23/02/2022

IN CONVERSATION WITH: LEWIS OFMAN

“...not to make a proper classic, but to do a manifesto of what my true music would be.” The young french artist Lewis OfMan just dropped his album “Sonic Poems”, a collection of electronic songs that he describes as “a bouquet of flowers in a concrete dirty vase”. With Copypaste Lewis OfMan discussed the creation of his album “Sonic Poems”, how his music is used by the fashion industry and how finding his style in music is a never ending story.
Photos by @ecoutecherie // @lewisofman

Did you always had the intention to become a music artist or did this happen by accident?

I was a complete vegetable before touching these drums at 11 years old, so I think before that I liked music but without consciousness, but once I knew how to play these drums i was just in loop of music & practicing, the rest that followed happened clearly with chance, hazardous occasion, surely accidents, but surely triggered by following an intention to play music before anything else.

When and how did you decide “this is type of music I want to create, this is my sound”?

You never decide such a thing, or maybe you will decide one day but a month after this you will make something else and say « ah ! This is my sound » it is a never ending story. I have my style though, and I guess these jumpy melodies arrived because I always played the keyboard with a drummer type of view, I really slap theses note.

Your music has already been played during runway shows for brands such as Sonia Rykiel or Afterhomework and you created an EP “Yo Bene” that was sold at Colette in Paris. What is your relation with the Parisian fashion industry like and how does it relate to your music?

Well this was a while ago, as Colette doesn’t exist anymore & afterhomework is finish. But yes, nowadays, I don’t really have a relationship with fashion brands, I just love the fact they use my music, Versace did dit a week ago, it's nice because you have this big budget video with a nice editing, beautiful humans walking around, the music is well treated. I don’t neceserraly think about fashion in my music, although I often have these romantic, decadent, party images and some fashion brands often have the same visions, so we find a common place.

What was your intention while creating your upcoming album “Sonic Poems”? Did you have one main idea or main topic in mind or is the album telling several completely different stories?

I often say Sonic Poems is a bouquet of flowers in a concrete dirty vase. 3 years ago I had this conversation with Rejjie Snow about me starting my album but it would be hard with the type of music I made etc, he said « you have to make a classic » this sentence gave me the mindset, not to make a proper « classic », but to do a manifesto of what my true music would be, not the one you find in Eps and single, the real one, in this album you have 7minutes songs, I took the time to show, and to go far in the emotion to express it in the best possible way, it took 3 years, Love Parade for example, the aim of the song existed in a dozen other song I made, but after years of drafts, Love Parade finally arrived in my life. The whole album have been built like that, each song is the conclusion of researches, living life, explore certain feelings, then translate what I could consider the best result of the mixture

What is the one thing you learned as a young artist in the music industry?

It's a damn rush.

Can you tell us one funny, sad or surprising anecdote from your life as a music artist?

When I was 3month old I had to take medicine to control the rhythm of my heart, I got the platinum-science-vip access to groove.