Artist Spotlight: Feux

Shot by @gabevisuals

Feux is the transparent wordsmith hailing from the capital pouring his heart into his art, touching base on taboo topics from: the youth’s tiresome battle with mental health, to the acceptance of the not knowing where this path may take us and appreciating the beauty in just taking it ‘slow’. 

Currently flying the flag high for the North-West, this stoic lyricist has the poise of a well decorated veteran yet only officially contributing two years to the game. With pensive word play and silky smooth melodies that lure you into those trance-like instrumentals, Feux continues to sow away from the seam with his unapologetic nature that’s cultivating a much needed breath of fresh air within the scene – distant from the recycled sounds we’ve become accustomed to. 

A week on from the release of his soothing six track EP ‘Dubious’ – we caught up over a zoom call with Feux himself to talk everything from being a doubtful perfectionist, escapism and of course his journey through blooming this tranquil masterpiece. 

It’s a blessing to be able to get you over here at The Pit man, really appreciate you setting some time aside for us – I can imagine it’s been mad hectic recently in preparation for the ‘Dubious’ release?

Oh of course bro, I appreciate you guys helping me out on this one – yeah it’s been pretty hectic, you know. I still have days like this though where I can just chill which has been cool.

How do you feel though now you’ve finally released it, must be nice being able to take in all the love from everyone after all the hard work?

It’s all been so surreal man – it doesn’t hit you really because you’re almost just so ready for it. For me, I’d always just mentally prepare myself and make sure everything is patterned. But I’m just real happy that everyone can hear it now.

How’s the reception been from your people?

It’s been real good, for me the aim was to hit different ears as well. I think that’s what I’ve been focusing on, working to get more people to listen. But the people who know of my work said they loved it and really connected with it. It’s such a nice feeling when people can connect to your work on a deep level. I’m just happy I got it out. I’m just trying to get as many ears to listen to it, I think it deserves more.

So could you give me some insight through the journey of the project, what’s the story behind it?

It was a time after I dropped Pure Nine going into like early November, I had like 4 days where I made like 5/6 songs within that week. I was like ‘damn I really just banged out all those songs’ [laughs], but it wasn’t all the songs from the EP just a couple that stayed. Some songs made it and some didn’t, some I dropped and some I kept polishing. Gradually it all just came together and then the whole of this year was just trying to conceptualise it and see how they could work together: add and subtract to give it that coherence. Touch was made way before Pure Nine dropped though – I made it in France sometime. I just knew it was going to be part of a project and be its own single. It was just different.

When it came to the cover I wanted it to be something of its own and build that visual aspect to it. I found this girl called Val on Instagram and her art was crazy, so I just hit her up. We became real close through the art, just because I put all my love into the music and she just felt that once I sent it her - then she just put all her love into the art work, it was beautiful man. 

Naturally I crave nature, so London isn’t really the one. I wanted the cover to represent escaping. Just being able to get away from the city and leave your own thoughts, your own mind – its super important to me being content in my own head when the physical life isn’t as eventful. It was something I wanted to represent both visually and sonically.

Could you take me down the path of production for ‘Dubious’, was the vision all courtesy of yourself?

The creative side was me, but making it sound as crisp as possible was JP, that’s my guy. I produce myself too but only recently started getting into it, so I spoke to a couple producers that I rated and they laid the foundation for me. I just came in and played around with it so it sounded like how I envisioned. It was kind of a mash up, but yeah it was a combo of people coming together with real good energy.

You seem to present yourself as a real open book within the project, nothing new to your audience of course. Have you always been so transparent with yourself or has the music helped you open up?

Bro I used to be like the most closed off dickhead ever. I used to just keep so much in and not be able to express anything. I just kept so much anger and pain in and wasn’t able to speak about anything – so when someone would talk about it I would either just cry or walk away. I was never able to fully get how I felt out. Music has helped tremendously though, it’s been the key to express how I feel and just put it out there. It’s just been so helpful on that front. It’s also made me realise who I am and help improve myself to become a more conscious being. So yeah it’s done a lot of goodness.

Sometimes it is scary opening up through the music though. I get second thoughts like ‘damn I really am putting myself out there’ – but it always comes out the most me and the most honest.

A lot of your songs seem to carry a similar narrative: honest conversations with yourself and raw story telling. Is authenticity something you take pride in when heading into the booth?

Yeah I think I really am just working on being myself to be honest. I think that’s why it’s different and authentic because I make sure I’m my own being, my own person 24/7 in everything I do. I just take pride in who I am, that’s what’s important to me.

 I feel like that really translates through your music too, you seem pretty down to earth from what I can take from the music – but how would you describe yourself. Who is Feux?

Appreciate that man and I just want people to know that ‘Feux’ is also Max, it’s still me. I’m the same person, Feux is just the messenger of how I feel. It’s nothing more, nothing less it’s just who I am as an artist. Sometimes you have to sell yourself one way or another in this industry to make it, but people should just know that I am me and the music I make is just a tangent of that. It’s always going to be a translation of who I am, not who I see or wish myself to be.

Has it always been London living for you then or is there more to the story – I’ve heard your roots stem back to Belgium if I’m not mistaken? 

Yeah Belgian roots on my Mum’s side bro. I was born here but my parents put me through the French school system my whole life until I was like 16, then it was the British system. It’s kinda mad though, I think London is like the 8th biggest French speaking city – so there’s bare influence, especially where I grew up in North. I’m very grateful of it all though.

I’ve always wanted to be fluent in French man maybe have a stint in Paris, but I’m lacking with the Duolingo at the moment 

Duolingo always be pinging off everyone’s phones trying to get you on it I swear [laughs] - but you’ve got to go live in France for some time bro, the younger the better too.

Would make sense with those touches of French within the discography, just takes those tracks to another level – I mean that switch up on ‘Cloud Nine’ is way too smooth. 

Come on man, appreciate that! Writing in French is so much harder than English for me though, so it’s something I have to push myself to do – but because it’s part of me I want to put it out there more. I’ll get there with it, but it’ll just take time. Living here I only really speak French with my mum and that’s not even all the time, so I need to hone back into that French side. I think maybe living in a French country will help with that. 

Speaking of the bilingualism, the first track I stumbled across within your discography was ‘Sans Raison’. Could you talk me through the link up with Noga Bedo and Lechani from ‘Children of the Wind’? 

So I actually met them lot at French school – those are like my real close friends. When I dropped Life? they dropped a song called ‘Kickback’ and we just grew together since then. They were in New York though at the time and met the producer, when they came back to London we just kicked it and got to it.

On the topic of features though, which artists are you drawn to at the minute with the thought of potential collaborations?

I kind of know who I want to work with in the UK, there’s a couple sick artist like Children of Zeus, Laussethecat and Nix Northwest but if we’re talking dream collabs it’d have to be the likes of J.I.D, Kendrick, SZA, Isiah Rashad – all the goats!

I just want to be able to expand, you know – make music with different vibes and different people. I’m still learning, developing and perfecting myself. I think it’ll come together at the right time though.

Your approach is so unique but somewhat reminiscent of elements that have come before. Would you be able to take me through your musical upbringing and what may have helped form your sound?

So I’ve got three brothers, all older than me and they were all bumping a lot of Hip-Hop then and that just got me into it. I remember back in the day playing a lot of Eminem, 50 Cent and Dr Dre on LimeWire, just bumping all that on my IPod shuffle. On the way to school my mum would play a lot of reggae, Soul, Amy Winehouse – people with nice voices and good vibes. When you’re brought up with a big range, it just opens you up to lots more. So I’m real grateful for them on that front.

So with the music did you take the route straight into working as an independent artist or did you try out any other fields before realising this was the direction for you?

Yeah man I was at Glasgow for a while doing Spanish, History of Art and Philosophy – it was intense. I ended up dropping out – but not for the music, it just wasn’t what I really wanted to do. I met some amazing people though man. It gave me a taste of what life had to offer outside the bubble I was in at the time. Even after dropping out though, I ended up staying there a bit longer because I just loved the people and the scene up there so much, so I started working. I went up to Glasgow still quite immature but came out knowing a lot more about myself, you know. I was able to take a lot from it. That was also around the time I made ‘Life?’ too.

Speaking of, your track ‘Life?’ could be considered the break out song for you – would you be able to take me through how that one came about?

Yeah, so I actually recorded it here (London) – this was the period I was thinking to drop out. I was meant to be going back to Glasgow but wasn’t sure if I should, so I made it here one day with my little cousins and that was the vibe we went with –  it was quite uplifting. 

It was the opposite of what I was looking to release at the time though – like should I even drop it kinda thing. It was one of those ones where my boys were like “ahh you should release it” instead of me being like “yeah, this is the one” – it was just for fun, which it was. But I knew people fucked with it before it came out because I was working on it in Glasgow and I remember my boy was like “yeah I heard someone humming your song” and it wasn’t even out yet. Another time I was playing it out loud and one guy was trying to shazam it, it was crazy. So after that I was like yeah this may have some potential and now it’s nearly at a mill, it’s mad.

Being an independent musician I can’t imagine it’s been an easy ride this past year with the organisation of these lockdowns. Could you tell me a bit about how it’s affected both the music and personal life?

It’s definitely been an experience, had my up and downs for sure – a lot of time thinking and learning to be with yourself too. But with the lockdown I think it was kind of a survival of the fittest thing. Are you gonna make the most of it or let yourself crumble and degrade – and the latter is hard. So for me it was finding a balance within that and remaining active, especially creatively. But there were a lot of days I did nothing too. For me, I just saw it as a huge window of time to focus on the music and bang it out – my sound felt way more introspective and on a deeper level than ever before after lockdown.

While you weren’t perfecting your sound through lockdown, how did you keep yourself sane?

Me and my boy got back into skating after giving it up because of uni which was cool. It was the perfect time for it too with all the sun and that. Just really appreciated seeing a mate one to one after all that time. I got into a few other things too though, like producing and trying to get healthier. Started getting into those Whim Hoff breathing exercises and having bare cold showers too [laughs].

Now I’m just looking forward to getting out there and experience the music a bit more in real life and interact with my audience.

So soon to shell down some shows then?

Definitely man, you’ll have to come through when I’m in Bristol with it – but yeah in general I can’t wait. I’m hoping to do a headline in London sometime too, that’ll be cold.

Love to see it.