Extracurriculars: Le Motel's Voodoo Footwork

We often pigeonhole musicians into two-dimensional characters rather than seeing them as fully realized human beings. Extracurriculars is a series that uncovers unknown, surprising, and often super weird non-musical interests of DJs and producers—and lets them explain how it all relates back to their work. 

Le Motel is a kid—a 22 year old graphic designer from Brussels. It would be easy to discount him as just another spring chicken making beats in his bedroom. But then you listen to his  music—collages of samples collected from Haitian voodoo rituals, placed over a lattice of twitchy footwork and juke rhythms. It's an unlikely union of two wildly disparate worlds, but he makes it work so effortlessly you have to sit back and think, but of course. So, the music is great, but I wanted to find out if Le Motel's interest in voodoo went further than the typical American Horror Story hipster-fied mysticism (you know what I'm talking about!). I asked him to explain, in his own words, how exactly his music references and relates to the Haitian religion. You decide.

"I am fascinated by voodoo culture. I use collected samples from all around the world and try to mix them with footwork, jazz and techno influences. I think voodoo rituals are very related to both my music and the way we deal with music in clubs and festivals. For example, footwork dance battles in Chicago might look messy, but everyone knows which boundaries not to cross. And I have always been struck by the ritual aspect of club nights and festivals where we all meet in a room to express ourselves, and the master of ceremonies is the DJ."

Download Le Motel's "Pygmy Juke"