KADEBOSTANY

«We sat down with the amazing Kadevostany, and honestly, he totally won us over with how down-to-earth he is. Now we get why everyone and their mother wants to collab with him!»

– I think this is the beauty of life: nothing is perfect, nothing is too symmetrical. –

In ‘Elephant in the room’, you play with the tension in a relationship. Why did you choose this metaphor to describe that ‘unspoken weight’ between two people?

I think I must be a bit more precise about my work with Kadebostany. So, I’m writing, I’m composing the song, I usually invite different artists, singers, vocalists in my world, and they have kind of a freedom to write whatever they want. So, it’s really much inspired by the music. The way I express myself is through melodies and sounds, and then I let the people free to write. This time it was Selin that was singing and she also wrote the lyrics. So, it’s hard for me to explain their own lyrics because this is my song of course, but I didn’t write the lyrics. Sometimes I catch some words, some ideas but my way to express is much more about the music. But she’s really a very singular person. She’s much more interested in nature and she likes to retire herself in the forest, very much about spirituality.

The song that gives the album its title, ‘The outsider’, features Alex Sid and has a clear Greek influence. Do you think that, at some point in our lives, we have all been ‘outsiders’?

This time, I really worked on the lyrics. It was the theme of my album. I always considered myself as an outsider. At school I was not a very popular person and I’ve always been like a bit alone. So, I had to create my own reality, my own world. And this very much described me. I really wanted to have a song to relate about what it is to be an outsider. That was the beginning of my reflection for this album. In general, I really tend to like to gravitate around outsiders, because I feel good with them. Whenever I go to the supermarket, I always choose the fruits that are not so beautiful, the ones that nobody wants because I think this is the beauty of life: nothing is perfect, nothing is too symmetrical. I find the outsiders much more interesting and I like to be surrounded by people like that.

‘Fragile eyes’ is a ‘bittersweet’ song. You can dance to it, but it’s melancholic, especially with Barış Demirel’s trumpet tearing at the listener’s heart. Was this emotional contrast your original intention?

Yes, I like for many years to develop this idea of crying with a smile, and I like this bittersweet feeling. I like those contrasts, making a very emotional song, very kind of sometimes dramatic, but with an up-tempo feeling, this is my thing. And with the different years, I feel that all those people from South-Southern Europe like Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey or North Africa they really connect with this because it’s also a kind of language you use in your own traditional music. I’ve been very much inspired by flamenco and telling stories that are a bit sad but still it’s nice to cry. I’ve been fortunate to travel around the world and like all those people from Mexico they have also this feeling and all my life I’m trying to develop this kind of melancholic feeling with a touch of hope.

‘Walk a mile’ seems like one of the album’s standouts; it’s impossible not to move your feet. However, the lyrics say much more. Is it a plea for empathy, humility, or perhaps a reminder to putting yourself in someone else’s shoes?

Yes. I wrote a lot of song for this album but then I removed like 50% of those songs because I really wanted to have an album that stays very coherent and Walk a mile was one of the most important songs in terms of protection energy. I tried to put all those songs in this style of Walk a mile and this really defined the sound of the album. This one I wrote it with, again, Selin (Turkish girl) and Alex, Alex Sid (singer and composer from Greek). We did many sessions with Skype, FaceTime, trying to find the right angle and to make this like duet possible. But still, Turkish people and Greek people have a common way of forming melodies and writing songs and this melodramatic feeling.

‘Something Inside’ is enigmatic and highly danceable. It feels like the most different track on the record. Do you agree with that assessment?

Yes, this song was really special because… Okay, I’ll tell you a little story about it. I was playing in a festival as a DJ. Usually, I play live with my band, but I also DJ sometimes. And there was another act playing, they were French, and a girl was going on stage, she was a guest. Her name is Denzi, and she’s Turkish, from Istanbul. She came to me and she was like ‘oh, you are Kadebostany, I love your music’. And we started to chat like that. She said, like, ‘whenever you want, let’s try to collaborate’. I found her very special. I felt that she had something to say, to express. So, one week, two weeks later, I just sent her a demo of a song, and she started to write on it and then she sent me back a draft. The actual draft you hear is the song. It was very fast. At that time, I was living in Ibiza. It was that summer and I was driving playing this song in the car with the sunset and I thought ‘this is it’. That’s the song you know. So, some songs take me like six months to write; some songs six minutes. That was that kind of very fast writing song.

In ‘I started a fire’, there’s a sense of being exhausted with everything and deciding to burn it all down to start anew. Is this fire a metaphor for personal rebirth?

This one, it was my attempt to my homage, to my idea of 90’s rock FM song. I don’t know if you feel it that way, but I was trying to do that and this one again was with an artist from Turkey called Bariş Demirel. He’s a singer, he’s a writer, he’s a fantastic trumpet player and I’m collaborating with him for many years. I’ve remixed his whole music and for this one I came with him again like ‘okay, I got this subject of the outsider. Would you like to write something about it?’ And these are his takes on this subject.

‘Elf song’ takes us to a mystical place. Musically, there is a clear influence from Eastern Europe. What inspired this journey into the mystical?

I think that was the singer, Selin. Because when I’m working, I’m collaborating, I always think about the vocalist. It’s like when you are a fashion designer, you’re working for the person. This way, I’m composing for the person. And I thought this dress would be very beautiful for Selin. At the beginning, it was a very rough demo, nothing too special but that there was something. Then, slowly we turned this into something very important. That is to me one of the most important songs in the album and I found that I could write the horns section at the end. I wrote it at the very end of the process of the album; it was very last minute. Before it was just like an interlude, not just piano vocals. Very low and then, boom!. I wrote the horn section, and everything lifted the song. I hired a piano player because I’m a composer but I’m not the best at playing. It’s one of the most important songs for me. I always like to take some risks. I think the way I do music is I rely on accident. This is very important for me because I’m not a genius. I’m not like Bach or Mozart. Those people, they could imagine things, write it down and, wow!. I’m not a genius. I’m someone that like to experiment and I try to generate happy accidents. That’s my process, that’s why I use a very old mixing desk that you can touch. I’m doing music in a very tactile way. Everything is here. It’s not inside the computer because all those instruments, it’s easier to make accidents with them. I don’t know what I’m doing but I can recognize when something is powerful and beautiful for me. It is magical and I’m always searching for the magic. I’m going every day to the studio. I’m walking and I’m waiting for the magic to happen.

Selin Çıngır, Barış Demirel, Naile, Den Ze… you all form the core of the Republic of Kadebostany. The big question is: How can we, the fans, obtain our citizenship?

I started this Republic of Kadebostany many years ago because I felt that I needed to create my own country. My roots are from Algeria but until 21 years old I didn’t know where I was coming from. For me, it was unknown. Then, I searched, but before that I was already an artist a creative person. So, as I didn’t know my roots, I wanted to create my own ones. I turned something that was a little bit painful into something very positive. That’s the power of creativity. Since then, I’m using this republic thing and to become a citizen of the Republic of Kadebostany… I think it’s more like a state of mind. Some people they come into the show they are part of this movement. My shows, when I’m touring, include really die-hard fans. I am always changing the set on stage: new performers, new vocalists, new staging…. They expect something different every time and I’m giving them something different because this is how I am. I don’t like to repeat myself all the time or doing all the same thing. I have quite a large discography. I always try to play them in a different way for the people. And I’m incorporating the new songs also from the album. I like the idea to blurry the line between reality and things that I create. I always say I’m the president and it’s real, but at the same time it’s weird, and I like to play with reality. I think it’s really interesting because it allows people to escape from their own reality and come into mine.

«The outsider tour« is very intense, taking you across Europe and stopping in Spain (March 19th in Barcelona, 20th in Madrid). When touring this hard, do you ever wake up and forget which country you’re in?

Yes! All the time because when you’re traveling it’s so fast that your brain cannot adapt. Like you are, for example, in Paris that the day after you were in Berlin and you don’t have the time to process where you are. It’s a blessing to be able to talk. To be honest, I love that I have a very good team and I’m so happy to present my music, my show and also to present those performers because they are very unique. For example, in the show in Spain there will be a vocalist from Canada. She will also play the violin, the guitar, the mandolin and she’s unique. There is another girl from Ukraine. She’s featured on the album. And I’m there with my thing, my instrument. I play it on stage. It’s a modular synthesizer and it’s something very special. Every day I wake up and I’m so happy to perform in the city and especially Spain it’s a country I love. When I have free time, I go there. I like the fact that you have your own tradition, but you are still very open to the foreigners. You keep your tradition of your folklore, everything you are proud of it, but at the same time you are very open-minded people. For me, the last time I was in Madrid, I felt it. I put extra pressure on me. And it went crazy good. Every country is different, the audience is different, but in Madrid the people were so much into it. They were listening to all the details. Maybe because I am very much influenced by flamenco and a bit by complex music. So, my music has different layers. There is something that is very open and at the same time, if you listen to it many times, you will discover some little details. So, there was so much listening to the music. It was impressive. I loved it. And I’m really looking forward to playing more in Spain.

Which of your own concerts has surprised you the most?

I think one of the craziest shows was in Mexico. It was many years ago and I couldn’t believe it. At the time, it was not even Kadebostany, it was the National fanfare of Kadebostany. It was the first version of my band. We were playing instrumental music only instrumental music and people went crazy. It was a big festival, the Festival International de Cervantino it was in Guanajuato (Mexico) and the people went crazy. I felt I was like ‘Are we The Beatles or what? What’s happening?’. There were kind of military people that were taking care of the stage. And the people trying to come to us and it was insane. Of course, there was many more. But it was one of the most intense memories.

Which artists or bands that are no longer with us would you have loved to see live?

I’m very curious in general. I love going to concerts. Maybe, Paco de Lucia. I would like to experience his shows. But basically, every big artist, every artist I would love to see. I could spend my life going every day to a show, that’s so inspiring for me.

If you could go back in time, which film or TV series that already exists would you have liked to compose the soundtrack for?

I like maybe Scarface, you know, I would like to compose the music for Scarface. That would be insane. I like this kind of movie and the aesthetic and actually when we go on stage I’ve worked on the costumes and appearance. I work with a woman from Istanbul she’s a very under coming from the underground part of Istanbul, her name is Osmo. She’s really special and we were taking inspiration from those kinds of movies, this era, flamboyant eras, mixed with kind of Eastern Europe and Middle East touch feeling. We are inspired by this.

What is your personal musical chronology?

I was listening to a lot of underground electronic music at the time. I was absolutely not into pop music. I started my career as a minimal techno artist. I was making minimal techno music, and I was touring with this for a few years. I was playing live in clubs, very underground places and it was the beginning for me. I loved it but I needed to expand my horizon. I didn’t want to restrict myself to just one kind of music. I wanted to do something bigger. I’m inspired by a lot of type of art and music. So, I wanted to incorporate that into my mind to fuel my creativity with that and I wanted to create something that could allow me to put all those influences. That’s why I created the Republic of Kadeboscany. I was listening to Detroit music, techno music from Detroit and house music, but everything was super underground. I was super into, super nerdy into that. Pop music was a very bad word for me back in the days.