With a title like that, how could we not?

French artist Halo Maud’s new album Celebrate emerges on Heavenly Records on March 22, a unique mix of wonderfully idiosyncratic singer-songwriting action, brassy pop appeal, shoegaze haze and crunching rock rock. Blessed with lyrics that flt from French to English and back again – reflecting her Galllic roots – it’s been given an explosive sonic twist via a bold production from Maud herself with Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier.

If the name sounds familiar, then that might be because she made numerous appearances on the latest Chemical Brothers album For That Beautiful Feeling, voicing singles ‘Live Again’ and ‘Skipping Like A Stone’ with Beck, as well as the album’s title track.

If truth be told, we’d print what Halo Maud has to say any day of the year, but as it is International Women’s Day and the album’s called Celebrate, we thought today was as good as any to have her guide us through the album, track by track. Here’s what we learnt:

CELEBRATE
In my little room that you can hear at the very beginning of the song, I just tried to get
rid of my saudade and to declare independence. The song ended up opening the
album because it embodied perfectly the openness I wanted to operate beside Je
Suis Une Île.

TERRES INFINIES
I arrived at Greg Saunier’s place in Los Angeles with that guitar riff and we built the
song together very quickly, which was a big change for me. I’m more used to spending a lot of time on each song, and to add a million layers before destroying most of them. I actually destroyed and re-did part of what we did with Greg, I cannot help (laughs).

MY DESIRE IS PURE
Mountains is kind of an obsession, and a very soothing landscape to me. I guess this
is why I so much like steep melodies. Relief is comforting, enveloping, you can’t see
the infinitude of the horizon which I find so scary.

LAST DAY SONG
The title comes from the fact that it is the last song we worked on with Greg in Los
Angeles. And this is what provided the theme of the song, a great lust for life before it
is too late. The very last part is a typically surprising and delicious invention of Greg!

SLOWLY SURELY
I composed this one starting from the beat, and with the pitch bend wheel of my
favourite and only keyboard. The rest of the process was kind of sinuous afterwards,
the song taking many directions until I found, with the help of some precious ears, its
definite shape. The lyrics must have been premonitory!

CATCH THE WAVE
In my small and nomadic laboratory, I accumulate layers and layers of sounds,
crushed with my favourite effects, a chorus and a harmonizer. Catch The Wave
raised from this waving material, clinging to a strong rhythmic pattern. Once I had the
step, it was easy to unwind the harmonic path. I followed the principle of keeping as
many common notes as possible between two consecutive chords

LE CIEL EST GRAND
Here is the interlude. It was not premeditated to have one in the album, but at the
end I am very satisfied with this principle. It is a piano version by Greg of a song
which did not find its place on the record.

YOU FLOAT
This is one of the first song I composed for this album. I had the instrumental and the
melody since a long time, as well as the idea of repeating the same verb in the
chorus. But for a long time it was « you talk » instead of « you float » and I was
thinking about someone who talks more than they act.

À TE VOIR
The song was originally sung in what I would call an English yoghurt, that is to say
approximative words shaping approximative sentences that don’t make any sense. I
felt the song « had » to be in French though, but I was so used to sing this yoghurt
that I was unable to write French words. That is why I asked François Atlas (from the
band François & the Atlas Mountains) to help me and he came back to me with this
beautiful beach scenery.

ICEBERG
Please listen to the whole album « Nous Autres » by René Lussier and Fred Frith.
This is where I found « Iceberg » and I was totally stunned by the lyrics. That was a
bit challenging to cover though, but I made it during lockdown so I had plenty of time
to try and try again. It was so much fun cutting, pitching, editing layers and layers of
flutes !

PESNOPOÏKA
Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares had a lot of influence on me in the last few years.
Their harmonies, their vocal textures, it is so beautifully rich. Pesnopoïka is a
Bulgarian word meaning « singer » in the context of traditional weddings. We went to
Bulgaria to shoot the music video and my emotion was strong attending colourful
folkloric celebrations.

ENTENDS-TU MA VOIX
Literally it means « can you hear my voice ». I found it quite funny to ask this
question at the very end of the record, like « hey, by the way, can you hear me sing?
Can you understand what I mean? Are you interested in what I am doing? » (laughs).
I hope so !

To pre-order your copy of Celebrate on vinyl or CD, click here