While much of the chatter surrounding Henry Saiz references his interdisciplinary approach to music — his supporters will be quick to mention the influence of film scores or writers — when we catch up with the Spanish DJ-producer he surprisingly fixates not on art but locale. When it comes to visiting Calgary he says he’s looking forward to sledding and hopes to see the Northern Lights something that “has been on my bucket list forever.” And when we ask him why he relocated from his hometown of Madrid to a coastal town he speaks of the region’s gorgeous pastoral qualities.
“I moved to Alicante which is a medium-sized city on the Mediterranean coast” he says noting that it’s on the outskirts of dance-happy Ibiza. “I just needed a quiet place to focus on my music when I’m not touring. The weather is great and I live a few metres from the beach so it’s quite dreamy — just what I need when I’m back home after the craziness of tours and gigs.
“The electronic music scene there is very small which I like [but] every time I need club action or a cultural event I just take a two-hour train to Madrid or a flight to London.” Still his home’s perch on the edge of Ibiza is fitting for Saiz: He trades in Balearic-kissed house and techno and on his Soundcloud you’ll find loads of tracks that flit between big-room beats and lush headphone fare. Indeed his work — whether it’s his club-ready remixes his much-loved contribution to the Balance series or the curation for his label Natura Sonoris — isn’t easily contained and he’s equally at ease collating field recordings or crafting dance-floor gems. His free-form approach to music extends beyond the studio as well. His DJ sets for instance are reactive: Rather than planning each step obsessively he reads his audiences intuitively.
“Any country city or club is different so part of the job is reading the crowd and taking them through your own personal journey” he says. “When you achieve that then the sharing experience is complete and people are gonna enjoy that all together. [It] will probably be a remarkable night.”
An immersive one too. Saiz’s music is layered and beyond its techno house and electro framework it’s brimming with ideas: He maintains that he grew up with proggy acts like Pink Floyd and electronic pioneers such as Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis and those influences are still present in his work as Henry Saiz (or in his other projects Hal Incandenza and Splendor). As an inquisitive arts and culture obsessive he can’t help but have other influences seep into his music. In previous interviews he’s noted for appreciating David Foster Wallace and Stanley Kubrick’s film scores but currently he’s more interested in science books.
“I love art in all its forms. Painting writing film and audiovisual art… to watch it transform into something like a music video is amazing” he says. “[But] I’m reading mostly science books lately. I’m very interested [in our] universe and how science explains things around us. Film-wise to be honest I think is a format that is kind of getting old nowadays. I find TV series much more interesting than cinema and I guess it’s a format that gives you more time to get deeper into characters and the story.”
And he evidently values depth. For his acclaimed remixes the album format uniquely suited Saiz who after building his name on the club circuit released a long-awaited long-player in Reality Is For Those Who Are Not Strong Enough To Confront Their Dreams in 2013. There Saiz’s concepts plunged to even deeper (and near-psychedelic) depths: After asking his audience to record their voices thoughts and daily routines Saiz stitched sound scraps together with his music resulting in a collection that felt intimately personal yet undeniably communal. Those qualities were audible in the album’s reinterpretation 2014’s Reality Addendum.
“It was quite a risky project because it’s such a personal album and wasn’t following any trends” says Saiz “but the reaction of the audience was actually amazing.”
“The message I try to send the audience isn’t really obvious and… a bit complex somehow. It has several layers and ways to connect to it… I think that’s the ultimate goal of art to create an image of sound that can transmit a complex idea and change someone’s life. Hopefully for the best.”
That’s a mouthful but it’s also Saiz’s way of telling us not to editorialize. He’ll let his songs do the talking.
HENRY SAIZ performs on Saturday February 21 at Habitat Living Sound.
