Sébastien Tellier is preposterous. And I mean that as the highest praise. The singer, originally from Le Plessis-Bouchard on the outskirts of Paris, has been ploughing his own idiosyncratic field for a quarter of a century after debuting with L’Incroyable Vérité in 2001, always on the verge of a musical movement but never quite willing to go there, like the stone in the shoe of the French Touch. 

Over eight albums - plus several soundtracks - he has made everything from orchestra Afrobeat (La Ritournelle) to juddering electro (Stunt with Mr. Oizo), recording the best album Daft Punk never made in the process. (That’s Sexuality, his third LP, a dream of electronic pop that bridged the gap between Discovery and Random Access Memories without anyone realising it.) 

Who else but Tellier would create an album inspired by dirty dishes in the sink and soiled laundry on the floor and make it almost impossibly elegant? (That’s Domesticated, from 2020.)  Who else could represent France in the Eurovision song context and also work extensively with noiseniks SebastiAn and Mr. Oizo? No one.

Tellier’s latest album, Kiss the Beast is incredible, too. In my round up of music from the first half of 2026 I called it “perfectly Tellier in its eccentricities and lush quality”. And I am sticking to that. So when he came to Barcelona, to play the Teatre Grec I jumped at the opportunity to talk to him.

We never met, more’s the shame, speaking by Google Meet on the Saturday morning of the gig. You can hear the interview now, on the Line Noise podcast. But here’s the text, for those who dream.

We open with Sébastien telling me he has just got out of bed, at 11am.

Sébastien Tellier

I’m on tour. So, you know, usually I play around 10 until 11:30. So I go to bed - I go to bed maybe around two or three in the morning. So I wake up at 11.

Ben Cardew

And don't forget, I've seen your tour bus. I enjoyed that video.

Sébastien Tellier

I enjoy a lot touring with the tour bus because, you know, tour bus, it's a question of vibration. It's like you are in the arms of your mother, you know? And it's like a little movement. It's perfect to sleep.

Ben Cardew

I want to talk about Kiss the Beast, the fabulous new album. I assumed when I heard the title that "The Beast" is you, is that right?

Sébastien Tellier

I'm not necessarily just the Beast. I guess I'm the Kiss and the Beast. Maybe when I am with my family, I'm the Kiss, you know: a tender guy, full of kindness, and just trying to be a good dad. But when I'm an artist, I'm the Beast. I'm a beast on stage. I'm a beast in the studio. So I could say I'm the Kiss in my regular life and I'm the Beast in my artistic life.

Ben Cardew

It seems like there's a very big difference between the artist on Domesticated  [his 2020 album] and the artist on Kiss the Beast. Was that a conscious thing?

Sébastien Tellier

Yeah, I did this album named Domesticated because I was domesticated by life, you know? With two young kids and almost my entire life was about my regular life. And it was hard for me to be more a dad than an artist. So step by step, I said to myself, ‘Enough. Stop being domesticated by your life. You have to be a real artist,’ because to be an artist is the goal of my personal life, you know? All my life, my dream is to be a great artist. So I said no, I broke the cage around me. And now my kids are bigger than before and so they can prepare the breakfast by themselves. So now I have time to be a full artist again.

Ben Cardew

What do your kids think of your music? Have they seen you live, for example?

Sébastien Tellier

Yes, it's really funny. I say to my kids, ‘Papa is just a baby star. I'm not famous; I just love music’. I have a lot of luck I can play in front of people but I try to say to them, it's just my choice. But you can choose what you want later in your life. If you don't like music, no problemo. If you don't like to write a song, it's not a problem. Do what you want but you can see it's really, really fun to do music. So I'm like a snake: I say something, but I'm showing something else. I say, ‘Ah, don't worry about music,’ but at the same time, I take them to the gig, and they can see why it's cool to play in front of big, big venues and blah blah blah.

Ben Cardew

You said of Kiss the Beast that you wanted to make, and I quote, "a record that's free, instinctive, guided simply by the pleasure of making music." Did you succeed in that goal?

Sébastien Tellier

Yes, I guess. Of course I think a lot about music and why I'm a musician and why I'm an artist, what can I do, blah blah blah. But I think there is something very strong, very - the basis of my music is my love for gear and I discovered that maybe six months ago. The pleasure of playing piano sounds very important for me. And this album was this kind of pleasure. 

For example, I bought a Gibson Les Paul but metallic pink. It's a very beautiful guitar, a very sexy guitar. And this guitar for me is almost the basis of the album, because the guitar is so beautiful. When I wake up, I want to touch it, I want to play with it, and now the real inspiration, in a way, it's all my guitars, all my synthesisers, my piano, my speakers, my computer, and I love them, and I want to use them. So I use them maybe 10 hours a day and step by step I have songs. 

Ben Cardew

I wondered, reading what you said about wanting to make music that was free and guided by the pleasure of music, if there had been a moment when that wasn't the case with you?

Sébastien Tellier

Maybe. I did a few albums and I did an album named Sexuality with Guy-Manuel from Daft Punk and this album had a lot of success in France but also in the UK, US, Japan, blah blah blah. And so with this album, I did a big, big tour. After, you know, a lot of promotion, so many gigs and blah. And so after this album, I was tired. I was really tired. The success of this album really broke me. Maybe it was too much for me. Too much energy, too much travel.

Because what I really like to do is to be on my sofa, in Paris, eating some cookies. I really like that. And for me, it was really the opposite of my natural state of mind. And so after that album, maybe I took 10 years to recover. It was a long time. I have this vision of artists, like a very contemplative vision of art. I take time to think about the world, I take time to watch the sky, to read a book, to listen to records, watch movies, blah blah blah. And so for me, it was important to - not to stop, because I did L'Aventura, I did My God Is Blue, I did a few albums, but I was not burning for them. I did it with all my heart but without the burning. You need to burn inside to do a good album. And for My God Is Blue and L'Aventura and Domesticated, I gave you my heart but not my fire. And with Kiss the Beast, I'm coming with the fire, the real fire inside.

Ben Cardew

One of the things I love about Kiss the Beast - and there's many things - is the song Mouton, which has sheep noises and includes the brilliant line, "J'ai un mouton dans la tête” [“I have a sheep in my head”]. What do you mean by that?

Sébastien Tellier

It's a song about all my mistakes, all my inner questions. And sometimes I think a lot but for nothing, you know? It's a loop. My brain is looping like a sheep in a field. There is no destination. I try to go somewhere but it's a loop. And I think it's not just me. Human spirits are like that. There is no definition because the truth is too high for us. So we try to find the truth but it's impossible for us to find it, because we have just the brain of a human. And so, in a way, we are not so far from a sheep. Maybe our brains are just a little bigger than a sheep but we are almost sheep. And so it's a song about that. It’s a song to say, ‘My brain is looping and at the same time, in a way, I'm just a sheep.’

Ben Cardew

I can't think of many artists who would write a song about being like a sheep and use sheep noises and make it work. It's a brilliant thing.

Sébastien Tellier

Thank you. For me, it's really important to be deep and fun. Because just fun, it's too light; just deep, it's too heavy. And so the goal of my music is to create also a balance, a kind of perfect balance between everything, like fun, deep, but also happy and sad. And for me, it's really important to create this balance and to show to the audience I have an open mind. I’m not just doing rock music or reggae or hip hop. I try to create something else. In a way, it's a salad. It's a salad of everything I love. So if I have to give the type of my music, the style of my music, I do salad music.

Ben Cardew

I remember when you first came out, people called you French Touch, linking you to bands like Phoenix, but I don't know. I didn't really feel like you fit in with that. Do you ever feel like you fit in with anything?

Sébastien Tellier

In a way, yes; in another way, no. Yes, why? Because we have the same passion for synthesisers. We love vintage synthesisers from the '70s, from the '80s. That's for sure. And the common point we have is, we watched the same TV shows when we were young. The same TV shows, like Miami Vice and we heard the same songs on the radio in France because maybe we had a few radio stations in France when we were kids, like six or seven. So I think we heard the same music at the same time and we have, I don't know why, the same passion for all synths. So that creates a kind of huge connection. 

But besides that, I guess the French Touch is about going to the dance floor, having fun, this kind of a spirit. But me, I'm doing a kind of intellectual music. It's more complicated. You have to take time to understand… It’s more like a book or like a movie, something like that. But this bunch of guys - Daft Punk, Phoenix - are really cool. They're still my brothers forever. I love them but it's true, it's an anomaly. It's a kind of mistake to put me in the French Touch movement because I'm not really a French Touch guy. I'm just friends with the guys at the front of French Touch, but I'm not a real French Touch guy. It's true.

Ben Cardew

Do you feel very French in a way?

Sébastien Tellier

Ah, yes! I'm very, very French, because I love cheese. I really love cheese. And I love - but it's true! And when I'm somewhere else, like US or I don't know, the UK, I really miss the French cheese, really, really. 

And also I'm French because I prefer to do nothing than to do something. For me, it's more important to go to the terrace and drink a glass of wine than to work, work, work. I don't care about work. I do music because I really love music but for me, music is not a job; it's a passion, it's a pleasure. And I smoke a lot and sometimes I read a book... and I'm French, you know? I'm very French. And for me, from my vision, and a lot of French [people], I don't have the duty of to be efficient. I don't care about being efficient. That's not the goal. 

In UK or US you have to be efficient. It's really important for them. But me, I don't care. And besides that, also I'm very romantic. I have a very romantic vision of life. I see my life like a story more than just a life. And I'm romantic, and I guess French people are really romantic, also.

Ben Cardew

You talked about doing things for fun earlier. Was that the spirit behind the Eurovision Song Contest when you represented France in 2008? Was it basically for fun?

Sébastien Tellier

It was for fun and not fun. I did it in a fun way but for me the goal was to sing my song in front of millions and millions of people, because this TV show has a big, big, big success and a big, big, big, big, big audience. And this audience was the light for me to follow. 

But of course, the Eurovision Song Contest, I don't want to be disrespectful but for me it's not an artistic contest. It's not. It's closer for me, Eurovision, to the circus or patinage artistique - ice skating, artistic. For me it's not an artistic contest. It's just a big circus with a lot of audience and I did it. But if they asked me to do it again or to do it again, but for the first time, I will say no, because it's too cheap. It's not artistic enough. So I did it. I don't really regret it but I don't miss it and in a way I don't care about it at all.

Ben Cardew

Did you think you were going to win? [He came 19th]

Sébastien Tellier

No, no, no, no, no. I was sure not to win. I don't know why, but… otherwise, why not? We never know. The audience is so strange. But no, no, no. For me, the goal was not to win. It was just to do it and to sing my song in front of millions of people. Then for me, it was enough just to sing my song well enough.

Ben Cardew

I wanted to ask something else about Domesticated. As we mentioned, it came out of domesticity. It came out of doing the dishes, the laundry, children, that kind of thing. Are you surprised that there isn't more music that comes from domesticity? Because I couldn't think of anything similar. Kate Bush has a song about doing the laundry, I think. I couldn't think of anything else.

Sébastien Tellier

It's really strange because to make good music, in a way, you have to suffer, to feel the pain. If you have a perfect life with, you know, you don't have to prepare the breakfast or life with no problem is not good to create. So for me to feel this pain, to be in the cage of regular life.. I love my kids and I love to buy a croissant for my kids and blah blah blah, but you know, it's painful, you know? You don't sleep enough, you have a bad haircut, you don't have time to choose your clothes. 

And this pain, in a way, woke up my artistic side, because at one point it was really painful, but really, really, really... like, maybe to have kids and a family life is the hardest thing which came in my life. It was great to be a dad but it's not, ‘Oh, I smoke a joint. Oh, I wake up at noon.’ No, no, you have to wake up at seven to go to school and in the winter you have to walk in the night to go to school. It's cold, it's terrible. And so, to feel this pain woke up something in me to say, ‘No, no, no, no, no, I don't want just that in my life. I have to come back with a massive album like Kiss the Beast to become again important in the music industry and to shine again.’

Ben Cardew

I wanted to ask about three of your most incredible collaborators and what was it like to work with them. Firstly, Nile Rodgers.

Sébastien Tellier

I knew Nile Rodgers before working with him because I was the ambassador for Chanel, the president of Chanel with him. So I knew him before because we did many events with him for Chanel - dinners, blah blah blah, interviews, blah blah. So I knew him, and when I had this song named Thrill of the Night, I missed something on the song. It was good producers like SebastiAn, Oscar Holter but I missed something. And my wife knew that we had to ask Nile Rodgers to play the guitar on it and I think it's a wonderful idea. 

My wife sent a text to him: ‘Sébastien wants to play music with you; we need the guitar on one song. Could you do it?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I'm down.’ And a few days after, he sent to me six different tracks of guitars and he said to me, ‘You can choose what you prefer in the parts.’ 

And so it was super easy with Nile Rodgers. This dude is the best: super nice person, super clever, with a real vision of music and from my point of view he has the perfect vision. He works a lot, he's a scientist of music, but the goal of his science is to give pleasure to the audience. And for me, that's perfect. You work, you work, you work and the result is it's easy, it's fun, it's sweet. So for me, Nile Rodgers is a kind of perfection in my vision of music.

Ben Cardew

And what was Guy-Man like to work with?

Sébastien Tellier

Guy-Man is great! Also a genius of music. Guy-Man is really serious when you work. Like kids, we come at nine in the morning and we finish at 6 p.m. in the evening. And he knows exactly what to do. And so he tells me, ‘First today, you do the piano of this song.’ Okay, I do the piano. ‘After, you do the guitar of the other song.’ Okay. And sometimes it's like… for sure he heard the record in his head and he just does it. It's not experimental at all. Daft Punk and Guy-Man, it's not experimental music. They know and they do. And so it's just, ‘Now we have to turn on this synthesiser. You choose this tone.’ Yes. Okay. ‘So first, you play your right hand.’ Okay. Cool. And very serious with the direction. This guy is amazing. He's an amazing musician.

Ben Cardew

And finally, Tony Allen.

Sébastien Tellier

He was so cool, a super relaxed guy. Of course, a genius of music, because he’s the guy who created Afrobeat. It’s like he plays a kind of lyrical drum, you know? For him, the drum was not a question of beat; it was a question of poetry. 

Because when he played the drum, it was like a caress. It was not boom, tsch. I love that. Because I heard a long time ago The Beatles in an interview said, ‘You have to use the instrument as the opposite of the goal of the instrument, like you have to play the guitar like it's a piano, or you have to play the bass like it's a drum.’ And I was saying to myself, ‘But I don't understand why they say that.’ And with Tony Allen, I understood that you have to take your instruments with the opposite vision of the basic instrument proposed. And so Tony Allen was great to work with.

Ben Cardew

And finally, can you recommend me a book? I reckon you've got very good taste in - in books.

Sébastien Tellier

The name in French is Je voulais juste rentrer chez moi [by Patrick Dils], in English, ‘I just wanted to go home’. And it's about a young guy, a 17-year-old guy, who was accused of two murders, two terrible murders, killing two children with stones, a terrible thing. But it was not him and so he tells all this long process, with the police, after with the justice and his life in the jail with everybody around him thinking he did these terrible murders.

Some listening

Doubtlessly lots of great music was released this week. Some of it will be in my playlists, below. But, as for write ups, you can go whistle: I’ve been on holiday. Next week will be different.

The playlists

I have two playlists: the newest and the bestest 2026, which has all the best new music from this year; and the newest and the bestest, which dates right back to 2021. Both are available on Apple Music And Spotify.

Apple Music: The newest and bestest 2026

Spotify: the newest and bestest 2026

Apple Music: The newest and the bestest

Spotify: The newest and the bestest