If you’d just recorded an electro concept album about a teenager zombified by a collision with a mysterious red Ferrari Testarossa, how would you announce it to the world? If you’d throw a party at a sprawling Ferrari showroom in Paris with a free champagne bar and inviting Daft Punk, Justice and Sebastian Tellier, then congratulations – you’re ready to step into Kavinsky’s world.
It’s a world that the Parisian DJ, born Vincent Belorgey, has built for himself from the ground-up. Everything about debut LP ‘Outrun’ adheres to his idiosyncratic aesthetic, founded on a love of fast cars, Eighties fashion and the sort of cinematic electro purpose built for neon-lit streets. “The best place to listen to my music is in your car,” he says over espressos. “It’s not made for clubs… or if it is I want to know about that club! I chose the character because I didn’t want to be on the front cover in black and white, sat next to a fireplace, looking moody. I wanted a story.”
Nicolas Winding Refn liked the story so much he used the Lovefoxx-featuring ‘Nightcall’ on the soundtrack of his 2011 Ryan Gosling-flick Drive, propelling the track towards 30 million YouTube hits. Such is Kavinsky’s hedonistic lifestyle, the first time he saw the film he’d spent the day in Paris downing whisky with Skrillex.
When they rocked up to the exclusive screening he still wasn’t sure when his tune would turn up. “I was like: “Where the fuck is my music?”” he says. “I thought maybe it would be over the end titles. I couldn’t wait. Then there was the black screen and: POW! I was jizzing in my pants! I grabbed hold of Skrillex and went: “Fuck, it’s my music! Man, this is the shit!” Then I felt a tap on my shoulder and some guy told me to shut up because he couldn’t hear the film!”
Originally published in NME, 2 March 2013.
The Collected Works of Kevin EG Perry 