For Vietnamese version, click here: http://www.m-mosaic.com/articles/interview/read/538.html

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Today we are really glad to have this opportunity to discuss with Gilles Snowcat, an international artist whose career has spanned over 2 decades, on various issues related to the indie scene to which he belongs. Gilles is a native Belgian, however through oversea collaboration & personal experiences has been exposed to various cultures worldwide, especially Japan and ... Vietnam (have you been here before, Gilles? :D I saw you did) and his website at Awaken is written using 3 languages (English, Japan and Vietnamese, plus Netherlands and even .. Chinese). So in some way, Gilles could be considered as a paragon of modern "world artist", a multi-cultured artist (with a real sense of humor)

1. The definition "indie" itself seems to mean more of a working attitude and business manner than a particular style or genre. What are then the actual styles your music is taking now and so far? Especially from your very entertaining but honest description: It's called MAGNETIC SOUL ~ LOVE MUSIC. A music that touches your soul, your body, your mind, your s**, your creativity, your whatever you want. AWAKEN's music is somewhere between dreams and hypnosis.

You're right about the definition of 'indie : in the beginning there is the music, it only becomes 'major' or 'indie' following the way it is sold, spread, promoted, marketed. But we shouldn't underestimate the fact that everything that surrounds the music has an influence on it, and on the way fans perceive it. Also, what we call 'indie' music can offer more in terms of freedom and creativity, and less in terms of recording quality, though the rule is not necessary what we hear. So, even if music is the main topic, its distribution can affect it somehow. There's no wonder why 80's indie music was more based on guitars, since at the time the synthesizers were expensive and therefore mostly used by professional studios. Nowadays, the synthesizers became ridiculously cheap and you can hear that indies artists offer more and more electronic music.

I never wanted to belong to a category based on the way the music is spread, maybe because I'm a lousy marketer and I don't have any passion in promoting a genre rather than the music itself. I call my music œmagnetic soul ~ love music because music, whatever instruments are used to play it, has an organic, sensual effect on people. It really has an invisible, magnetic connection with our inner soul.

2. Your naming sounds a bit weird and kawaii, ranging from the interpretations of "Awaken" as A matter of bubbles, 泡件 to your stage-name as Mèo Tuyết Từ Lưu, or even 別府NIGHTS (Beppu Nights). What are your main inspirations? Do they follow any rule? And your multinational identity seems to have left a big mark here since many of the names bear certain codeswitching of some sort, is it true?

There's no rule, I guess it's mostly meeting Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese cultures that gradually influenced the meaning of the names. It happened quite naturally. I just feel at home with many sides of some Asian cultures, therefore the influence is rather natural and uncontrolled.
 

3. What are the biggest influences that can be found in your music? We've noticed from your entry at wiki there are a longggg list of artists you've covered throughout the years. Grown up listening to these key artists of the disco era and before, it seems to us that you have been "living in the past" ever since, rather than following the whole tumultuous period of modern music that lasts over 2 decades. Do you agree with that?

I don't try to live in the past nor getting away from it, I only follow my unconscious guidelines, whose roots take ground when I grew up: in the 70's and 80's.

In my opinion, there's no real œmodern music nowadays. The mainstream music is recycling old ideas, enhancing or degrading them, no matter, but I don't see anything groundbreaking since the end of the 80's. The 90's and this first decade of 2000's have provided interesting music but you can hear influences from 60's folk, 70's hard rock, progressive, disco or 80's funk in them. Only the sound has become more 'pure', less crazy. Most of the modern artists that hook me always remind me of previous ones, without exciting me as much as their ancestors.

However, I like some new artists like Hồ Quỳnh Hương, Lily Allen, Nakashima Mika, Cassie, Mỹ Tâm, Timbaland or Kanye West.

4. Would it be fair to describe your music as the pure reflection of feelings - recollection of feelings, even in your dreams - in the places you've visited, or those in your own imaginary trips? Would you mind telling us a bit about your song-writing style?

I like to let the unconscious mind rule, and allow the conscious mind to guide it afterwards. Although I hope my songs will please someone else than me, I guess I'm guided by my own feelings at 99,99%.

I love to be influenced by a place, an event or a person to the point of feeling the urge to write a song. Asia has such a strong energy that boosts my inspiration, mostly Kyūshū in Japan and Động Phong Nha in Việt Nam, but also some forests in Belgium. Some more practical technical matter can also influence the music, it can be the need of using some kind of chords or just a specific sound on an instrument. So the range of influences is large.

Last but not least, trying some kinds of wines or liquors as a source of motivation is also an interesting experience. Music being a sensual thing, virtually anything can influence it

5. Now let's move to less personal issues. As far as we've known, the current line-up of Awaken consists of 7 members who come from various nations. That's typical of an "international" act which is quite, I think, uncommon in the indie artists' community. The past members list is also very long (explainable for a 2-decade career). So please tell us more about this, such as first knowing each other, then recording and touring, or in short, about your collaboration? Are the other members full-time musicians and/or do they engage in other musical projects? Does that mean any difficulty to you all?

Awaken is a project, and now it became rather hard to distinguish who is member and who is a guest. There's a new song in recording process, and four new musicians joined the sessions. The techniques of recording allow arranging a song with someone living at 10.000 kms distance, but as I'm a bit old-schooled, I try to have a real contact with everyone, even if the recording happens to be done at distance. I don't want Awaken to become virtual to that point.

Some musicians who participate to Awaken are professional, some are not musician at all but have that artistic spark that allows them to be part of a song. Miles Davis said that he didn't care if a musician was only able to play one single note, as long as he liked the way that note was played. I subscribe to that philosophy too.

Having to deal with guest musicians from different cultures is less difficult than having to manage a real band of musicians from the same culture.:) Human and social problems happen to every kind of group, from the smallest to the biggest.

6. A pretty sensitive question, since you're an official indie artist, you definitely live on your music. Is getting involved in various projects such as NEKOKAWA and even collaborating with It's Oh! Music some of the ways to expand your musical interests as well as to support Awaken, or another reason? If invited by a major label, would you agree? Has it happened before? Suppose it happened, what would you do next?

Like many artists, I still need a secure job to allow myself to provide me the money to live, record the music the way I want, without having any compromise to do to please an audience or a record company.

I was lucky to do some collaborations these days, with It's Oh! Music artists, French band Sousbock, artists TrustNoOne or Kevin Shakey, and I definitely love that. Even if I think that my own music has no limit, I feel I have more freedom when I add some collaboration to my plans. It expands my interests since it forces me to do things in a way I would never have done for myself.

About a record company: major or indie, it wouldn't change much at first, since it has to be an encounter between an artist who plays music (me) and an artist who wants to sell it (someone from the record company). The difference comes later, in the way music is sold and how the band is managed.

Moreover, I don't have the ambitious profile to suit a major label's requirements. It could only work if an artistic director falls in love at first sight with my music and accepts it as it is, with only a few and minor compromises. I can not play everything, there are much better technicians that can easily fill the needs of a commercial deal.

And if such a deal had to come in sight, it would have to include It's Oh! Music as an equal partner.

I'm not really craving for a major deal, since it could harm my artistic balance rather than enhance it. I have no fascination for major labels in terms of prestige, actually.
 

7. As far as we've known, many metal bands (underground of sorts) while touring offer a wide range of merchs, and it is understandable that selling records and say, shirts and relevant merch would play a significant part in supporting the artists, unless they are another Metallica or In Flames (Sweden). Is it applicable to indie scene, too?

Merchs can do the best and the worst for an indie artist. In the fan's mind, merchs bring some prestige but can also contribute to destruct the image of the artist using it, by making them looking like if they take themselves too seriously. Fans will accept that Metallica prints T-shirts, but can laugh at an indie artist doing the same, thinking what the hell is that guy doing? Printing T-shirts with his face?! What an ego! . So merch is a sensitive thing that should be manipulated carefully.

I made the choice of skipping obvious merch and replace it with a way to discover new places that really inspire me, and therefore to build a relationship with music lovers, that become fans with time or not, no one is forced after all :). There are fruitful and unique exchanges with them, since music can make them want to share their experiences with me, and their experiences make me want to know more and it's all benefit for the music. I could have printed 5000 cool and flashy T-shirts, but it wouldn't have brought me anything half as fruitful as human and musical exchanges.

That doesn't mean that I'm against merch, not at all. This is something I'm always thinking of, but these days I still have to makes practical choices and I'd rather spend money in a plane ticket and come to Việt Nam and Japan and meet people and be inspired by the Asian energy, than invest into a doll of Snowcat to please my ego. :)

8. What are your regular stages and venues? Do you play your own music, Awaken and NEKOKAWA, or the music-on-demand? We do not know much about this. There might be a number of differences between playing music in Belgium and in Japan, so could you list out some of them?

Due to my frequent visits in Asia, I had to put my live obsessions 'in the fridge' for some times. A live band takes time, energy and mostly constancy “which I can't provide now, and is unfortunately hardly compatible with a traveller mind, unless the band travels too of course. So these days, I play when opportunities are good, like it happened in Japan or last time a radio station invited me to sing alone with my piano. Of course I miss playing with a real band. Moments of improvisations, jamming, are unique. I know an Awaken Live Band will be back soon, though.

I feel that Japan is more open when it comes to indies shows. There are Live Houses in every city, and I feel that they offer more chances to artists who don't sell necessary many records. Belgium is not that daring in my opinion.

The music I play is always group members' choices. The only talent I could create is to play my own music, or play covers in the way I feel. I could not make a good tribute band and imitate artists on demand.

9. Where does your fan base come from, via your online identity or your live performance? Your demos are only available to download online or also at your performance since we've noticed as well some tape recordings in your discography? If yes, which one comes first?

(We've noticed you have a pretty good fan base from many countries and your future website versions means your fan base is getting bigger and bigger, breaking even more borders of language and culture.)

Some years ago, Awaken was more active as a live band, but I'm not sure that it brought faithful fans. There wasn't much exchange between the band and the audience, I was naive to think that the music would be enough to create the link. Of course it didn't, and I guess that faithfulness came with the discovery of other cultures. A true relationship came from it.

There used to be demo tapes, then two official CDs, but thanks to technology, I kind of put aside the tangible aspect of spreading music. For the time being, I spread the music via electronic ways rather than having to struggle to sell a CD. Of course I still keep in mind the idea of pressing a new CD “or a vinyl album, but in terms of sharing music, the online solution is perfect.

10. Would you consider yourself a prolific artist trying to capture and realize your dreams as an escape from reality or just another modern troubadour who roams across cultures and praises your journey through music?

I don't see such a frontier between dreams and reality, a dream is often a reality that hasn't happened yet. So music is not an escape from reality, it is a way to change that reality into something better, a kind of dream that's tangible.

The image of the troubadour you mention is quite nice. I go for that! Life is a journey, and music makes it special.

Thank you very much ./.