Global star Kavinsky reveals a new stunning album ‘Reborn’, his first album in nine years out via Astralwerks/Record Makers
With its bubbling, infectious vibe, the track is irresistible, just like its subject – the ex-lover who “always makes a cameo.” Lomax – the singer-songwriter known for songs like “Melatonin” and “Hard Feelings” and her feature on the Diplo/Paul Woolford hit “Looking For Me” – wrote the lyrics with Feli Ferraro. Kavinsky wrote the music and produced alongside Victor Le Masne. The official video for “Cameo,” directed by Filip Nilsson (Major Lazer, Justice, Röyksopp), offers an imaginative twist on cinematic cameos. Music video production was done by Henry.tv.
Nilsson recalls being inspired by a clip he had seen of stuntpersons. “It was like a dance, so well-choreographed. I thought, ‘what if everyone was Kavinsky and beating the shit out of themselves?’” he explains. “Cameos, lasers, stunts, an abandoned horse racing arena and insane FPV drone footage – it felt like a good mix, and it resonates really well with the Kavinsky legacy and with this track. The challenge on a shoot like this was to make sure no one got hurt. The drone flying among a crowd and chasing people jumping from tall buildings was tricky. It was also a strong moment seeing my friend Gaspard Auge from Justice do a cameo, swinging his ancient weapon.”
Reborn is the follow-up to Kavinsky’s 2013 full-length debut, Outrun, which included the singles “Nightcall,” “Roadgame,” and “Odd Look.” Featured in the opening scene of Nicolas Winding Refn’s classic 2010 movie Drive and produced by Daft Punk’sGuy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, “Nightcall” made Kavinsky an electro pop legend and went on to amass more than 500 million streams.
“After the sudden success of ‘Nightcall,’ I didn’t really want to record again,” recalls Kavinsky. “I took two steps back and started to imagine what I was going to record after that, at my own pace. The break allowed people to forget about me for a little bit so that when I felt ready to return, I could perhaps try new things.”
Outrun was an album of its time, fast and furious, produced in full throttle / full compression mode. On Reborn, Kavinsky wanted to record something more timeless and more musical by taking the time to experiment with gear, instruments and his collaborators, which include Victor Le Masne and Gaspard Augé (half of the group Justice). Kavinsky speaks candidly with MixMag about his extended break and the approach he took to recording Reborn in this feature.
Recorded in the late Philippe Zdar’s Motorbass studio in Paris, Reborn is a clear-cut and carefully crafted tribute to the history of pop culture put together by a very special artist with a unique ability to cite masterpieces from many fields, time and space while painting a precise and personal vision of the future.
