Debutante is the Zurich-based solo project of multi-instrumentalist and home producer Christoffer Zimmermann.
Mixing doom/drone and pop music elements, he creates abrasive and danceable pieces with personal lyrics about themes such as depression or growing up in a physically abusive household.
This unique blend of drone pop has drawn comparisons to artists such as Coil or The Angelic Process and the variation of mellow soundscapes and bass-heavy gut-punches captures his live shows perfectly.
His latest record is a split EP with Leeds-based noise artist Feral about gender dysphoria, making it his sixth release within three years. Check out the singer’s latest single No Mirrors below!
We managed to catch up with Debutante as he talked latest music and more!
How has the release of No Mirrors gone down with fans so far?
People have been really into the track, I’m glad. I think it’s a bit closer to what I did back on the Shelter EP stylistically, although there’s more slowcore elements and a way bigger emphasis on glitches now. But yeah, I’m happy people seem to be enjoying it.
Can you tell us anything no one knows about the single?
There’s this indie platformer from the mid-00s called Cave Story that I really like and almost all the synths used in the track are based on samples from that game’s soundfont. The samples are pretty heavily modified and buried under a lot of other tracks though, so they’re hardly recognizable.
Will there be new music this year?
This is a really big maybe. I’ll be studying abroad for a year come September and I honestly don’t know if I’ll get around to recording much. I do have some sketches laying around that I’ve been meaning to finish up though. We’ll see!
How has the Split EP gone with Feral?
Well, Jen (Feral) and I have liked each other’s work for a while now and I think the idea of doing a collab of some sort came up early last year. We wanted to cover each other at first but ended up deciding against that in favour of entirely new material. I had a Xiu Xiu cover split EP with Life In Slow Motion and Kowareta in the works at the same time so it was cool to work on some originals to even things out.
If you could work with any band on a new song, who would it be and why?
Boring answer, but probably just my friends’ projects! And I mean in more of a jam-setting than a ‘sending each other WAVs back and forth’ way. I haven’t been in a band since high school and even though I really enjoy the freedom that comes with working solo, I do miss the dynamic of exchanging ideas with others and jamming out and all that stuff.
What is the alternative music scene like in Zurich?
Zurich is weird in the sense that it’s a global city while only having a population of around 400’000 people so it’s still fairly small and manageable. If you overlook all the bands that try way too hard to be The 1975, there’s actually a lot of really cool experimental music coming out of the area, especially heavier stuff. Bölzer are pretty widely known by now but there’s also smaller bands like Soldat Hans, Rue Des Cascades or pretty much anything on Cruel Bones that’s really worth checking out. And if you’re more into electronics, there’s some techno and electropunk artists that are well worth looking into too.
Venue-wise, there’s a bunch of cool DIY spaces linked to the local squatter scene. I suppose since the city’s so stupidly expensive and gentrifying itself to hell and back, there’s actually quite a bit of demand for alternative music that is accessible for only a handful of bucks. Again, it’s a fairly small scene, but it’s surprisingly versatile.
Will you be touring in the UK anytime soon?
I’m in Japan until summer 2018, so not anytime soon I’m afraid. Definitely want to sometime though.
What do you get up to in your spare time?
I’m a student and currently work two part time jobs, so there’s not a ton of spare time to begin with, haha. When I’m not hanging out with friends or working on music, I tend to play video games or draw.