Premiere: ANGELZ Kicks Off Tchami's New Label With the Hypnotic "Hey Girl"

Here's the first single from Tchami's new lable, Confession.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

If you're a fan of house music that invests more time in crafting soulful gems than coordinating ravers putting their hands in the air, French "future house" producer Tchami is someone you no doubt have on your radar (and if you don't, get familiar). The last time we heard from him, he was gearing up for his latest EP The After Life, but earlier this week he officially announced that he'd started his own label, Confession, because he's in love with "the idea of being more independent and giving artists, including myself, another option to release music."​

With his first single, the hypnotic G-house banger "Hey Girl" from Quebec's ANGELZ, he's on the right path. While ANGELZ might not be a household name, you might be up on his past material: he worked as a ghost producer at Def Jam before diving head first into the hip-hop-influenced G-house sound that producers like Destructo and Amine Edge & DANCE have been getting hyping over the last year or so. "Hey Girl" follows suit, building a darker groove for the club fiends, lacing it with a familiar vocal that you can whisper into bae's ear when appropriate.

We got a chance to briefly chat with ANGELZ about "Hey Girl" (which is available for free on Confession), as well as his past at Defj Jam. Get turned on.

How did you link up with Tchami? 
I sent “Hey Girl” to DJ Snake and he replied “Wow” almost instantly. The same day he introduced me to Tchami, I later kicked it with all the guys when they came in Montreal the next month. 

Talk to us about the creation of "Hey Girl." 
I made the track in about three days. I started out with the sample and since it was such a powerful line with the lead's baritone I knew less was gonna be best. I spent several hours listening to my vocals chops with only the metronome playing and then it hit me and I laid down the whole rhythm section. I decided I wanted to give the whole thing a very hypnotic feel and a day later it was born.

How did you first get involved with Def Jam?
I started producing around 2002-2003 when I was 10 or 11. I basically lived a double life between school and having thousands of posts on The Neptunes forum where I’d post new beats every night just to show off or do battles. After a couple years I’d been building strong relationships with several rappers who were indie at the time: Carnegie (RIP), who would pioneer electro-rap with Silver Medallion, Hot Rod (who got signed to G-Unit), Nickelus F (who was basically putting Drake on), and finally Willy Northpole from Phoenix, who my tracks helped him get signed to DTP. They all had the hunger and when their individual careers started popping off a lot of doors opened for me.

What project(s) did you work on?
I got my first shot working on Willy’s debut album early 2006 then spent the next years working on tracks as an arranger for artists on DTP and Slip-N-Slide among others. I got this insane Slim Thug track from 2007 we made which got shelved that I’ve been working on lately, to reboot as one of my future singles.

What made you want to step out as an artist yourself?
Working on full records with artists usually means you’re helping them build their vision. As I grew older, I realized what I enjoyed the most was expressing my own unrestrained vision. When blog-house emerged, it showed me that hundreds of artists around the world were doing exactly that and I took the leap. 

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