INTERVIEW: Beneath Usual

Beneath Usual (Arnaud Levasseur) creates music that works in all settings and transcends genres. His openness to a wide range of sound is what has both made him a widely loved favourite, but also someone who operates in his own parallel musical world. We had a chance to talk to him, so enjoy your reading and check out his latest releases.

Hi there ! Where can we find you right now? How did you start your day?

I’m currently leaving in the south of France. I start my day by taking my kid to school then I’m back home to start my studio working day !

When did the idea of starting a project start to take shape? Has it always been something you wanted to do?

Well, my passion for music started very young. I started to Dj very early and always felt passionate about it.

Around my twenties I started a career into psy trance in between 1998 and 2010 with two main project called Concept and Prism with several albums and lot of single releases.

How would you define the sound of your latest work? What is the concept behind?

At the moment I’m really enjoying working on some house groove surrounded with main evolving synth and melodies but always in a very minimalistic way. To me, it’s always about finding the right balance in between divers influences to be able to make it sound right and original in the theme time.

What artists are you interested in these days?

I really like tight production with originality and identity. At the moment I really enjoy listening and play some Mihai Popoviciu, Legit Trip, Reyam, Somersault, Arkady Antsyrev, Diego Krause, Elroy and many others…

How do you manage to combine such disparate genres? How do you manage to give them unity and harmony? What do they have in common for you?

Well what I’m doing now it’s like my second career on a totally different scene; so I guess then my trance background help me a lot to keep an open mind and approach with the music in general and especially in my production. I’m also working as a sound engineer providing Mastering and sound design services, which is also a good way to keep your mind open and interested.

How would you define your sound?

I find funky dynamic groove and fat bass line essential. I also have some great dub influence and really like to go deep in the sounds and melodies without loosing a certain dynamic.

Can you tell us something about your current or future projects?

I’m currently focusing on Beneath Usual witch is my main music project at the moment and of course focusing on my records label Microdrive.