Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with WALKING ILLUSION

WALKING ILLUSION - CRAZY

“Crazy” is an emotional indie pop track driven by a strong bassline and a catchy male/female vocal chorus. Blending subtle 80s–90s nostalgia with a modern pop production, the song explores irrational attraction and emotional tension. Atmospheric, melodic, and accessible, it’s a track that sits between nostalgic pop and contemporary indie sensibility.

Interview with WALKING ILLUSION

How do you ensure it doesn’t just sound like a pastiche of earlier pop styles?

For me, nostalgia is more about emotional memory than sonic imitation. I’m not trying to recreate specific 80s or 90s production formulas. Instead, I focus on what those eras did well emotionally: restraint, melody, and space, and place that inside a modern production context. The sound design, dynamics, and vocal treatment in Crazy are contemporary, while the songwriting values come from a time when songs trusted the listener’s sensitivity. That balance keeps it from feeling like a costume.

Some might argue the theme is overused. What makes your take different?

The difference lies in how quietly the tension is handled. Crazy isn’t about dramatic obsession or exaggerated emotion. It’s about an irrational pull you don’t fully understand while it’s happening. There’s a calm surface with something unresolved underneath. Instead of amplifying the drama, I chose to understate it, which creates intimacy and lets the listener project their own experience into the song.

Do your technical and creative roles ever conflict?

They do, and I’ve learned to embrace that tension. My technical side can easily overanalyze, but I’ve trained myself to recognize when the emotion is already there and doesn’t need further refinement. If something moves me early on, I protect it rather than polish it away. The engineering exists to serve the emotion, not to dominate it.

How do you balance emotional delivery without overpowering the song?

I’m very involved early in the vocal process. I write the lyrics and fully compose the vocal melodies, and before Audrey records, I sing the parts to her and explain the emotional intention behind each phrase. That gives us a clear foundation. From there, Audrey brings something I simply couldn’t achieve as a singer myself: a level of nuance, texture, and emotional finesse that elevates the song aesthetically. My role is to guide the direction, but also to step aside when needed. I’m always working in service of the song, not my ego, and Audrey’s voice allows Crazy to reach a depth I couldn’t deliver alone.

Why the name change, and what does it represent?

ISA920 was a collaborative project created with singer Isabelle Tétreault. It consisted of eleven songs built around a specific artistic and emotional dialogue between us. A few months after completing the project, we naturally took different artistic and emotional paths, and the collaboration ended. At that point, the name ISA920 no longer made sense without its lead vocalist. Rather than forcing continuity, I chose to close that chapter respectfully. Walking Illusion was originally the title of my favorite song from that album, and adopting it as the new project name felt honest. It marked a transition toward a more personal and autonomous artistic direction.

Does your film work influence your pop songwriting

Very much so. Working sixteen months on a film soundtrack is transformative. It forces you to think in terms of emotion over time, pacing, silence, tension, and release, rather than immediate hooks. Technically, it also sharpened my skills as a mixer and sound designer. That long immersion allowed me to develop new techniques and gain a deeper understanding of my tools, especially my VSTs. All of that feeds directly into my pop work. Even in a three minute song like Crazy, there’s a cinematic mindset shaping the dynamics, space, and emotional arc.

How do you balance accessibility with cohesion?

A: Each song has to work emotionally on its own first. Cohesion comes later through shared textures, themes, and emotional tone rather than strict sonic rules. The mini album is unified by a feeling, emotional tension mixed with warmth, rather than repetition. It’s more about atmosphere than formula.

How do you avoid playing it safe?

A: The biggest risk for me is restraint. In a landscape that rewards immediacy and excess, choosing subtlety is risky. Crazy doesn’t chase trends or instant hooks. It trusts mood, tone, and slow emotional connection. That decision is deliberate, and in today’s context, it’s a real risk.

How do you hold attention without forcing it?

A: By letting the groove feel natural rather than engineered. The rhythm supports the emotion instead of dominating it. Small shifts in texture and vocal nuance keep the song alive without demanding attention. I believe listeners stay when they feel respected, not manipulated.

How do you measure success for Crazy?

Streaming numbers matter, but they’re not the whole picture. Real success is when someone tells me the song expressed something they couldn’t quite name themselves. If Crazy becomes a quiet companion people return to, then it’s done its job.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out WALKING ILLUSION on the Pigeon Spins Playlist