FOSS on the transformational act of a creative reset

Photo Credit: Cynthia K Cortes

Taking ourselves out of familiar patterns can sometimes spark creativity. For Grammy-nominated pianist and composer Romain Collin, that was a trip to Iceland. What was meant to be a short escape during the Winter of 2020, turned into a 6-month stay after the COVID lockdown. The creative reset, in a remote cabin, would inspire and result in the FOSS album Shapeless. 

FOSS makes electro-pop music that touches on sonic experimentation. The duo, Collin and multi-Grammy award-winning producer Jeremy Loucas, blends noise, electronic percussion, and analog synths with Collin’s vocals layered on top or obscured within. The new single “Tell The Northern Lights”--written after witnessing the aurora borealis–feels familiar. I’ve never seen it in person, but to imagine being struck by its power, surrounded by nothingness, this is what I hear. 

After six months abroad, Collin returned to New York. Reuniting at Loucas’ studio Sear Sound, the pair perfected the demos and ideas. They worked on Shapeless for a month. The album, which will be out later this year, was essentially created at the intersection of the quiet life in remote mountains and the overstimulation of the city. 

In our Q&A with Collin, we discuss creative resets, making demos, audio-visual experimentation, getting comfortable in solitude, and more.

Photo Credit: Romain Collin

You initially went to Iceland with the idea of having a creative reset. Did you find it easy to get into that mindset when you arrived?

Experiencing Iceland in the dead of winter felt like landing on another planet. I had no idea what to expect, nor did I want to know much about it before getting there. As I made the three-hour drive from the airport to my cabin, located in the middle of an ice desert, the ‘reset’ took place quite immediately. There is something profoundly liberating and inspiring about being alone in a completely strange land. There are no reference points or past experiences to sway you in any particular direction. It felt like a free fall, in the best possible way. You can’t predict how your mind adapts to a new environment, or what artistic creations will come out of such an experience. That was by design… Living in New York for over ten years had become somewhat redundant and I needed to cut loose from the expectations of the musical scene I was a part of.

The material we’ve heard so far (“Everybody Seems So Happy” & “Shapeless”) leans into experimental electro-pop. What was your writing/recording setup when you started working on the project overseas?

When I left for Iceland, I brought as much gear as I could possibly fit in a couple of suitcases. So the setup was very minimal. I had an electric piano, a mic, an MPC, a desktop Access Virus synth, and a few effect processors. It was enough to get me going and lay down basic ideas and demo tracks.

I also brought a couple of hard drives with sessions of improvised electronic music, which were recorded with Jeremy Loucas in New York City. Jeremy is an incredible engineer and musician and has a great studio at Sear Sound in New York, packed with all analog gear. We have worked together on many projects over the years, and I always envisioned an experimental, electronic duo with him. So when I started working from my cabin, I combed through hours of music we had tracked late into the night in his studio. Most of it was pretty random and chaotic, but some of it had seeds that eventually gave birth to many of the songs on Shapeless.

Once I was done with composing, I flew back to New York, and Jeremy and I spent a full month in his studio working on the production and post-production of the album.

Photo Credit: Romain Collin

You shot video footage while in Iceland that you reworked into an award-winning film. FOSS is also known to perform in front of large-scale experiences. As FOSS, how do you approach the visual elements of your work?

FOSS is an audio-visual experience at heart. When we perform live, FOSS offers an immersive world of sounds, textures, colors, mapping projection, and experimental tech in which the audience can lose themselves. We’ve experimented with various setups at Burning Man, at the Shed in NY, or in 360-mapping visual projection spaces. [The live set] has become the result of a fast, yet gradual evolution of [FOSS].

I initially brought a bunch of cameras to Iceland: a drone, a VHS cam, and an old Super 8 camera that was still in somewhat working condition. I also had my phone on which I mounted a wide lens. I had never filmed anything before, and I packed all that gear without any clear or specific plan. Iceland is an incredibly photogenic and visually stunning place. The winters are especially hauntingly beautiful. I filmed as much of the creative process and my journey in Iceland as I could.

After Jeremy and I were done making the album, he suggested I use the footage I had to create music videos. I think I have synesthesia–I associate colors and textures with sounds, and vice versa–so the process was mostly intuitive and a visual aesthetic for FOSS quickly started to emerge. I had always wanted to create a live audio-visual show, and FOSS seemed like the perfect platform for it. We gave our first live performance at Nublu in NYC, for which I created a 60-minute film that was projected while we were playing. It worked well so I kept fine-tuning the visual elements of the show as we gave more performances. Jeremy eventually suggested that I make a feature film to accompany the release of the album. That was more of a challenge, creating a flow, and a narrative–even an abstract one–that would carry the film as a stand-alone piece. I worked on it for a few weeks and sent it out to festivals. We made the official selections of a few and won Best Experimental Film at the Golden Lion Film Festival.

The film blends images of the vast landscapes and places them against visuals of a populated city. That juxtaposition is represented in your live shows, playing material written in Iceland and performing in spaces like New York’s The Shed. How would you describe the experience of playing this material live?

What interests me is the juxtaposition of composing in isolation in an empty and remote location, and performing those compositions amidst the chaos of a metropolis like New York City. I feel very comfortable in both environments, and they serve different purposes. Jeremy and I have been living in New York for over ten years, and the underground electronic music scene–and the parties that go with it–are a big part of what shaped us as people and as musicians. I love the notion of escaping that urban broth to dive deep in isolation, then returning to the chaos of big cities to share visions from a faraway land.

The new single “Tell the Northern Lights” is based on your first night in Iceland. What do you remember about that writing session?

I had just gotten to my cabin, which was exciting and a little intimidating… I mean, there really was nothing and no one around. I set up all my gear and listened to some of the electronic explorations I had previously tracked in NY with Jeremy. There was a beat that spoke to me, with a big 808 kick and a tempo that had enough air and space for a song to materialize. I laid down a few piano chords and randomly felt the urge to step outside. The cabin was nested in the middle of an enormous piece of flat land, covered in snow. The nights were crisp, dry, and very cold. I wanted to feel the elements and take in my surroundings. As I stepped out, I looked at the sky to see immense northern lights swirling above me. I had never experienced anything like this before and it was completely breathtaking. I stood there, motionless, for as long as I could endure the cold, before getting back to work. My time in Iceland coincided with a difficult break-up, with all communication with my ex severed. The line ‘tell the northern lights’ came to me, and I laid down what became the chorus of this song. It was a trip… I came up on the contemporary jazz scene as a pianist and had never sung before. The beauty of creating in complete isolation is the freedom that it gives to be anything or anyone. That first spark of inspiration essentially gave birth to FOSS and was the starting point for all the songs on this record.

What is next for FOSS?

We are currently doing a drop release of songs from our debut record, Shapeless. The full album will be out at the end of the year with a limited vinyl press. I’m also working on a book that recounts the story behind FOSS, along with photographs from Iceland and New York. Our second album, and the movie that goes with it, are well on their way to completion. We are further pushing the boundaries of tech, both in audio and video. We always want to feel like we are starting from scratch, in a way–questioning how things can be done and approached, and re-imagining our creative process. We have a lot more to share, and there is plenty in the pipeline...

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“Tell The Northern Lights” is out now via KTLA Music. You can listen on Spotify or wherever you stream music. Follow FOSS on Instagram.

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