DEATH BECOMES HIM - A RARE INTERVIEW WITH ELUSIVE FRENCH HOUSE DJ KAVINSKY

SEARCH for French house DJ Kavinsky online and you'll find thousands of results but interviews with the elusive artist are rare.
Not that this was a stumbling block for Tutankarbon, who has managed to pin down this mysterious musician for an exclusive chat about his forthcoming appearance at Koko, touring with Daft Punk and his zombie alter-ego.

The story goes that Kavinsky died when his Ferarri Testarossa crashed in 1986. His resurrection as a zombie nine years later began his stellar house music career.

But behind this persona – a creation of a mind obsessed with animation, B-movies, comics and their soundtracks – is a shy man, who doesn't like his face in the Press.

Don't let his mad enthusiasm for life, his talk of owning a Testarossa or the fact that he speaks a million miles a second fool you.

In real life, Kavinsky has simple tastes: “I don’t want a Testarossa. It’s too expensive – not even for the car, just for the gas it’s too crazy to move the 500m I do each day. It’s not very useful. I have a vespa. It’s night blue. I'm very simple.”

The zombie story was more a product of an overactive imagination and a life watching movies than real-life experience.
He said: “I never actually had an accident, it’s just a story I imagined. I don’t want to put myself on magazines or internet blogs. I’m not a big fan of when you present an artist and put his face between his music.”

Images of Kavinsky are rare, Press pics are comic-style drawings – he prefers listeners to pay attention to his music.
He said: “It's not my style. That’s why I want to create a character, to not be that kind of stupid thing that I really don’t like. Even for interviews...I feel quite shy a little bit.”

The small portrait that can be gleaned of Kavinsky's real-life story is that he was born Vincent Belorgey in 1975, in a suburb outside Paris, and has two siblings. At school he was the outsider, gave his teachers a bit of trouble, and was addicted to computer games.
He said: “I used to do a lot of it when I was 15. I’d spend three days with windows closed, no eating, just playing. I'd be like a very crazy man. Now I’m finished. I just go out with my friends.”

So is he well-behaved? “I’m trying, if you ask my friends they can say no but I’m trying to be safe each day. It’s tough work. I’m not very calm, I’m very speed.”

Kavinsky plays Koko on August 15, at The Playground, alongside Kap Bambino, Autokratz, Is Tropical, TeenagersinTokyo, Punx Soundcheck and Rubicks.
But now he's finishing his first album.
He said: “I'm never satisfied. I'm fed up. The worst is the end. I dream about these last minutes when I can say it’s finished. I’m trying to do an album which is like a soundtrack for a fake movie which doesn’t exist. Each track is like a movie, a story about the zombie. I discovered the music of some soundtracks from Dario Argento like Phenomena and that’s what made me try to do this for myself.”

He recently toured with Daft Punk. He said: “What I learned from them is modesty, just seeing how famous they are and how modest they are at the same time. They are completely not divas, very talented. The two
most great people I’ve met for now. Thomas is always saying something. He always has good advice about music, he knows a lot about everything, which is always cool to hear. Guy-Manuel is more shy. After that we decided to do a track, it’s very good working with them.”
He added: “I’m happy to come back to London and I’m quite curious to see Koko.”