Sébastien Tellier Returns to America With 'Kiss the Beast'

It was 9:16pm on a Monday when I heard Sébastien Tellier play live for the first time. Hypnotized instantaneously, it was as if I had slipped into a dream world, Tellier producing the soundtrack in the background of my mind.

Kiss The Beast album cover, courtesy of Sébastien Tellier.

For two and a half decades, Tellier has built a world that feels entirely his own. A world where electronic music, orchestral arrangements, pop, romance, and surrealism can coexist without explanation. Since emerging from the French electronic scene in the early 2000s, Tellier has moved fluidly as an artist. But behind the extravagant persona is an artist who describes himself as considerably simpler: a performer, a producer, a composer, and someone who still finds comfort in seclusion.

Now, after a decade away from touring in the U.S., Tellier has returned to the stage with his latest album: Kiss the Beast. As Tellier reconnects with American audiences, he isn’t interested in simply recreating the past. Instead, this tour pulls from different eras of his career, bringing old songs and new material into conversation with one another. Here, he reflects on the persona behind the music, the freedom of collaboration, the changing music industry, and why, after all these years, curiosity remains his most important creative instinct.

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Brielle Flavin: With over two decades of industry experience, how have you dealt with the consistent changes in genre popularity, technological advancements, and new faces stepping into the same space?

Sébastien Tellier: I actually love technological change. I’ve always loved machines and synthesizers, so technology doesn’t scare me. On Kiss the Beast, for example, I play a lot with the relationship between nature and technology, and on “Refresh,” even the voice becomes almost artificial.

At the same time, I still love old instruments like the CS-80, Prophet-5 or CP-80. For me, there is no war between old and new. You can use an instrument from 1978 and a technology invented yesterday in the same song. The only important thing is whether it creates emotion.

And I find new artists exciting. Music constantly needs new people. I don’t want to protect my little territory. I want to keep moving.

Photo credit: Byron Spencer

BF: How has your decade-long break from touring in America impacted the format of your upcoming shows?

ST: It makes these shows very special for me. Ten years is a long time, so I don’t want to come back and simply reproduce what I was doing before. Of course, I want to play the new album, Kiss the Beast, but I also know that some people have waited a long time to hear older songs again. So the show becomes a conversation between different periods of my life. I want it to feel generous, emotional and alive.

BF: Following up, with the last five years focusing more on producing, scoring and working with other creatives rather than lengthy tours, how has that changed your perspective on live performance?

ST: I think I appreciate the stage much more today. When you tour constantly, sometimes you forget how special and beautiful it is to be in front of people. During these years, I spent a lot of time in studios, producing, composing for films and working with other artists. I love that world because you can control every detail. Live music is almost the opposite: you have to accept accidents. Today I enjoy that loss of control much more.

BF: How do you separate yourself as a person and as an artist? Are they one and the same, or is there a divisive factor that creates a separation?

Photo credit: Antoine Jaussaud

ST: I think they are very connected, but not exactly the same. Sébastien Tellier the artist is probably a more extreme version of myself. He can be more romantic, more extravagant, more excessive, more mysterious. In real life, I’m much simpler. I have a family, children, and a normal life. But everything I put into my music comes from something real. The artist allows me to exaggerate reality and transform it into something more beautiful or more strange.

BF: As a long time artist, how do you feel that you differentiate yourself from other artists in the same space?

ST: I’ve never really tried to differentiate myself. Maybe that’s exactly what differentiated me! I’ve always followed the things that interested me, even when they didn’t seem very logical from the outside. I can make electronic music, then a very intimate French song, orchestral music or something very pop. For a long time, I thought these contradictions were a problem. Now I understand that they are probably my identity.

BF: What’s a small daily ritual you do to keep yourself grounded both while performing, and otherwise?

ST: I don’t really have a particular ritual. I mostly like very simple things: a glass of white wine, some sleep, and the silence I get from putting in my earplugs. On tour, I need these little moments when I can cut myself off from the noise and find some calm again. It’s probably my simplest way of keeping my feet on the ground.

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Mondino

BF: As social media becomes a larger part of the industry, how have you changed your approach to both your music catalogue and how you’ve built your identity as an artist?

ST: Social media has changed the rhythm of everything. Music used to arrive with more mystery. Today, people can see artists every day, sometimes almost every hour. I don’t try to fight against that, but I also don’t want my life to become content. I still believe an artist needs a little distance and mystery. I prefer creating a complete world around an album rather than constantly explaining who I am.

BF: How do you deal with competition in the industry? How do you use lessons learned, and experience gained to solidify your own identity as an artist?

ST: I don’t really think in terms of competition. If I start constantly looking at what everybody else is doing, I lose my direction. Of course, I listen to new music and I’m curious about younger artists, but mostly because they give me energy. After all these years, I’ve learned that you gain nothing by trying to be somebody else. The only territory that really belongs to you is your own taste, your own mistakes and your own obsessions.

Photo credit: Jonas Unger

BF: How have past collaborations helped you to find your own distinctive identity?

ST: Collaborations are very important because another person can reveal something in you that you didn’t know was there. I’ve worked with many very different people and, on Kiss the Beast, I worked with artists like Nile Rodgers, Kid Cudi, Slayyyter, SebastiAn and Oscar Holter. They all have very strong identities. What interests me is not becoming like them, but seeing what happens when their universe meets mine. Sometimes the contrast makes your own identity even clearer.

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(L, R): Sébastien Tellier & Slayyyter - Thrill Of The Night (feat. Nile Rodgers), Sébastien Tellier & Kid Cudi - Amnesia

Album art courtesy of Sébastien Tellier

BF: Working as a creative has its ups and downs and can take its toll. How do you manage both the highs and lows while continuing as an artist?

ST: With age, I’ve understood that both are temporary. When something incredible happens, you enjoy it, but you know it won’t last forever. And when you feel lost or think you have no ideas anymore, that doesn’t last forever either. My family helps me enormously because there is a life outside music.

Creatively, I think curiosity saves me. When I start getting bored with myself, I look for a new instrument, a new sound, a new collaborator, something I don’t understand yet.

BF: Looking back, what would you have done differently over the past two decades?

ST: Probably nothing important. Of course, I’ve made mistakes, made bad decisions, sometimes I was too slow, sometimes too stubborn. But those mistakes are also part of my music. If I could correct everything, maybe I would erase some of the things that made my career unusual and interesting.

When I was younger, I was always looking for some future version of myself. Now I understand that there is no final version. You just keep changing.

Photo credit: Jonas Unger

Maybe the only thing I would tell my younger self is: “Don’t worry so much. You have more time than you think.”