Kazy Lambist

0:12Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. For today's show, I speak with Montpellier-born musician Casey Lambest. His music is an elegant, bouncy mix of upbeat melodies and evocative lyrics. We discuss his latest album Moda and how Turkey influenced his latest release.

0:45What did Turkey do you like to do? Turkey definitely inspired this album and when I was living in Rome I was also going to Turkey a lot because I kind of fell in love with Istanbul these past years. I don't know how it happened. I went to play once there and I just connected with the crowd. I love this city. It was a country i didn't know much about and because it's uh it's such a closed country we don't have like it's difficult for turkish people to even travel to to france for example so we don't have a lot of exchange uh cultural exchange in general with turkey which is a shame because they actually have a bright beautiful scene and moda is the name of an area in istanbul that is an area for artists.

1:36I met musicians from there. You have a lot of music shops. It's very cute. So it's an area where you have a lot of music shops. It's very cute. You have beautiful view on the Bosphorus. So yeah, I fell in love with this neighborhood and made sense to call my album This Way. Also because first I had featureings with Turkish singers on the album. And Moda was also... It's also an Italian name. It's also an Italian word and I was living in Italy for two years in Rome so moda was also just it was obvious when I thought about this word.

2:17Nothing's ever gonna happen till we get Down, eat them all around, I'm starving

2:32Well, and it's a beautiful word as well, you know. It's a beautiful word. It's beauty, it's fashion, exactly. And by the way, curiosity. I mean, the cover of the album is impressive. It's very, very elegant. Where was that? Tell me a bit more about the album cover. It's a really, really cool one, actually. Thank you. The album cover is, we made it in a studio. It's not an actual place. It's a fake window that we see. But we wanted to make something with photographer Antoine Henault. We wanted to make something that would refer to Italian painting. And especially, it's really inspired by Dick Irico.

3:11uh and cara who are painters for like futurist surrealistic before like beginning of surrealist movement in italy and the de kirkko was painting a lot uh italy empty it was a lot of paintings of like rome rome for example but without anyone and just was very architecture centered centered on the architecture and on the just the shapes of the city and when i went to rome it was during lockdown so there was no one and i discovered rome without any tourists it was amazing and that's when i really thought about those paintings of the kiriko that were actually the kind of coming to life during lockdown and some of the songs in your new album the vibe is and it's funny because i was even reading in the press release of the film La Grande Belleza.

4:08It could have been the soundtrack of it because it's very bouncy. I don't know. I love Moda Disco. Moda Disco is such an excellent track. What can you tell us about this track? It is bouncy, in my opinion. Cool. It's nice. We just started to do some live and some concerts, and I'm happy because it's a track that functions for the crowd. is dancing to it a lot. So that's a good surprise. It's a song I co-composed with Glasses. Glasses is a producer I worked a lot with. I also made another single from the previous album that was called Love Song with this guy. So we worked a lot on this album. I collaborated with him on several songs.

4:56And then I met this singer Denze in Istanbul in Moda. She lives in Moda. and we recorded the song there. And it's, yeah, it's a fun experience. It went very fast to record with her and it was like kind of an obvious thing. Making dinner on time Taking you out in Paris In the 10th and the 9th He bought the dress Never rich and a 10th You mentioned Turkey a lot, Italy. When you go to those countries, do you also get music inspiration? Do you listen to the radio in those countries and perhaps like, oh, I didn't know such an amount of music And Turkey, I have to agree with you, I didn't know much about Turkish music, but they have amazing pop music.

5:47Like I've been looking at some of their artists from the 80s. It's incredible. Yes, yes, they have amazing artists from the 70s, the 80s. It depends where I travel. I usually always try to go to concerts, to go out to meet people from the place. And when I can, I stay a few more days after the show. but for example in Italy to be completely honest I was I don't feel like I was inspired a lot by the music I was more inspired that's why I think I wanted to talk about my Italian experience through the cover and through for example I have an interlude on the album with it's actually a poem of Pasolini read by an Italian actress called Fotini Peluso and so in the end the the italian influence in the album is more on poetry on cinema and on the visual indian in painting than in music but on in turkey i really discovered the new a whole world with different instruments and it's another way to to make music and and yes you're right they have like a really good instinct for pop music yeah and and there's always like a a breezy sensual element to your music, which is fantastic.

7:06Like that song, one of my favorites as well, Somebody to Love. What an amazing track. What is this about, this song? Is it about longing? I think this song is basically about looking for someone that doesn't exist and just having expectations for someone. Yes, you will never find. And that's kind of this frustration of nowadays trying to find the perfect match. I don't know, that's something I had in mind about somebody to love, finding the perfect somebody to love that you will never find. That's a nice explanation, actually. Yeah, I think that's how I saw this song. And Casey, tell us about your tour as well.

7:50I know you're coming to London as well, which is very exciting news. But what about your fan base? So tell us about the tour and your fan base outside France. Do you have fans in Turkey, a country that you've been talking a lot about it? and your song is very international i mean it's definitely not just french yeah i think my my audience is kind of a bit in all the capitals i i like i found out with time it's like uh when we played also in the spring in new york in la there there were like people that were really into it in germany also in berlin in hamburg it's uh always nice to go there and Turkey is very small in the end when you want to tour, so it's only three cities, it's Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul.

8:37And Istanbul I've already played so many times there, so I guess if they keep inviting me, I guess I have some people who enjoy it there. Paris is still, of course, my main fan base, if you want to call it that way. And talking about inspiration, what inspires me musical is when I go to France. I think the music scene there is fantastic. How do you see the French music scene today? Do you see a lot of new artists? Perhaps are they on your playlist? Tell us a bit more because I think France is amazing when it comes to music. To be honest, it's going to be a very... It's not going to be an original opinion but the Olympics were not that bad at representing the french scene i didn't think i was going to say that but in the end like it was a huge mainstream stuff but it was kind of good illustration of all the tech the electronic french scene it was very nice so just looking at this lineup is already having a good like first taste of the french scene i feel and yes there is also a lot of techno i don't think it's the same it's i think it's the same in a lot of places i i feel in istanbul as well but and in rome as well but in paris right now there's a big uh comeback of the techno underground world a lot of parties a lot of people go yeah to all types of techno right now actually uh coming back and for sure paris is a great place to go out and to to see so many different uh because it's also an international place so we have bands a lot of bands from africa for example that i feel like it's very multicultural and a lot of influences you can even in terms of jazz jazz music in paris is great and i also collaborated uh with with jazz players on this album collaborated with a band french band called emil londonien that i recommend you to check and joey omisiel who's a saxophonist player from haiti and from canada yeah i mean i just coming back to paris for me it's the best place if you want to see different, like, I guess London is also, I hear that London is amazing.

10:52I don't know London enough. And I'm so I'm very happy to come to go back, by the way. But I think the difference with Paris, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, is you mentioned this connection you have, you know, with some African countries as well. I'm Brazilian, there's lots of Brazilian music in Paris. There's an interest to the French in international music. It's really, really fascinating. Yeah, I think there is in general in France, I would say the same about cinema. People watch a lot of foreign movies in France. That's the thing. I grew up like this. We would always see movies from everywhere.

11:28So I guess that's a specific thing for France. Yeah. And for music as well, we just listen to a lot of Brazilian music for sure. Yeah. which I'm glad but can you give us a little taster of your upcoming tour I know you're going to a few cities in Europe including London will it be mainly kind of songs from Moda I presume not mainly actually because what I find out is I don't want also people to be people don't know yet all the songs of my new album for sure they've sometimes listened to one, two, three and I don't want to have them waiting to hear the song they came to listen to for the whole show.

12:09So I'm for sure playing also, I mean, I'm here for the people, so I'm playing the songs they also came to hear. Amazing. Well, may I put on a request for your version of Paris Tropical? Oh, wow. That would be a first. I've never played it. Amazing. Listen, Kazi, a pleasure talking to you. I love your music and hope to see you in London as well.

12:38Sous le soleil de Jean Paris brûlée parisienne Sous le soleil de Jean

12:48Sous le soleil de Jean Paris brûlée parisienne Sous le soleil de Jean Thank you very much, Casey Lamb is there. His album, Morda, is out now. The show was edited by Flynn Simons and I am Fernando Gusto Pacheco.