In 1999, KB was contacted by the group SYMBYOSIS to take part in the recording of their first album, Crisis. Following which he collaborated with ARDAG (author, composer and performer for the soundtrack of Cedric Klapischs film LAuberge Espagnole) in 2003, playing the guitar on his first album and participating in the tour. That same year, he meets DJ SHALOM (bassist and DJ for M), which earned him the honor of appearing on his first record album project, following which he recorded two pieces for Ms remix album.
During this time, his professional career took a radically different turn. In 1999 he became a special effects digital artist, then director. He directs his first video clip for WATCHA (Concrete Lie, 1999), then "Sans L' Bac T'es Rien" in 2006, for "France Truc" (youth program on the channel France 3), for which he composed the music. For the same program, from 2004 to 2006, KB creates, co-writes and directs Tete de Truc, a short program for which he also did the soundtrack.
In 2007, he directs his first season of Face Academy at NORMAAL Animation, a paper cut-out cartoon series for kids, showed in over ten European countries.
In 2008, KB finishes the composition and recording of 12 instrumental pieces with several friends: Renaud Hantson, DJ Shalom, Steph Barbier & Xav Paladian. For which he directed an animated clip for the song Sunny Day.
His first album, "Twelve ways to warm up your days" has now finally been released. And is distributed by Brennus Music.
KB obviously has had a
very atypical career for a musician, due to his directing ventures. For him,
the sound doesnt work without the image and vice versa. Which is why
he offers us a global universe that uses these two directive forces, where
the image supports and completes the purely musical aspect.
His musical influences are rock/blues. From the age of 6, he went from singers
for kids to AC/DC and then from the Sex Pistols to Aerosmith with barely any
transition. From early on, he listened to Van Halen, Steve Vai and Yngwie
Malmsteen, followed by all the guitarists from the Mike Varney stable
in the 90s. During the same time, discovering Jimi Hendrix, Uli Jon
Roth, Stevie Ray Vaughan, then John Scofield, Django Reinhardt, Rosenberg...
Today, he takes a close interest in the music of upcoming musicians such as
Meshuggah, Korn, Ron Thal, Bucket Head,... letting himself become influenced
by new technologies and the use of computers in music. Which is what pushes
him to reproduce electronic sounds with his guitar and his whammy pedals.
Since his visual influences come essentially from cartoons of the 50s/60s
(Hanna Barbera, Warner Bros.), he uses the whammy to deform sounds in the
manner of the bodies of the characters in his cartoons. Comic films of the
60s/70s also hold an important place in his life, because he loves
their music: as a tribute to which he uses in his album the music written
by Michel Polnareff for La folie des grandeurs.
Thus, KB offers a kind of package deal where the image amplifies
the musical intention. Through his visual avatar, a likable character, fun
and slightly clumsy (like his film idols Louis de Funès, Pierre Richard
or even Peter Sellers), he creates an extremely positive universe, eminently
humoristic (i.e. the play on the word War and his spoofs of several
famous brands) and lively, accessible and creative as his music is. KB is
well aware that nowadays you have to be seen as much as possible to stand
out from other musicians and that the reach of his world will be extended
through different medias such as the internet (Youtube, Myspace, Facebook,
)
where image and sound are equally important.
KB hence transcends his influences to offer us his global universe where,
without taking short cuts, musicality and melody prevail, at the same time
carefully thought through and funny, but most importantly positive
and catchy.
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