A moving soundtrack hybrid mix by London-based artist HEZEN featuring emotive lyricism and hauntingly cinematic soundscapes which touches on both the topics and genres that influence her.
HEZEN has carved out a distinct niche in the music world. Drawing inspiration from electronic, dark pop, and avant-garde styles, her music is a fusion of ethereal vocals, intricate beats, and lush, atmospheric production. HEZEN’s sound is often described as otherworldly, blending emotional depth with a modern, experimental edge. Releasing her debut EP, ‘Stigma’, in 2017, HEZEN has been building an universe which has a juxtaposition of beauty and extremities whilst being playful and always referencing to the world around her. Earlier this year, HEZEN released a string of singles, ‘Pure Again’ and ‘Au Clair de la Lune’, which included club edits to allow her music to be played in the spaces she feels most comfortable in. Whilst her music is completely captivating, you witness the full breadth of her talent when she’s performing live – a stage presence like no other. This is witnessed in full force at playbody – a relatively new experimental party and collective that HEZEN is a resident and curator of. Using the design and architecture of the space to bring the audience in and explore what it means to have human connection in a club space.
Recently releasing a collaborative single with HASZNAT and more music on the way, we thought it would be the perfect time to have HEZEN on Untitled 909 to chat more about her musical journey so far, how she got into production, dig a little deeper into playbody and her work with the collective and her exciting new move into hybrid sets.
Hey Sarah! How are you doing? What have you been up to lately?
I’m really good! I just finished my latest EP and now enjoying a few days off in the countryside in the South of France with my best friends, plotting the future of playbody, our collective.
Let’s start from the very beginning: what was your first introduction to music in general, and then more specifically to electronic music?
There was always a lot of music played at home, between my dad’s taste for classical music, British rock & prog rock, French classics, and some Martinican music from my mum. My dad also played the guitar and the keys all the time and loved singing, so I was immersed from the beginning. He tried to teach me the guitar when I was very young but I really wasn’t interested. I got back to it later when I started writing songs and wanted to accompany myself while singing.
I know exactly when I discovered electronic music. It was with ‘Idiotheque’ by Radiohead, I must have been 14-15. It’s the track that made me ditch my guitar and want to learn to produce. I had never heard anything like it before. I think it’s when I started getting hooked by music that takes me by surprise, and that’s how I approach music making – I need to surprise myself with sounds I’ve never heard otherwise I’m bored.
Who was the first artist or band you were a fan of?
The Spice Girls. Spice was the very first album I bought, I was in primary school and totally obsessed. I knew all the lyrics by heart, and had no idea what they meant.
Was there a formative moment growing up, like seeing a favorite band live or an incredible DJ set, that set you on this path?
I always loved singing and writing songs since I was very young. But I think, like for most people, my teenage years were when music had a huge emotional impact. I vividly remember one very important moment: I discovered Muse’s Showbiz on a school trip to the UK in high school and it blew my mind – I realised this was the music I wanted to make – epic, raw, emotional, melancholic, sometimes soft and sometimes violent.
How does your environment influence your work?
It has a huge influence for sure, especially in the last couple of years. Some incredible people came into my life and with them I truly discovered club music on another level, and that’s when I started to incorporate it in my own work, or at least started to do it more consciously, as I realised there were traces of it all along. Club culture is a huge part of my life and my music today, in particular with my involvement in playbody, so much that it’s hard to believe it’s only been about 3 years. But it resonated with me so strongly, in a way that makes sense to me as a natural progression of my sound. Also, I went from being quite isolated to being surrounded and supported by a collective of talented and driven individuals – this has had a dramatic impact on my work and my life as a whole.
Where do you seek inspiration outside of music?
I almost only write when I’m sad and/or in love. I struggle to process my emotions, and poems have always been a way for me to articulate how I feel. So when I want to write a song I’ll go through my poems and see which one wants to be turned into a song. I’ll also make notes on my phone for word combinations, phrases that grab my attention and resonate serendipitously, that I would hear (or mis-hear) in conversations, in books, in movies… These will sometimes become the starting point of a song.
I also spend a lot of time creating visuals, whether they’re artworks of videos, which to me are intrinsically linked to the music. Just like with music, it often starts with a vague idea and I’ll play with photoshop or stable diffusion and let myself get taken by surprise by results. It’s another language that I find helps me understand what is going on in my head. I’m lucky to be surrounded with incredible people, so a lot of inspiration, musical and visual, comes from conversations with them.
What’s your most recent musical discovery that you’re obsessed with?
We were in the Hackney Marshes with some friends one sunny day this summer, and someone played ‘The Room’, a gorgeous instrumental album by Brazilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento and American saxophonist Sam Gendel. It truly moved me like I hadn’t in a while, and I put it on whenever I need to calm my nervous system. I particularly adore ‘Cores’.
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Can you tell us a bit about your production journey and what it’s been like so far?
I went from recording my songs with the guitar on my dad’s old tape machine when I was about 12, to discovering electronic music in high school and teaching myself production with YouTube tutorials. I’ve been using Ableton for the past 12-13 years and I am so in love with this DAW. I constantly check tutorials, learn new toys, new techniques… I think it’s a massive element in my love for producing electronic music – the endless learning, the endless newness in how to make noise, the genuine enthusiasm for sharing that the community has. I’ve always loved borrowing from all genres. In the past 3 years, my production has been incorporating more and more club elements, and it’s been so rewarding. I’ve made it a habit and a challenge to make a club edit of all of my songs, and I’ve loved the process. I force myself as much as possible to only work with the palette of sounds that the original track offers, and that limitation really pushes my creativity. It’s also an opportunity for me to highlight production elements I love from the original track and give them more space in the remix.
I believe you have a few releases in the works, is that right? Is there anything you can tell us about what’s coming up?
I have an EP coming out soon with songs I cannot wait to share. As with my latest releases, they’re paired with club edits, as well as some exciting remixes by producers I love.
You’re also a resident for London-based collective playbody, what can you tell us about your work with this collective?
playbody is an incredible project that started as a conversation about human connection, turned into an otherworldly soft playground-rave blending design, architecture, music and community, and continuously evolving into uncharted, boundary-pushing territories. It’s been a privilege to be a part of it from its very inception and make something together with some of the most inspiring and visionary people I’ve ever met. I believe it shaped me as an artist and in my vision more than anything in my whole career, and it’s rewarding to see it grow and see myself grow with it.
As an experimental club it’s been providing me with a space to try new things, and be backed by a true family, a community. I’ve found encouragement and support in my drive to link live performance and club environment, explore and push the boundaries of the area that combines the two. In this regard, I’ve been a resident artist as well as the curator for the live element of the party. It’s allowed me to bring artists I love to the fold, and they in turn shape what playbody is about. I think live performance is one of the fundamental ingredients that makes playbody so special and I’m excited about what we have in store to make it even more magical.
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What is your approach to your live performances? What are you aiming to achieve through these shows? What’s the story you’re trying to tell?
The live show is the most truthful way I share my music. The spectacle aspect is a very important part of the stories my songs tell, as well as the immersiveness. I am less interested in being static on an elevated stage that I am being able to roam among the crowd – there’s a proximity, an intimacy that is important to me because I need to feel the energy in the room and see people’s faces and bodies, take them with me on a journey. I’m curious in the ways I can get the audience to play a more active part. An amazing experiment was during the last playbody in July, where I performed the last song of my set accompanied by Madison Willing on the piano and dancer-choreographer Daniel Perry. Daniel was turned into my microphone holder, thanks to a mouthpiece designed and fabricated by jjio__jjio. We moved together across the space, climbing some of the playbody pieces, and the audience moved with us, getting so close they could touch us if they had wanted. It was a very raw and vulnerable moment. At the end, it felt as if we all woke up from a dream.
You’ve also contributed a mix for the 909 series. What’s the concept behind this one?
I’m starting to build a hybrid set, to perform on the Push and Live, and this mix is basically a first blueprint. This is what and how I would play in the club. It’s peppered with my own tracks, vocals, extra production… Working on Ableton rather than decks allows me to have more control, more tools. I can chop things up, or edit the timing in pieces that aren’t matching the grid, like the recording of my friend the artist Mahsa Salali reading ’If I Must Die’, a poem by Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer who died in the genocide in Gaza at the end of last year.
I want my sets to explore all genres that inspire me, all the subjects that are important to me, and put them in a club setting: movie soundtracks, classical music, Martinican music, poetry…
When was the last time you were on the dancefloor?
I went to the Exit Records party at Phonox at the end of August, to fangirl during Madison Willing’s set and met dbridge for the first time. We have a collab coming out soon that I’m incredibly excited about! My next time serving will be at our club are bbs this Saturday 🤍
What are you most excited about right now?
In December it will be playbody’s 1st anniversary. I can’t share much but all I can say is that it will be spectacular. I will be playing of course!
What’s on your vision board at the moment?
Lots of collabs, lots of experimentation, lots of new music, the end of white settler colonial occupation and extermination of indigenous people, free Gaza, free Congo, free Yemen, free Sudan.
Head to HEZEN’s Bandcamp to dig through her self-release records here and keep an eye on new releases. playbody 005 will be taking place on the 5th October – find out more information here.