French producer Boston Bun has finally released his debut album There’s A Nightclub Inside My Head. There have been whispers of this album being released for nearly four years and now he has finally put out the LP. The Parisian DJ, producer and label head has been putting out singles and EPs for over a decade, but now felt it was time to create an album. Some of the tracks were older demos that were reshaped and remade to fit into this album and others like “’99” and “Whenever You’re Ready” were key in piecing together There’s a Nightclub Inside My Head. A longtime associate of Ed Banger Records, he launched his own label Circa ’99 several years ago and has since guided it to successful releases like a recent compilation that highlights its growing roster of rising artists.
There’s A Nightclub Inside My Head flows together rather effortlessly like a well crafted night at a nightclub. You will glide through house, disco and pop without ever having large drops or peaks. Boston Bun guides us through the album, track-by-track, for a new Director’s Cut feature. He breaks down the creative process, inspirations like Outkast, Green Velvet and Fingers Inc that shaped the project and collaborations.
Listen to There’s A Nightclub Inside My Head below as you read along and pick a copy here.
1. Love U Better
This track is the perfect example of what made this album process special. I went through all the music I recorded the past 2 years, and I found this very strong vocal from a session I did with MNEK. I loved it but I couldn’t make it fit with any of my productions. The expectations were so high with this hook that it blocked me. But then 2020 hit us and I decided to forget about any kind of expectations and just make music that I believe is good.
To be 100% honest with you, the first version of this track had a proper drop. After a week of listening to it very loud in my headphones I realized how sometimes a drop can ruin all the emotions. It broke my heart. So, I went back into the studio, put a massive filter on all the drums to keep only the essentials: chords, vocals and strings. After that change of mindset, I felt liberated and I got obsessed with this feeling of “intimate club music.” I wanted to take all the club culture elements that have been part of me for years and turn it into something intimate and personal.
2. Your Body your Mind
Making a piano house tune is probably one of the most challenging exercises. It has been done maybe thousands of times and there are really strict rules about the piano house genre. So, I wanted to try something a bit different. I’ve worked on this one with a very talented jazz pianist called Julian Getreau. I wanted something really classy and raw: a classy piano on a raw 808 bass. I love working with Julian because he sits behind his Rhodes and plays 20 crazy chords progressions in like, 10 minutes. When you’re not a proper musician like me, it’s a blessing to edit and work on his takes.
I recorded my girlfriend’s voice for the hook and passed it in Soundtoys Alterboy to get that effect. It gave me the feeling of a Green Velvet track, which sparked the idea to record that cowbell melody part you can hear in the song. I thought “Millie Vanillie” from Green Velvet had a cowbell melody, but I totally made that up in my brain haha. Anyway, I can’t wait to try this one in a proper club.
3. So Good So Nice So Bright
I’m a massive fan of Fingers, Inc and this track is a love dedication to them. The groove, the melody and the atmosphere. Fingers, Inc drums always have a lot of reverb or echo that give me the feeling of a half empty club in Chicago. I wanted to put that vibe in this track. The elements are quite the same all the way through the track, no proper bassline but a really punchy and immersive kick. I know it needed something else, something unexpected. That’s why 4 minutes in, you can get rewarded by a trumpet solo. It’s fully inspired by Outkast’s “SpottieOttieDopaliscious,” for people who might remember this one. It was quite hard to record because unfortunately I don’t play trumpet. The trumpet sounds come from a sample library that I cut and edited for hours and hours to get it right.
4. Stay Around with Jodie Abacus
This is a special one to me. It’s around 153bpm and has crazy 909 footwork toms all the way through with soft Rhodes pads recorded at Jeremy Chatelain’s studio. Some people might be a bit surprised about this one. But to give you some background: I actually already did a fast BPM song with Jodie for an Annie Mac Specials back in the days. It was called “Banana” and never got a proper release, but you can still find it somewhere on the internet, I’m sure. When Jodie and I got back in the studio together it made sense to keep that high energy going. I’m really proud of it because I love how effortless it sounds. We talked a lot about the “magic” in the studio and this track is a good example of that magic, I think.
5. ’99
To be honest I never really thought about making an album one day. I always felt really comfortable releasing singles and EPs. ’99 is what we call an “album track” I guess. A piece of music that glues two parts of an album together and it felt so right to me to finally be able to give this sound a place and release it. It’s definitely one of my favorites on the album, but I don’t really know why. Please listen to this one with your headphones on/in, close your eyes and lay on the floor. Trust me. Haha.
6. Whenever You’re Ready
“Whenever You’re Ready” was the track that gave me the confidence I needed to say “ok, I think I have an album.” I spent a lot of time on this one, especially on the Rhodes sound that I recorded with my mate David Spinelli. I wanted it to be as organic as possible and as emotional as possible. It is quite free all the way through, there’s an overdrive here and there and sometimes just a high filter but it sounds like it’s a single take. There’s a lot of texture all around this track. There are three different vocal treatments on Victoria Hesketh’s voice with three different phasers that make the whole thing quite liquid and glued to each other.
7. Skit
The voices you can hear are from a random video of a boat full of tourists watching a glacier melting somewhere in Alaska or something. Every time there’s a massive bit a glacier hitting the water, there’s a huge wave coming at them. You can hear a woman getting quite anxious about the situation and at the same time you can hear the guide telling the group “it’s fine guys, it’s fine….” But the waves are getting bigger and bigger and the woman is getting really stressed. The guide stays super calm and keep saying “it’s fine, this time we’re gonna be fine….” That’s it haha. That’s the story. You can see whatever you want in that, but I found that video really poetic.
8. BBB
The idea behind this one was to put a romantic string chord progression over a house beat. I’ve worked with Julian Getreau and we tried to push the romantic side of the track as far as we can. I added a choir and a harp to bring that silky feeling. For a big part of the album, I play with the different elements with filters. Like you would do during a DJ set. I love how it worked out. You can literally feel the emotion arriving gradually over the beats and the rough bass. I used a plug-in called FilterShaper by Cableguys, they’re a type of cheap plug-ins where users can share their pre-sets and there are some proper gems to be found.
9. Nobody But You
I have a lot to say about “Nobody But You.” The top line comes from an amazing session I did with Emily Phillips and Jonny Hockings. I know it’s not always easy to do sessions with me because I’m not looking for a classic song with verse, pre-chorus and chorus. I’m looking for the right sentence and the right words that are going to move me and their words brought me life.
You can imagine an entire song or a movie or a book with that simple sentence “Everybody’s talking but I know it ain’t true. I don’t need nobody, need nobody but you.” That is exactly why I’m doing this. I want you, the listener, to hear a message and feel all the emotions I put in the track, then you mix it with your own feelings, and you create your own story. I’m really proud of this one.
10. Spinning Around
I wanted to close the album in the same vibe I opened it — totally filtered out. Some days I wake up hating drums. I open the projects I’m working on and I remove all the drums. This is exactly what happened to this one. Sylvie Kreusch’s vocals were so pure that I really wanted people to get immersed into her voice. It’s important to listen to the music you are making sometimes and to go where the music wants to take you. Not where you want to go, but the music.
