There are multiple moments on Miaux’s latest album, Never Coming Back, where I feel like I am spiraling away into the nothingness of the void. What sets it apart from other music that sends me in that direction is how warm and captivating the pieces are, even to the point of feeling comforting. It doesn’t make much sense, but it’s part of what keeps drawing me back. Perhaps it does make sense, however, that Never Coming Back was borne from Miaux’s alternate scoring of the film, Carnival of Souls. There are so many sonic corridors to explore here.
Never Coming Back is out now on Viernulvier. Listen to it and order a copy HERE.
First, to start as always, what are some of your earliest memories with music and sound? Did you grow up with a lot of music around?
My parents – and especially my dad – had a lot of records. Growing up in the seventies, my dad was into krautrock and early electronics like Can, Neu!, Brainticket, Embryo, Tangerine Dream; collecting all these records while some were forbidden in Yugoslavia. For me ‘Hallo Gallo’ immediately throws me back to different stages in my childhood. It somehow kept coming back and for a long time I didn’t know the band’s name; I used to describe the song to my dad when I wanted to hear it. When we left Yugoslavia, my dad made compilation tapes of his records so we had it all on tape. He gave away some of his records to his friends and stored the best ones in our Sarajevo flat, but unfortunately, they all got burnt in the war. My own first electronic tape was Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. My mind was blown when my dad explained how he played it all himself! And yet – my moment to make a record that is not ‘recorded on 1 track’ and ‘as played live’ is yet to come. Ha!
When did you first start getting interested in creating your own work? Were there any specific moments or a certain impetus that pushed you toward it?
I used to have a small synth at the age of 5. I loved to play along with other melodies or bass lines. At 8, I started going to the music academy to learn how to play classical piano so once I got a piano I forgot about my little keyboard. It all became very serious and dull after a while. I do remember feeling proud of playing Mozart’s Turkish March, but I mostly felt frustrated knowing only to read other people’s compositions and having no clue about making my own. When I finished the 10-year training at the music academy, I needed some time to shred the institutionalized way of playing music. I bought a new synthesizer and started playing and having fun again. In 2010 I recorded 3 songs, played a show and since then Miaux was born. My friend Dennis Tyfus immediately proposed to release my music on his Ultra Eczema label and then all kinds of people from this community invited me to come play live. The reserved but very melancholic people from the North have invited me the most. I think I’ve played most of the time in Copenhagen.
Moving on to the new album, Never Coming Back, and how it came about, I have to ask what drew you to the project of creating a new score for Carnival of Souls?
It’s not the first time I made a new score for an old film. It was always an invitation by others (also this time). Wouter from VierNulVier proposed this idea to me. He sent me the movie and asked whether I’d like to perform it live during the Ghent Film Festival in 2022. So I watched the film with the original score twice. The second time was to make notes on where the director added music; I had chopped up the film in minutes and seconds. Then I started watching the film without the original score and the more I watched it, the more I grew close to Mary Henry – the protagonist – the more the original score didn’t make any sense anymore. Beautiful organ music, but enhancing somehow the way the ghost world was supposed to scare the audience. It made much more sense to enhance the way Mary was experiencing her life, how she was trapped in a society where everyone was telling her what to do and how to do it. The world of ghosts somehow seemed like a relief, like a new world she could disappear to and never come back.
What was the experience like premiering your score at Videodroom / Film Fest Gent 2022 in Ghent, Belgium?
It was a super positive experience. I was happy with the result, the audience and the organization responded extremely well, so it made the hard work worth it.
How did the live audience react to your performance, and did their response influence the final version of the record?
(see above) When reassembling the score into a record, it was important to me that it could also stand alone. All melodies had a meaning – coming back at certain shots or feelings of Mary in the movie. When making the album, every melody needed to grow into a song. It was a fun journey for me and the audience had no influence.
How does the album differ from the score you composed for the film, and what new elements did you introduce?
(see above) The score is made scene per scene, with an accuracy to the second. Like the moment Mary dissolves into a ghost and comes back again, has a specific melody. The pavilion near the lake also has a specific melody. All these bits and pieces needed to be molded into an album. When I listen to the album now, it makes sense. I see the fragments in the movie, but for someone who hasn’t seen the film, it also makes sense and invites them to link it to many other memories, dreams, or visuals.
Can you discuss the thematic connections between the album and the film? How do the tracks reflect the surrealist atmospheres of Carnival of Souls?
As noted here above, every track is connected to one or more scenes in the film depending on what Mary is experiencing. The first track “Too much current, too much sand” is the opening track of the movie, when the car seems to have disappeared and the rescue team concludes that they will never find them because there’s too much current and too much sand in the river. At that moment Mary starts crawling out of the river.
“Put your soul into it a little, ok?” is Mary’s moment at the organ, where she seems the happiest. Where she’s in control and where she is respected. And yet, the annoying minister of the church comes by to both compliment her music ànd give his unwanted advice on how she should put her soul into her music. Mary ends this conversation by saying “Thank you, but I’m never coming back.” That song is linked to the horny neighbor who is also to be avoided at all times.
“The old pavilion near the lake” refers to the scene when Mary gets completely wild at the church organ. Forgetting where she is and losing herself in visions of the pavilion coming alive, gets even better when she is stopped by another arrogant minister calling her music ‘profane!’. In “What’s the matter with everyone, why don’t they answer me,” Mary seems to have turned invisible for a short period of time. No one sees or hears her. She feels confused and frustrated and the melody translates this unheimlich kind of feeling.
“I have no desire for the close company of other people” is the most hopeful song of the album. This small sentence feels very universal and it feels like it’s an important facet of Mary’s life, but she doesn’t get any respect for this. So beautiful yet so misunderstood… In the end, she dissolves into the world of ghosts. She runs away from it – as it must be scary at first sight – but at the same time, it’s the catharsis of the film. It was the first time I felt relieved for her. This last song emphasizes that feeling.
Have you noticed any differences in how audiences react to the music when it’s presented as a film score versus a standalone album?
Not really. In a movie theater, people sit down and watch the movie – and when I play the album without the film they usually stand and look at me. But the reaction was very positive both times.
What surprised you the most about making this record?
How – for me – I will forever see the scenes from Carnival of Souls whenever I hear it.
Lastly, a question I always like to ask… What are some of your favorite sounds in the world?
Crickets during long hot summers.
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