INTERVIEW with Anne Horel

This week the fantastic Anne Horel is Single of the Week. Anne Horel is an artist, musician, actress and cat caretaker so to find out more about her many talents I decided to interview her! So prepare to find out all about the Paris-based superwoman!

Q: For those of us who don’t know much about Anne Horel, describe yourself in 5 words. 

A: Internet- addict

GIF maker

Awesomeness enthusiast

Speak fluent Emoji

Born-in-the-80s-raised-in-the-90s.

Q: You’re a woman of many talents, as we will discover throughout this interview. What is a typical day like for you and where do you find the time to do everything you do? 

A: I work from home. So my typical day is to wake up, check emails & social medias, hang out with my cat, dig the Internet, GIF, eat cheese and GIF again. Also, the secret is probably that I don’t sleep very much and that I consider myself lucky to do what I love to do. That’s a choice, not an easy one to make, but it gives me freedom. And that is something I couldn’t give up on.

Q: Your musical style is quite electronic and modern. Which artists would you say have inspired that sound? 

A: I’ve always been really eclectic in my tastes in general.  There is so much good stuff everywhere and I’m always curious to discover it. I’ve always been addicted to music. 

I was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s. I grew up surrounded with many different kinds of music. It's complicated for me to say who influenced me the most, because it’s the plurality that inspires me.

But if I’d have to classify my music, I would say it’s a mix between synth pop, dance music and rap.

Q: Your song, “I’m A Floating Being” is currently Single of the Week. What was your inspiration behind that track?

A: It is the beginning of everything. The genesis. And it was so unexpected.

I studied Art for 5 years in Paris. The 3rd year, I was dragged by a friend in a sound workshop. 

At this time, it was the beginning of my work on social medias, and I was collecting group names on Facebook. 

So I thought of making a song with those groups names. I’ve actually made 3 others after this one, all called « I’m a floating being », gathered in an EP called « Anne Horel sings Facebook », 2 electro-inspired in collaboration with my friend Vincent Hénon, 2 piano-inspired in collaboration with my uncle. 

I’ve worked with Vincent ever since.

The most important thing is that when I’ve started making songs, I realised it was the best medium I could use to do everything I love gathered at the same place: writing, music, video, graphics, fashion, performance, development of a virtual body double character of myself.

Life is amazing. Things always happen for a reason.

Q: Your songs are bilingual in French and English. How long have you studied English for and if you could would you study another language?  

A: My first English class was with my elder sister. She was a huge Beatles fan and taught me English with the Beatles lyrics when I was 7. Even since, I’ve always loved speaking and learning English. I’ve studied it also at the university, and never stopped learning vocabulary, trying to practice as much as I can.

I think the best way to learn a language is to live in the country for a while. To not only learn language, but also being surrounded by the culture. So, I would love to spend some time in Japan to learn Japanese, and go back to Turkey. I’ve spent a lots of time in Istanbul when I was younger, and I love this city.

Q: Which musical artists would you like to collaborate with if you had the chance? 

A: My craziest dream would be to work with Miley Cyrus. To make her music videos and work on the visual animations she displays on stage. 

But basically, the list of people I would love to work with is long because every time I really love somebody’s work, I instantly want to work with them. Among them: Die Antwood, Of Montreal, Kap Bambino, Diplo, Yuksek, Django Django, Toxic Avenger, La Femme, Jackson and his Computerband, …pff and so many others…

I’d love to make music videos, GIFs and graphics for them. That would make me really happy.

Q: On top of your music you also produce some amazing graphic design work, such as GIFs for vine users and your own music videos. Where do you gather your inspiration for these amazing art pieces?

A: My inspiration takes its source in the Internet iconography. Tumblr is my home, I spend a lots of time collecting images, scrolling down on blogs, YouTube and Vine profiles. My brains & my hands do the rest. 

Q: Your GIFs are clearly full of expression and personality. Are there any other cool ways in which you express yourself?

A: :))) Haha! Well I do a lot of things. And it’s all part of my process and it evolves constantly with different tools. 

I have my own Radio show on a web radio based in Paris. In this show I invite people to talk about digital & web culture. The idea is to promote my guests by promoting things they like. Because this is one of the things I really love about the Internet: how people share what they like and how it spreads. 

I also work for a TV show on Canal + « L’Œil de Links ». It is about creativity on the Internet. I love this job because it allows me to talk about talented people and share the enthusiasm I feel for them and their work.

But otherwise, I also love cooking, Yoga, Gym tonic & Tarots reading.

Q: Do you get a lot of requests for GIFs and art?

A: More and more. And it warms my heart a lot. I would like to make GIF all the time. This is my favorite thing. Ever.

Q: On top of your musical and graphic design work you also act in a quirky online series called “Greetings From Michigannehorel”. What can you tell us about that? 

A: It’s a musical web series in 6 episodes & 6 music videos that was crowd-funded last summer and which is online on YouTube now. Each episode borrows a different genre (road movie, thriller, horror movie, science fiction, sitcom and documentary). There is also a prologue episode which is a GIF fotonovela. It tells the story of my character who meets an american producer (played by Brian J. Bowe) that wants to land her career in Michigan. But of course nothing happens the way it was supposed to and the whole story is absolutely absurd. Each episode is  followed with a music video. 

Q: To add to your list of talents you’ve also appeared on a Radio Marais interviewing two of my favourite vine users, Nick Gallo and Simply Sylvio. What was that like?

A: It was great! I was really happy and honoured they accepted my invitation! I like them a lot and would love to make other projects with them. 

Q: What has been your favourite trend on vine? (e.g. smack cam, let me take a selfie etc.) 

A: If James White is to be considered as a trend (as I do believe), I would say James White, though :)

Q: Social media is highly important to you for your graphic design work and music promotion. If you could design your own social media site/app what would it be like?

A: That’s a really good question! Some people ask me what app I use to make my GIFs. So I would probably design an application to make weird GIFs with weird stamps. Like camemberts and axolotls. It might happen at some point anyway, that is something I’d like to do.

Q: If you could pick only one of your many talents to pursue, which one would you pick? 

A: Being myself, I guess. That might sound stupid but it’s a very challenging thing when you’re an artist. Not being corrupted by anything that would not be in harmony with yourself.

Q: Lastly is there anything you would like to say to your fans? 

A: That they mean everything to me. Every single comment, every single like, every single share is an amazing  way to support me. There are no words to express how grateful I am.

[END]

Well, a huge thanks to Anne for allowing me to interview her! If you want to explore the huge jungle that is Anne's career then follow the links below! 

Anne's YouTube Channel (where you can find her music and online series): CLICK IT!

Anne's vine (where you can view all her weird and wonderful GIFs): CLICK HERE!!

Anne's Twitter: @AnneHorel

Anne's Instagram: @AnneHorel