Firstly, how did you first get involved in the music scene?
The year is 1986, the city is Clichy Sous Bois, a suburb of Paris. I am 13, I have spent one of those endless and blessed nights with my BMX buddies, watching VHS of Flat Freestyle from brands like GT and Haro, listening to some LL Cool J, Genesis, Kool Moe Dee and practicing our graffiti skills.
My old friend William aka DJ Monsieur Willy has recorded a radio show on tape a few days back, the frequency is Radio 7, it was probably the first time hip-hop was broadcasted on French airwaves, not only hip-hop; but French hip-hop. On the mic, free-styling was MC Iron and MC Shoes.
The first time I heard French hip-hop, my initial reaction was endless giggles, the kind of giggling that can kill you. My second reaction was to take a pen and paper, and write my first bars. Actually, my friends and I took this “joke” very seriously and three or four years later, we have a studio and our graffiti posse became a rap group: MOM. Don’t even try to Google it, every tapes or videos were buried very deeply on a secret place on earth! ;-)
Who are your musical influences both past and present?
Wow! I have been listening to music with passion and insatiableness since I was 8 or 9 years old, so be ready for a long answer.
It all started with my late brother’s vinyls. He used to buy them at "Champs Disques" a legendary record shop in Les Champs Elysées. Lots of Funk, Reggae and classic pop albums (Dire Straits, Christopher Cross, Pink Floyd, George Benson, Genesis, Phil Collins, Supertramp etc).Then hip-hop came into my life in the mid 1980’s and never left. (Let’s say from K 9 Posse to Anderson Paak). The first ATCQ album in 1990 was a turning point for me, a record that opened me a window on a new musical landscape: Jazz. It made me a connoisseur of Blue Note, Prestige, Impulse, CTI etc. As I have said once, my brother was addicted to heroine, I became myself addicted to John Coltrane.
Then, the less I rapped in my tracks, the more I started to sing my hooks, Stevie practically became a member of my family. I learnt how to harmonise vocals by singing along with his albums, a third note lower. His music made me realise that I had a voice too, with a wide range (I have more than 3 octaves, seems it’s pretty rare for a male singer).
I chased my Trane addiction with another one: Marvin Gaye, I became totally obsessed with his falsetto and his unique way of composing pieces of music more than just songs. I was also totally under the influence by the way he considers vocal arrangements like a conversation with himself (a real vocal echo to the “Conversations with myself” by pianist Bill Evans, whom I see as a 20th Century Debussy).
I lost my father 2 months before Marvin’ s father killed him. I often dreamt about him, we discussed music, and he gave me advice, I am very connected to his tortured and elegant mind. Check this Voxtape I did if you want to share this passion I have for Marvin.
I also have a passion for lesser known singers, people that I consider geniuses but have never really achieved big success or large public recognition, amongst them would be Lewis Taylor, Chris Rainbow (probably the best vocal arranger in the history of pop music), Lewis, Eric Tagg, Eric Woolfson, Bobby Scott, Colin Blunstone, Nicky Hopkins (mostly an incredible pianist, but some of his songs are as good as The Beatles’ masterpieces).
Nowadays, music releases are like weekly meteor showers - you have to take shelter, there is so much music to listen to! It seems like everybody is a DJ or a musician, most of the time it’s bad stuff. I am a gourmet, I have fine taste and I can be very demanding regarding music.
I love to focus on what I consider my musician’s family- the people I work with, I am very interested and focused on what my friends do. I like to understand what they try to bring to the game and sometimes try find their idiosyncrasy. Laure Brisa, my girlfriend, has something unique with her harp and embroidered lace songs. The chords that Bastien Belde composes on piano can move me to tears (almost all the songs of the solo album I want to release were composed with him), my young friend and collaborator from LA, Jon GK is a great artist to follow. I am also always interested to keep an ear on Monsieur Willy's DJ sets or drums producing. I really love to collaborate as you know, and Alan Braxe is someone I love to create with, both of us have obsessions of the production side, and think that a record should be something important and unique.
I have collaborations in progress with Domenico Torti, Jon GK, Pyramid and Victor Le Masne. All these talented people have specific visions and a real point of view on music. I also have a gem; a very haunting duet with Laure called, “Woman Next Door”, inspired by the François Truffaut movie “La femme d’à côté”, our own love story and a theme from Maurice Ravel- my new addiction! Xavier and Gaspard from Justice helped me on the mix and the editing of the song. I am of course really inspired, or I prefer to say stimulated by my friendship and collaboration with Justice.
In my opinion with Daft Punk and Mirwais, Justice are the greatest French artists. Not only musically, but because of how they deal with such success whilst remaining true to their friends, team, visions and beliefs, and that is so important. A true challenge in these days of hardcore capitalism and Spotify figures slavery. (I am totally pissed off with this platform, I have just realised last week that I have more than 13 millions streams on the tracks I’m involved in and that it seems impossible to make these figures appear on my profile, labels-distributors and streaming platforms playing a cat and mouse game!)
You’ve worked on some amazing records over the years: Is there one song that holds a special place in your heart?
Thank you. Man, are you trying to ask me if I prefer my daughter Louise or my son Vadim?
Your question has really tugged at my heart. Love is the core of most of the tracks I do, I don’t play with love, when I sing “In love with you” over and over, I mean it. I am really in love at that moment, that’s what makes the song true and not boring despite it being one sentence that is repeated over and over again. Is there another mantra one can ear without getting upset, except someone telling you ‘I love you’?
When I sing “There’s a love, love, love emergency”, I am in a position in my life where danger really strikes, to me personally but also for all of us on this earth. I’ve always been an outsider, my career has been under the radar, and it always been difficult to me to find a way to release my own music, so I only have a few tracks officially out under my name.
Maybe I’d suggest you to take a listen to a song I released in the early days of Kitsuné, it’s called “I’ve found”, because I think it’s an accomplishment on what was my goal at that time: I wanted to define my vision of what should be the future of pop music, a sophisticated soulful track mixing ingredients from hip-hop, soul and electronic music, I produced that track in 1998 using an ASR 10 sampler, a mic and an Atari ST 1040, and it was released in 2003.
Though today, I would make the track shorter cause I think the song is too long, therefore, I have the feeling that I was ahead of my time regarding what moguls like Kanye, Timbo, Darkchild or Neptunes produced at that time. Funny thing is that Karl Lagerfeld loved that track, he said it was “Michael Jackson meeting Massive attack” … Actually, it was just me.
Today, if you have the chance to listen to the music I produce, you’ll see that I am no longer really interested in searching a modernity, but that I seek to achieve a certain classicism. Not only because I think it’s to easy to sound modern or digital when you see the softwares strike force, but also because at the end of the day, what I’ve always felt in the depth of my heart is that what stands the time is the quality of an idea and the strength of a song. I don’t say production is not important, wait, I’m still obsessed with production, but I want to avoid all the digital tricks that most software offers you.
It’s not often we have a Grammy honoured vocalist in our presence, tell us what it feels like to be in that special club?
February 10th 2019, 61st annual Grammy Awards, was a day to celebrate. The date is also important because I met Laure exactly 3 years before that same day.
Easy to say now, but I was sure Justice would get the Grammy for Woman World Wide, I felt it. This album shows their ability to turn great songs in “Stadium Anthems”, and their unique way to keep a fresh eye on their own catalogue. Have you seen their show? It was crazy! It’s especially rewarding that they won it for an album that’s neither a real studio album nor a live album; but a record including tracks from their 3 former albums. It means it’s a career that is considered by the academy and a bunch of collaborators involved in it, and I was lucky enough to be part of that team. I’ve been really supportive with G & X, sending them texts and good vibes, but didn’t really know if they won that I’d be honoured by the Grammys too!! So, I was very moved when I heard they did it, and so happy and proud when I received this beautiful certificate.
I actually received 2 certificates: one as Vocalist, and few months later another one as Concept & creative contributor (I sing on “Fire”, “Love SOS” and co-produced it too, check the documentary I did with my homie Guillaume Gravier if you wanna know more)
I thought of my brother, I thought how he would be proud of me, I’m thankful that he let me listen to his records on his gramophone, and also made me think of my late uncle, who showed me his analog synthesisers when I was a little kid. It made me feel that I entered music history, by the little door, but I’m officially in the books now, somewhere.
I never had plans or dreams of celebrity, I think the competition, and the quest for money and capitalism, ruins people and first and foremost our planet. However, this moment is here to remind me it’s worthy to keep on doing music, there is a constant need to reinvent yourself and challenging yourself. Not to be better than your buddies, but better than yourself.
There is also something funny to be honoured by an academy, when all your musical background is essentially unacademic: I don’t know how to write or read music, and I have never taken a singing lesson!
Lastly, do you have any advice for songwriters or vocalists who are just starting out in their career?
The only thing that can be really taught is harmony, so learn music. I regret that I didn’t learn how to play piano or guitar, or whatever instrument you can compose chords changing with - you need a beautiful landscape to write a melody. Learn from the best and try to understand why they are the greatest; Paul Mc Cartney, Rod Temperton, Bill Withers, Paul Williams, Stevie Wonder, La Shawn Daniels, Pharrell Williams, Max Martin etc. That covers the theory aspect.
Now for the practical side, you can use your phone to record vocal demos, whatever comes in your mind, sing it. Oh, you think it sounds crappy? You don’t need a technical good quality to understand if the idea is good or bad. Believe me, intelligent people in this business don’t need a mastered demo produced with the latest plugins to understand if they are interested or not.
Use these memos like a trash, usually first ideas are not good because you have the natural tendency to use your good recipes, but it helps you to filter. On the other hand, when a first shot is good, it’s often really good. When you think it’s good enough, ok plug the mic, pre-amp and sing. Now, be sure to be perfect technically, when it’s no longer a demo, maybe it will be cut on wax, maybe it will enter history, maybe your kids would own these tapes and rights!
Always be kind with others but be a tyrant with yourself. Get in the booth only if it’s worthy, only if you think it says something specific and true about you, and that other people can relate to this moment. A good song says something intimate about a particular writer/singer, but should also reveal something about the whole human kind. Good singers sing for the audience, not to be flattered by the echo of their own voice; that’s why they often close their eyes while singing, to forget themselves.
And when you sing, please, don’t compete with the music, don’t draw all the attention to you, or aim to be louder than the drummer. Listen to the a cappella of "Rock with you" for example, this track still turns every dance floor on earth on fire, still, Michael Jackson only whispers the first verse melody…Think about that. Find the melody in the chords, the beat, don’t take all the space, try to find your place in this landscape, and add beauty from within.
Listen to jazz musicians, this is the excellence of language, they don’t speak to say nothing, wether they have a lot to say like Coltrane or very few like Grant Green or Miles, they listen to each other with lots of respect and interest.
