Hailing from France, Maud Geffray has turned her talents to the dance floor with her latest mixtape ‘Nite Sessions’.
The project showcases eight rave-infused remixes of songs from her highly regarded electronica albums ‘Ad Astra’ (2022) and ‘Polaar’ (2017). We asked Maud to walk us through the making of ‘Nite Sessions’ and talk a bit about the motivation behind the decidedly heavier sound.
Maud Geffray: The idea for my Mixtape ‘Nite Sessions’ was to create a collection of reworks from my two albums ‘Ad Astra’ and ‘Polaar’. I wanted to show a new vision of my tracks, inspired by my tours and created for my live sets. With that aim, I revisited my old tracks and cut them for the dancefloor, while keeping the touch of floating vocals and a sense of melancholy.
Amongst others, we rediscover ‘I Fall at 5’ featuring Rebeka Warrior, twirling between tense bass and a dancing atmosphere, ‘Ice Teens’ and its unstoppable and dreamy sweet techno, ‘Way Out’ in a fast and dark mode, ‘Skin’ loaded with irresistible sirens and, ‘Polaar’, whose original darkness has turned into light in the night.
Fallin
The original track is a really deep piano song. We recorded it in a studio on a grand piano, and I recorded my voice in my home studio (I like to record my vocals alone). The aim for the ‘Nite Session’ version was to adapt this sad song into a very slow, trancecore style.
I added a slow heavy kick and the piano melody played by a VST, and the track became like slow melodic techno. I kept the very long romantic break in the middle of the song, to keep the emotion of the original.
Polaar
The second track on the mixtape is reworked from a song from my first album, ‘Polaar’. The original recording is very slow and intimate, with some of my vocals detuned to create this grave-sounding voice.
The tempo has been accelerated for the ‘Nite Sessions’ version so it was not possible to keep the chorus, it wasn’t working at that tempo.
We only kept the verse, the bassline of the verse, and I didn’t retain all my vocals either, only little cuts of my voice. There’s a big drop too, which gives a ravey style to the whole track.
Ice Teens
This is also a rework from my first album. The original track is minimal electro, with a dragging kick drum. I wanted to keep the same tempo (123 BPM) but put a stronger kick for dancefloors.
In the end, the ‘Nite Session’ version is not so far from the original one, but the kicks and the sounds are a little more ravey to keep a thread running across the mixtape.
Way Out
The original track from my second album is a real pop song. I kept some vocals and the chords, made with 1st strings from Native Instruments, for the bridges when the kick is out.
There’s a kick and a bass line on the whole track, this is a slow techno track with a romantic side.
Blue Heroin
The new version is a modern romantic song, which could have something very close to some productions on the PC Music label.
The keys are made with Serum and there are no rhythms, only the melodies and my voice (with some autotunes). I really like this moment when I play live, even if I’m scared to sing on this very “cleaned” version, it’s very emotional.
I Fall at 5
This new version has something weird about it, with two parts which are in a really different mood. Again, there is something really PC Music about it. The beginning has something dark before warming up in the second part; it’s pretty experimental.
Break
This version has the same tempo as the original but in a darker way. There are fewer lyrics and a stronger kick; this is made for dance floors.
Skin
The original version is made with a TB-303 VST, which has something very 90s acid about it. The kicks and the sounds are very smooth and obscure.
For the rework, we wanted to keep the acid line whilst bringing in heavy breakbeat rhythms. We put the MIDI of the very sweet keys in a ravey Serum patch and this version became much warmer. They have the same BPM and I really like both versions!
Stream Maud Geffray’s ‘Nite Sessions’ now!
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