Alex Virgo is whetting our appetite with ‘Amuse Bouche’

Calling while on a leisurely walk around Hyde Park, Alex Virgo sounds at ease between the noises of day-time birds and London traffic merging together, his presence overtly calming. With his new release, Amuse Bouche, having only been out for a few hours, I can imagine he is walking with a spring in his step — after all, he’s just set the mood for the summer. Virgo’s music is made for evenings with friends, a chilled beer garden before a heavy night or a sweaty festival, feeling the dried grass stuck to your legs. If nothing else, the EP makes you crave a can of Fanta Lemon and a light burn on the tip of your nose.

Amuse Bouche consists of two tracks: the titular single, “Amuse Bouche”, and “Petits Four”, both names of bite-sized snacks one might munch on while waiting for the main course. As with every memorable meal, Virgo — who moonlights as a trainee fine-dining chef — is making you want more with these tracks, leaving you wondering what other tastes he can whip up if the starter is this good. And, you could argue, there’s no better outlet for Virgo to talk to about this auditory culinary experience than HUNGER.

Francesca Ionescu: Hi, Alex! Congratulations on the hot new release. How’s that been?

Alex Virgo: Thank you! Yeah it’s good — it just came out, been getting lots of messages and people playing it, so that should be a nice high over the weekend.

FI: The sun is shining, and your tracks are very reminiscent of summer — maybe rooftop party vibes. What was your inspiration?

AV: I made it earlier this year, in the depths of winter, but in my mind I was fully thinking about summer. Both tracks are honing in on that summer feeling in different ways. I think “Amuse Bouche” was looking for that festival feeling — the outdoors. While “Petits Four” is a more club-driven track, but with sunshine still in mind.

FI: How come a lot of the names, including your Pomme Frite label, are in French?

AV: It actually comes back to the influences of what I’m into, which is French House — the likes of Daft Punk and Ed Banger Records — so it was originally an homage to that. The “Amuse Bouche” and “Petits Four” names came about because there was a sort of hiatus with the label for the last year. I was working out what approach I wanted to take with the label and as I got my confidence back, this is almost the re-launch of the label. So this is the pre-appetiser — the anticipation before we go for a meal.

FI: How do you think your vision has changed from what you were working on a year ago?

AV: I chopped and changed it all, because Pomme Frite was doing very well as a label, but I moved on to making a different sound, so there was a separation between the two projects. Over the years, though, I found it very important to have a brand around you as an artist. Now I’ve found this common ground that suits the label, and I found other artists making the same sort of music. I don’t think I’ve turned my back on the label, it’s just become more dynamic.

FI: Getting hungry now! Where does the focus on food come from?

AV: Food and music have always been my passion. In the last year, I started training as a fine-dining chef, which is part of the reason why this self-confidence has come back, because I found another passion. And then the label was always going to lean towards food. We’ve got some collabs coming up, we’ve got a hot sauce coming out next month and we’re going to do some parties in food-related places. It felt like the natural voicing for the label.

FI: I suppose fine-dining is an art form in itself.

AV: For me, it was another creative outlet. I think the music industry at the moment is on unsteady ground, so once I took the dependency out of music and found that other outlet, it gave me a little bit more creative freedom.

FI: Financially, there have been a lot of problems with venue closures and streaming. How do you find your position as an artist changing?

AV: I think it’s becoming tougher and tougher to, sort of, cut through. It’s a very oversaturated market at the moment, and now content is just as important as music. So you can’t just make music in a dark room and hope for the best. You need to be a little more forefront, and people like a brand around you and an identity. I think becoming a chef has become part of that identity.

FI: I’m sure that following social media trends consistently must be quite demoralising.

AV: I was quite abrasive to social media at first, but you talk to people and they say, you have to find your voice — which seems easier said than done. I think once you get some practice with it and you’re true to who you are, you can sort of figure out how to do it without dancing on TikTok. It has to be organic to be authentic. You see artists sometimes and you think, oh, marketing has just asked you to do this. When someone does something original, that’s what cuts through.

FI: And with the brand, do you have any bucket list clubs or festivals?

AV: I’d love to play Panorama Bar, Berghain, but I think that’s on most house DJ’s dream list.

FI: Looking to the future, what do you see Pomme Frite evolving into?

AV: The ethos of the label has always been breaking up-and-coming artists and having a community — having artists coming back and doing second and third releases. So for the next few releases, that will be the case, and hopefully we get some big remixes on. And then it’s about making the brand slightly more dynamic. We’d love to do a collab with a pop-up or somewhere special — a sandwich bar, that sort of thing. That’s how I see the label becoming almost a lifestyle brand.

FI: Just before I let you enjoy the rest of your sunny stroll, what songs will you be having on repeat this summer?

AV: I already know it’s Chloé Caillet and Luke Alessi’s “The One”.