Interview Magazine

INTERVIEW MAGAZINE Mars 2013

Frederic Sanchez’s work has always managed to induce a kind of synesthesia, blurring the lines between what people hear, see, and feel. Among the most in-demand sound designers in the biz, the 46-year-old musician and producer has created sonic landscapes for Prada, Marc Jacobs, and Givenchy fashion shows, among many others. Surprisingly, Sanchez didn’t even attempt to play an instrument as a kid growing up in Paris-rather, a Beatles album inherited from his older sister sparked a voracious curiosity about sound that led him to the ambient and experimental works of John Cale, Brian Eno, and Robert Wyatt. « Listening to music became my passion, » he says. « I transformed that passion into work, but it almost happened by coincidence. » After dropping out of college, Sanchez worked briefly in the theater and then ran an eponymous record shop in Paris that doubled as an art gallery and a performance space. (He shut it in 2002, citing the onerous time demands of operating a retail business.) But a chance meeting with the elusive Martin Margiela in 1988 led Sanchez to his first job assembling music for a fashion show. « I didn’t know much about fashion, » he admits, « but I was very into artists like Roxy Music and David Bowie, which led me to fashion. » Since then, Sanchez has composed original sound installations for not only his fashion clients, but a number of galleries and museums, including the Louvre. He has also begtm to create original multimedia works that integrate music, photography, and film. « When I work with fashion, I often collaborate with other artists, so it’s more of a conversation, » he says.  »
The job is to create sound images that reflect the fashion. Whereas when I do work for galleries and museums, it’s only me, and I’m trying to create a sound installation that will allow each person to have a unique experience, so that they visualize an image based on what they hear. »