My Name Is Claude

My Name Is Claude is the classical-meets-electronic pop project of singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Claude Ferland. Growing up in Montreal, Ferland began playing violin at age six and started piano soon after. In his teens, he absorbed the works of Charles Baudelaire, André Breton, and André Gide, writers whose melancholy viewpoints shaped his own. During the late '90s, Ferland was a member of the electro-pop group SAS-31. By 2005, he had moved to Berlin and played with another electro-pop outfit, Love Love Love, who appeared on 2007's Berlin Insane compilation. Around this time, Ferland began working on My Name Is Claude, first composing material for an 11-piece orchestra and then solo piano works. In 2008, he released Always Lost Somewhere, a collection of live and studio demos that he sold at My Name Is Claude shows. Two years later, the Camille Voit la Neige served as a taster for the full-length Science of Doubt, a largely beatless work that combined synths with double bass, piano, and harp. The album spawned two years' worth of concerts in France and Germany as well as a documentary by director Tristan Milewski. Ferland worked with the director again, composing the music for 2017's Dream Boat, a documentary about a gay cruise that was nominated for the Best Music prize at Munich's DOK.fest. In 2018, My Name Is Claude released You Cannot Enter the Disco, an album about finding community that featured some of Ferland's most rhythmic works yet, and the Can't Cheat EP, a set of dub-inspired live improvisations. ~ Heather Phares