Archetypal rhythms, otherworldly melodies, and galaxies of possibility converge in Pandhora – a solarpunk-inspired, live band whose France-based founders, Amine and Rémi, seek community over accolades, and wonder over certainty.
What excites you most in the creative process?
We see making music like snapping a photograph. It captures the vibes, emotions, and mood of the day. Most of our songe come together in a single session, encapsulating that instant. If not, the song’s essence can quickly dissipate and be forgotten. When we tap into that flow of creativity, it’s vital to harness that before it slips away. It’s one of the most exhilarating feelings, where all external distractions vanish, and we’re immersed in a deep, focused state.
How did you fall in love with electronic music?
Music has always been a fundamental part of our lives. We grew up immersed in various genres – rock, jazz, reggae, classical, and more – and it has always played a central role in how we connect with the world. The Pandhora project began when we became dissatisfied with our corporate jobs. Feeling trapped, we decided to escape from that lifestyle. Gradually, we dove into music production and after a few years of experimentation, we finally created full tracks in 2015.
What is going to be your next big release?
This October, we are finally releasing Evasion, our first album. This one has been in the making for the past three years. The songs featured have been through a myriad of changes and we’re delighted they have found their final recorded form now.
This album revolves around personal growth and emancipation from modern society. In a way, it summarizes our experience over the past few years. We’re on a path to set ourselves free, and this path is documented in that first album. The last few years have been full of challenges and it felt right to put these into music. Even though life can be challenging and unpredictable, the message we want to convey is one of hope and positivity.
What are the inspirations & topics of each song?
We selected three vocal songs from the album to give insight about: Away We Fly, Deep End, and Unfold Your Heart.
Away We Fly is one of the first song we ever wrote with our own vocals. It started in March 2020 in a little home studio in Istanbul as we were locked in during the pandemic. The lyrics convey hope and a strong desire to escape our current situation. In a way, it shows our fear of missing out on life. At this point, we had just finished our first full year of touring and everything came to an end so abruptly as the world shut down. These were times of longing for travels, adventures and fun, and we feel it shows in this song.
Deep End is inspired by events we played at where music wasn’t the focal point. Instead, most people were spending on their phones. These situations always create difficult emotions to handle as an artist, tempting us to self-doubt! Putting this into music has helped us reframe these emotions into something lighthearted. Ultimately, we are just responsible for making our very best on stage and delivering good vibes, the rest being out of our hands.
Unfold Your Heart is a song about love, more specifically self-love. The lyrics are straight to the point, urging listeners (and ourselves) to keep our hearts open. Life has so much greatness to give, but to experience it we must remain open to it, as soon as we close and for whatever reason, we risk entering lower life-deprecating emotions such as guilt, fear and shame. This song is bright both in its text and music and a vibrant reminder to never close your heart.
© Anetta Mitrofanova
Are you inspired by any artistic movement or philosophy?
We believe the world can be a wonderful place. Where we place our attention and intentions matters. Our main inspiration for the band comes from the solarpunk movement, which is the opposite of cyberpunk. It promotes a future where humans are respecting nature and co-creating with it. Technology helps support societies in providing a great quality of life for everyone. Though an utopia, the solarpunk principles nudge us towards a sustainable and fair future. It’s filled with hope and positivity.
To manifest this vision within Pandhora we have experimented with a few aspects of the project. Since embarking on our independent journey in 2023, we have decided to include solarpunk inspirations into all our visuals. For this, we are working with Roman Evpakov who has been drawing the artworks of each release, taking concepts and elements from Art Nouveau. In these artworks, there are always two (or more) characters exploring a new world. All these worlds will eventually constitute Pandhora.
In 2023, we started working with Zeineb Ali, a fashion designer from Tunisia. She designed and sewed our live outfits using the principles of upcycling. Each fabric comes from thrifting used clothes and repurposing them. The process has been super rewarding as we toured many countries using these outfits as well as supporting the local economy in Tunisia, Amine’s home country.
We plan to embody the solarpunk vision further by making our shows sustainable via collaborations with local communities planting trees and playing around with different means of offsetting our carbon footprint.
Do you have featurings or collaborations on the album?
Pandhora has always been about connecting with others. This album is no exception! We made the song ‘Papaya’ in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Stéphane Salerno, who is a long time friend of ours.
Unfold Your Heart was produced with Cahelo, a fellow French producer, who happens to be the mixing engineer of the album as well.
The album is currently being remixed by artists and friends we met along the years: Naarly, El Mundo, Yame, Elif, Djuma Soundsystem, Kamilo Sanclemente, Hot Oasis and Jay Fase. We cannot wait to release the remixes later this year as they give a new twist to our songs!
What’s next for you in 2024?
We have completely reshaped our live show this year. We kept the essence of it while making it much more minimalistic. In electronic music, we feel minimalism matters, especially for live performances. There is only so much information that can be fed into a loudspeaker, so we might as well just keep the most impactful elements.
We essentially carved out space in the backing tracks, leaving our instruments and vocals some latitude. We feel the music will be more impactful and easier for people to dance and enjoy.
We will be touring with our new songs in Panama, Morocco, and the US later this year!
How do you feel about Monday Blues released on HMWL?
Our take on Eric Sharp’s Monday Blues is Pandhora’s most successful release to date. We are beyond grateful for all the support it has received since its release in late 2019.
We are very glad to share this common success with HMWL and Eric Sharp! We even prepared a new version of Monday Blues for our live show as the song surpassed 2M listens on Spotify and we want fans to hear it live!
Evasion album link : https://bit.ly/pandhora-