Edward Snowden’s New Job: Electronic Music Vocalist

French composer Jean Michel Jarre and whistleblower Edward Snowden, two enigmatic figures for starkly contrasting reasons, have collaborated on “Exit,” a track off the electronic music pioneer’s upcoming new LP Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise. For the pulse-racing cut, the composer travelled to Russia to work with the former NSA analyst, who remains in exile after leaking classified documents detailing how the United States and other countries are spying on their citizens.

In this exclusive video to Rolling Stone, Snowden discusses his love of electronic music, Jarre’s influence on the genre and why he collaborated with the Oxygène composer.

“I’ve always appreciated electronic music. The melodies that I remember with most fondness are actually from video games where they generate 8-bit music, and those kinds of chiptunes have really made a resurgence in modern musical culture today,” Snowden says in the video. “And I think people like Jean Michel are the ones who really popularized that and made that possible for us to appreciate it as more than just sounds, as more than just background, but as actual culture.”

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Jarre says he reached out to a journalist and mutual acquaintance he shared with Snowden who eventually put them in contact. “We connected quite easily through a trusted friend of Edward’s,” Jarre said. “I think that Edward was surprised to receive my invitation to collaborate on a musical composition, to voice his message via another media.”

For Jarre, Snowden’s refusal to turn a blind eye toward the U.S.’ spying program reminded the composer of his mother France Pejot, a key figure in the French Resistance during World War II. “I thought a lot about what she told me when I was a kid, saying that when society is generically something that you can not accept, you have to stand up against it,” Jarre said. “Edward Snowden became a modern hero, not by saying ‘stop,’ but to be careful regarding the (ab)use of technology.”

Over the course of a few videoconference conversations, Jarre and Snowden laid the foundation for their collaborative track, including its frenzied, anxious tone and Snowden’s message within the song. “Obviously the spectre of surveillance heavily looms as soon as you find yourself in direct contact with Edward,” Jarre told Rolling Stone. The collaborators eventually met up in Russia, where Snowden has been seeking asylum, to complete work on “Exit.” “I was surprised, ” Snowden admits in the video. “It was certainly not something I was expecting, as a engineer [and] someone who’s not really cool.”