Pop act Air celebrates 20 years of glorious chill
There’s still nothing like Air.
The French electronic music duo, consisting of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel, has fashioned an amazing career by crafting one ambient gem after another. Air’s music is downtempo done right, illustrating for all to hear — and for many to try to imitate — the glorious art of chill.
The journey began in the mid-’90s, as Air began releasing a series of singles that were later compiled on the 1997 EP “Premiers Symptomes.” Since then, Godin and Dunckel have issued such acclaimed works as 1998’s “Moon Safari,” 2000’s “The Virgin Suicides” and 2007’s “Pocket Symphony.”
Air’s latest release is “Twentyears,” a career retrospective (and rarities compilation) that the band will support with a show on June 23 at The Masonic in San Francisco. Show time is 8 p.m. and tickets are $39.50-$75, www.livenation.com.
We recently chatted with Dunckel about “Twentyears” of Air: Q Hi, there. While arranging this interview, the publicist kept referencing you as “JB.” Do you prefer to go by JB or Jean-Benoit? A JB is easier for you, I think. Q OK, JB it is, then. Are you in France today? A Yes, I am in Paris, in my apartment. Q Oh, I am jealous. I love Paris. How is everything in that lovely city today? A It’s great. It was good weather this morning, but now it’s like raining again. I am glad because there is a new sort of mood in Paris, because of the elections, you know? We have a new, young, good-looking president. So, I think there is some, like, relief in the air. Q Let’s talk about Air’s new career retrospective. How does it feel to know that the band has making music now for more than “Twentyears.” A The more I age, the more I think the concept of time doesn’t exist, actually. Time doesn’t matter really. It’s like time has passed, but it’s very similar for me. Actually, it’s exactly the same. We remember where we were, what we’ve done — and I think we did it yesterday. Q What was the experience like as you went back through the band’s catalog and re-examined the songs for inclusion in the retrospective? A It was really trippy and a really good experience. I really love to remember and re-feel, in my body, the songs. But I just realized that we have a lot of unpublished material and that we’ve done a lot, a lot of music actually. Q Did you find that some of the songs — perhaps early fan favorites like “Sexy Boy” or “Playground Love” — mean a bit more to you than other tunes? A I think songs are like people. You have some people who have, like, a special role. We have some (songs) that have something special, and are really original. And some songs are not. It can take a life to make just one good song, actually. Q I’m a huge fan of “The Virgin Suicides” — both of the 1999 Sofia Coppola-directed film and Air’s soundtrack to the film. Looking back, what are your thoughts about that project? A I think the movie had something really special. It’s universal. It’s talking to a young generation. In the movie, you have this teenager who is feeling bad in life and how life doesn’t seem to be so great, actually. I think every teenager in the world has this special feeling, that maybe we forget when we enter into our day-to-day (adult) life.
That’s why this movie is traveling so well (through the years). I think the real subject of the music is the fascination of death, which is (also) the real subject of the movie. Into the music, we’ve put some harmonies that are like religious or spiritual. They are kind of dark, but really attracting in a way. Q I definitely want to mention the bonus disc that comes with the special edition version of “Twentyears,” featuring some cool Air remixes of other artists’ songs. A It was really fun doing the remixes. It was really fun to find some new chords and new rhythms for the songs that we like. We like to do remixes for the people we like — so there was David Bowie and Depeche Mode, who we are big fans of. Q Air has been around since the mid-‘90s, which put you in a prime position to witness the exponential growth of the electronic music genre over the last few decades. A We started in 1996, exactly. Yes, suddenly, in Europe, the new music arrived — club electronic music. But some bands from the ’70s, like Kraftwerk, were doing that before. But Air was on the side, because we weren’t doing club music. We were doing music for after the clubs — music of the night. Q Enough of looking back for now, should fans be expecting a new Air album anytime soon? A No, we are concentrating on our solo careers, actually. I did some movie soundtracks. I am doing some electronic shows onstage. And I am going to release my solo album in 2018. It’s a lot of fun, because I wanted to do something new. So, I did a lot of different things.