It’s been a busy year for the synthwave scene; Hante., Perturbator, GosT, Dynantron and Ruin Of Romantics have all released new and exciting material so far in 2022. Now it is the turn of Emeric Levarodn, also known as Hollywood Burns. With his second album The Age of Saucers due for release this week, a direct sequel to his 2018 release Invaders.
It’s also an album that saw its creation take place across the globe. The global pandemic saw Levardon stuck in Taiwan with fellow artist The Algrorithm, unable to return to his home country of France. “That’s funny cause part of [the album] was composed in Taiwan, I was living in France then Asia. It was composed in a lot of places in a lot of different times.” he recalls. “I went there for a few weeks, got stuck there but in the past I was living in Taiwan.”. The pandemic also became a notable influence on the album “Post-apocalyptic movies and games influenced the process. COVID-19 too, we were all in this depressive state. Maybe COVID-19 has the most significant impact on this album.”
Despite being a direct sequel, Levardon has looked to compose an album that will be notably different to its predecessor. “The first tracks I made for this album, such as “The Age Of The Saucers” were the same sort of tracks I made for the last album. The last tracks I composed were very different. There are two tracks, “Fallen Heaven” and “Silent Fortress”, where I was so tired of making energetic music, I wanted to make something more calm and more ‘sad‘, I wanted to add something quite different to what I was previously working on.”. The Age of Saucers draws in from the experience of live shows, with Olivier Marechal on guitar and Remi Meilley on drums. Both feature on the album with real drums present on tracks such as “Fall of Heaven”, “Abomination from Planet X” and “Fear In The Eye Of The Tyrant”. “I try to take all of the experience I have from the live shows we had and put more life into the electronic project by having real instruments.”, Levardon notes. Both also helped remove the French composer from the isolation of working on a solo project, “The feeling of not working alone, it can be tiring.”.
Levardon is keen to return to the live stage, “I just hope there are some venues to invite us.”, he closes when discussing preparing new sets and getting practice in with the band. “I just feel right now everyone is broke, I don’t feel like anyone has money to invite bands, that’s why they invite DJs. So I just hope we will find the opportunities. We made some pretty big gigs in the past I just hope we have the opportunity again.”
In September, “Saturday Night Screamer” was revealed, which came accompanied with a live-action music video, directed by Emeric Levardon with the assistance from his friend Ben Landow. “The whole project Hollywood Burns came about because it’s so hard to launch a creative video project, it’s exhausting, you have to work with people and it costs a lot of money. I was frustrated, it’s so hard to have enough money to make something.“. Using his knowledge and experience from cinema school and working on TV, Levardon put together his vision for Hollywood Burns in visual form.
“I’m having fun with everything I am doing. I find a new way of expression through music. The real fun for me was making different tracks from my previous work. The track I’m most proud of [“Fallen Heaven”], it’s everything I wanted it to be. It sounds like a soundtrack. It’s pop music, [and at the same time] there is a three act structure and it’s very energetic.” discusses Levardon when asked about his sound. He is also looking to continue to evolve and develop his sound, “I’m trying to move something else but I want to sound a little different, as I can’t compose the same way forever.”. Also noting that the synthwave genre may have moved beyond its glory days of the early to mid 2010s, “I feel like synthwave is not really a trend anymore, so it makes me want to evolve a little.”.
Growing off the success & popularity of films such as Drive and the game Hotline Miami, synthwave became a vast genre with many new and exciting artists entering the fray. “I feel like synthwave was at its peak in 2016. The time Perturbator and Carpenter Brut were kings of the entire genre. It’s like dubstep, it’s just a trend sometimes. You still have people enjoying it, it’s cool.” looks back Levardon. Wider music has taken on the genre as an influence, with mainstream artists such The Weeknd and metalcore band Dayseeker exploring synthwave with their side project Hurtwave. Despite this, Levardon remains positive “It also became really mainstream, maybe some people felt like the mainstream media stole their secret. Even in French pop music you have synthwave elements everywhere. That’s fine, I won’t complain about it.”.
The Age of Saucers‘ cover was put together by artist View From The Coffin, first putting together the artwork for debut album Invaders. “They make art for metal artists, so I contacted this guy and asked him to make a cover for me. My music is different, so he managed to make something different for my work. Usually it’s only black and white, skulls etc. He managed to make it work for me with the same stylist approach.” emphasising on the importance of the artwork Levardon continues, “The artwork is really important for one reason, we are talking about flying saucers and UFOs. Music and track names is something but you need perfect artwork to give UFOS life, to make them exist the mind of listeners. That is why the first album cover was so important. To put a face on the flying saucers.”
In the midst of discussing the album’s creation, Levardon confesses “I just hope people will like it.”. With listeners set to descend onto Age Of The Saucers in the coming days, the aims for his album might seem simple, but it’s an honest and human expression for those brave enough to put their art out into the world.
The Age of Saucers will release on November 12th via Blood Music. You can find pre-orders here, and our review of the album here.