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Music

Meet Lyon's Foremost Internet-Era Musician, Phazz

Cosmonostro on the streets, filet mignon in the sheets.

From the early age of three, Adam Preau has been fully engrossed in in the practice, composition, and sharing of music. Starting with piano, Adam jumped between genres and instruments with greater agility than a gymnast on a beam; piano laid way to jazz, jazz laid way to rock, and rock led way to his current project, Phazz. What we now recognize as one of France's most creative new talents got his start with R&B despite his hometown of Lyon's dedication to drum and bass, techno, and dubstep. For a man that cites Jazz and Chic Cora as his greatest influences bar none, this quite obviously became a serious hurdle as he grew from solitary production to seeking out shows.

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"It's quite a problem for me," he explains, "because I can't play here. There are lots of cities that are interested in my style of music, just not Lyons." However, that isolation from his own city caused him to reach out across the Internet in all its vastness and share his favourite Soulection or Brainfeeder tracks with friends he made online. Now playing every weekend at various venues across France, he's quick to credit companions KaytranadaStwo, and Dream Koala for sparking the movement in France and paving the way.

Like many in his field, Adam has his sights set on loftier ambitions. Adamant about letting his music rather than branding gimmicks do the work for him, it quickly became clear why he was Skyping me from his studio rather than the sun-lit patio that I had opted for. "I'm working on my second EP at the moment," he tells me before he starts laughing. Between breaths, he elaborates: "It was supposed to be out now, but I wasn't happy with it so I started from the beginning." I ask him if there'll be any more treats on his SoundCloud to tide me over until its release, and he assures me that his collaboration with Everydayz will be out in October—I groan. Two months is a long time to wait, but my confidence in the quality of his upcoming work has increased ten-fold. At the very least, I tell myself, he's got one hell of a back catalogue to keep me occupied until then.

Connect with my mind-grapes - @bluuuuueeeeeee

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