Cecile Believe lives in a post-genre world. Having previously made music under the name Mozart's Sister, she shifted to her new moniker as a way of abandoning pop-oriented music in favour of something less clearly defined.
"The name change is a choice I made for myself both personally and creatively, to move into a new phase of music production," she tells Exclaim! "I wanted to leave the identity of the secret talent behind and step into a position of trust and confidence in what I do."
Having moved from Montreal to Los Angeles — and racking up recent collaboration credits with SOPHIE, Kero Kero Bonito and TOPS — Cecile Believe is introducing her amorphous sound with the new EP Made in Heaven, which touches on trap, ambient, acoustic and more. "I tried to leave the genre open and give a mood instead."
Ahead of the EP's May 8 release, we caught up with Cecile Believe to get her recommendations on the music, movies and reading material getting her through coronavirus lockdown.
Music
I made a mix for my friend's radio show and it got me listening to a lot of new things. Lolina's Who is experimental music really made me happy. January was Gigi D'Agostino month. I've really liked a couple Rina Sawayama songs from her new record. Devotion by Planet 1999. Arca's hour-long single.
Movies
I watched Killing of a Sacred Deer for the first time recently and it was good and disturbing. I always gravitate towards tense, violent movies. Also re-watched 1995's Ghost in the Shell and Eyes Wide Shut. But then I watched After Life with Ricky Gervais to make myself smile a bit.
Books and Articles
I've been participating in an online assembly called Feature Extraction that is hosted online through an artist space in L.A. called Navel. If focuses on many facets of AI and machine learning. We have been given so much amazing reading material, like Nora Khan's "Seeing, Naming, Knowing" and Peli Grietzer's "Theory of Vibe."
Find out what other Canadian musicians have been up to under self-quarantine with our Isolation Nation feature.
"The name change is a choice I made for myself both personally and creatively, to move into a new phase of music production," she tells Exclaim! "I wanted to leave the identity of the secret talent behind and step into a position of trust and confidence in what I do."
Having moved from Montreal to Los Angeles — and racking up recent collaboration credits with SOPHIE, Kero Kero Bonito and TOPS — Cecile Believe is introducing her amorphous sound with the new EP Made in Heaven, which touches on trap, ambient, acoustic and more. "I tried to leave the genre open and give a mood instead."
Ahead of the EP's May 8 release, we caught up with Cecile Believe to get her recommendations on the music, movies and reading material getting her through coronavirus lockdown.
Music
I made a mix for my friend's radio show and it got me listening to a lot of new things. Lolina's Who is experimental music really made me happy. January was Gigi D'Agostino month. I've really liked a couple Rina Sawayama songs from her new record. Devotion by Planet 1999. Arca's hour-long single.
Movies
I watched Killing of a Sacred Deer for the first time recently and it was good and disturbing. I always gravitate towards tense, violent movies. Also re-watched 1995's Ghost in the Shell and Eyes Wide Shut. But then I watched After Life with Ricky Gervais to make myself smile a bit.
Books and Articles
I've been participating in an online assembly called Feature Extraction that is hosted online through an artist space in L.A. called Navel. If focuses on many facets of AI and machine learning. We have been given so much amazing reading material, like Nora Khan's "Seeing, Naming, Knowing" and Peli Grietzer's "Theory of Vibe."
Find out what other Canadian musicians have been up to under self-quarantine with our Isolation Nation feature.