
Korg - Volca Keys
Korg - Volca FM
Korg - Volca Modular
Korg - Monotribe
Korg - SQ1
IK Uno - Synth Pro Dektop
Stylophone S1
Stylophone GENX1
Phonicbloom - GechoLoopSynth
AKAI - MPX15
Teenage Engineering - PO-35
HansySynth - OPLA
Yamaha - Electone
Yamaha - Electric Piano
Syro Diddley Bow
Home Made Bentadour Electric Guitar
Electric Bass
Arturia - Keystep
Behringer - Swing
Zoom - R8 Multritrack
Zoom - MS70Cdr
Zoom - 505

After that, on my wish list there would be the future Behringer Solina, VCS3 and Kobol. If they end up being available, the Behringer 2600, the Plinky, the Korg 700s, Minilogue and the Hydrasynth. A good pedal like the Blue Sky or Microcosm for example, etc...

The world of eurorack would interest me, but for the moment it's too complicated, it would take too much time and money...

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Interview

Who are you and what is your relationship with music?

My name is Denis Violet. I am 50 years old, married and the father of 4 children.

I live in Limousin, a region of forests and medium mountains a little away from everything in the center of France. I listen to a lot of music and my tastes are very varied, from Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky to Tangerine Dream, passing through great French singers like Murat, Ferré and New Order or The Smiths.

Alongside my work with disabled people, I am an author, composer and performer. My Ramirez project is a French chanson/poetry/folk/electro duo I run with great guitarist Toto Deloménie, in which I sing, play bass, guitar and synthesizers.

When I was young, I learned to play the piano and the bass in a music school and then I quickly acquired my first synthesizers. A Roland D20 then JX305, Casio FZ1, and a Boss rhythm machine.

I then created in 1998 with Anne-Sophie Michaud the band >FJORD, which made some performances in first parts of big names of the modern French song like Dominique A or Jean-Louis Murat.

Thanks to a scholarship from the Ministry of Youth, I was able to equip myself with a Cubase system on PC, with lots of VST instruments. But then I went back to hardware.

I need the physical link with my machines, their immediate availability and their limitations, which are all invitations to be even more creative. I am therefore a fervent "dawless" militant.

Today, I post a minute of music every day on Instagram, and alongside my collaboration with Ramirez, I compose "old school" electronic music, often inspired by the sounds of artists like Tangerine Dream or the first albums by Jean-Michel Jarre.

What's the one thing in your studio you can't live without?

I made a large piece of furniture that houses almost all of my set-up.

In addition to the instruments, I put some small objects in it, including a small Playmobil fox. Regarding the instruments, I like them all, but I still think that the Mother32 is the essential and central piece among all my synths.

On vacation, the Uno Synth Pro is an amazing analog machine that follows me everywhere.

What is the least expensive piece of gear that gave you the most results?

The Korg NTS1, without hesitation.

I like the ability to customize it, and I now use it mainly for its effects out of the MS20.

I also used the Korg Volca Keys a lot, and I also have Stylophones, which are very cheap but can produce very interesting sounds, fantastic drones, bleeps and blops galore with its LFO.

What's your process?

When I work on a project for Ramirez, I generally start with fragments of texts that I gather from numerous notebooks, images or associations of strong ideas, and I look for a melody on the guitar, or a loop on the Electribe.

Sometimes it's Toto, my guitarist friend, who sets a finished text to music, in which case I take care of the arrangements, the production. I love doing that.

Otherwise most of the time I start from sounds, textures, and the rest follows.

I read an interview with Bernard Summer from New Order, who said that the songs came to him, naturally, as if they were dictated to him. I don't really have a routine, I mostly spend a lot of time playing, I have an almost loving relationship with the instruments.

The other thing I like to do is spend time in nature, forests, mountains. Be attentive to the sounds of the wind, the trees, the rain, the songs of the birds, the calls of the animals. I walk a lot, and always have a synth or two in my backpack, to make music outside or just record sounds around. When I jam outside I find that the music takes on another dimension. That it dialogues with the environment and that it bears witness to the fragile beauty of the world. If you go to my Instagram page, you will see a lot of videos carried out in modest or spectacular places.

How would you explain your style?

A style ? Ramirez, at first, was a duo with my voice and two acoustic guitars. I gradually added electronic sounds to it, until our last album, "Homme Lige", which is entirely instrumental and based on Moog loops and improvisations.

Technically, I'm using an 8-track Zoom R8, which is simple, straight-forward gear, and I don't add anything to the initial takes.

I really love the combination of delay/reverb, which makes it possible to create vast soundscapes even starting from an 8-step sequence with a monophonic synth, as is the case in "Lige", produced with a Werkstatt 01, an SQ1 sequencer and a Zoom pedal.

To tell the truth, I consider certain effects, the delay in particular, as instruments in their own right. My style is moving more and more towards an old-school electronic sound.

What’s your biggest struggle?

Really, even if now it is easy to make your music available, getting it known is something different, more complicated and can sometimes be daunting. I must say that I am not very good at this!

Has this journey of building a hardware setup changed the way you think about music or life in general?

Well, over time, tastes become more refined, and I realize that apparently very simple instruments are capable of taking me very far.

I'm also more and more allergic to digital instruments, with the exception of a few fascinating objects like Phonicbloom's GechoLoopsynth, which is like a little sonic jewelry box full of surprises and poetry.

Frankly, between spending hours in endless menus and breathing deeply the unequaled presence of a good old OSC/VCF/LFO/VCA channel, my choice is quickly made. That's what I love about analogs, you turn them on and they fill the room!