Kavinsky

Kavinsky
Kavinsky at The Academy Gallery in Montreal, QC 2006
Background information
Birth name	Vincent Belorgey
Born	(1975-07-31) July 31, 1975 Paris, France
Genres	French house, synthpop, synthwave, electroclash
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Record Makers
Associated acts	Justice, SebastiAn, Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo, Lovefoxxx, Mr Oizo, The Weeknd
Website	facebook.com/KavinskyOfficial

Vincent Belorgey (born July 31, 1975), known as Kavinsky (sometimes stylized as KΔVINϟKY), is a French house artist whose production style is very reminiscent of the electro-pop film soundtracks of the 1980s.^[1] Kavinsky claimed that his music is inspired by thousands of movies he watched as a young boy and that he has cherry-picked the best parts from them, consolidating them into one concept.^[2] Kavinsky has been compared to many similar French house artists including Daft Punk and Danger and achieved more mainstream notability after his track "Nightcall" was featured in the 2011 film Drive.

Biography

After many years as an actor, Kavinsky's musical career started in 2005 after being inspired by his close friends Jackson Fourgeaud and Quentin Dupieux, the latter director also included Kavinsky's music in his film Steak. During this period Kavinsky produced his first single Testarossa Autodrive which was inspired by the Testarossa model of Ferrari (one of which Vincent drives in real life).^[2] Kavinsky presented the single to Quentin, who in turn presented it to a record label he had access to because of his filming career, and Kavinsky signed with Record Makers.^{[3] [4]}

Subsequently Kavinsky has gone on to release three EPs on the Record Makers label: Teddy Boy in 2006, 1986 a year later, and Nightcall with Lovefoxxx of CSS in 2010.^[4] During this period, Kavinsky's fellow producer Surkin jokingly claimed in an interview that Kavinsky was his father ^{[citation needed]} and has since toured alongside Daft Punk, The Rapture, Justice, and SebastiAn in 2007.^[5] He has also been remixed by SebastiAn and other notable electro artists.^[6]

The SebastiAn remix of Testarossa Autodrive off the 1986 EP is featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Kavinsky's single Nightcall was featured in the opening credits of the film Drive, and became a major hit soon after, with YouTube views claiming over 40 million to date (January 1, 2014).^[5]

In December 2012 he released ProtoVision and on 25 February 2013 he released a new studio album entitled OutRun.^[7][8]

Character history

Kavinsky is a character made by Vincent Belorgey that has a striking resemblance to Vincent himself but the backstory doesn't follow anything in Belorgey's history. Kavinsky's story is that after crashing his Testarossa in 1986, Kavinsky reappeared as a zombie in 2006 to make his own electronic music.^[3] Kavinsky's songs help tell the story of him and as Vincent claims in an interview, "Night Call, is just about the zombie guy [who] goes to his girlfriend's house and says okay I'm not the same, we need to talk." referring to Kavinsky going back to find his girlfriend after the crash who has already moved on with her life.^[4]

Equipment

In interview, Kavinsky stated that the entirety of Teddy Boy was written and recorded on a Yamaha DX7, which was famous and notable for the synth-pop sound of the 1980s.^[9] Kavinsky originally started making music on an old Apple computer given to him by his friend Mr. Oizo.^[4]

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

*Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts.

Remixes

Music videos

Soundtracks

• The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
• Drive (2011)

Filmography

• Nonfilm (2001)
• Aaltra (2003)
• Atomik Circus, le retour de James Bataille (2004)
• Ultranova (2005)
• Steak (2007)

References

External links

• Kavinsky on Facebook
• Kavinsky on SoundCloud
• Kavinsky on Myspace
• Kavinsky on Twitter
• Fool's Gold: Interview with Kavinsky