Altered Zones

Altered Zones was sad to find out this weekend that our Swiss-French friends over at Delicious Scopitone are laying their blog to rest after a year and a half of activity. We talked with founder Emmanuel Ducret about the decision over email. Original French interview after the jump.

AZ: What made you decide to retire Delicious Scopitone?

Emmanuel: Delicious Scopitone is a “collaborative” blog. Like in any family or romantic relationship, there are both moments of happiness and moments of tension. It’s hard to find a balance that works well for everyone, to communicate well so that everyone feels like they have their place. When you’re no longer able to move forward together in harmony, you have to know when to stop. So that’s what happened to our wonderful adventure!

The other thing that made me realize that it was time to lay DS to rest was the amount of time I was devoting to it. Running a blog is no easy task, and it’s often to the detriment of our personal lives. I really needed to find myself again, to reconnect with my loved ones, in the “real world”. To leave the virtual world so I could return to it with pleasure, and not out of “obligation”-- the obligation to be there, to be first, to get the premiere. Because it really is a race -- a race without end, without limits.

AZ: What was your favorite thing about being a blogger?

Emmanuel: A few months ago, I was still deep inside the MP3 mine -- searching, prospecting, staying up all night listening to music in the hope of uncovering something I liked. I have to say that I don’t really have this “leisure” any more, this pleasure, and I don’t enjoy publishing just because hundreds of visitors are waiting for my next post. I guess it’s my fault for having thought so “big”. It doesn’t feel like your blog belongs to you anymore. It’s a strange feeling-- all the more so because music blogging, by definition, is sharing what you love with other people. I just felt conflicted by the whole situation.

The second aspect of blogging I really enjoyed was really putting my ears to work, like a muscle. Just by listening all the time, my ears transformed, better equipped to discover new horizons. To appreciate sounds, rhythms, and musical universes that were foreign to me, and to recognize that I was hearing something really interesting.

Without forgetting, of course, all the wonderful artists, fellow bloggers, and visitors I met along the way -- and all the friendships and creative exchanges that resulted.  I can’t imagine any of that ever happening if I hadn’t done the blog.

AZ: Will the Delicious Scopitone contributors continue blogging elsewhere? What are your plans?

Emmanuel: I don’t know what the other contributors’ plans are; it’s still too early to say, and I definitely don’t think that I can speak on their behalf. I think that each of us must take the time to grieve in his or her own fashion. It was not an easy decision to make, despite the suddenness of the announcement.

On my end, I don’t want to rush into anything. I would like to eventually create a new project better suited to me personally. But I want this absence to endure, and will not be resurrecting the site itself in any way. I just don’t want to mix things up, don’t want to reconstruct from the ashes of what I left behind.

Version française: