Thought the sun had set on the European electro boom? Think again, as 2011 is beginning to look like 2007 all over again with the scene’s big players coming out of the woodwork for another round of distortion domination. Chief among that vanguard of returning electro stars is SebastiAn (Ed Banger), the glitchy studio genius who’s been tinkering on his debut album, Total, for what seems like an eternity. But no longer as Total is now out and in the ears of fans, and to discuss the record as well as his long-anticipated return to Australia with a new live show, SebastiAn got on the phone with inthemix for a rap session.

One thing that I felt I must ask you was what took so long with Total? You worked on it for several years and now it’s finally out.

“I think I was trained to take my time and to follow all the different little directions. You know when Justice arrived and they had of their songs in the same clubs? I just wanted to take my time and try out all the different ideas and different projects. You know Roman Gavras? The director? He asked me to make the soundtrack for his movie Notre Jour Viendra and I thought that would take maybe two months or a bit more and it ended up taking one year. So I was really on two projects at the same time.”

That wasn’t your first soundtrack either because you also did Steak with Mr. Oizo and Sebastien Tellier. Does working on projects like that allow you to do things that you can’t do on your own as a solo artist?

“Yeah, it’s totally cool to work with a lot of people and on a movie you have many people to work with. It’s very different to working alone at home or in the studio. It’s a different…how do you call it…exercise.”

Total has a couple of collaborations, firstly with Mayer Hawthorne on Hudson River and you also have M.I.A. featuring too. How did those two songs come together?

“I met Mayer in the streets in Amsterdam one year ago. I found him very intriguing and thought that we could make something together. And it worked. I sent him the song and then one week later he came to me with his finished vocals, so it was very, very simple. M.I.A. I met five years ago when I was playing the first Daft Punk shows. She became a friend so I just asked her to do it. She was in London at the time so I went there and I think we finished recording it in, like, three hours.”