Lost In Kyiv - ATG 2026

Hello, we are lost in Kyiv coming from Paris. We are making some post-rock and post-metal music and uh voila. And you play the trumpet? Yeah, I play trumpet. No, I'm playing guitar and synth. I play the guitar. I'm Dimitri. Hey, I'm JC. I play bass and synth in Lost in Kyiv. And I do the drums and the jokes. And we're at ATG Art Tangent Festival. This is my first time here and you guys are my first interview at this festival, so, um, big fan of this style of music though and I'm very interested to ask you guys about. You don't have a traditional front man. This is instrumental music. So where did that journey start for you, and especially trying to connect this with people watching who are maybe more. You know, strumming, learning guitar players, maybe quite intermediate players, but have never gone on the line of being instrumental, you know, players and and taking the front person's role. How do, how do you view that for yourselves? It's complicated, I think because at, at the beginning we can't sing anything, any one of us, so we start to making some instrumental music. So for us it's important to bring some melody and uh some epicness in the music. I it's important, you know, because we don't have a singer, you know, so like you know the the the theme, like the melodic, it's important to have something that you can keep in mind, uh, like having something strong, a theme that is strong because we are, we are big fans, for example, of uh, you know. Uh, you know, composer Eric, melodic and it's it's very important just to add something on my hands, you know, bass, guitar or whatever, I had a journey in a Something pretty natural because this is what to me like a rock band doesn't need vocals to be efficient, you know. Of course. Is there a, do you mind me asking if, is there any way that uh people could practise that, cos it's very easy to practise technique and it's very easy to practise things to get back. It's hard to practise melody or develop that. Being a DJ must have been a huge part of that, but is there any way you develop, cultivate that as a band? For me personally, I think um. We don't have to be technical. Simple melodies can express more than something very, very fast, or you have a lot of tapping stuff, everything, sweeping techniques, etc. It's fantastic, but for, for all the people, people who are not musicians, I think it's. Better for me it's my approach to to try to find some simple melodies, simple uh stuff uh when you play it live, you, you feel it, you, you're in it, so personally that's my favourite approach of the guitar. Yeah, I'm I I'm agree because. I like some technical bands and artists, uh, sometimes, but I'm, I'm vastly tired of it. I like I can, uh, listen, uh, 20 minutes, so, but after if it's too complex and complicated, it's too, uh, for, uh, yeah, it's a bit too much for me. Uh, uh, it can be uh. Amazing, sometimes a really amazing musician and everything, but I personally, I need to have some more direct uh need to be catch by melody. I couldn't play uh some prog music and some mad rock music every time because it's. Too much for me, for my brain. I need to have some, some more fixed things and everything, so it's funny because, uh, Jeremy, uh, playing drums since, uh, 4 years now. It's the first album we record with him, and he's more in this technical stuff, him, he, he like, uh, he like technical metal like leaders and everything, this kind of stuff, yeah, yeah, and, uh, I like it also but not too much and it's funny because this confrontation, uh, Something interesting because he tried to, to bring us a bit in this direction and, and we're trying to be the opposite and the mix it's something a bit technical but a bit melodic and, uh, I think it's what we begin to have in this, uh, new album. Well sometimes when the, what I've learned from being in a band is that uh when the guitar and music is simple, often the drums are very complex to make up for it. Yeah, I think it's better to have a complex drum and and uh simple guitar than the melody. So it's better for us. But it reminds me, this reminds me more of uh film music. John Williams themes, it can be a 100 piece orchestra. Yeah. But you need a a whole movie score for an hour and a half worth of music. 3 or 5 note primary, secondary. Do you think that your primary, secondary mental because it's not possible, but we can we are using video. Experience with with this kind of cinematic stuff. If I may I ask if if an everyday guitar player wanted to make their music sound more cinematic today, what would be your recommendations for them other than check out your songs of course you mean for making a kind of cinematic music with guitar I mean what comes to mind for me is, you know, have a reverb pedal and turn it on too much, you know, too loud. Using a lot of ethics, of course, yeah. Are you using any shoegaze effects like um I I only tried last year for the reverb ahead of distortions to get that guy like Kevin Kevin Shields thing right. You do that? Yes, with the walrus Mellie, you know, with the joystick and you can choose reverb in distortion. Oh really, all the same. Yeah, it's really cool, it's very cool. We, we can do anything, we can try anything, sometimes it's surprising you. You think it's gonna be too much, but no, it's not, it's cool, you know. Well if you've got simple notes and simple melody, too much can really work. Yeah, yeah, you do need to take some stuff to 11. And what about um some bit of gear that you guys can't live without, maybe this is a. You know, $5 or €5 drum or drum pedal or an effects pedal. What can't you live without? For me it's my controller because I'm an old school guy. I play with head analogic and. This is the pieces run like I can change from clean to overdrive the distortion and choose my pedal loops. So for me that's very important. I have it since 15 years now. So that's it for me. And for me, uh, it's gonna be the opposite because, uh, I switch, uh, since a year now from, uh, digital stuff, and, uh, now I, I still have, uh, my tube amp and, uh, pedals and everything, but as I'm playing, um, keyboards and, uh, now we have a live session with, uh, backing, uh, samples and everything, and now I, uh, I'm playing with the quad cortex. Everything is, um, uh, MIDI, uh, in the light, yeah, yeah, it's, yeah, you don't have maybe the magic of tube and, uh, analogic stuff, but it's so practical, uh, you can, um, um, record the, uh, the sound of your amp, uh, on your pedal in the box, and you can have everything in a small box. Uh, things in the, um, in, in the computer so for me to for playing now it's something really important because I'm, uh, uh, my mind is more free of doing some pedal thing and everything, so it's really more useful and if I can take so just one pedal except of this, I will bring it everywhere, it, it could be the Hel Caistan because I'm a big fan of this FX and uh and uh. For for people in the know, you're not the only person who's said that. Well, that's a very popular and also one more, it's, I don't know if you know that I'm using uh this for with my son, but it, it could be on everything. It's an uh compressor, an overdrive and philtre from a company called Auto. It's an Auto boom. It's alright, auto boomer, auto boom, OK, it's a green block and uh it sounds fun, it sounds fantastic. You can do everything on it sounds crunchy and uh it's, it's really cool. I, I think I, I bring this one every everywhere. Oh, that's a sound. I I I like hearing new ones. I'm gonna check that out. I want the first song you remember learning on your instrument and then a gateway song that led to you like playing as you do in your signature style. A guitar. Now on drums or or whatever instrument you start, I start on piano. I said yesterday that that first guitar I guar guitar song I learned was um Tenacious D tribute. Yeah, yeah, it's a good one that I was singing at the drums I've remember my I I I practise the basics and. My first song I play and I learned I was I was a beginner. That's a band. And on my hand for bass, it was time zoning out of muse. Definitely it's easy easy tune to play but very inspiring and still inspiring me today, so they're massively popular in France aren't they? They played some of their first. On acoustic guitar, I don't choose it, but that was the first thing and first one on electric that was a gateway to this maybe that was Sweet Dreams, the cover of Marilyn Manson. Oh yeah, of course. Did you have to down tune for that? Did that get you started with down tuning? I don't think so. Do you guys tune at all. You have to be careful with the frequencies. when I was younger I like Ross. It's such a gateway band for all that sort of thing. Anything else you want to give a shout out for or a promo for that's happening for the rest of your year? You're playing later on tonight on the big stage. What, what else is happening? We are playing at the Pelagic Festival at the end of the month in Maastricht. And we have 3 weeks to for the end of November in Europe. So it's gonna be the first real tour of the of this new album. Excellent. Well I'm looking forward to checking you out later tonight. It's gonna be, we have to we have to. We'll leave it there guys, thank you so much. Thank you very much.