An interview with Feux

Can you tell me a bit about yourself? Where are you from? What got you into music?

My name is Max, I’m from London, I’m 19 years old, and I went to university in Glasgow, and now I’m back in London. I was born and raised in North London, Camden. So, when I started making music, that was in September 2018, I just decided to get onto GarageBand and record some little voice notes over my friends’ beats, and I just did that a lot. Some of my friends were like, “Oh, this is actually really good, you should continue making music,” and I gradually just got better, and now I’m here.

​

Do you think growing up in London has inspired you, and how do you think it has affected your music?

Definitely. London is one of the biggest cities in the world, there’s a lot going on, lots of different areas, communities, and different types of people. It’s a very mixed and cultural place, so there’s a lot to be inspired by. In every country and every city there’s a type of way you grow up, like in London you learn to grow up by yourself, you see your friends a lot, you live the city life. It definitely has had an impact.

 

One of the things that drew me to your music right away is your combination and use of the English and French language. Can you speak on that and where your French influences come from?

My mom, she’s originally from Peru and Belgium, and her parents are bilingual, so they speak Spanish and French, and in Belgium there is the Francophone and Flemish. I went to a little French school in North London when I was a kid, so I had a kind of French upbringing, my mom speaking French as well, so I was brought up with that. I wanted to do something different and incorporate another language into my sound, and I think it really helped to have that extra thing. I always strive to be unique and be myself because I was brought up with that, and that’s very me. Incorporating that into my music is very personal.

​

You said you’ve only been making music since September 2018, how do you look back on the past year? From your first project (Silent Enemy) up until the newest EP (What’s Done in the Dark), a lot must have changed, I imagine?

Yeah, that EP (Silent Enemy), I wouldn’t say it’s my best work, but it’s the start of everything. So that was a big moment, it was the first project. Even though it’s not my best work, it’s still very important. And this whole year has really just been learning about myself, my sound, my music. Trying to improve every day, every time I’m writing lyrics or making a song, I just try to improve and perfect every aspect of it. But it hasn’t been a very long time that I’ve been making music, so I’m very new to it, I’m still learning so much, and there is still so much to learn, so I’m still in the process of just learning and becoming better.

​

Another thing that really struck me is this thing I heard you say about creating Silent Enemy vol. 2: “I’m proud of myself and I’ve never been able to say that before, but now I can.” It made me realize how important it is to do something you love. Can you speak a bit on that; the importance of doing something you hold close to your heart?

I had a great connection with music, and I was never 100% happy with what I did. When I didn’t have music, there was always something that was missing for me, something creative. I never really achieved much personally in my life, and having gone through that whole process of making this album and creating it, it kind of ties in with What’s Done in the Dark, because you put in so much work, so much effort into something, and to finally release it, for people to hear it, is just a breath of fresh air. People actually being able to acknowledge the work you’ve put into it. I’ve never been passionate or have loved something as much as making music, so that was a big moment for me because it was the first time I put in a lot of effort for an album, and I was just happy about it.

 

I have to ask you about the Silent Enemy vol. 2 artwork, can you tell me a bit about it?

Yeah, so my friend Seb, who does all the graphics for the majority of the projects, he did “Life?”, “Silent Enemy”, and “What’s Done in the Dark”. He was meant to do it, but unfortunately something went wrong and he couldn’t do it in the end. I had just seen this guy on Instagram called Ellis, and I saw his work and was like, wow, that stuff is crazy. I’m very into art and visual stuff, so I was like, I might as well message him and see if he can do it. I only had two weeks until the project was going to release, so I messaged him, “Yoo man, can you do this and that, I’m trying to go for this style.” So it’s called Silent Enemy, you can see the people around me in that image, and I’m in the middle, and there are people kind of just looking at me with a side eye, and there are monsters in the back and stuff like that. I thought it just ended up coming out completely amazing, he’s such a great artist.

​

Seeing all the positive responses your music gets, people from all over the world telling you that they like your music and that it resonates with them, to accomplish those things after only a bit more than a year of making music must feel very unreal?

Yeah man, it’s crazy, and I still tell my friends, like, I’m not where I want to be yet, but being at this point where people acknowledge my stuff, and not just from my country but from other countries as well, it just means a lot. And because music is such a personal thing to me, if people can relate to that, that’s just incredible. It’s an incredible feeling for me, and it makes me feel very privileged to be able to make music and for other people to like it, that’s such a big motivation. Because for me, I’m quite a sensitive person, so if people don’t like it, it would motivate me to make something better, but people liking it motivates me even more to keep making music and doing what I love.

​

One thing that really stood out to me throughout all of your projects is your lyrical ability. My question for you is: What’s music if it ain’t got meaning?

I don’t know, man. Well, music, if it ain’t got meaning, for me, is just something that is quite bland and doesn’t have much depth, and I think there’s way too much of that nowadays. Music with no meaning behind it, and not even meaning, just kind of emotion or something, you know, because music is a feeling, it’s an emotion, and I feel like there’s too much completely hollow stuff out there. People with voices that can actually use their voice just don’t use it. And for me, music is something way more special and has way more meaning than just talking about drugs, sex, and violence and stuff like that. Even if it is people’s realities, and even if these people do go through it, then obviously that’s respectable and they can say that, but sometimes people glorify it and go over the top with it, and I just find that quite meaningless. But I just do my thing and don’t really talk too much on it. That little EP (What’s Music If It Ain’t Got Meaning) was kind of just saying that music is much deeper than people think, it can have a bigger effect than people think.

​

A lot of your lyrics seem to come from a darker place, I was wondering: does making music and writing about these ‘darker places’, so to speak, offer some sort of healing?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s like therapy for me. Writing and stuff like that opens up the subconscious, that means you can get stuff out and release it without really having to speak to someone. Just creating is very meditative, and it heals a lot. You know, I’ve had my fair share of shit, but I haven’t had a horrible life, I’ve had a very nice life, but I’m more of a voice for the people and for a general idea. Especially right now, I’m working on some stuff, and I’m trying to make it less about me and more about other people. That clicked for me when I made “Life?”, I wrote it and was like, I don’t know what I want to do with my life, and there are so many other people who don’t know what they want to do with their lives as well. That was the moment where I was like, people need a voice, people need reassurance, and they need someone else to say it sometimes for it to click in their head. They need a leader, someone to listen to and to follow. And it’s not necessarily my goal to be that person, but I definitely want to contribute to raising awareness and consciousness, and I want people to ask questions when they listen to my music, I want them to feel something. That’s what I’m striving for.

​

That’s exactly what your song “Life?” did for me, it resonated.

It’s quite comforting, I guess, you know, hearing someone else say it. It’s a comforting feeling, knowing that you’re not the only one that’s in that position and other people are going through it too.

 

On the opening track of your newest EP “What’s Done in the Dark” there’s a quote from Plato saying “For I know one thing and that is that I know nothing”, that made me wonder about your influences; are you inspired by philosophy and literature?

Yeah man, a lot. I like reading books, I like researching stuff, maybe even a bit too much. Last night I was up till like 4:30 researching about 5G, but that’s a story for another day. I never really studied philosophy, but I always think very philosophically. That stuff is inspiring, and they are often simple sentences, but they mean a lot. Knowing that you know nothing is knowledge, because that actually permits you to open your mind and to be able to learn more.

​

I also wanted to ask you about Risecollective, I wasn’t able to find much information on it, so I was hoping you could tell me a bit more about that?

It’s very early days, so not many know much about it. But if I could summarize it, it’s a group of young and extremely talented people that are part of my life, put together to create and to push each other and really go to places we thought weren’t possible. It’s our collective, and we’re going to really push it. Rise is about rising up, going against the grain and being unique. But it’s still very early days. We’ve got a track, all of us, that we’re working on as we speak, and we’re just going to see how that goes and then we’ll make it public.

​

I also heard that Mos Def is one of your biggest influences. Can you tell me what his music means to you?

Mos Def, he was the voice of his time, he was the voice of his generation. What he did was he made people aware of what was going on in his area, his city, and he’s inspiring not just because of what he says but because of what he did, what he changed, and how he made people conscious of what was going on during his time, with gentrification and all that stuff. He’s an important person in hip-hop, and I feel like that’s missing nowadays. Everyone is too scared now to speak up and to actually speak about what’s going on. You know everything is messed up and everything is corrupt, and nobody wants to speak on that, everybody’s just riding that wave and not really even understanding what’s going on.

​

That’s also a thing I like about your music. It doesn’t sound like you are riding a wave or chasing a sound. A lot of music nowadays sounds the same, even though a lot of it is good, it still sounds very similar in terms of sound. Yours has a different twist on it.

Yeah, thank you man, that’s what I try to do. I try to incorporate my own sound, and it’s not just like old-school, it also has a modern kind of feeling to it as well. I’m still developing, working on that and trying to perfect my own sound, and that takes ages, but we’ll see what happens.

​

So, if you had the chance to create a song with anyone who’s ever existed, who’d you pick? Like who’d you pick for the beat? Who’d you pick for a verse? And who’d you pick for the music video?

For the beat, I would get J Dilla. To jump on the beat with me I’d pick MF DOOM, and to shoot the music video I would get some friends of mine and Honey JD from LOUDHOUSE.

 

Do you ever think about the bigger picture, like where you want to be years from now and what you want your music to do to people?

I was speaking to a friend about what success is, and we came to the conclusion that it is being paid for what you do and what you love, being able to live off it. When it comes to music, I want to be able to perform my music around the world because I love performing and I love meeting new people and going to new places. That would be a dream come true. I can’t really predict what is going to happen, a year and a half ago I didn’t even know I was going to be here. You never know what is going to happen, but in an ideal world that would be it. And also changing something, making people aware, being a voice for people.