Inside El-sa: Sound, Memory, and a VHS dream

Originally published on The Sound Won’t Stop (Nov 17, 2025). Shared here with their permission. You can listen to El-sa on Spotify, Apple Music or Tidal. Follow me on Instagram for updates.

A Fresh Interview with Producer and Artist Marca Tatem

A new single release from Marca Tatem delivers classic synthwave approaches that breed a heavily cinematic nostalgic backbone. The track utilizes vintage synths and vocal pads that add depth and texture to the track.

One of my favorite aspects about El-sa is how the synth rhythm gives you a certain vibe, and then when the full beat comes in, it sort of surprises you. I love the beat on this track because it can be a little bit heavy-handed, but not over the top. It helps drive the song, but there's also a vastness in the track's undertone, again, giving it more of a cinematic pull.

As the song unfolds, new synths and keys show face, and these have a sort of crazy, funky feel to them. They're almost vocoded and have a semi-futuristic tonality to them. These play overlapping melodies and add this particular kind of flavor and texture to the song.

Other keys follow some of those melody lines, and the layers of how it all comes together are quite amazing.

It's melodies on top of melodies, and hooks on top of hooks, but there is a sense of freedom to it all. Almost like some of the overlaying stuff is improvised.

Those melodies are very hooky, and by the time they come in, you're already pulled into the song's atmosphere.

This is one of those classic synthwave tracks that breeds a heavy-handed atmosphere, and it reminds me of artists like Timecop1983 or Kavinsky.

The reason a lot of this works so well for me is that I grew up in the '80s and '90s. The cinematic element comes from films of that decade and era.

The genre has made a huge comeback in recent years, and listening to this record gives me such heavy-handed bouts of nostalgia that I absolutely couldn't turn away from it.

This is music that lets you feel something and also lets your mind go free.

The track had brilliant use of, not just layers, but tones. The way he puts those tones together and creates new hooks and melodies all the time while still keeping that forward-moving drive and flow is outstanding.

The other aspect of why this works so well is that there's never a still moment. It's always going and building in different ways. Synths get pulled out and new ones come in, different textures are now inputted, and new melodies and layers are in place, giving you a little bit of a different feel and aesthetic all the time.

I love a song that knows how to build and grow, change direction, but still has its base.

By the time you get to the last chunk of the track, everything is in full swing. You have all the layers together, the deeper bass keys, the overlaying synths, and everything else, all going at the same time.

The beat has a classic four and the floor almost swing feel, but the hi-hat also gives you the in-between ghost notes so that you can really follow along perfectly, and everything just fits together like puzzle pieces.

This was a brilliantly woven classic, vintage synthwave piece that really showcases a producer and composer who has a real love for the genre.

This song had heart and was not without pop sensibility whatsoever.

It was catchy and utilized such outstanding soundscapes to build something with its own atmosphere that wraps itself around you and keeps you right where it wants to.

Dreamy yet driving, cinematic yet edgy, charismatic yet smooth. It all comes together so well, and it's because this is an artist who puts a lot of time and attention into the arrangement, song building, sound sculpting, and tones of the instruments he's using.

Upon listening to this track, I found another released earlier this year called Love Resolved, which also had similar synth tones and classic drive. The Aesthetics of his releases are such perfection and absolute synthwave bliss that any fan of the genre won't be able to look away.

Both of these tracks are outstanding, and after I listened to them both more than a few times, I decided to have a chat with Marca about how he does his thing and what may be coming next for him.

So, while you listen to these tracks, take a read through of our interview with the artist below.

Let’s talk about “El-sa”! This song captured such a great synthwave aesthetic. Where did this track come from?

El-sa actually began as a tiny fragment from years ago, back when I was still living in Paris. I was playing around with a Juno-60 arpeggiator late one night and stumbled onto this hypnotic loop — a chord progression and bass line that locked together into a kind of perpetual motion.

I shelved it and forgot about it. Life happened — I moved to San Francisco about seven years ago, built a new life, new studio, new headspace. Then, while working on Daddy’s Got A— and Love Resolved, I dug through old drafts and found this one. It hadn’t bit-rotted, which in itself felt like a small miracle.

When I reopened it in Logic, that original spark was still there — raw but full of potential. So I rebuilt it from scratch on Ableton Live, gave it a modern mix and a punchier low-end, but kept the nostalgic pulse intact. The result is El-sa: a dreamy, slightly gritty track that nods to the ’80s without pretending to live there — cinematic, boomy, and a little romantic.

I’m hearing a few different approaches to this track! Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

I’ve always had pretty eclectic taste — I’ll jump from electronic music to funk, punk, or French pop without thinking twice. The French Touch lineage is the most obvious influence — Justice, Daft Punk, Kavinsky, SebastiAn — that gritty, melodic, emotional kind of electronic music.

But under that, there’s a whole other layer: I grew up surrounded by the sound of French FM radio in the late ’70s and ’80s — Gainsbourg, Étienne Daho, Lio — that playful mix of poetry, groove, and synths. I think that’s where my fascination with texture comes from.

So even when I’m writing something club-oriented, there’s usually a lyrical or cinematic undercurrent — something emotional hiding behind the compression and distortion. All of it just melts together in my head, and that fusion is what becomes my music.

Did you record this at a home setup or a big studio?

Everything was recorded in my home studio in the Mission, in San Francisco — a small space with big windows overlooking Twin Peaks. The neighborhood actually reminds me a lot of where I grew up in Paris, in Belleville — that same mix of cultures, street noise, cafés, and late-night energy. It’s vibrant, sometimes rough around the edges, but full of life — the kind of place that keeps your creativity awake.

I’m mostly working in the box these days, though. You’ll find a few real instruments — a couple of guitars, an electric bass, some stomp pedals — but most of the synths are software emulations controlled through MIDI. Honestly, the emulations are so good now that it’s almost impossible to tell the difference unless you’re an obsessive purist.

The trick is to make them feel alive — layering textures, adding tiny random imperfections, tape noise, saturation — anything that gives them human warmth. Even the choir parts and harmonies on El-sa were tracked here at home. It’s compact, but it has a soul — and that’s all you need to make something real.

How did this all start for you as an artist?

I think I’ve always seen the world through an artistic lens — long before I ever touched an instrument. For me, it’s about sensitivity to small things: a strange shadow, a fragment of conversation, a smell that sparks a memory. I take it all in, and somehow it becomes rhythm, texture, or emotion.

When I was a kid in Paris, my dad was a theatre-play director and actor, so I spent a lot of time backstage — surrounded by lights, rehearsals, the smell of makeup powder, stage fright, and dust. It was chaotic but also strangely sacred. I think that’s where I learned to love that space between structure and spontaneity.

Even when I’m programming — I spent years at Apple — it’s the same creative impulse. You start with an abstract idea, wrestle it into form, then obsess over details until it feels alive. It’s not that different from producing a track or shaping a mix.

What kind of synths did you use for this track?

The backbone of El-sa comes from an actual Roland Juno-60 arpeggiator section. I spent ages just playing with the sliders and faders to find the sweet spot — something percussive but still mellow, warm without ever turning muddy.

When I rebuilt the track in Ableton Live, I used the TAL Juno emulation and added my own secret sauce — layers of processing, saturation, and tiny imperfections to make it breathe. The lead synth and that vocoded, clavinet-like tone were both crafted in Serum. I love how deep and versatile it is; if you’re patient enough to sculpt the waveforms, you can take it anywhere.

The sub-bass is actually a stock Ableton patch — nothing fancy — just shaped with dynamic EQ so it doesn’t shake your car apart. Even the risers aren’t samples; they’re pure white noise generated in Ableton, crushed through compression until they inhale and exhale with the beat.

For drums, I built a hybrid kit from scratch — stitching together different sources. The snare in some sections is literally trimmed white noise, which gives it that toy-drum texture I love. No loops, no pre-baked kits — every sound was carved to live exactly where it belonged in the mix.

Are you influenced by cinema as well?

Definitely. I’ve always been drawn to the visual and musical language of late-’70s and ’80s cinema — John Carpenter, of course, both for his music and his scenes, which are so atmospheric and textural. But also the big, slightly over-the-top blockbusters of that era — Total Recall, Terminator, Blade Runner — those movies had a rawness, a grain, a kind of analog futurism that still feels alive today.

I wanted El-sa to carry that same patina — cinematic but imperfect, like a VHS dream. The same goes for Love Resolved.

I still watch modern films, but a lot of today’s blockbusters feel a bit too polished — too sanitized.

Are you performing live right now?

Not yet — I want to, but I’m waiting until I have enough tracks to build a proper DJ set. It’s going to be a new kind of experience for me. I used to perform live as a guitarist when I was younger, but that was in a band context — very different energy. This time, it would be just me, machines, and an audience to move. I’m honestly excited to figure out how that translates.

Now that this is out, what’s next for you?

A couple of weeks in Paris to reset my ears. After that, I’ve got a few more tracks in the making, all within that same French-distilled, synth-heavy world.

Who’s in your headphones right now?

Honestly? Mostly history podcasts! When I’m in a creative phase, I don’t listen to a lot of music — it’s like my brain needs quiet space to build its own sound world. The same thing happens when I’m deep in a programming project: I stop checking tech news or Hacker News. I just need the bubble.

It’s not that I don’t love listening to other artists — I do — but when I’m producing, I can’t help dissecting everything I hear. If I put on Justice, I immediately start analyzing the snare treatment instead of just feeling it. So I tend to go a bit “music-blind” when I’m creating. Once a track is done, I go back to exploring again, but during the build, I live mostly in silence… or drift off to the sound of someone unpacking the strange intimacy of Roman society.

What would you tell people they can expect on this release?

I think people can expect a mix of warmth and melancholy — something that feels familiar but not nostalgic. El-sa lives in that space between groove and emotion, between the analog past and the digital now.

Before we go, what would you like to express to fans of the music?

Gratitude — and spreading the love!

• You can find the original article on The Sound Won't Stop
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• Marca on Instagram, Spotify and Apple Music.