With his stylish dark and dreamy synthpop as typified by the breakthrough single ‘So Typical’, Matthieu Roche is the enigmatic Parisian behind FRAGRANCE.

Although there have been two full length albums ‘Now That I’m Real’ in 2019 and ‘Salt Walter’ in 2021, it was 2017 which saw the first FRAGRANCE. release in the ‘Dust & Disorders’ EP. Forward to 2023 and ‘Dust & Disorders’ has been reissued and expanded. Featuring an extra five new tracks, although his past work has been primarily in English, two songs ‘Hanté De Moi’ and ‘Mise En Garde’ see Matthieu Roche singing in his native language for the first time.

Having issued the ‘Salt Water Remixed’ cassette earlier in 2023, the first of the ‘Dust & Disorders (Complete Edition)’ reworks has just emerged in the shape of an excellent ‘Much More Like A Wave’ rework by London-based Italian producer M!R!M

FRAGRANCE. live appearances and interviews are quite rare, but Matthieu Roche happily chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about his creative career to date.

In the wider scheme of electronic pop music, FRAGRANCE. is unusual in that it is dark yet dreamy and occasionally frantic rhythmically yet soft vocally. How did this template emerge?

Hi Chi! I haven’t started this project with a preconceived idea of a style I should work on, I was instinctively headed in that direction. I think it’s simply the result of different layers of inspirations and influences. I always thought that dancing rhythms can emphasise the melancholic vibes, I have the feeling it offers the best frame for my music and what I want to pass through it.

What prompted you to sing in English rather than French?

At the very beginning, singing in English was an easier constraint because it’s not my native language and I felt freer with my choice of words and sentences. But I always loved to incorporate some French here and there and I’m more and more writing in French these days. It took some time but there are two songs entirely in French on my latest record and I’m very proud of them. I hope I’ll be able to write some more!

Do you have a preference in the instruments or software that you use? Do you like hardware synths or does this not matter to you?

On my side, the easier the better, I’m not very patient when I’m composing a song, so I’m using software. But I’m working with S Diamah on the production now (she worked on my latest LP, ‘Salt Water’) and I’m taking benefit of her amazing hardware synths knowledge and curiosity and she embellishes my compositions with them.

On your debut album ‘Now That I’m Real’, as well as your own voice, you had Hélène de Thoury aka HANTE. from MINUIT MACHINE featuring on ‘Hazy Strobes’ and Maya Postepski from AUSTRA, TR/ST and PRINCESS CENTURY on ‘At Last’, how did these collaborations come about?

I love working on “featurings”. Hélène, first of all, I loved her music as HANTE. and I met her when she mastered my previous EP. She was like a mentor to me at that time, so it was quite natural to invite her on my first album. Maya is one of my favorite producer and someone sent her my first EP in 2017 and that’s how we got in touch: that was quite unexpected! We started to work on songs together every time she was passing through Paris. She wasn’t used to singing at that time and she has a lovely accent when she speaks French and I think that’s what drove me to ask her if she’d be interested to sing – in French – on one of my songs.

You later did a brilliant duet with Maya for a PRINCESS CENTURY song called ‘Stupid Things’ from her album ‘Surrender’ which had this underlying sweetness to it, was this a reaction to the intensity of the pandemic lockdown? Do you have any fun memories from the making of it?

I’m glad you mention this album from her, because I absolutely love it. I already known some tracks from it from when she was working on it, and one day, I received an email with the demo of ‘Stupid Things’, asking if I wanna try something on it. This one, we worked on it remotely, but we love to write romantic / melancholic songs together (we have a few of them that never got released) so it was a super easy collaboration. Writing music with Maya is always fun.

You recorded a cover of GALA ‘Freed From Desire’ in 2019, it’s interesting how this song has now become a women’s football album?

Yes, the song has become an anthem for several sports competitions, whether it football or rugby. When I recorded a cover of it, it was just to please the kid in me that grew up with her songs, such as ‘Let A Boy Cry’. Unfortunately, and that’s probably due to the new success of the original song, they are quite tough with the rights of the song and my cover is no longer available on streaming platforms.

Your second album ‘Salt Water’ provided FRAGRANCE. with a wider international breakthrough with a slightly harder but still accessible sound like on ‘Crisis’, how do you look back on the making of that record?

I co-produced this album with Sophia Hamadi, aka S Diamah, as I mentioned earlier. I wrote the whole album around the theme of salt waters: tears, sweat and the sea. That implies a cool range of moods, haha. I don’t really see this record as harder than the previous one, but I think the combination of dreamy / melancholic and dancing / dark moods goes deeper on it!

Starting off ambient before it locks into a disco tempo, ‘The Cure’ has this wonderfully cinematic feel. Does soundtrack work appeal to you and do you have any favourite film composers?

It’s funny you say that, because Lulannie, who sings with me on this song, is a photographer / director. She also directed the music video that we had to shoot remotely, her in New York, me in Paris and in Brittany. Cinema is definitely a source of inspiration for me, even though I don’t listen to a lot of movie soundtracks by itself. More than a source of inspiration, it’s really a source of creativity that encourages me to explore some things with my own medium, with my own vision. This summer, I re-watched the entire ‘Twin Peaks’ series + movies and that reminds me one more time how Angelo Badalamenti is one of the greatest genius of music composing.

Your debut 2017 EP ‘Dust & Disorders’ has been expanded, but with five new songs to start. Why did you go for this approach rather than release a new standalone EP or even a new album?

When I worked on my first songs, I started with nothing but my computer and, after some friends convinced me to, I released it on Bandcamp. This EP has a special place in my heart, because it gave me the opportunity to introduce my music and to meet new amazing people. I had very few listeners at that time, but I was already dreaming of being able to give it a vinyl release one day. I also really wanted to see the artwork on a real printed object. In the meantime, with my two albums, I also had collected a lot of drafts of unfinished songs. I used them to write those 5 new songs and I think combining the two projects was quite cohesive!

What is the story behind the song ‘Hanté De Moi’ and its video?

My lyrics are always quite blurred and opened for interpretations. If, as a listener, you want to hear a word rather than another so it can resonate with you, I’m totally fine with that. When I asked Jennifer Medina to shoot a music video for it, I only gave her the lyrics, so she could build her own vision of it. I loved the abstract result of this girl watching herself in dreams.

M!R!M has done a remix of ‘Much More Like a Wave’, are you happy with the results? How do you go about choosing remixers for the songs and how involved do you get, are you quite hands off?

I love his take on the song. I always felt that the chorus of this song could work as an anthem and he definitely achieved that with his remix. I only work with artists I love regardless of their music style, so I’m not getting involved at all in their process, unless they ask to, but I don’t know if that ever happened.

You remixed ‘A Tout Jamais’ for Mylène Farmer in 2022, when the ball is on the other foot and you are remixing another artist, what approach to do take?

The main thing I like when I’m remixing a song is to work with vocals that are not mine! It changes the way to work the sounds and I love that. I have to admit that I have a preference for female vocalists, it takes me to somewhere that I’m not used to. Mylène Farmer is the best example for that, she’s one of the (if not the) most iconic French singer, so it was quite challenging but also a huge pride.

Are there any upcoming live shows in the calendar, how do you find the challenges of performing as a solo electronic act, is it something you enjoy?

I don’t play a lot of shows, it asks for quite a lot of involvement and energy, so for the moment, I only accept cool one-shot opportunities. But despite the stress it can cause, it’s always great memories. I had the chance to open for TR/ST, LINEA ASPERA and Molly Nilsson and those memories will be forever dear to my heart. But I will definitely search for more occasions to play in the future, maybe for my next album.

What are your future FRAGRANCE. plans with regards recording and remixing?

My main plan right now is to work on my new album, my third LP. I have a more and more clear vision of what I want to do with it, but I have to get to work now! I’m taking a little break in making remixes so I can focus on the new songs, but I’ve got one unreleased one that will be released at the beginning of 2024 I think!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Matthieu Roche

Special thanks to Marcus Sugars at Sugarcane Recordings

‘Much More Like A Wave’ (M!R!M Remix) is released by Sugarcane Recordings, available via online outlets including https://fragrancemusic.bandcamp.com/track/much-more-like-a-wave-m-r-m-remix

‘Dust & Disorders (Complete Edition)’ is released by Synth Religion, available as a Limited Edition 12″ half transparent / half cream vinyl LP, CD and download from https://fragrancemusic.bandcamp.com/

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Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Jennifer Medina
17 October 2023