Hercules & Love Affair: "Still Meeting Fabulous People in Clubs"

There are artists who return to the dancefloor to escape, and others who return to understand what has changed in the room, in the body, in themselves.

With Someone Else Is Calling, the movement is not nostalgic but necessary: a way of testing whether connection is still possible in a time that increasingly dissolves shared space into screens and signals.

After the introspective weight of In Amber, this new phase feels less like a pivot and more like a recalibration. Rhythm becomes a tool for presence rather than distraction; desire remains physical but refuses to become commodity; hybridity is embraced not as a strategy but as a natural state of being. Between Belgium’s moody lineage, pre-globalized club histories and a deeply personal sense of autonomy, the music by Hercules & Love Affair occupies a space where past, present and possibility overlap without resolving.

What emerges is not simply club music, but a reflection on movement itself, why we gather, what we seek in collective darkness and whether the dancefloor can still produce moments of real contact in a world optimized for distance.

Welcome. After the introspective landscape of In Amber, Someone Else Is Calling feels like a return to the dancefloor, but not as nostalgia.Does this return feel more like a circle closing, or like learning how to move differentlyin the present?

Funny you should ask. I might keep going in circles, but something is happening. It is also definitely continuing to assert the realization of my desires, which is to express whatever I am moved by. I still write a lot of introspective music in different genres that has not been released, with multiple collaborators.

At a time when many shared spaces are disappearing or becoming purely digital,what does the dancefloor still make possible in terms of real, physical connection?

I still meet fascinating, fabulous people in clubs. Promoters are often more creative than one might assume, as are all the people who put so much effort into real-life experiences for others. Digital spaces get very boring, I don’t actually enjoy things like gaming, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pC4Kil7HBk

Your move to Belgium unlocked new references: surrealism, early dance-punk andcross-dialogues between Belgian, Detroit and Chicago scenes. How did displacement reshape your perception of sound and culture?

Well, I came to enjoy moodiness more than ever. I am fascinated by the pre-globalized scene, looking at the quite similar expressions of art that emerged in different places, such as acid house, new beat and industrial music.

Existing between scenes can be both liberating and isolating. How has hybridity shaped your sense of belonging over time?

I feel quite on my own in some ways. I am concerned less and less with what people think of me or my music. It’s OK that someone might not understand that I enjoy the roots of thrash and death metal and have even made music like that (unreleased), and that I also love the delicate magic of Judee Sill and like to make music akin to that and I like acid house and make that too. People can embrace multidimensionality, though many remain stuck somewhere, usually due to lack of exposure and industries, corporations and algorithms pushing certain things.

Being surrounded by a younger generation of producers reignited your passion forclub culture. What can younger scenes remind artists with longer histories about risk,pleasure and fearlessness?

Well, they reminded me that this is why they love my output, the most inspiring ones even acknowledging their appreciation for In Amber. Since my sophomore album, I asserted that I would be doing what I want to. You will hear different tempos, moods and sounds, and not everything is going to be for the dancefloor.Also, I think when younger DJs discover older sounds, they have less hesitation about sticking to a canon and will play things that were “un-classics,” if you will.

Across the EP, desire feels physical, urgent and self-possessed. How do you keep desire connected to liberation, without letting it slip into pureconsumption?

I prefer freedom to slavery for myself and everyone in the world. Desire being transformed into liberation is just that, being free to express myself without regard for consumption is key. Meditation and redirecting my desire have been really important in my life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTlotRzOTFI

If Someone Else Is Calling were a signal sent into the future,what would you want it to say about how we chose to move, gather and feel in thismoment?

Find your values, take care to remember them, do not discard them, and you will feel whole and open to connection.

Thank you.