HHLO.net has teamed up with iStandard to bring you a series of interviews with their infamous producer battle winners. This time around we bring you Parlay.

How would you describe your style?

Since I was born in Paris, and I’m there often, it has a very European appeal. I put a lot of techno, deep house into my work. I’d like to compare my work to Salvador Dali paintings because sometimes I’ll go crazy and it won’t make sense to anybody. Sometimes it’s not even a beat where somebody can really be on it with vocals. So, I definitely like to go left and go really abstract.

That’s interesting because a lot of producers are trying to go left nowadays but a lot of them don’t understand the music they’re experimenting with. What separates you from producers like that?

It’s mostly understanding what to use: software and hardware wise. A lot of music that’s made overseas, people use programs like Reactor and a lot of Native Instruments. It’s not really done on Motifs and stuff like that. It’s a lot of sequencing and other programs like Cubase and Innuendo and stuff like that. It’s digging into programs that are not always commercially used; you’re not going to hear a lot of Korg synthesizers or Motifs on European records. It’s a lot of plug-ins.

So, who are your influences, producer-wise?

I would say Telepopmusik. Definitely producers from here: I would say, the Neptunes. I really do enjoy the work of Flying Lotus. He’s definitely going to be poppin’ because he’s different. I like Benny Benassi.

You fucks with Justice?

Oh yeah, Justice (corrects my pronunciation, Joos-teez).

Oh shit, my bad! (Laughs) gotta say it right, Justice.

Yeah, their work’s incredible.

How do you get to go back and forth from America to France so often?

Well, my parents split when I was eight. My father moved back to France and my mother stayed here. They met because my father was a photographer and my mom was a model and a stylist and they met in New York. So, I spent summers with my father and really got a taste for what’s going on out there musically. It’s just like, the atmosphere and the country, Europe itself, influenced my music and my feel. I have, almost the grittiness of here and then the smoothness, melody-wise, of European styles of music.

I see, so I would assume they wouldn’t have a problem with you pursuing the music because they’re artists themselves.

Oh yeah definitely. I come from a very artistic background. I don’t have to hear the ‘you have to become a lawyer or a doctor’.

Sounds good. You said you wanted to go left with your music but are you trying to make radio accessible stuff.

I can always take time for myself but I definitely go with a commercial feel. I try to incorporate my sound, like what the Neptunes did for everybody; they didn’t switch their style for people. That’s what I’m trying to do but it ended up being commercial. I’m trying to take like a Janelle Monae or an Izza Kizza who can cross-over. I want to work with artists like them and then move onto artists who are not as comfortable with coming out of their lane.

Like Jim Jones?

Yeah, like a Jim Jones. I want to take my sound and get an artist like him… to innovate. That’s what I want to do. I want to have that original sound, like Parlay, that’s that sound.

Word, it seems like a lot of artists are ready for that. NORE’s doing stuff with MSTRKRFT and Xzibit doing dubstep.

I even saw the other day, Three 6 Mafia, Sean Kingston, Flo-Rida with Tiesto. That’s been one of my dreams for a long time, to bring that to the table. I feel like music is changing again and definitely where I’d like to go. It’s not there yet. But artists are getting more open to collaborating with all types of music.

How long have you been producing?

To be honest, I started when I was 16. I got introduced to Fruity Loops and Reason. I learned from what my friends understood and I tried to make the best of it. Then I went to college for my audio engineering degree. Then I got more of a hands-on with pro tools and more of an understanding of EQ’ing and frequencies. I went home and applied the knowledge. So each year I could see the progression in my production. I always had a vision of what I wanted to hear and sometimes I would hear it through other producers like if I wanted to make music that’s what I would want it to sound like. So I took a little from everything and put my spin on it.

You have any projects coming up that we should know about?

I work with my group the Dreamcatchers and we have a lot of solo albums coming out. I have an R & B artist Steve Sam coming out. Everybody from my group I’m going to have pieces of my work on. Right now, I’m just trying to get my foot in the door placement wise. I do have aspirations to work with The Clipse, I really respect their work.

Check out Parlay’s production at http://www.istandardproducers.com/parlay  and the Dreamcatchers podcast.

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