Parental

Jul 19, 2024

Interviews

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SR: Where do we find Parental today?

Parental: Presently drinking my Yerba Maté in my studio in Paris, Belleville.

SR: What is the backstory on the name, Parental?

Parental: When I started making music for fun (around 2005), I was looking for a name with my brother (Lex), my cousin (Haken Besik) & my friend Youssef (Mc Grey), because we were having fun to write rhymes to clash each other, this name was taken from « Parental Advisory » warning label and I decided to keep it it that way.

SR: How did your musical journey begin? Who were the major influences, personal or professional?

Parental: I started music seriously in 2008, when I founded the independent label Akromégalie Records with my brother, we released our first physical album « KALHEX » on CD, the vinyl came later, thanks to the German label HHV Records. I built my own network over the years, which led me to meet great people such as Pete Flux, Alcynoos, Figub Brazlevic, Venom and many others. These people help me a lot to move forward !

SR: Jazz is so clearly influential in all the sounds you create? What is it that you take away from the genre and how does it impact your creations?

Parental: Born to a music-loving father and sound engineer who listened to Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, Steely Dan, George Duke & many more. I come from an artistic family, my great uncle Jean-Varoujean Guréghian was a jazz pianist too (https://youtu.be/y9P_Fpy7o-A?si=PM4T64aNCgiroMVS). I also played piano for 6 years when I was young and learned a little music theory, so I bathed in it throughout my childhood.

SR: What else gets you out of bed and motivates your life beyond music?

Parental: My family, my children, I have a 5 year old girl and a 3 year old boy, that’s one of the reasons why I get up in the morning, even if sometimes I wish they’d let me sleep more, haha.

SR: Over the years you have established long-term relationships with like-minded beat officiandos from France and beyond. How did your partnerships with Alcynoos and Figub evolve, what kickstarted them, and what was the motivation to team up?

Parental: Around 2018, I met Alcynoos thanks to my cousin, it was an immediate match between us, we taught each other a lot of things in music. We started producing together a little before COVID-19, which resulted in the “Shapes” project released during the pandemic, followed by “REWIND” with Norway producer Type.Raw (of Loop.Holes). Since then we have been inseparable, we see each other once a week to make music and we have 2-3 albums in progress.

I think I have known Figub since 2014 but without really knowing him, I met him several times in Berlin thanks to BeatPete who organized the Backyard Joints parties. But it was only in 2018 that we made real contact, I was leaving a show I organized in Paris and I came face to face with him, he was with my man Alpha (Le Gros Tas de Zik) from Lyon, an old friend from the MySpace era. Very quickly we started working together, we shared chill moments together and a few events between France and Germany, we stay connected constantly from Paris to Berlin.

SR: Give us a little backstory on your recent released work, Metro-Bahn, with Figub. What was the driving theme for the creation of this stellar new release?

Parental: After the 1st album “Correspondance », which was a good name to connect two producers from different countries, we decided to do a sequel trying to stay in the same state of mind, Figub loves trains, Métro-Bahn is a mix between the French subway called Métro and the German U-Bahn, so the concept spoke to me straight away. The cover of Bioniq speaks volumes, this friendly clash between the Eiffel Tower and the Berliner Fernsehturm with the producers at the helm. We worked on this album the same way, like a beat battle, I sent him drafts, he resampled me in his own way with my elements and vice versa. This one is more boom bap, rougher than the first one which had a little more jazz vibes.

SR: More recently you restarted a long collaboration under Kalhex. What drove you back to the studio for Resonance after more than a decade since the last release?

Parental: We had this desire to make a 2nd album for several years, but we were afraid of presenting a second album that was too similar to the first Kalhex, the problem is that we let this idea drag on and we each took different paths. In 2017 we did another album « Schéma de vie » which is the solo project of Le Makizar, this one was produced by the whole Kalhex crew. The album “Résonance” was recorded after this album, from 2017 to 2023. We said to ourselves that we couldn’t wait any longer and that there were too many unreleased songs, if we didn’t release it now we would never release it.

SR: In so much of your work, we find you collaborating with vocalists from around the world. Tell our readers how some of these relationships were developed with say, Carta’ P, Horror City, or Awon.

Parental: Over the past few years, I’ve been doing a lot of collaborations with rappers who influenced me :

Carta’ P. aka The Obvious Wonder / Big Cousin is an old rapper from the 90’s hip-hop group ADAGIO!, when I contacted him on Facebook, he no longer made music, but I decided to send him some beats and it took a few months before inspiration came back but I motivated him to make music again and quickly we met, he came to Paris several times.

My collab with Horror City was different because we worked remotely but the album « Supa Vill’n » was interesting to do. The funny thing is that Carta’ P. & Horror City ended up meeting, they did a radio show together and an album with The Good People called « The Starting 5ive » (https://thegoodpeople.bandcamp.com/album/the-starting-5ive-ep).

Late 2018, I invited Awon for a verse on a track on my last album with Pete Flux « Global Scope », the contact was nice and we had a good chemistry together so we decided to work on an album together, we worked remotely at first, then I invited him in Paris as part of his tour with Phoniks & Anti-Lilly to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their album “Return To The Golden Era”, the was full et vibe was crazy! This is where he performed “Goretex” for the first time, a few months before the release. In summary “Sublime” meets with Awon.

SR: I hear Awon may roll through France on tour promoting the 2024 release of Sublime. Anything interesting to develop from that time on tour that we should be aware of?

Parental: I’m proud of the album we made together, unfortunately we haven’t been contacted yet to do any shows, it will come probably later, I know it will happen when the time comes and you will be the first to know!