Les Sins: "I just wanted to make something that I would be interested in"

Where would we be if Drake didn’t sing? Or if Jamie xx just resigned himself to hitting the odd drum pad for The xx? I mean, what about if Ludacris didn’t start acting? Society probably wouldn’t exist as it does. But that’s for another time. Chaz Bundick, or as most know him, Toro y Moi, is another who also proves this theory wrong. He’s best known for crafting luscious electronic entwined pop music that magically casts a spell onto his audiences, leaving them with love heart emoji’s for eyes and an up-curled smile emblazoned on their face.

However it’s not Toro y Moi that we’re interested in at the moment, but one of Bundick’s other monikers, Les Sins. Back in 2012 the 27-year-old American released a couple of 12"s through Jiaolong, a record label managed by fellow Best Fit favourite Caribou. This was all put on the back burner for a while, when he returned to the dayjob, but after telling friends that he was one day going to make a full length Les Sins record, Bundick locked himself in the studio with his dog and the pair spent time delving into the realms of contemporary electronic music. The resulting outcome is a boundary-free record that spans across an unexpectedly vast range of influences and is elegantly pieced together to create a sound that gives off a different vibe, with each new listen.

Off the back of the recent release, we caught up with the producer to discuss the differences between Les Sins and Toro y Moi, the plethora of electronic music to be heard in the album and what track is his "New Slaves".

Are you looking forward to the release? It’s streaming now – how’s the reaction been?

I don’t know, I try not to read reviews, but from what I’ve been told by other interviewers they like it. But yeah, I like to hear what people think, but I don’t really go online and read what people are saying much. I just try to lay low and not let it affect me.

Did you have any expectations from the record? Or are you pretty relaxed about it all?

A bit of both. I’m not expecting anyone to like it I’m just hoping that it will be successful and make its money back, so I can do it again. If it makes enough money to profit that’s great but I just want to make enough money to do it again.

Obviously you released a couple of 12 inches through Jiaolong – was it just a case of wanting to get back to that as soon as you’d finished other projects?

Yeah, that stuff that Dan (Caribou) did with me on his label were kind of just like my first real ideas to take Les Sins a little more seriously and not just do an impression of dance music. Those were the first tracks that I made with confidence knowing that I’m trying to make dance music as oppose to my earlier songs, where I was just making like Daft Punk rip offs or something.

What do you do differently when you’re working as Les Sins?

I find myself more immersed in contemporary electronic music as oppose to when I’m working on Toro stuff. When I’m doing Toro stuff, I’m not really paying attention to the contemporary music world but because electronic music and dance music is so current, you have to. Like, you could be influenced by like 90's house but it’s just not going to hold up sonically if your stuff isn’t as bumping as other people's.

I think when you first shared "Bother", people were describing that as your deep house moniker, but the album proves that you’ve gone for a bit of everything across the spectrum of electronic music. Was there a conscious effort to cover everything or was that just natural?

Yeah sort of both man, I mean, there was one point where I was like - I don’t know if this dark-ass song is going to fit on this album. I’m into all sorts of electronic music so I guess that it will show on this album because it’s so broad. So I just let that happen and let it do its thing - so it is what it is.

Did that make it hard to blend it all together?

It was, yeah. I was trying to make darker, jungley songs with some more like softer deep house songs and that doesn’t always work. But I just let my mixer and engineer guy Pat just mix everything to just make sure that everything is sonically there. There’s only so much you can really do but it just making sure it sounds right. It was just to find some sort of way to make everything coherent.

You’ve mentioned you were trying to make jungle songs, I can definitely hear that on ‘Drop’…

I think that I was sort of in a darker period when I made all of the darker stuff, whereas all the uplifting stuff was kind of made at the same time as well. I dunno, just got bored with doing it 4/4 and I just wanted to try and keep interested in making this record happen, as I told people that I was going to make it! I just got deeper into the whole electronic world. But with "Drop", I mean, I can’t list any off the top of my head but one album that was kind of a big eye opener for me was Zomby’s album Where Were U In 92. I really listened to that and was like - this is so good. I liked how raw it was and how he was using samples and working in a certain genre but outside of typical BPMs.

"Past" is another track that stands out to me – the minimalness in the middle of the song reminds me of a deep techno track and then you bring in a future-esque hook – how did that all come about?

There was a period when I was making this record where a lot of people hit me up to make beats, and luckily I was in an instrumental mood at that time, but I was making stuff and thinking like man, I kinda want to just keep this and put it in my record. I just wanted to make something that I would be interested in. So I was thinking like - man, what if Yeezus was a little bit housier or something? I don’t know. I was just like sort of asking myself these hypothetical questions.

Tell us about "Call" – I love like the hardcore trance vibe that I can hear seeping through…

Yeah! I really enjoyed making that song; it’s still one of my favourite songs on the album. I can’t get over it just because some of the stabs on it are so different to like anything that I’ve done. I just wanted to go for a shock effect but something that I know is good and something that I know I’d dance to if I heard it. It’s something I haven’t heard in a long time stabs like that. I feel like the EDM world has taken over that big sound but they’ve sort of just bastardised it, so I wanted to do something similar and bring it back down to earth.

You recently told The Fader that "Why" is your "Bound 2", but what’s your "New Slaves"?

Oh man. Probably "Call". Like "New Slaves" has that message where it’s like black people you need to wake up. So yeah, I feel like "Call" is my wake up message.

What about the release itself - a partnership between yourself and Carpark Records?

This was an idea that I’ve been talking with for a while. On Carpark I’m always showing them new stuff that I find and in a way I’m doing voluntary A&R sort of thing. They asked I would like my own imprint and I was like yeah totally, and it kinda just worked out in time. I’ve got like another release coming out in February for a new guy I just picked up and it’s completely different - he’s more on the rock side of things. After that I just want people to know that Company Records is similar to XL, in that we’re all over the spectrum. It’s not just electronic music and it’s not just rock music.

What’s next for you?

I’ve got a Les Sins tour going in the next couple of weeks, its just like 12 dates, and then I’m just gonna start finishing up the Toro record and trying to get that set.

When you take Les Sins on the road is that just DJing?

Pretty much a CDJ set. It’s super easy for me to do that and because I have to deal with all the stress of doing a normal band tour all the time as Toro, a Les Sins tour is just my chance to have fun and hang with people, not to worry about having to set up gear.

What is the difference between the two projects for you?

This is totally less stress. I don’t have to worry about if I’m saying anything cheesy, because I’m not saying anything with it. There’s no message, so its super laid back. But I definitely miss Toro. My favourite part about writing Toro stuff is imagining how we’re gonna do it live and imagining where we’d be playing it and stuff. You know I miss playing too, it’s been a while and I miss being on stage, behind an instrument.

You’ve said that you think about driving to the songs when you’re making them. What would be the perfect journey to listen to your album?

Oh man, so many good drives, I don’t know. I think I would be driving somewhere in the States. Either through like, an amazing setting like The Badlands or the desert, and going through somewhere where it’s all purple and orange. Or even in California. I’d do the coast, as cliché as that sounds; it’s an awesome drive.

Michael is out now on Company / Carpark Records.