The talent behind Edgar Everyone had an “artistic impulse” emanating through him that he had to explore a handful of years ago, and rightfully so. No one’s creativity should be bottled up and left on a shelf. With that, Edgar Everyone was born and since then more than half a dozen singles have made their way to fans around the world, including the latest dual-single that includes ‘Time is a nonlinear joke’ and ‘Impression Fugitive ‘.’ We talked about the music, psychedelic rock, and more in this back-and-forth exchange. 

Kendra: You got your start playing in bands, and you haven’t left that life behind but what pushed you towards Edgar Everyone? What drew you towards wanting to pursue music as a solo creator some years ago?

Edgar Everyone: My initial passion was actually to write music and play my own songs from a young age. As a teenager growing up in Paris, I had a few different bands and loved to perform, but that eventually came to an end, and life took me to other places. Then I started to produce and mix for a living, using the skills I gathered in the studio, and little by little became a little overwhelmed with work for other projects. All these projects were fascinating, and I learned a lot but at some point, there was this little voice inside of me that started yelling for attention, and Edgar was born in 2019 – out of too many years without caring for my own artistic impulse.

Kendra: More often than not I am introduced to artists that aren’t confined to this or that when genre is concerned. It’s almost as if no genre is the genre nowadays, at least with more indie artists. Do you think it has anything to do with the rapid-fire way we consume media nowadays via the internet? Like, our minds just don’t find one-note genres interesting anymore?

Edgar Everyone: Yes that’s a great point, I also wonder how the new trends are emerging and I’m very curious about the evolution of music. In my own journey, I’ve always been interested in albums that have a unique sound, and in bands that try to create a new sonic signature and innovate. I’m never interested in stereotypical styles like “‘70s psychedelic rock,” “French Touch,” “Disco,” “FM Rock,” or what have you. 

There’s so much music being made, and what will draw me in as a listener is not only the quality of a song but also how it’s cooked, and what sonic innovation it is wrapped with. A band like 100 Gecs for example is a little over the top, but I really respect the risk they’re taking, their sound and their attitude, with their humor. Maybe you’re right, there’s something to be said about the attention span diminishing, and the rapid-fire way we consume media. In any case, it’s interesting!

Kendra: When you branched out on your own you adopted the moniker Edgar Everyone in part because the everyone aspect represented how you are like a sponge. When did you start to notice that was a personality trait for you, and how do you feel that has impacted your creative drive over the years?

Edgar Everyone: I’ve always been extremely receptive and adaptable to my surroundings, sometimes to the point where I wondered what is the “real me.” I enjoy being alive so much and all the adventures that we can experience on this planet, so it’s only natural that I want to learn from multiple human beings. Hence the “Everyone” in my name. You know, recently I went to the Amazon jungle and experienced some healing through Ayahuasca, and one of the messages that I received when I was under the effect was that I am a mirror, with a purpose to reflect their own light to others. That sounds a little out there but I really felt the validity of the message, and in a way, I’m trying to stay in the frequency of joy as much as possible to project a loving light.

Now, the “Edgar” part of the name is the flip side – it’s the ego part of myself, the unique individual, the leader, or the one who wants attention and admiration. Isn’t life a beautiful dance between what you want to say, and what the world wants you to say to it?

Kendra: So let’s talk about the dual single you dropped at the end of the summer because there is some interesting subject matter on there; time. That’s something I think more and more about, probably the norm when you hit a certain age – but in “Time is a nonlinear joke” you basically display the notion and sort of importance of healing. In turn, did this help you heal any past trauma that had set up shop in the back of your mind?

Edgar Everyone: I was reading some work from a French physicist, Philippe Guillemant, and it really blew my mind at the time. He developed a theory of Time, proving that basically the future already exists, our course is already set towards it like a GPS, but because we can’t exclude the possibility of free will at crucial times, when we make an important decision in our life it alters the course of the GPS – basically redirects it toward a new alternate future. And when the alternate future is completely opposed to the initial one, we call that a miracle. Now here’s the interesting part: when a sudden change happens and we’re branching off, the future that was initially planned but won’t happen sends in a remnant of itself into our present as it’s dying, resulting in some kind of glitch in the matrix. I won’t get lost in details here, but clearly, I was always fascinated by the nature of Time and I do not believe it’s linear… Maybe more spherical!

Also, I’ve been very interested in spirituality and healing, and in that approach, people often talk about doing some healing on your “inner child”, or something like that. When you do this work, you come to realize that any healing you’re applying to your past you apply to your present, and probably your future. Past/present/future are interconnected and it’s possible to see them as a whole. So that song was a way to sum up all these ideas and put them into a fun, empowering music, as I was working through my own healing and philosophizing on the matter.

Kendra: Along with that track, you also had “Impression Fugitive,” which came about last summer. You’d mentioned drives to the beach, but in your wildest imagination – what sort of beach landscape do you feel would fit the soundscape of this track? Would the water be a different color? Would the animals be cryptids or regular sea creatures? 

Edgar Everyone: I love that question! I think it would be something impossible: aqua blue translucent waters, with pink/purple dunes of sand and a dark green forest in the back? Maybe add some interesting skyscrapers in the background, to give a touch of futuristic vibes – like the ones I saw once in Repulse Bay, Hong Kong.  

At the end of the song, there’s this crazy part that almost sounds like a string section, but it was actually the same opening synth that I ran through an array of weird plugins and effects… I have no idea how I made that but it turned out pretty cool. Maybe it would be the instrument played by bionic manta rays while white dolphins are swimming in these dreamy waters 

Kendra:  All-in-all, your music has this psychedelic aspect to it, something we hear from time to time in the modern era, but really the heart of it dates back to the ‘60s and ‘70s. Are those eras that you find yourself musically connected to? 

Edgar Everyone: Yeah I think so. My dad was a musician himself, and I’m grateful I received a good musical education thanks to him: I grew up listening to The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, and even stuff like Emerson Lake & Palmer. I remember one summer I went camping in Greece when I was 15, and at night I would listen to “Atom Heart Mother” nonstop in my tent, thinking that of all places that was a pretty trippy one to be in!

Kendra: Time for a side note – with this being October, I’m asking everyone to recall their favorite Halloween costume growing up – and if you don’t have one, perhaps your favorite candy to pick up for yourself now that you’re grown and don’t have to go door to door for it…

Edgar Everyone: Halloween was not a thing at all in France! I think my first Halloween costume happened when I was 26, we were still living in Paris with my ex who was American and she turned me on to it. That being said, I grew a bit fonder of it after moving to LA, and my favorite costume was in 2018 when I dressed as the weird ghost in the new ‘Twin Peaks’ season, the one that keeps repeating “Got a Light??” (for those who’ve seen it!).

Kendra:  Lastly, with some new music out now, what else can people expect as we continue into fall?

Edgar Everyone: First, I have to keep releasing singles on Spotify to FEED DATA to the algorithms that now rule our world. I really want the machine to understand my sound, what it is that I’m offering and I’m sure after a while it’ll be easier to connect with the right audience all over the world. I’m sure it’s out there, I’m still pretty new as an artist and I’m really eager to grow. So people can expect me to put out a song every 6-8 weeks, and in doing that I’ll be able to solidify my own vision. It’s cool to think of Spotify as a drawing board somehow, and I’ll know when I’m ready to release my first album once all of this becomes clear!

Second, I want to find more shows and make the live set an even better experience. Right now I’m taking time off from the stage to revamp it all, and I should be hitting some venues closer to the end of the year. Can’t wait. Come say hi!