It's early 2018 and we're already 2 years from the release of my EP Last Glow. I'm lucky to still be able to travel a lot with my music, to play in Asia and the United States. However, I feel that a transition is taking place. I turn off autopilot, the one that made me get into music overnight without really understanding why or how - driven by passion and encounters at the right time, in the right place. I feel lucky and grateful but I need to be a little more real with my music, to go where it feels right. 10 years ago, I'm in my room at my parents' house and I'm gluing tracks, sampling. I listen continuously, I read, I learn. I go looking for intimate things and I try to capture the beauty of memories, on which modesty doesn't put words and where we prefer the softness of music.

At first awkward, everything is there, you just have to grasp it.

At the beginning of 2018, I joined Savoir Faire and my current manager Edouard. He's been familiar with the project since its inception and agreed to work with me on a new chapter. I produce a lot of different things, I like rnb as much as house and soft rock. I try to channel my desires, I make him listen to a lot of demos, maybe 80 in total. One day, after a sleepless night, the track 'Stay' is there. It sets the tone, it's true and it sounds like me. We put down this first demo and we talk about the next one, the EP that will soon come into fruition. 'Time' arrives a few weeks later and connects the dots. We discuss features and the vocals, and we call Qendresa, Coops and Tim Atlas. Everything is done quite naturally and the recordings are a perfect fit for the soundscapes. I'm considering releasing them as stand alone tracks but I prefer to wait and integrate them into a project that makes sense and that resembles the change I'm experiencing. A few months go by, I become the father to a little Gaspard who takes me into a new world, I take time for him and he fills me with love.

The EP is slowly taking shape, we plan to release Time in spring 2019 while I finalize 'All in' with Che Lingo in London. Some rather ambitious videos are made. Round trips, commissions and financing are holding us back but don't limit our motivation until COVID arrives. The first confinement pushes us to find refuge in our digital lives. We then get in touch with the director duo Fifoul who has just started creating with 3D. We tell them our desires, these stories of sunsets and warm lights that I'm obsessed with. They end up transcribing these paintings and scenes into images that will complement each track of the EP. The Bureau Mondial studio help us with the graphic design, logo and covers, alongside a series of photos that nostalgically capture the abstract details of a daily life under the sun.
In the meantime I realise that the project now needs more life. While I can spend a lot of time grooving with machines, I don't really play instruments and the project lacks live instrumentation. I then met Maxime through Edouard, a bionic orchestra player with an incredible ear for music. In a few sessions at his home in his Montmagny studio, the pieces really come together and the drums of 'Silver Screen', the bass of 'Stay' and 'All in' completely transform the project. There are some last minute anxieties, sleepless nights wondering if it will work. Finally, I have a rather precise idea of how to make the EP sound when I hand over to Marcus from Greasy Studio for the mix. He picks it up right away and puts his magic on it. On the mastering side we call upon Joe Laporta (Frank Ocean, FKA Twigs, Solange, The Weeknd) to give it those few final tweaks.

Daybreak is in the end a bridging EP, completed off the back of tours and memorable moments. It's a beautiful invitation to a more thoughtful and subtle age.