Sebastian (French musician)

Sébastien Akchoté-Bozović (born 3 February 1981), known mononymously as Sebastian (stylised as SebastiAn), is a French musician, composer, producer, mixer, engineer, vocalist and DJ affiliated with Ed Banger Records. He has worked as a solo electronic musician and as a remixer for bands and singers such as Charlotte Gainsbourg, Daft Punk, Beastie Boys, Bloc Party, and Nero. He has also produced songs for Charlotte Gainsbourg, Frank Ocean, Katerine, Kavinsky, Uffie and Woodkid, and he has composed music for the films Notre Jour Viendra and Steak (in which he also acted, credited under the name Sebastian Akchoté). Many of his tracks have been used on television and in video games.

Sebastian
Sebastian performing in Madrid in 2007
Background information
Birth nameSébastien Akchoté-Bozović[1]
Born (1981-02-03) 3 February 1981
Boulogne-Billancourt, France[2]
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Record producer
  • DJ
  • composer
  • engineer
  • vocalist
Years active2005–present
Labels
Associated acts

Early life

Akchoté is of Serbian-French heritage. He was born in Boulogne-Billancourt and raised in Paris, and Belgrade by a single mother.[3] He is the younger brother of popular independent guitarist Noël Akchoté. His early musical history included both jazz and experimental influences from his older brother as well as hip hop influences from artists like DJ Premier.[4] He first started producing music around the age of fifteen.[4]

Career

While working with a hip-hop band in 2005, Sebastian was given the phone number for Ed Banger Records by one of the band's members, who had found it in a newspaper. After a cold call to label owner Pedro Winter, Sebastian was signed, and they released the EPs H.A.L. and Smoking Kills (?) later that year.[4] 2005 also saw his remixes for Annie, Benjamin Theves, and Daft Punk, whose "Human After All" remix by Sebastian is said to be the duo's all-time favourite remix of their own work.[3]

In the summer of 2006, Ed Banger Records released the EP "Ross Ross Ross". That year also saw more remixes by Sebastian than any other.

In 2007, Sebastian composed the soundtrack for Quentin Dupieux's feature film Steak alongside Sebastien Tellier and Mr. Oizo (Dupieux himself). He also appears in the film in the role of Felix, one of the members of the Chivers. Also that year, as well producing numerous remixes and releasing his Walkman 2 EP, Sebastian joined Kavinsky to open with DJ sets for Daft Punk on their Alive 2007 tour. An original song called "Greel" was also released in 2007 on Ed Banger's compilation Ed Rec Vol. 2.

There were two Sebastian releases in 2008: Motor, an EP with three original tracks, and Remixes, a 17-track compilation featuring various remixes produced by Sebastian. His track "Dog" was also included on that year's Ed Rec Vol. 3.

In 2009, Sebastian played his first live set as an exclusive performance at the Sónar Festival in Barcelona.

Sebastian produced the single Difficult for label-mate Uffie in 2010 on her debut album Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans and provided a remix, titled "Difficult (2006 Parties Remix by SebastiAn)". He also had his experimental track "Threnody" released that year on an Ed Banger Records Christmas compilation.

2011–2013: Total

In early 2011, Sebastian provided the track "Enio" for the Ed Banger compilation album Let the Children Techno. Later, his debut album Total was announced, followed by the release of a video for the title track featuring a series of violent and sexual images.[5] A video for Sebastian's new song "Embody" was also released, along with the song's release as a single. The album Total itself was subsequently released on 30 May in Europe and 7 June in North America. It was followed by releases of singles "C.T.F.O." and "Love In Motion" from the album. 2011 was also the year of Sebastian's "Primary Tour", a tour visually themed as a political campaign and spanning Europe, Australasia, and North America from August to December.[6] Three remixes done by him were also released that year, including his remix for the Beastie Boys.

2012 saw Sebastian's remixes for bands Nero, The Shoes, Van She, and Woodkid. That year also saw the release of The EP Collection, a box set of vinyl Total singles along with tracks "Organia" and previously unreleased "Holloback". A Sebastian remix of Justice's "New Lands" was released on 25 June 2012.[7]

2013–2019: Production for other artists

In 2013, Kavinsky released his first album, OutRun, of which Sebastian produced 9 tracks and mixed the entire album.[8] In February 2014, the album has been awarded to Victoires de la Musique in the category "Electronic/Groove/Dance Album of the Year".[9]

In 2014, Sebastian produced the title track "American Beauty/American Psycho" for the band Fall Out Boy on their album of the same name. The same year, he produced, composed and mixed Philippe Katerine's album Magnum. He also remixed the Charlotte Gainsbourg cover of "Hey Joe".

In 2015, Ed Banger owner Pedro Winter announced that Sebastian had finished producing a few songs for Frank Ocean, allowing him to work on his next album.[10] Sebastian appears on the track "Facebook Story" from Frank Ocean's 2016 Blonde album.

Sebastian and Gainsbourg worked together for the album Rest in 2017. When they first met, he told Gainsbourg that he would like to work with her but that he wanted the project to be done in French, but she refused to do so. A year later, Gainsbourg, after the death of her sister Kate Barry, told him that she would like to express certain things and that she could only say them in French.[11] Thus, they started working on Rest in New York.[12] This album, which he produced and composed, was released on November 17, 2017. Gainsbourg received a Victoire de la Musique in the "Female Artist of the Year" category in 2018 for Rest.[13] The next year, he composed and produced 3 new tracks, which featured on her EP Take 2. In 2019, Gainsbourg appears on Sebastian's second album, Thirst, on the track "Pleasant".

Sebastian created the soundtrack for the Yves Saint Laurent Winter 18 Collection campaign, which was held on February 27, 2018 in Paris, France.[14][15]

2019–present: Thirst

In May 2019, SebastiAn released two new tracks, Thirst (with his music video directed by Gaspar Noé) and Run for Me (in featuring with American singer Gallant), to promote his new album Thirst.[16] On 9 July 2019, SebastiAn released a third single titled Beograd.[17] On 5 September 2019, the fourth single Better Now in featuring with Mayer Hawthorne released. The album released on November 8, 2019 with, among others, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sparks, Sevdaliza and Syd as guests.

Discography
Main article: Sebastian discography
  • Total (2011)
  • Thirst (2019)

References
  1. "Sebastian". Tsugi Magazine (Special Issue 5): Page 31. February–March 2013.
  2. Diver, Mike. "Sebastian Total Review". BBC. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
  3. Green, Thomas H (July 2011). "Encore Une Fois" Mixmag
  4. Bark, Theo (7 July 2011). "Sebastian Stands Apart From Daft Punk and 'French Touch' With Hip-Hop Roots" Spinner
  5. "Sebastian Total (X rated)". Dailymotion. Retrieved 11 June 2012.
  6. "Sebastian's Primary tour". Archived from the original on 30 August 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  7. "New Lands - EP". iTunes (in French). Apple. Retrieved 11 June 2012.
  8. "Album OutRun, Kavinsky Qobuz: download and streaming in high quality". Qobuz. 1 January 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  9. "Victoires de la musique 2014 : Outrun de Kavinsky, meilleur album de musiques électroniques ! (Vidéo) - Melty". Melty.fr. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  10. "Pedro Winter fête les 12 ans d'Ed Banger". les inRocKs Style. 25 June 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  11. "On a discuté avec Sebastian, de son grand retour à Frank Ocean". Konbini. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  12. Hamard, Jonathan (25 May 2015). "Charlotte Gainsbourg à New York avec SebastiAn pour son nouvel album". chartsinfrance.net. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  13. "Victoires de la musique 2018: Charlotte Gainsbourg, artiste féminine de l'année". 20 Minutes. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  14. "Saint Laurent | Winter 18 Collection". YouTube. 5 March 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2018. WINTER 18 COLLECTION BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO / FEBRUARY 27TH – TROCADÉRO – PARIS / SOUNDTRACK BY SEBASTIAN
  15. "Nueva música de SebastiAn para Saint Laurent". BeatMash Magazine (in Spanish). 23 March 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2018. SebastiAn vuelve a colaborar con la marca Saint Laurent para poner música a su nueva campaña, tal y como ya hiciera en 2016. El artista francés ha compuesto la música del vídeo con el que la conocida marca de moda ha presentado su colección para el próximo invierno. [SebastiAn again collaborates with the Saint Laurent brand to put music to their new campaign, as it already did in 2016. The French artist has composed the music of the video with which the well-known fashion brand has presented its collection for next winter.]
  16. "SebastiAn annonce un nouvel album avec le clip de "Run For Me"". Les Inrocks. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  17. "SebastiAn shares new French electro banger 'Beograd'". Stoney Roads. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
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