Prior to becoming Oklou, Marylou Mayniel was an artist whose roots in music were grounded in more traditional forms.However, when she started experimenting with electronic samples, a more confident and fantastical sound was created.Oklou emerged from a journey of self-reflection and transformation, solidifying her as an exceptionally distinct talent.

I know you were just in the US, but are you back in Paris right now?

Yes, and because there was a hurricane happening in the Atlantic Ocean a few days ago, there are now cloudsgoing over France. It’s so dark here. It’s been raining since this morning, and I don't think I've ever seen that before. However, speaking about New York, it was really fun. Both really different shows. The first one was the sort of like little private promotional thingy for the new album, which was really fun and exciting to do, and the second one was a two hour long set.

Has the way you make or perform music changed since when you first started as an artist?

Well, now I'm also singing, as well as producing. I've always written songs myself, so nothing really got better. I meanI've never produced for anybody else.

Really, that is crazy, I thought you had? Is it something you don’t want to do?

I don't produce enough material. I'm not like, a mega geek. I don't spend my life making music. I also love to plant basil and cosmos in my garden. So when I make music, usually there's only time for me to use it.

Yeah, I know people that do the same thing. Their brain can only work on a certain amount of music, and only for themselves.

Yeah, I'm really like that. I'm not suited for the productiveness era of humankind, you know?

So where did you start your musical journey?

Well, it's been a very long road. I started very early. I was very young when I first learned to play piano and I was in a choir from four till the end of my scholarship. So for a very long time, I took part in many different music classes, including music theory, which I actually liked. I know it's rare, but I did enjoy it! I think I really had the luckto start with fabulous teachers that were super open-minded, making me play several instruments and play thingswith my feet, and, you know, a bunch of crazy stuff that helped me expand my mind into seeing music as something super fun. Something super rich, with lots of possibilities. I also think the important thing that, unfortunately, you don't get so much in classical music classes, is giving you the opportunity to understand that you can create your own sound.

How did you start thinking about creating your own sound? Were people around you creating a different style of music that inspired you, or was it just personal experimentation?

You know, I guess it was evolving. I started my path very traditionally. I started a few bands when I was a teenager. Inthese bands I started with playing covers of songs. At some point we were like, “oh, let's make our own stuff!” So that's where I first stepped into writing original music. What really changed my life, though, was getting a computer. I got one pretty late. I was 19. When I opened GarageBand, I spent the next three years being absolutely obsessed with this tool. I was originally either on my piano, cello or guitar, but to be able to use tools to replicate the sounds that I liked at the time, it was really a revelation.

Oh, that's amazing. Did you find that really easy? Or was it something more complex and you were morefocused on getting better at recreating sounds and learning the programming?

No, I don't think I found it hard, because learning software is something I've always done, with nobody to teach me. I am not somebody capable of putting too much on myself. I know I'm not alone, but I'm not rigorous. Can I say that?

Yeah, that makes sense!

So I've never found it hard, because I don't make things hard for myself. I don't want to make things a challenge. There were no hard efforts to put into it. I'm so lucky to have been able to work since I was 22. You know, make a sustainable life for myself by actually having fun with software.

Was it when you started like being able to produce your own sound that you started consideringmaking music your path?

I think when I was 18 and finishing high school I knew that I had to pursue the musical craft, and there was so many options for me. Either being a teacher, which I really didn't want to be, or work in different musical fields. When I’d see bands on stage, I thought that they were having, like, such a special life, and thought I was just going to work in like a musical library or something, and I was still very happy about it. When I started being part of a scene and seeing all these artists put their music online, and getting bookings, that’s when I started to believe that it was something possible.

It’s so wild that sometimes it is so hard to see the possibility until surrounded by people doing it. It's just confidence I guess?

Yeah that's so true.

Did you find this community online, or around you physically?

I remember vividly the very first article that I read, because at the time, we were still buying magazines. I remember them. I loved them so much. They were like, my door to the world really.

Yeah, I was the same. I devoured magazines!

I remember this one magazine, I can't remember the name, but I thinkit was a magazine from some friends? Well there were all these sort of avant-garde art exhibitions, but with really weird artists, and stuff I had never seen before. I remember one article being about sea punk. Oh, my God, sea punk and witch house. [laughs] It was the beginning of a journey, literally on the internet, of course, of spending time on Tumblr. I was discovering a bottomless pit of digital art and SoundCloud. That's where it all started for me. I could just chat with people on the internet, put my sounds online and experimental stuff, but be in my bedroom and doit all!

Was that scary for you to do, to put all your work out to the public?

It wasn't so scary. I guess I've been used to showcasing stuff ever since I was a child. I was at ease with that exercise, because it's important. It's actually an interesting question, because it's not the case for everyone. So many people, even when they have no community or no listeners or followers, there is this fear, which is totally understandable. For me, it makes total sense, because I've been used to it for a long time.

When and why did you move to Paris, as I think I remember you grew up outside of the city?

At 19, I moved from my small city, which was very nice. I had such a nice and rich life of culture and concert festivals, and it was a perfect, human-sized town. So you can do everything on your own. My parents totally trusted me, which was amazing. I moved to another, slightly bigger city up north, and that's where I had my computer. I spent hours online. This city was a bit disappointing in terms of culture. I was missing something. I had one or two friends who were moving to Paris, and thought if they could do it, I can do it too. Because going to the big city it had to make sense for my mum and my dad. So I had to go to university. I lasted two months, and instead thought I should actually just go to parties and meet people.

[laughs] I would do the same.

It was the best decision of my life! I had worked before for two years, like, kind of full time, and at the same time I was exploring this musical thing online. I had made a little name for myself, and I was able to play shows and have money again.

How did your mindset change with your move to Paris?

When I arrived in Paris, I think I've spent more time at the beginning, manifesting interest for club music for like, at least two or three years. I was producing a lot actually, but I was also trying at club music, and making techno and house. I was passionate! I had, like, huge playlists of obscure techno. I think I considered myself a DJ for a short amount of time around like, 2015 to 2017. I was also producing little things that were sounding more like songs. I didn't really believe in it, as I was in the club music thing.

When did you believe in it?

I'd been contacted by my current managers back in, I think it was 2016 or 2017. The plan ever since I started working with them, was always to, and I'm not saying that it's their move, it's ours, but they helped me find the motivation to release the first EP. I think it was in 2018?

Has your writing and production changed a lot since these first EPs and club tracks?

It hasn't changed much. What has changed is my confidence in choosing which sound I'm gonna work with. At the beginning, I was really much more about trying to replicate what I liked, or trying to sound a little like this and a bit of that. I think the more experimental aspects of my work weretouching people in a different way, and that was very special. I was getting comments and messages that were different, and I think I understood why they were listening - that probably my strength was my uniqueness. I think everyone has one, whatever the field is. I gained confidence in trusting my capacity to make very true and honest things with the sounds that I love the most, because it was connected. The more honest, the more raw you are with your craft, the more you’re going to touch people in the heart.

With your latest record, I could hear your passion for experimental production, overlayed with more pop-style vocals. I love hearing little sounds and samples peeping through. With all our conversation about process, how did you find working on this new record?

Yeah, this record was harder to make than the last, because of many reasons. I think I put a lot of pressure on myself, more than the previous one, as I was not expecting this much love towards it really. I was super happy before it was released, I was super happy with the whole thing. It felt really true, very honest to me. My favourite artists in the world were writing messages to congratulate me, and I was like, “Oh, what did I achieve?” I had been able to focus on one very specific emotion and create many feelings around one story. With the new one, I had this underlying pressure, that it would be as easy for me to make, and it wasn't. I was a bit disturbed. I took longer to write, you know? I took my time. I took two and a half years, and I went through so many different things in my life compared to the previous album, where it was more aboutmy heart being broken, let's do something about that. I had a lot less confidence in this record, but I'm in the process, and I love it so much. I think, actually, I'm starting to realise and accept that this is the story of the record. It's a messy bedroom, you know?

For sure, I feel that concept through the creative direction of the artwork and videos, as well as some of the titles.

That's cool that you say that! For many years, I've made a playlist of my favourite videos on YouTube. The common ground within all these videos was that it was always really chaotic, with really fun footage involving a lot of people in one room. There was this aspect of plurality and the complexity of the situations and not really understanding what is going on. I think it naturally connected with my energy for this album. I'm putting words to it now, but when I was talking to my boyfriend, who I work with for most of the images so far, I'd always say I wanted to have people in the room with me, even if the risk of it was to have it feel like we are band, but we managed to make it feel like a thread.

Because this record is so different from your last record, and you were saying that you are just figuring out how to talk about it, do you think this is your natural progression of moving forward with how you want to present yourself? How do you want people to understand your record?

That's a good question. I have no expectations on how I want people to take this work. I hope they will enjoy and connect with it as much as possible, but for me, the only thing that I know is that as much as I was hoping for the the entire process to be as smooth as the previous one, I knew I couldn't do the same thing. I actually left more of my comfort zone, because I could have done so many tracks that would have been sounding like the previous LP Galore. I did these tracks with the specific sounds, because that's what was in my heart, at the time. I guess for this record, it was a bit more of a challenge also, because I've chosen to work differently. What connects all the tracks, even though, like, I'm saying this as a joke, but I've been scared, because some tracks that almost sounds like club tracks, and then you have some guitar folk inspired songs. But, as I said, it's the messy bedroom! The thing that is pretty common to all the tracks, is the quest of the perfect loop. I know some sound like they were made from a sample, but it’s actually never the case. I'm not really good at working with samples. I actually need a connection to the harmonic and melodic elements, more than the vocals and the words. So, yeah, it was fun to try to work on material that I could turn into my own samples. I love that.

Interview by Ilirjana Alushaj
Photography by Lanna Apisukh
Marylou Mayniel wears own clothes