Lakay is a French multi-instrumentalist who inaugurated himself into the world of music with a trumpet in his hands at the age of five. With extensive study and the hunger to infuse his musical identity, the unique styles found in regions like Africa, Thailand, Spain, and India, Lakay has developed a sound that is easy to become enamored. Remarkably, this fusion is even more engaging when infused with energetic electronic rhythms and an unmistakable ode to Drum'n'Bass style music. "Gembri Energy" shines, delving into the minds of its listeners with gifts of culture from across the world, beautifully dressed up in a digestible snippet of electric energy for his listeners to devour. On the new single, Lakay boldly embraces the reflections of multiple inspirational motifs harboring across many oceans. A creative mixture of energy, shape-shifting vocals, and adventurous tonality that hint at how magical some of these untouched sounds are in this modern musical landscape. With "Gembri Energy," Lakay once again introduced all-new sounds together in an ingenious way, through the use of hypnotic and driven rhythms. Catchy mantras, uptempo thumps and claps, and strobe-like shimmers turn out to be a Trojan Horse for a drum and bass breakdown of astronomically new proportions. It is delivered with the off-kilter elegance you'd expect from a keen student of classical and jazz contemporary music. By the song's end, this breakdown seems to blend back into the primary inspirations that were introduced to us so masterfully. Lakay's ability to reach into the honey dish of music from around the world and combine two worlds into one is astonishing with this tune. He may be at his most approachable here, but unlike the norm for listening to modern music found on the radio, Lakay's "Gembri Energy," is never dull.
Become inspired by "Gembri Energy" here.
Hey there, Lakay! Welcome to BuzzMusic! We're totally thrilled to be featuring your newest single "Gembri Energy"! What were some of the inspirations for this song that make it uniquely special for you?
Hi BuzzMusic, nice to meet you! To answer your first question, Gembri Energy was born after a trip to Morocco in the city of Essaouira. On this trip, I took the time to try traditional instruments like rattlesnakes or gembri, instruments used in Gnawa music, which like many other musics being played for long hours takes us to trance states called locally "hadra". When I came back from the trip, I composed the electro base that accompanies a gembri air, then I contacted musician friends to play some riffs and various songs in order to beautify the track. A melting pot of Arabian music was born like this.
When you think about how people interpret your music, what are some of the things you'd like people to take away from the experience?
Music is an alchemy allowing our spirit to travel, a magical journey, regenerating and elevating, allowing us to meet different cultures, all more amazing than the other. In a spirit of joy, exchange, respect and peace, this music brings us together and allows us to live and dream in harmony. It's this experience of positive sharing that I would like to share.
Which travel experience has had the most significant influence on your life musically thus far? Can you describe the impact this particular journey has had on you this year?
I think that the trips that had the most significant influence on my music were Thaïland, Reunion Island, and Morocco. I brought back at least one instrument from each of these countries and composed electronic tracks with each of them. We can find each of these places in my music this year with a Malaya electro track in my next album, a Maghrebian electro song called "gembri energy" and two tracks interpreted with the Thai Sueng named "Seven Miles" and "Nagout Tcherâh".
When did you know you wanted to blend all your cultural experiences together into the style of music you are releasing today? Was it gradual, or was there a defining moment for you?
The idea of combining my cultural experiences with my music came gradually. Step by step, I discovered more and more types of traditional music that appealed to me, I started to mix them, and then traveled to more countries and brought back parts of their culture that spoke to me, in order to enrich and beautify my music.
Thanks for being here! What's next for you this year? What have you been working on?
It was a pleasure to be here. The next step for me is the release of my third album, coming soon on Salamah Productions and Hadra AlterVision Records with a lot of collaborations and features, with singers like Robert Spline and Arash Sarkechik, saxophone player Renaud Vincent, banjo player Guillaume Andreolleti, violin player Antoine Colonna, darbuka player Laurent Parodi and drummer Mat Kalybrid (ex-drummer of Kaly Live Dub). I try to play this new album live, alone or with some of them, and I hope the situation improves soon and that people will be able to travel, party and come together so that we can make them dream again.