An Interview With The LA Musician, ALLUXE on Her Wild Musical Ride So Far!

Meet the LA musician, Alluxe! She is a world renown live performer and producer formally known as Laura Alluxe Escudé. Her new track “Fervor” was recently released.

Check out the song “Fervor” here: https://soundcloud.com/alluxe/fervor 

Laura Alluxe Escudé is the very first certified Ableton trainer. Being the first Ableton expert, she has paved the way for other women in electronic music and the live music technology space. To further help to break down these barriers and get more women musicians involved in electronic music, production and technology, Escudé is a frequent guest lecturer and speaker at colleges, Universities and events. She has her given master classes and lectures for Beatz by Girlz (VIDEO), Girl School (VIDEO), The Point Blank Music School (VIDEO), The Icon Collective, and last month, she was at USC as part of their Pop Forum, as well as the Lower East Side Girls Club.

Her expertise with Ableton has developed into a job called controllerism, which is doing sound/show design, live music editing and vocal effects. Her expertise in this field has lead to her being one of the most sought after controllerists in the world of live music. Laura has worked on tours for The Weeknd (past and current), Bon Iver, Garbage, Iggy Azalea, Herbie Hancock, Porter Robinson, Childish Gambino, the Silversun Pickups, Charli XCX, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs,  Drake, every Kanye West tour since 2009.

Due to the demand of her work she started a company, Electronic Creatives that staffs a group of professional controllers all trained by Escudé.  Escudé holds the title of CEO of Electronic Creatives. In addition to her work as a controller she has also been called upon to not only design shows, but DJ as part of the stage show with artists like Charli XCX, Kiesza, and on Miguel’s Wildheart tour Escudé did triple duty, she was the opening act, performed as a member of Miguel’s band and handled the programming/controller duties.

In the midst of all of this Laura, who is also a classically trained violinist,  creates and produces her own music as Alluxe. Her latest EP Contrast was released in October, followed by a European tour that included a master class in Europe’s most prestigious electronic music school, Point Blank. Alluxe has been commissioned for remixes by artists such as M83, Polica and Mr. Hudson. Her violin playing can be heard on “Watch the Throne,” on Hit-Boy’s mixtape, Big Grams, Kanye’s Dark Fantasy Tour—the list goes on.

Connect With Alluxe Here:

http://www.alluxemusic.com

https://soundcloud.com/alluxe 

https://twitter.com/alluxemusic

Learn more about Alluxe in the following All Access interview:

Photo Credit- Suzanne Strong

Thanks for your time! What are some words you would use to describe 2016 for you and your music? How is 2017 treating you so far?

Thanks for the interview and interest! 2016 was transformative! I spent much of the year working on new music and released my latest EP Contrast. 2017 has been pretty chill so far. I just got back from an East Coast tour and am working on new tunes that are leaning a bit to some older classical influences that I have mixed with newer. I’m calling it Future Classical.

Where does this interview find you today? Is there music playing in the background? If so, what is it?

Well, I just finished practicing some violin etudes so I am enjoying the silence and sounds of my keyboard typing away right now. I tend not to listen to music when I need to concentrate. Earlier though I was listening to some chill mantra kirtans. That’s one of my favorite things to do now is to sing along with those!

Growing up, did you always want to work in music. Were you interested in technology early on? How did you first get involved with it all?

I started playing violin when I was about six and grew up playing classical music. I wasn’t really interested in technology much although I did make a lot of mixtapes and recorded Casey Kasem’s Top 40 and made mixtapes out of the songs! I really got heavily into technology when I  went to college and discovered raves and electronic music. Then I started playing violin over the music and started to learn how to produce from there.

Can you recall your earliest musical memory? Could you see yourself doing anything else today?

One of my first memories was my Mom playing piano and singing to me. I just remember thinking that I wanted to do that too. Then I saw a girl in church playing the violin and I immediately decided that was my instrument. I don’t think I would do anything else except now I’m really into the health and wellness community so I might do something in that realm if I didn’t do music. But it would definitely incorporate music!

I’ve read that you are the very first Ableton trainor and one of the first Ableton experts. Can you talk about you got involved with this program and what exactly it is?

Yep, that’s all true. I worked at the company in 2007 and helped with the training program and thus became Certified. Ableton Live is an amazing program that you can use for both live performance and producing music in the studio. It offers different creative ways to go about making music and has been becoming more and more ubiquitous over the years.

You really have paved the way for other women in electronic music and the live music technology space. What have been the biggest challenges that you have faced in this world?

Thanks. I never thought of myself as doing that or even that I was getting into a male dominated field. I was just doing what I love. The biggest challenge early on was wrapping my head around the technology and also dealing with people that didn’t want to take me seriously. I made them 🙂

What has surprised you about this whole process?

I never thought that I would end up where I’m at, that’s for sure!

You are one of the most sought after controllerists in the world of live music and you have worked on tour with so many incredible artists so I’m curious to know what’s been the best tour job that you have had so far?

Kanye’s Yeezus tour was incredible. There were so many talented people involved in the tour creatively involved in putting it together and it was amazing to be a part of that. There was never a dull moment!e

You’ve gone and worked on every one of Kanye West’s tours since 2009. What has that been like for you? Will you continue this job on his tour?

Doing all of those shows were amazing and I got to see a lot of the world. I got to meet and work with some of the top people in the world and a lot of them are family now. During the Saint Pablo tour I came out for the initial design process and had a member of my Electronic Creatives team take over the day to day duties once everything was set. That freed me up to focus on other projects but still be involved and help where it’s most needed.

With everything that you already do and being the CEO of your company Electronic Creatives, how do you make time to create and produce your own music? Where did you come up with your performer name, ‘Alluxe’?

I am learning how to delegate more and I generally work during the day and in the evenings I produce and practice my music. I’m learning to be more present and catch myself when I go down the Internet rabbit hole!

Photo Credit- Suzanne Strong

I tend to like to be pampered and luxurious things so Alluxe is a portmanteau of the words “Allure” and “Luxurious.” I thought to combine them somehow and it became my moniker.

Let’s talk about your recently released single, “Fervor.” What was the inspiration for this track? How does it compare to the EP, “Contrast” that you released at the end of last year?

Since most of my music are based on energy and emotions rather than lyrics, I wanted to choose a title that I felt represented where I was at in my life right now. Throughout this year I have been tuning more into the dualistic energies that exist within every person. Discovering what makes me feminine and what makes me masculine. How my energy complements others and how we can come together to heal certain parts of ourselves that can sometimes take more time on our own. It is through these explorations that Fervor was born.

I feel that Fervor and my newer compositions are leaning more towards the classical side of things than Contrast, but still with the hard hitting beats. I’m really excited about my new productions!

Who are some of your very favorite artists? What musicians would you absolutely love to work with in the future?

I love Bjork and would love to work with her. I also like Imogen Heap and Zoe Keating. These are all amazing female artists doing things outside of the blox.

At the end of the day, what do you hope is the message of your music? What do you hope people take away from your songs?

I want to project strength and love. I want to provoke the listener to recall moments in their life where they felt like they overcame something and give them the hope and inspiration to overcome.

Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers about yourself or your music?

Stay tuned for an all new live show. I’ll be getting much more personal and theatrical in it. Also I am doing a BitTorrent bundle download, there’s tons of music, videos and samples and all of the proceeds go to the ACLU! Support the project here!

https://now.bt.co/bundles/alluxe-control