[dropcap size=small]E[/dropcap]ven from an early age, Quentin Mosimann knew that he would be an artist. “Music always was my whole life,” he begins. “I started doing drums at 5 years old, playing the piano on my own at 6, and singing at 12.” Having a solid musical foundation is important for any artist, but according to Quentin, being an artist comes down to the way you’re born. “I think you’re born as an artist, you don’t become one, so you have it in your blood or you don’t. Even with good marketing and connexions, you can’t buy talent, that’s what always reassures me regarding all the scams we can have in the music industry.” So while some artists have tried taking shortcuts to find success, Quentin is among the respected ones that have been developing their skills and honing their talents since childhood.
As if singing, drums, and piano weren’t enough, Quentin Mosimann picked up deejaying after moving to the South of France. “Actually, John Revox is my best friend and the one who taught me everything about deejaying when I was 15. I met him when he was a resident in Saint-Tropez because of his hit ‘Olé’ and I was impressed by his live performances because he was doing percussions live on his sets.”
After watching and learning from John Revox, Quentin Mosimann started singing on his sets as ‘John Louly’ (John is his second name and Louly is an anagram of the name he wanted to give his daughter — Liloo). They eventually added a 3rd DJ and started a band called Hot Vocation. “We made a few tracks that worked well in France so we were on tour…” The band even played the Funky Room at Pacha Ibiza during the tour, which is where Quentin’s Star Academy journey began.
One of the people watching Quentin play and sing with his band in Ibiza was the man in charge of casting the Star Academy show. He asked Quentin to come to Paris for the show and luckily, Quentin was convinced. “I knew it was time to take my chance first to help my mother…” His mother had sacrificed and supported him over the years so that he could do his passion. “It was time to maybe earn a little bit of money and thank her, payback. Then, I did the show, 4 months on TV, taking music classes everyday, singing with the biggest stars every week on the biggest French channel in front of 8 million of TV-viewers. It was huge. I learnt so much about this industry and met amazing people. Then I signed with Universal Music and won 1 million of euros.” With the cash, he bought his mother a house in the South of France, complete with a pool and 5 dogs, which was her dream.
Shortly after winning the Star Academy, Quentin Mosimann’s debut album, Duel, was released. “Actually, I had the idea of the double album concept before the show.” To create the double album Quentin took popular French songs from the 1980’s and created both jazz and EDM arrangements of each track. During the creation of the album, he worked with a 50 piece big band for the jazz arrangements and either solo or with people like Fred Rister, who composed tracks like ‘Love is Gone’ from David Guetta and “I Got a Feeling” for the Black Eyed Peas. “I placed a few original tracks made before the show too. I’m very lucky that Universal Music loved the idea…” The album achieved double gold status and Quentin went on to produce another album a year later which went gold.
He toured for a couple of years playing shows in countries like France, Belguim, and Switzerland, most of the time singing rather than DJing. Eventually, something had to change for him. “I said ‘Stop. Sorry I don’t want to do that again. I just want to be with my turntables. I just want to produce myself…my tracks and not being with 30 musician[s]…’” He went on to say that although going back to DJing and producing things he wanted wasn’t the same dream and it was smaller, he was happy.
Going back wasn’t something that was easy. “People at this time…back in the days…these people, they were following me because I was a singer.” So he had to basically tell them that he was going back to what he called his ‘first love’. However, as well all know these days, his choice seems to be working well as he continues to produce great music and DJ all over the world.
Last month, Quentin Mosimann made his second appearance at Club Octagon. He was announced as one of the international resident DJs at the club for 2015, and the Korean crowd was thrilled to see him return. He shared in their excitement to be back in Seoul. “To be honest, I elected Korean people as one the best audience in the world! I really had a blast at Octagon Seoul last time, I’m so glad to be back. I’m touring a lot in Asia but Korea is the best place I like to come to. I don’t know if it’s about my rank in the Top100 DJ or the French touch, but I think a real love story is born between us…”
Backstage before his second show at Octagon, he elaborated on his first experience in front of a Korean crowd. According to him, the crowds in other Asian countries seem to be shy in the beginning and take an hour or so to start to build a relationship with the DJ. However, the Korean crowd was with him from the very beginning of his 2014 set, which helped him know what to expect the second time around.
To prepare for his second set, Quentin watched episodes of Octaview to check out what has been working recently in the club. This just goes to show how much he cares about the crowd and his performances. “I learned that you can play whatever you want,” he told us. He went on to elaborate that while sometimes you have to play “commercial EDM tracks”, you can build yourself the way you want to at Octagon. He had a plan start off his set slowly with some tracks from artists like Kryder and Tom Staar, keeping the tempo as low as 124 BPM. “Last time I began with the intro and then direct to drum. And now, I know that I’m going to wait maybe 30 minutes before I do the drum just to make something new also in my set.”
We’ve been to quite a few shows at Club Octagon and Quentin Mosimann delivered one of the best performances that we’ve ever seen. He started off at a lower, groovier tempo like he said he would and progressively increased the energy as the night went on. Whenever he grabbed the mic, played his keyboard, or rocked out on the drumset, the crowd erupted. He’s a man of many talents and displayed a level of skill that proves he is highly deserving of his success. We can’t wait to see him back in Seoul.
Be sure to check out Quentin’s new track, ‘Red Sole‘ below and visit his SoundCloud for more of his music including episodes of his House Bless You podcast. Also be sure to watch Quentin Mosimann’s set from Club Octagon via Octaview by pushing play at the top of this feature.