TRZTN
TRZTN (Tristan Bechet) - photo by Lance Lawrence
Tristan Bechet (aka TRZTN) is a musician, composer, and producer. Born in Portugal and raised in Brazil and NYC, he has moved from visual art, to the avant-garde, art rock and electronic music in various forms and incarnations. He has been composing, producing, and performing whilst remaining resolute in the creation of challenging, high-concept music.
In this interview, he talks about his new personal album Royal Dagger Ballet, in which he collaborated with a motley crew of singular vocalists including Paul Banks from the New York band Interpol, Jonathan Bree, Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and others.
Interview by Tyler Nesler
You were born in Portugal and raised in both New York City and Brazil, and now you are based in Paris. How do you think this varied upbringing impacted your creative development as a musician and composer?
First, thank you for interviewing me. It is an honor to share!
Good question and a difficult one to answer. Of course if you hang out with me you are going to get New York vibes mixed with Brazil, mixed with whatever, and my cultural references are quite varied. That said however, the decisions I make composing have little to do with my upbringing, and more to do with artistic cohesion. The thread of an idea; from its conception to settling them onto paper, is a series of choices that require weighing out options, and ultimately leading to satisfactory answers. Composing is rather rational. The journey to finding the sequence of solutions is the same no matter where you are from — what has influenced those decisions is internal.
Royal Dagger Ballet includes an impressive array of featured guest vocalists, such as Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol's Paul Banks, Surfbort's Dani Miller, Japanese DJ and singer Eiko Hara, and more. How long did it take for you to put all of these working relationships together? Had you always planned on creating such an intensely collaborative debut solo album?
I met everyone at different times and stages of my life. Karen O and Paul Banks were fellow rockers from the NYC downtown scene in the early 2000s. Others came into view as I actively began seeking people to collaborate with. Some were friends of friends, and some were unexpected encounters. In the case of Jonathan Bree; I heard him whilst on a YouTube hole, and was so struck by his voice I immediately tracked him down.
Overall Royal Dagger Ballet took me roughly three years to complete. The first year and a half was slow as I thought that initially the tracks were just one-offs. Eventually a comprehensive vision of an album opened up and I ran with it.
Royal Dagger Ballet, 2021 - Octopus Hotdog Records
Were there any collaborations in particular on this album that resulted in some unexpected or surprising creative directions for you?
The instance of the Estrael Boiso track (“Crosswinds”) was particularly surprising because Estrael and I have been friends for some time but never did anything musical together. Our approach was so effortless and organic it was as if it never happened. The result was so exquisite that I was taken by surprise. I remember being on a train, organizing and listening to the project. As I was looking out the window watching the world go by, I had an overwhelming emotional reaction to the music. Something existential overcame me. I don't listen to my own music but that track seemed to achieve many artistic goals I was wondering about at the time and I often just listen to it because it surprises me and evokes something powerful inside.
What was the lyric writing process like for Royal Dagger Ballet? Did you write the lyrics for most of the tracks, or was this also a collaborative effort with the featured vocalists?
Apart from structural editing, and a lyrical nudge here and there, the content is mainly the vocalist’s.
The process in which their vocals were recorded was different in each case. Dani sent me her vocals which she had sung into her laptop from her hotel room in Milan. I flew to LA to record Eiko Hara in David Sitek’s studio. Jonathan Bree recorded himself with pristine care in his studio in New Zealand. Ize sang in my studio in Paris and also in New York when I was still there. It’s all over the map!
The amount of manipulation on the vocals was also varied — some I had barely touched others I mangled completely.
Each track on the album stands out with its own unique atmosphere. What would you say is an underlying conceptual or production aspect that serves as a creative connective thread for the album as a whole?
Conceptually I set out with the idea of exploration. Exploration as the act of searching for the purpose of discovery. I let the process unfold and the voyage take me. The album was less rooted in genre and more influenced by some visual poetic journey that might be cinematic or otherworldly. As I composed, an astral, sci-fi, and inter-galactic sound started to take shape. Also there is something “punk” and “industrial” in the ethos. Finding each song’s core identity, never taming them too much so that life could breathe through them, yet taming them enough so that they would feel deliberate — [that] was my sweet spot. From a production point of view, I used similar synthesizers and drum machines throughout the album and this “limitation” kept all the tracks in the same sonic palette. This is mainly an electronic album. No guitars or traditional drums or bass.
The video for "Metal Sky" was directed by your friend Nisian Hughes. It features shots of the ballet dancer Lauren Cuthbertson intermixed with aerial views of Los Angeles buildings and freeways. Cuthbertson is the Principal Dancer of the London Royal Ballet — how did she come to be involved in the project? And how closely did you work with Nisian on the overall visual and narrative concept of the video?
I felt Nisian’s “specialized” approach to imagery was a good fit for the track. He primarily shoots aerials and ballet dancers, therefore we didn’t wander off-topic too much — it was all already there. The narrative line is drawn not so much by story but by technique and the “elevated” imagery (aerial films, jumps, flight, ballet). Because Nisian is a prolific ballet dancer photographer Lauren and Nisian are friends…we are all connected that way.
You have done scoring work for films (collaborating with Karen O on Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are), video games (Rise of The Tomb Raider), and for brands such as Karl Lagerfeld, Dior, and Nike. In what ways do you think your scoring work for other mediums has directly influenced the cinematic and collaborative nature of Royal Dagger Ballet?
Since moving on from playing in bands and frontman roles, the angle in which I approach music has changed. The album represents a continuation of my exploration in the studio rather than band format. Scoring for other mediums sort of “prepared” me for these tracks. I certainly took elements of my past years work into this album. Over the years I have been training my ear to listen very deeply and visualizing the sonic field in an immersive way. I get very wound up in the studio, as if I was being stretched through a black-hole. I asked the same of the music.
Royal Dagger Ballet is available January 22
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Tyler Nesler is a New York City-based freelance writer and the Founder and Managing Editor of INTERLOCUTOR Magazine.
