Jose Luis Seijas: Your music is very evocative of Latin America, how come… because you don’t look very Mexican or Colombian to me…(both laugh)?
Michel Cleis: Ha ha, ha…yes I am totally Swiss (laughs more) well, maybe I have some Italian in me, so some part of me is Latin, but not from Latin America anyway. Basically, my main musical origins in house music, or the people I loved to listen to and still do, and I’ve sometimes worked with him, is Little Louie Vega, Masters at Work, this kind of vibe. There is something in that…the percussion I think always attracted me. On the other side, I used to go out with a Colombian girl, in fact I’ve two Colombian loves and so what happened is…I discovered music during my trips to Colombia and it was like a family affair, you know. I don’t know why it touched me so much, I mean I love percussion so it could be even African music...
JLS: You seem very organic to me, especially tracks like El Litoral which is almost like a live session, how do you do that?
MC: I mean in 1997, I was starting to sample music…I had my own percussion that I found in vinyl and I cut those samples into the loops and re-did my patterns so this is the reason why it sounds organic. I put some reverb sometimes and then I cut and sometimes I tried to work with electronic sounds of percussion and to create patterns with all these shakers and this is the reason why, because basically at the start they are organic sounds, it’s not just about computers.
JLS: You are recognised because of La Mezcla, it has been one of the biggest sound tracks of the 20th century. Do you feel that you have to deliver another La Mezcla?
MC: No, it doesn’t work like that. I did some other stuff like that like El Litoral, Mir a nero like collaborations with artists and then you put your hand on it. I don’t know if its really a remix, its more than that because you have to do a bit of an arrangement and have to think about the clubs to do something that can hit the clubs
JLS: You’ve worked with some big Latino artists, first with Toto, and then you worked with Gotan Project and you did stuff for Roberto Fonseca with Gilles Peterson
MC: And with Shakira too…
JL: : Ah yeah exactly with Shakira…you are now dealing with Natalia LaFourcade, who is also pretty big at the moment, but it’s interesting that this song has been a huge hit already 250m views. How did that collab happen?
MC: I didn’t know Natalia La fourcade actually, Hector Romero who was working for Oriana (Sony’s new electronic music label) contacted me and he told me, we have this idea and we’d like to do something with you. And Hector’s a real friend and he sent me this song ‘Tu si sabes quereme.’ I really loved the acoustic thing, and really…I loved it. So, I said yeah, I will try to do something with that. But it’s not so easy to go up to 103 BPM (Beats per Minute) because her voice become horrible to hear and it’s not nice…If I had known that her song was already so well-known and popular, I don’t know whether I would have done it! I did it without pressure. I didn’t check, I just took the music and I thought, yeah I really want to work on it, but I didn’t check what it was. I hope I can meet her one day. At the moment it’s just a digital story, apparently she liked it and this is the most important thing.
JLS: This track is very different to what I’ve heard from you before. There’s a very dancehall vibe to it. I wouldn’t say reggeaton but it is very surprising to hear this from you. I wouldn’t say it’s not you… but at the same time it’s probably out of your comfort zone. Is this a new era of Miche Cleis (both laugh)…taking on the urban market or is it just the music that took you there?
MC: first the music took me there of course, but I mean to say the truth I’m open to all kinds of music as long as it is good music and if I love it, so for me to go to 103 BPM (the speed that reggaetón plays at) it’s not a problem, it’s not like if I was selling my soul to (both laugh) to hell..and I’m at the age that I’m OK with that, I mean it’s just music and this was a chance doing something like this and I would love to do more in this direction, maybe more with remix, than getting already the parts, and working on it. Because even the way of mixing and the way of sounds, is another way of thinking and it’s refreshing for me, to be working on something like this so I hope I will have something more to do in this direction…I’m ready
JL: So we will be getting a Daddy Ynkee remix from you in the next for months then?
MC: (laughs) Yeah its possible, its possible. I don’t know…the first thing is to love the elements and the song and then, well…why not?
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