Hello Beautiful Releases New EP

Hello Beautiful just released his new EP, entitled Leftover Dreams. The EP comes after the release of his debut EP Supernova Love in 2013 and his self-titled debut album in 2014.

I caught up with the man behind the music, Pretoria-based producer Matthieu Auriacombe, to find out more.

Hi, thanks for chatting to DPC. First of all, who’s the person behind HELLO BEAUTIFUL?  

Hey, Matthieu Auriacombe & Johan Auriacombe is behind the music, Ben Rausch is behind the visuals.

I have to ask: how did you come up with the name, HELLO BEAUTIFUL – Is there a story behind it? 

This was back in 2008 or 2009, It was just me at that point, I needed to get a name for the project, but I was pretty bad at that, so when this one popped up, it just stuck with me.

You started out as a guitarist, what moved you to electronic music, and do you still incorporate the two? 

Definitely do incorporate the two, perhaps not that much on the latest EP. I produce music for other people, where that is incorporated more often.

So, you just released your new EP, Leftover Dreams. I heard you did most of the work on it yourself, the writing, composing, producing, etc. – That’s fantastic! How was the entire proccess? And how would you describe the new EP’s sound? 

The EP was written over the last year or so, Synth driven, with reasonably straightforward beats and spacey soundscape melodies. You can hear the inspiration from the 80’s and early 90’s with the variety of synths that were used and blended in with more ‘modern’ keyboards I generally like and it has a good balance of happy & dark songs.

Alastair: “So the theme of ‘If You Love Me Back’ I guess would be love. I got out the shower one morning and my little pup was just diligently waiting there for me. The love a dog has for their human is astounding and it’s that amount of love that I want to feel for someone else (another human, at least. I love my dog that much already!) which is why, in the chorus, I refer to the person as my pup. The verses are more about how you can’t stop thinking about someone you’re in love with, just like in a horror movie, you want to look away but you can’t. You’re like a bad dream – you keep me up at night. It’s all love, man”

Jean Louise Parker: “‘Structures’ explores the shift in consciousness that is happening around the world. The ‘western man’ is becoming more aware of his surroundings and his impact on others. The lyrics explore the idea of moving forward even though it makes some feel uncomfortable”

They were both a real gem to work with, great artists working hard in the industry and all round lekker mense.

Mixed and mastered by my mentor/good friend Peach van Pletzen at Planet Awesome.

Why the title, Leftover Dreams?

I felt the need to call it ‘Leftover Dreams’ cause it was all ideas I made over the past year and a bit and needed to accumulate it into 6 tracks. It represents ideas I get but not being able to really do something with it then and there, so I come back to it at a later stage and find a new inspiration to turn it into a song. For example, the song ‘Leftover Dreams’, I wrote the first part of it, it builds up and builds up and then I had no idea where to go with it, a few months later down the line I composed the second part of the song, which almost seems like a whole different song, but it just works for me.

I heard you get most of your inspiration from anything sci-fi – Any particular movies, or a series, perhaps, that stand out?

There are so many, from Star Wars, Tron to Contact. I really do like the sound track from Stranger Things, which came out the same time as the EP!

Is HELLO BEAUTIFUL a completely solo project, or do you collaborate with other artists often? – And on Leftover Dreams?
It was a solo project till earlier this year, my brother Johan Auriacombe & good friend Ben Rausch joined the team. It’s still straight up synth music, 80’s & early 90’s inspired. Of course, there are collaborations, but mostly instrumental songs. I’ve discovered a lot of new music (old & new) in the last year or so, that I really like and get inspiration from and have learned to play keyboard and other instruments better in the past year. I’m a producer, I write music for artists, so from the writing side of things I feel I have improved in that department. I’ve decided to do less collaborations for this EP in particular and keep it more instrumental. All in all, I didn’t want to leave any stones unturned on the EP, hence why it took me so long to get ‘Leftover Dreams’ done.

There are two collaborations on the EP, ‘If You Love Me Back ft. Alastair Thomas’ from Shortstraw & ‘Structures ft. Jean-Louise Parker’ from Academie, extremely stoked about that.

Alastair: “So the theme of ‘If You Love Me Back’ I guess would be love. I got out the shower one morning and my little pup was just diligently waiting there for me. The love a dog has for their human is astounding and it’s that amount of love that I want to feel for someone else (another human, at least. I love my dog that much already!) which is why, in the chorus, I refer to the person as my pup. The verses are more about how you can’t stop thinking about someone you’re in love with, just like in a horror movie, you want to look away but you can’t. You’re like a bad dream – you keep me up at night. It’s all love, man”

Jean Louise Parker: “‘Structures’ explores the shift in consciousness that is happening around the world. The ‘western man’ is becoming more aware of his surroundings and his impact on others. The lyrics explore the idea of moving forward even though it makes some feel uncomfortable”

Where can we follow you online:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisishellobeautiful/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hello_B_
Instagram: hello_beautiful_band
Web:

Where can we get our hands on the new EP? 

You can buy it on ITNES here: https://itunes.apple.com/…/…/hello-beautiful-ep/id1145825233

Stream it on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/hello-beautiful…/sets/leftover-dreams

Thanks and all the best for the rest of the year!

Images: Bernard Brand