Quantaloop: Canada's Psychtechno Artist Comes to LA
Tune in for a convo with Quantaloop, a leading artist in Canada’s psytechno music community!!
Quantaloop, the brainchild of Etienne Sarrazin and Pasquale De Luca, have established themselves as trailblazers in the psychedelic community with their unique brand of twisted techno music. Drawing from their deep knowledge pool of electronic music knowledge their style aims to blend the best elements from many different genres while staying true to their psychedelic roots. Their sound is known for being unique and instantly recognizable in any set due to its technicality married with a constantly evolving but very much dance floor groove.
This unique blending of genres and ability to tell a story through music has allowed them to release on some of the most prestigious labels and play on some of the biggest festival stages around the world. They have released on the biggest labels in the psytech genre such as Zenon Records, Alpaka Muzik, Techgnosis Records, and Soupherb Records just to name a few, and 2023 saw them play in almost every major techno city across the globe.
Quantaloop speaks to 6AM just before his LA show with Shadow Wulf records!!!
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Hi Quantaloop! Thanks for talking to 6AM how are you doing?
We are doing great thanks for having us!
Your guys’ sound has been described as a constantly evolving dancefloor groove with psychedelic roots. How did you come up with the name “Quantaloop,” and how does it reflect your approach to music?
Our main idea behind the project was to make unique dance music that tells a story and evolves. We wanted to draw from all of our different influences but still remain psychedelic in nature. We really wanted to make music that would evolve and that could change, even into a different style, at any given moment. We also saw a parallel in quantum physics where particles could exist in multiple states simultaneously until they are being observed. The idea behind our name is that the music itself is constantly looping and creating similar patterns like we see in quantum physics, but at any given moment it could also change when being observed, or in our case listened. Thus the name Quantaloop was born.
You guys blend a lot of different genres while staying true to your psychedelic techno style. Can you walk us through how you guys create a track that balances technicality with a danceable groove? What’s your guys’ process like in the studio?
Typically we start a track with a style or idea in mind. Sometimes it might be based on a concept we are trying to express and other times we are just going for something stylistically a little bit different. Despite our concepts we also realize that we are making dance music and it needs to be danceable and relatable. Our idea is to bring people in from different genres or scenes by giving them elements they already know but to expand that with our own unique ideas.
In terms of process we always start by creating all the main instruments and building the groove and concept prior to actually composing the track. This allows us to really tweak all the elements in order to get them right and once that is done we can move forward to the composition. Once we have all our elements we take a very classical approach to composition drawing a lot from our academic background in order to help create a progression and movement to the track. We love our technical glitchy elements but the progression of the track and musicality always comes first.
Quantaloop has made waves in the psytech community with releases on labels like Zenon Records and Alpaka Muzik. What was it like when you both first heard one of your tracks, like "Windmill Man" or "Expanding Elephants," being played by a DJ on the other side of the world?
It is still a surreal experience to this day! When we first started the project our initial goal was just to have a track signed by a major label such as Zenon or Alpaka. Now to have our tracks being played in major festivals around the world and to be collaborating with artists we regard as some of the best in the world in our genre is almost unbelievable! We are in a constant state of gratitude for all the support we have been receiving and opportunities that we have.
Your guys’ journey began after completing studies in classical electronic music production. How do you think that foundation has influenced your sound, especially when playing at festivals or headlining shows like your upcoming one in LA with Shadow Wulf?
Our educational background has definitely had a major impact on the music that we produce and perform. Having the opportunity to experiment in university and develop our understanding of music in general has given us the ability to really craft our own sound and we think that is an element of our music that people really enjoy. In terms of playing sets I think this musical understanding also helps us craft sets that tell a story and have a good sense of pace. It allows us to understand the creation of tension and release in music in a set as well as in a song and allows us to manipulate that and create a better overall experience. That said there is also no replacement for experience and having the opportunity to play all these different types of events gives you a tremendous insight into what works and what doesn’t keep a dancefloor interested.
Speaking of the LA show with Shadow Wulf, what can fans expect from this performance, and how are you guys planning to bring your signature sound to the LA techno crowd for the first time?
We are beyond stoked for this event! All the crews involved have created quite a name for themselves in LA and we feel that this crowd is going to be more educated in terms of their understanding of this genre of music. We definitely feel a little pressure to bring out our A game. However we feel that because of this we will be able to get into our more experimental tracks. Fans can expect a high energy dark and groovy set this time with elements from our more experimental tracks. Perhaps even a new collaboration that we are currently cooking up with Crescendoll!
Thanks so much guys! Looking forward to your show. Is there anything else you’d like to mention before we sign off?
We really appreciate the well thought out and researched questions! It was a pleasure doing this interview. Looking forward to meeting everyone involved in LA!
