After a decade of silence, Joshua Leary (aka Evian Christ) finally returns with his longawaited debut album, Revanchist. Danny Turner asks, why now?
Growing up in Ellesmere Port, near Liverpool, electronic producer Joshua Leary has a story to tell that’s both inspiring and cautionary. After posting tracks from his debut mixtape, Kings and Them in 2011, Leary signed to Tri Angle records, resulting in its full release and the ensuing debut EP, Duga-3. However, within months Kanye West reached out to the then 23-year-old requesting beats for his upcoming album, Yeezus, at which point Leary was flown to Paris to work with the acclaimed producer and other seminal industry types.
Despite working day and night to produce material for the LP, Leary felt a strong sense of imposter syndrome, and when the ensuing hype became too much to bear, he opted out of the industry to focus on creating AV effects for festivals and live venues, including his highly successful TranceParty events. While continuing to secretly hone his productions, Leary has only now felt confident enough to restore his Evian Christ moniker and release his debut album Revanchist – a lush yet abstract amalgamation of mangled electronics and early trance music influences.
Your father was a trance DJ. How did he influence you?
“My dad was into keyboards and synths when he was a teenager and was really into Human League and Kraftwerk before he got into dance music in the ’90s. He DJed in bars and cafes and was into the era of Roland grooveboxes like the MC-505, had a Roland JP-8000 and was trying to figure out DAWs. I was only 11 or 12, but I’d go to his place at the weekend, load up a supersaw preset and try to figure out different tunes or learn how to put the kick on the one and the five and make a beat. Even if it was a rudimentary representation, that gave me some exposure into how electronic music was made.”
At what point did you take the next step and start producing properly?
“By the time I was 19, I’d moved in with my stepdad who was a DJ and had a room covered in flyers. He had 1210s, a ton of vinyl and would drive around in a bright yellow Fiat Cooper and listen to Essential Mix [laughs], but he was a big inspiration because that’s when I started to really like trance music. He also had a decent desktop computer with software called Dance eJay where you could drop loops, do arrangements and export music videos. It was like playing a game, but I’d spend ages trying all of the different combinations of loops. When I started listening to music in the car, I’d visualise it as blocks of sound and I don’t think I’d be making music today without that exposure to DJing, production and electronic music.”
Despite your love for trance, your early EP releases showed no real connection to that type of music…
“I went to school and would listen to what
