Sensual beatmaker Cyril Hahn is on his way to our shores again, where he’s playing a double headliner in Sydney at Max Watt’s alongside Chrome Sparks on one stop of his national tour. Before that, I managed to have a few words over the phone to him, where he detailed his stance on the EDM scene, his denial of his fame, and his love of punk rock and how that has impacted his sound today.

Henry (HR): Being from Switzerland, and then the subsequent relocation to Canada, do you think this influenced your sound from a young age? Did you have any specific bands you listened to throughout that, or any specific influences?

Cyril Hahn (CH): Well, yeah. I mean, when I was a teenager I was really into hardcore and punk rock, so was my brother, and he was older, so he would always take me to shows even though I was his annoying little brother! Which was very nice of him. So, I was kind of exposed to like live shows from an early age, but they were usually in like squats or occupied buildings, just like tiny DIY shows, and DIY bands, and obviously I’m doing the complete opposite now (laughs). Signed to major label, being a total sellout (laughs). But, deep down, I reckon I’ve still got it (laughs).

HR: So, then as you were when you were a younger kid with your brother, were you always music oriented? Or did you follow different passions throughout your life, until you found music?

CH: No it was definitely a big thing starting from when I was maybe 12 or 13, that’s when I started going to shows with my brother and we have to order like all of the records over the phone because they weren’t sold in my city where I lived. Back then there was still like, print-out mail orders of like, I don’t know if that was a thing in Australia, but you get a catalog like a magazine basically of records, because they didn’t have online shops yet. So that’s sort of my early memories of being a collector of music specifically.

HR: So, as you said with your tracks, you’ve definitely drifted from hardcore and punk and stuff like that, but at the moment it’s kind of hard to put them into a specific genre. Some would say it’s a stripped back kind of house, but some could say it’s ambient beats. What would you describe yourself as?

CH: I feel like most of what I’ve released so far has been either just straight up pop music, or like pop house. But definitely with a heavy influence of like ambient.

HR: And with someone who’s making pop house, you’re obviously involved in the electronic music scene. What would be your whole take on the actual EDM culture?

CH: Right. I mean it’s really strange! (laughs). It’s a really strange phenomenon. I don’t know if you’ve been to any EDM shows in the US?

HR: I haven’t

CH: Yeah, I feel like that’s sort of where that term was coined. To me it’s just like a marketing term, it doesn’t really mean anything, it’s sort of applied pretty vaguely. Yeah, so I mean when people started calling me EDM, I sort of just didn’t know how to take it. I guess I still don’t. At first it was only in the US, like people in Europe would just say it’s dance music, and then people in the US would be like “Oh that’s EDM”, but I guess now EDM is just growing into this like, crazy global thing, which is kind of scary. There’s just a lot of bad electronic music being released now, and you don’t really want to be associated with that. But, on the other hand, there’s also a lot of really good artists that have sort of made it into a bigger career which is amazing to watch as well.

HR: Yeah definitely, it’s definitely a big umbrella term, and as you said, there’s some parts about that you don’t really want to be a part of.

CH: Exactly right (laughs).

HR: So as you started to get bigger and bigger in music did you ever have any specific setbacks or difficulties on your rise to being internationally recognised?

CH: I think I’m only just starting to struggle now, because when I started writing music it was never with the aim of being successful. I never thought I could do this for a living, so it was always just a hobby, and something I did for myself you know? So there weren’t really any setbacks because my expectations were set so low (laughs). Just like, “have fun with this! don’t show it to anybody because it’s terrible!” (laughs). It was only about 3 or 4 years ago when I started doing the remixes that I had the confidence to kind of upload something onto the internet. And Yeah, at first, everything was just sort of surreal. I just uploaded the stuff and then less than a year after that I was signed to a label with artists that I really admired and had my first sold out Europe tour, and it was just insane. But I think at that point it was just oh you know the hype from the remix nd everything, as long as I kept writing things were okay. So I guess now is the harder part of my career, where it’s like sustatining your career and sustaining relevance. Because I feel it’s easy to blow up, but it’s hard to sustain a career. So yeah right now is an interesting.

HR: Yeah, so as you said you had a sold out European tour, what was it like playing your first show outside of your residential town? Do you ever still get those kind of feelings now or have you gotten used to it?

CH: I think I’m definitely more used to it. There’s still shows where I really feel more emotional than others, but I mean yeah my first tour was definitely the craziest mentally, because I just had no idea. Because over here in Vancouver I had played a couple of shows before my tour, but I felt it was just my friends. Even though it was a busy night, to me it was like “hey I’m playing for my friends”, but once I started my tour in Europe was just nuts realising that all these strangers want to hear your music, yeah it was definitely hard to wrap my head around.

HR: So out of all those experiences, have there been any favourite cities you’ve played since then?

CH: Oh man, theres a lot. I really like the UK for sure, because you can play really heavy clubby stuff and people are just going nuts. I like Glasgow, it’s great. I actually really like playing in Aberdeen in Scotland, which is definitely not a commong thing to say! (laughs). I really like Dublin as well. Germany is really fun, because everyone is really laid back. They’re just dancing, and not just staring at you with their cell phone and just enjoying themselves and the music. I also have a really good memory at Let Them Eat Cake in Melbourne, that was a really fun show.

HR: So how does Australia seem to a Swiss-born, Canadian resident? Is it an interesting place to come to?

CH: Yeah that’s a tough question. I have friends who lived in Canada for a while that I catch up with in Australia, so it’s not a complete shock or anything, because I have some familiar faces, but I love coming.

HR: Your music started out as a lot of remixes, was there a reason behind that? Or did you just like those specific songs at the time?

CH: I think it was just, the easy access of downloading an illegal acapella pack on the internet and not wanting to sing myself and not really having any friends that could sign for me. And then the other thing was just the funny element of juxtaposing a pop RnB song with something really different.

HR: When was the moment that you kind of realised, “I think I’ve made it”. I think you mentioned before it was big when you were signed to that major label, but was there a time before that when you saw these plays go up on YouTube videos and what you had uploaded to the internet, was there a moment where it kind of just clicked over in your head?

CH: It took me a long time to really believe people when they told me I could do it. I think I released the stuff in like April 2012, and then ‘Say My Name’ was like 2 months after that. When those plays were going crazy during the summer, and getting played on radio stations, I was still very suspicious, and I didn’t believe that anything would come from it, even though everybody around me was like “No you should totally start playing shows!” and I was just like “I dont know…” (laughs). Yeah it took a couple more months until I realised that there’s enough show offers that I can sustain myself and give it a try. Even when I decided to drop out of school, to me it was just like “yeah i’m just giving it a try”, I didn’t really think it was gonna work out (laughs).

HR: Yeah man, it’s crazy how it works out sometimes.

CH: Yeah I think there’s two types of artists: the ones that they have that goal of playing shows and being successful, and then there’s others that sort of just fall into it, and they’re like “what the fuck is going on?” (laughs).

HR: (laughs) I think you may have fallen into the latter category then.

CH: (laughs) Possibly, yeah

HR: Your most recent EP, ‘Begin’, came out about 7 months ago. What was the creative process behind that, and were there any difficulties, or did it come quite naturally?

CH: That release was sort of a result of me playing a lot of DJ gigs over the last three years, and just wanting to write something that’s not for the club, and so it’s more of a listening record.

HR: Yeah you can definitely see that compared to your other tracks.

CH: Yeah exactly, I’m not sure it was the smartest career move (laughs), but it was just something I had to do for myself. I just needed to do something to feel balanced again, and now I feel like I can go back to club music and fully embrace it again, but I just needed to like, get that out of my system.

HR: So what does Cyril Hahn listen to in his downtime then?

CH: Oh man, there’s so much (laughs). I’ve been going back to Caribou’s early records, like ‘Start Breaking My Heart’, which was one of my first electronic albums that I liked, and it’s still something that I keep going back to. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Album Tyrell for like heavier club stuff. I guess I’ve been listening to a lot more techno in general. In terms of more poppy stuff and RnB stuff, the Kelayla EP from last year was really good. I sort of hadn’t listened to RnB for a while, I sort of removed myself from that world, but when I heard her record I was like “wow this is amazing”, and it really stuck with me.

HR: And finally any tips to any aspiring producers that might want to take the same path?

CH: From my perspective I would say don’t overthink anything, just have fun with whatever you do, it’s not about making anybody else happy, it’s just about having fun. I think when you’re having fun and you create something that you like yourself, others might like it too! (laughs).

HR: Yeah I think that’s what happened to you, you just created it, put it onto the internet, and look what happened.

CH: (laughs) Yeah exactly!

You can catch Cyril Hahn on his upcoming Australia/New Zealand tour, where he’s hitting Brisbane, Sydney, Wellington, Auckland, Melbourne, and Perth.