On his sophomore LP, ‘Moda,’ Kazy Lambist continues to deliver his infectious brand of electro-pop, all while recruiting an international list of guests and extending his creative partnership with fellow French producer, Glasses.

Stream: ‘Moda’ – Kazy Lambist

As a kid in Southern France, Arthur Dubreucq had a lot at his fingertips.

French Touch, a popular Eurodisco subgenre from the turn of the millennium, was easily accessible to him in his native Montpellier. So was Cinémed, the city’s cross-Mediterranean film festival he would attend every summer while growing up. With so many sources for artistic inspiration like these around, Dubreucq was understandably drawn to the path of the performer himself. He achieved this first by joining a rock group with his school friends, then individually as an EDM producer. As his career progressed, he took on the stage name of Kazy Lambist, based on a type of drink he had discovered while doing an exchange program in British Columbia.

Moda - Kazy Lambist — Moda – Kazy Lambist

After toying with SoundCloud for a while, as many developing artists do, Kazy Lambist finally released his debut EP, Doing Yoga, in 2015, which was followed three years later by his first full-length album, 33 000 FT.

Monsieur Lambist returned with a follow-up LP this summer entitled Moda; its musical soundscape honors the French Touch/electro-pop music that he consumed while growing up and of which he has been crafting his own brand throughout the past decade.

The record also speaks to his cultural sensitivity – in the spirit of his beloved Cinémed film festival, Moda promotes the current cultural scene across the Mediterranean region, making room for guest artists from France, Italy and Turkey (all of which Dubreucq spent time living in throughout the making of Moda, which is even named for the corner of Istanbul where he set up shop for a while).

Shortly after the release of Moda this past summer, Kazy Lambist spoke to Atwood Magazine about the creation of the album, as well as his experience promoting his new music via a good number of concert and festival appearances on both sides of the Atlantic.

Read our interview below, and dive into Moda, out now!

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:: stream/purchase Moda here ::

:: connect with Kazy Lambist here ::

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A CONVERSATION WITH KAZY LAMBIST

This interview was originally conducted in French. It has been translated and edited for length and clarity.

Atwood Magazine: Can you talk about your artistic origins? Growing up in Montpellier in Southern France, what sort of music were you exposed to, and how did it inspire you to pursue music yourself?

Kazy Lambist: I started by learning how to play the piano as a kid. My parents set me up with lessons and I practiced it for seven years. Once I made it to middle school, I started learning guitar so that I could play along with my friends and form a rock group with them. We played together throughout middle and high school, and since I realized how much I adored making music, I started writing my own compositions after school. I experimented with a lot of different styles without really knowing what I was going to do with them. All the while, I was studying political science in college, unsure of where it would take me – if I was going to go work for the government, go into journalism, or whatever. But in the end, I wound up doing so much music on the side that it wound up becoming my full-time job.

Cool, and how did you wind up going with your stage name, Kazy Lambist?

Kazy Lambist: I came up with it a bit randomly because it made me sound like an American producer. That was back when I was a teenager and making music on SoundCloud. I liked it and thought it was catchy, so I went with it. I wouldn’t have thought I’d still be using that name 15 years later, but that’s what ended up happening.

Your oldest songs on Spotify are from 2014 – “Headson” and “Big Fish.” In a few sentences, how would you summarize the past 10 years since those songs came out and how you’ve grown artistically during that time?

Kazy Lambist: When I started out, I knew nothing. At first, I wasn’t making music for a living, but more just to share it with my friends. In 2014-15, I made a few tracks here and there while working odd jobs. Then, I won a local music contest around that time, and it opened more doors for me. If I think about what’s changed between then and now, I feel like I’ve found my footing in music-making more and settled more on what it is I want to do.

In my early career, things were crazy. I enjoyed myself but it was a period where I didn’t always take the time to think about what I wanted to achieve with each project. I feel like I am more meticulous nowadays.

Let’s talk about your new album, Moda. The first single off of it was “Cinémed,” which was inspired by your experience at the Festival du Cinéma Méditerranéen in your hometown of Montpellier. Can you talk more about how attending this festival influenced your new batch of music?

Kazy Lambist: Yes, every year since I was a kid, I’ve gone to see a lot of the short films that have been screened at that festival. It was super interesting to me to see movies from across the Mediterranean region there. On my own album, I’ve made a similar effort to feature guest artists from several different Mediterranean nations. It was my way to thank this festival for having given me some of the cultural awareness that has helped me out a lot as a musician.

How did the production of the album go for you?

Kazy Lambist: I largely produced this album with my longtime friend and colleague, Glasses, with whom I first collaborated in 2018 on the track “Love Song.” We wound up co-producing five songs that appear on Moda together, including the single, “Moda Disko.” That set the stage for the rest of the album, which is largely made up of collaborations. They are artists who I like and admire and who gave me the inspiration to complete this album and share it with the public.

They range from Emile Londonien, a super English jazz group; to Sedef Sebüktekin, a Turkish singer whose voice I loved and who I encountered at a festival in Turkey; to Fotini Peluso, an Italian actress with whom I did an interview in which she recited the poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolini. I spent two years living in Rome during the production of the album, where Pasolini was from, and so I heard his name come up a lot around town. It made sense that an actress from Rome would quote Pasolini herself as well.

I wanted to highlight the various cultures that I encountered while I was completing this album within the finished project.

How would you describe the period following the release of the album on June 21st?

Kazy Lambist: Right up until June 21st, I was feeling stressed out as I worked to resolve every little detail I could before the album’s release and to promote my music across the web and social media. So, as soon as I finally put out the album, I went off to Sicily to chill out a bit and disconnect from Instagram. My reaction to the album’s release was basically, “Phew, it’s finally over!” It was nice to take a bit of a summer vacation and feel liberated from a project that had taken me a long time to complete. It was a relief to have it over, and now I had more time to reconnect with friends and share my work with them.

How did your recent tour in the United States go? Was it a good experience?

Kazy Lambist: Yes, it was my first time touring in the U.S., although I’d gone to visit a few times before, and it was a super experience. I was touring alongside the electro-pop duo Kid Francescoli. I’d met their founding member, Mathieu Hocine, who, like me, is from Southern France, and we got along well. For him, it was his third time touring in the U.S., and he knew a lot of the ins and outs of American concert venues. I benefited a lot from the knowledge he passed on to me.

It was nice to perform each night and then wake up the next morning in a new city; we got to discover a lot of new places. It was encouraging to see that we already had made a lot of fans so far away from home, and they gave us a warm welcome each time. We actually started in Canada with a few shows in Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto. Then, we went down to the U.S. and hit up Boston and New York, then made our way across the country and finished up in San Francisco and Los Angeles. It was a childhood dream come true!

Do you have any other projects on the horizon now that you’ve finished your most recent album?

Kazy Lambist: I have some festivals coming up in France this summer, and then in the fall I’ll be doing some more shows across Europe in countries like England, Spain, Italy, and Germany. They are countries that I’m interested in visiting and it’s going to be fun to do so. For now, I’m more focused on promoting my latest music than on creating more of it. I’m trying to get people to listen to the album in full, instead of just listening to the singles or watching the music videos or whatever.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Kazy Lambist: I want to announce that I’ll be performing at Olympia in Paris on May 28th next year. It’s been my dream to play in that legendary concert venue and I’m so looking forward to it.

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