LUMIO
...is a musical project that shines with its own light. Inspired by a Corsican village of the same name, LUMIO transcends time and trends with its philosophical pop. LUMIO is the brainchild of Niko Gamet, an artist who draws from the rich traditions of English pop and American folk. His songs are like branches of a tree, each one exploring a different aspect of his personal journey. LUMIO blends the influences of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Grizzly Bear, Fink, Bon Iver, Peter Gabriel, James Blake, and Emiliana Torrini, creating a unique and captivating sound.
With, his latest release, “Grateful”, LUMIO reflects on his past and his present. He lets himself be seduced by the scents of his memories, with a touch of nostalgia, and asks himself the question of the purpose of his existence and the story he has written for himself.
He perceives the pains of his present that often tear him apart and doubts his future. The song invites us to say thank you or at least to be grateful for those unforgettable moments that often get lost in our lives. But in the end, the song offers a glimpse of hope. “Grateful” will resonate with many listeners who can identify with the emotions and experiences that the artist expresses and is also a source of inspiration and encouragement, as it invites us to appreciate our present, remember our past, and shape our future.
How did your passion for music begin and what are the main influences behind your musical style?
I came to music in a rather classical way to tell you everything: In high school, a group was set up and I was taken because I was the only one of the band to have done some drums before (3 months at the time of college, not really conclusive for the teacher and me Lol ).
This passion grew as we moved forward together......to sum up, let’s say that for many years I was a kind of Sunday drummer (lol but true), I loved music but wanting to marry a career as a musician or singer seemed to me a sweet utopia that I dared not see until this famous click... He came during a random meeting with a drummer that I admired (still today) enormously at the time of the name of Krishoo Monthieu who had simply told me that I had reasons to hope more if I worked more. It did not take me more to try to get started, I was then 22 years old...
First of all, I like music in all its diversity, I admire a lot of artists with totally different styles (from Deftones to Rodrigo Amarante for example), but there is the music that we like and also the one that we are able to do... To return to Lumio , I started on piano voice bases, guitar voice which guided the creation process from the beginning. Moreover, I wanted to be as autonomous as possible at least at the beginning of the project in the realization of demos... I think there was a will to do with what we had on hand, a kind of DIY...
But I think that obviously there were bedside records, which unconsciously influenced my work. If I go back to that time, I would say Sol Seppy , Bon Iver, as well as Paul McCartney (Chaos and creation) had touched me a lot but also because their creative process (DIY) attracted me a lot, starting from the draft, trying to play all the instruments, managing with the means at my disposal seemed to me to be the catharsis of the moment for me..
Then, there is an approach to the sound work, the production, the arrangement that I made with my longtime sidekick of Edouard Coquard, and I must say that we were very fan of James Blake, with this depth of sound , we loved his way of giving perspective of depth of field in his music , the music of series and film also influenced me ...(I think Stranger Things, Lost Highway (Bowie) had me quite hypnotized ). It is certainly this mixture of genres that has shaped the spirit of this project....
What was the inspiration behind your release, “Grateful” and what’s the story behind it?
You know, it seems to me that an artist absorbs the energies of the moment, he digests them and one day or rather in the middle of the night (lol), there is a kind of vibration, an irrepressible desire to synthesize all this into music... If I try to remember in meanderings of my memories, I think I remember that on many occasions we had evoked with many artist friends our respective bedside records of the moment, and for "grateful" , I think something might have been born out of these musical evocations. In disorder , I think that at the time we were all fans of grizzly bear , this orchestral way of composing with all harmonies all bathed in a prog rock atmosphere to the King Crimson had bluffed us , we had certainly discussed their own influence and inevitably Pet sound was mentioned...
when I started to compose the chorus chords, I still had no preconceived idea on it , it is the verse with this melody that screamed like a fluttering lament at the beginning of the stanza to finish in nuance that came to mind, there was for the moment nothing evoking all that we had previously mentioned , but at the time I was composing a little wherever I could and I had kept these two themes in mind, and it was after that that I came up with the idea of daring to compose this refrain without words. So it may seem like an agreed tribute, I hope not too much, but I think we can only think about it afterwards.
Let’s say that in my unconsciousness, there was certainly the audacity to have the secret hope to try to transcend all this in a random feeling of new creation.... Finally , the more I listen to it, the more I tell myself that there is still something personal and singular. To summarize one could say that these artists listened helped me to dare to make this chorus sung without words ... Like benevolent soul mates whispering to us that "it is possible, you have the right". Anyway we reassure ourselves as much as we can .(LOL).
As for the words, an anecdote comes to mind, while squatting on social networks I had come across an archive of the INA showing Guy Béart and Serge Gainsbourg harshly invective about music as minor art but also on the subject of form and substance... and there serge Gainsbourg takes the piano, improvises a prose poem with the interpretation that we know and literally subjudges the audience for in the end, at the bend of a last drink, say then you see that it is the form that makes the background. This anecdote marked me and I think it allowed me to free myself from my constraints and fears, because deep down artists still have the syndrome of the impostor , they feel illegitimate in their thinking. Because in fact, that’s how I work in writing, first the melody, the phonemes of my voice guide my first words, then gradually a sentence is drawn up to a series of improvised sentences that leads to a first draft of sentence making sense for the future. Then comes the idea of a story that the music will accompany or even rather command. It is the composer who guides the author in his authenticity in my creative process and it has always been so for the moment.
As for the overall meaning of the words, I was in a state of spiritual disrepair and surely in my personal life I wanted to be told a beautiful story, a bit like when The Little Prince asks to be drawn a sheep...I imagine. A little as if the child in me was asking for relief, a wonder. In short, this verse is a supplication and the chorus a liberation , a release taken from the living, a hope embodied in the happiness of singing can be... well it is up to you to see if it resonates...because it is only my own vision of the song, my introspection...
What does your creative process look like in general?
I think I don’t really have a rule. At a certain time, I tried to make myself available to create a whole weekend, sometimes the constraints of planning forced me to write in a hurry...sometimes at every moment that the inspiration came, at the turn of an evening, while walking, I recorded ideas. Let’s say that on the whole it was always in simple configurations piano voice, guitar voice, even melodic ideas of voice recorded on the mobile. But sometimes I have only the music, and come back to singing only after arranging research, this is what happened for road and rose. For this song, the Asymmetric rhythmic inspired the text as well.
A single/release every year, does that mean we have to wait another year on a new release?
Ah ah ah , and why not? If I try to read between the lines of your question, we could reformulate it in: is there a development strategy for your project? Because with a single every year, it’s not a win!
I’ll start with a pragmatic answer:
First, we have all been forced by the 2 years of COVID to completely review our strategies as best we can in the anarchic circumstances we know.
Some of my projects have tried to release their album during this period and it was a big media vacuum. The music industry has suffered a great economic shock and in this systemic crisis, small independent labels have not been spared.
Secondly, during this period, I made my first clip Road and Rose, I took everything from A to Z.
The Label subsequently supported the second clip ...during the same period ...
Third, I am an artist, producer, arranger, musician, singer, lyricist, composer (and recently director)... I have a very tight schedule because I did 2 tours in Europe with Nico Cona & the Freshtones , in 2019 and 2021, I am the singer of a band called Joel who released his album in January 2023 (we are writing the 2nd album. at the moment), I play in other bands like Nico Sarro, Lord Ruby, Monsieur Timide with a lot of news and I joined other projects in gestation for the moment, as a drummer choristers... I have to deal with all of those things.
Finally, I think I prefer to take the time with Lumio, I prefer to do little but make it reflect the identity, the authenticity of the project. Today there is a form of injunction to productivity that can quickly become insurmountable, even unbearable...
What are some of the challenges that you face as a musician in the current music industry?
I may be depressed with my answer, but we have to be realistic:
What does an artist face in the music industry of the 21st century?
There are so many problems that I don’t know where to start....
First of all, he must face, psychologically speaking, the systemic injustice of the environment ... He must let go, because he can do very little, unfortunately. For me it is putting energy against productivity, it only generates resentment and frustration. The only way to put his ego to good use is already not to take him on grounds that could make his whole being suffer and lead him to even more resentment. Without wanting to do counter psychology, it is necessary to create virtuous circles of benevolence, and to make understand to his pride that the most beautiful thing to satisfy his ego is the good of others, the shared happiness...
He must therefore accept the perspective of failure, but above all evacuate it by trying to direct his action towards positive things... This is very important, because the state of mind counts enormously to advance in good conditions and prospects for the future.
And so the challenges are many:
Once the huge work of realization of the album. (cover, clip, visual)
The artist has to deal today with multiple problems that were not really his own.
It is extremely time-consuming:
Social media management, if you can’t afford a community manager, you need to post news, make smart and targeted space purchases.
You must also manage the tours, either as a manager or as a co-organizer (unless you have the means, or a tour manager ).
then the promo, when budgets are tight, sometimes you have to choose or rather give up a PR, not counting that you can be mistaken and scammed. (it happened to me every time, LOL).He must look for sources of funding to be able to pay his team and him too if possible.
All this is extremely exhausting but necessary if we want to try to achieve something beneficial. And I have to say, it’s impossible to do it alone. For there are indeed many obstacles: First, globally, majors company absorbe the market in several ways: First the media: connections and links are direct and exclusive...
The civil societies like SACEM , SCPP, SDRM, FCM awarding grants were invested by the majors in the committees, through this they take orders and allocate the largest share of the cake. Whereas before, there was an ethic to distribute more or less equitably the aid , through a form of administrative meritocracy. The copyrights are reduced to scratch, indeed you must certainly know the payment system of the music platform...
A system that statistically reverses a percentage according to the overall mass of titles listened to and not distributed according to the individual listening of the listener... I find it unfair that the allocated amount of a subscription is done on a method of calculation taking into account the global listenings of all listeners rather than on these own listenings. For example, if I decide to listen only to radiohead for a month, the distribution of my subscription for this month should be fully donated to the group, don’t you think?
It’s unfair from my perspective, but I’m not a statistician. And it is also the risk of systemic sclerosis ... By concentrating the market and making it impermeable, the majors may no longer breathe itself, turning away from its role as a talent finder. It's the same problem for concerts and tours .
Today, the Label is the artist and therefore the fact of ensuring the management the communication the booking in addition to the skills of musicians and artists are heavy tasks for him. He must ensure the financial composure of the project and sometimes assume it alone: More and more independent artists or new talents must put their own money in all the processes I have mentioned...
And it must be said that the balance is very precarious or even at a loss in 80% of cases. Because the level of revenues is not at the height of costs simply. Even if the burden of the production of a record has decreased sharply thanks to the appearance of home studios , in addition to the qualities of musicians, the artist must also be a sound engineer .
That’s a lot of....
To give hope, I think you have to build a team and see your career over the long term... This is the only way to avoid the pitfalls of frustration...and especially to focus on the essentials, music .
How do you use social media to connect with your fans and grow your audience?
I use social networks in a completely erratic and disorderly way, like any self-respecting independent artist! No ?
What are your goals for 2024?
The objectives and tasks are numerous! There will surely be a clip, I like it, for the release of the album...Can be another acoustic live in an atypical place, at the same time I have to prepare the scene with certainly a work residency, (with all that implies...), for a live album release.
