Where did the name Hoopalai come from? 

It came from the idea of creatively being on a slippery floor!

How did Montreal’s underground scene impact your sound? 

Our influences mainly come from the ’90s and the original rave era, where we first got involved as DJ & promoter and curators. That period had something truly new and deeply community-driven, which was very inspiring.

How important is jamming to your creative process? 

Jamming means spending time together in the studio and working on the machines plays a key role in our early creative process.

We make music to connect with one another. We express ourselves through machines. Jamming with analog gear often leads to happy accidents that fuel creativity, giving us the chance to bounce new ideas around in the moment.

What’s one decision you made early on that seemed risky or unconventional, and how did it become a turning point for your growth? 

We always aim for a non-easy approach that makes you deserve the ‘’feel good’’ part of a song or a moment in a dj set. We always applied that rule to our creative approach.

When you hit a creative block, what’s your go-to process that helps you reset, and why does it work for you? 

We remove the kick, bassline and/or the main melody, then experiment with new drums and melodies while keeping the rest of the arrangement intact.

How would you describe the evolution of your sound, and where do you feel it’s heading next?

As we make techno, house, space disco, deep house, breaks and all sorts of electronics, the evolution of our work is really based on our approach, state of mind and references.

Where we are heading is unfortunately classified.

What role does intuition play when you create or perform your live set? 

100% intuition. We don’t believe in preparing a set. You can prepare various songs you wish to play but it’s only once on stage, you can determine the needs considering the environment, the sound system, the crowd etc.

Imagine you could collaborate with any artist or creator, who would it be, and what would you ask them? 

There are many but definitely these ones:

  • Herbert: Big inspiration for both of us. Definitely for his unique sampling process and techniques.
  • Suzanne Ciani for her modular synthesis goodness.
  • Morgan Geist for his vision and the mixdown in an all analogue mixing environment
  • And of course Aphex Twin for his lovely soprano voice that we all cherish

Your latest release “Like a Movie” has a distinct indie vibe, what inspired the sound and what is the story behind the creative process?

François: I wrote the original idea for the song in about one hour, early in the morning, inspired by a wild night and the urge to create something fresh that would release positive emotions.

I called Fred and told him I’d done something interesting, then sent it over. He was immediately inspired to jump in. It took a few years before we released it, because for us, the timing wasn’t right, until we got the call.