Uele Lamore, Orchestral Conductor at 27: "Music is part of who I am."

Printemps.com: How have the last few months been going?

Uele Lamore: They've been incredibly productive! My EP Tracks came out in February 2020, and then I created an album for German label K7 that should come out next year. I've also been working on the soundtrack for Aissa Maiga's next film, Marcher sur l'eau. Plus, I signed with Sony for a record of my own, which I just finished recording.

With Sony, you've also been working on programming Sony CSL — Computer Search Lab — which is a tool intended to boost musicians' creativity thanks to artificial intelligence. Can you elaborate on that a bit?

I'm helping there with research. Sony CSL's lab develops musical production tools using artificial intelligence. At first, I was just a beta-tester, and then we pushed it further and they suggested we create an EP using these new production methods. The album (Heqet's Shadow: Return of Glycon) just came out! It's so stimulating to work with engineers and researchers. Developing production tools in music feels kind of like approaching the Holy Grail.

Have you always made music?

Yes, I started playing instruments very young and I've always had a musical ear. Music has been a constant in my life. Above and beyond it being a passion or even a career, it's something that's really a part of who I am.

After high school, you studied for five years in the United States — starting with jazz in Los Angeles, and then classical composition at Boston's Berklee College of Music. Why did you choose to leave France for your studies?

More than anything it was a necessity. The kind of education I wanted to get simply doesn't exist in France. I never attended a conservatory, I'm self-taught. I really didn't feel that there was a place for me in French music schools. I wasn't taken seriously, and I honestly think there was quite a bit of sexism at play in that. Since I have an American passport, my father told me I should think about going to the United States.

When you arrived in the US, did you feel that musical education was different than it is here in France?

Absolutely! My first school in Los Angeles aimed to produce professional instrumentalists. Everyone was incredibly skilled and today one of them is a guitarist for Beyonce. Training there makes you a real sniper. In contrast to France, music is considered a genuine career path in the States, and one that anyone can do as long as they work hard. You're put in contact with accomplished professionals. That's how I discovered orchestral conducting, otherwise I simply never would have thought of it.

Then you went to the Netherlands to apprentice with Jules Buckley, the conductor of the Metropole Orkest, who's worked with internationally known artists like the Arctic Moneys and Massive Attack. Now you work with the London Contemporary Orchestra, a sort of rival to Metropole Orkest...

Yes, I've been working with the London Contemporary Orchestra for the last two years, and it's an incredible thing to be collaborating with them at my age. I didn't think I'd be involved with orchestra this early, but they invited me to come on as their third conductor. I was very proud!

In 2017, when you returned to France, you created Orchestre Orage with friends, making it the first contemporary French orchestra. You've worked with loads of indie artists, like electro-pop group Agar Agar. What motivated you to initiate all this?

When I got back from the Netherlands, I realized that there was no equivalent to the Metropole Orkest in France, meaning that the space was still open, as it were. There were plenty of talented artists who'd never had the chance to play with an orchestra. So we launched it and very quickly we were getting really cool offers. In France, our orchestra is seen as sort of strange and alien, but it's quite common in other places. In England, there are many ensembles who do what we do. Oftentimes my work is confused with that of French conductors who do symphonic, classical work, but I've never conducted a classical piece in my life!

How do you explain the contrast between the French musical landscape, which is perhaps at a bit of a crossroads between classical and contemporary codes, and the Anglophone system?

I think that a lot of it comes from the way education works in France, where there's a very sharp gap between those who play orchestral instruments and are more classical, and those who play contemporary instruments and pieces. If they never get to know each other and study together, they won't be able to join forces in the future. Institutions take conservatory-trained musicians much more seriously, and that creates a fracture. I think that there's so much ground to be gained in the education system here. We need to stop exclusively placing old classical pieces on a pedestal. Today, most of the time, musicians also work in studio, on "pop" songs, and that can be just as gratifying.

Do you think it's a generational issue?

Yes. I think that institutions see pop music as pure amusement. The rising generation is much more open-minded.

Your mother's a stylist and works in Haute Couture. Do you have any thoughts on fashion?

I love it! Most of my friends, as well as my mother, work at Haute Couture houses. My godmother worked at Balmain and I often went to visit her at work. The way you dress says so much about you. In Paris people like getting dressed to the nines, and I love that.

Who are your favorite fashion designers?

I've always loved Raf Simons and I prefer more minimalist looks. I'm a huge fan of Margiela, their pieces and lookbooks are always sleek. I also really like Acne Studios.

What's your best memory from the music world?

That would have to be with Etienne Daho! When I started working with him, I didn't realize just how much of an icon he was, a real demi-god of French music. I grew up in a family that listened to a lot of American music and I wasn't as familiar with the French side. I dove into his past albums and I loved them. When we started working together, it felt like a dream. He was so kind and attentive!