FKJ's second album, "Vincent", is a lament for lost innocence
In an exclusive interview with L’Officiel Singapore, multi-instrumentalist French Kiwi Juice reveals the secrets behind what he calls his "pandemic album", and the transformation his sound has gone through since his eponymous debut album in 2017.
French-New Zealander multi-instrumentalist Vincent Fenton is known to be a one-man orchestra, creating multi-layered artistic soundscapes since his official entrance into the music scene in 2013 under the name French Kiwi Juice, or FKJ for short. In this interview, he shares with L’Officiel Singapore about his second album, V I N C E N T, and how this “pandemic album” became a quiet, contemplative reminder to hold onto innocence.
Can you tell us a little bit more about your second album, V I N C E N T, which you released recently? What was the mood and the message of the album?
I made the album during the pandemic. I rented a house to start this album. The house was in the town where all my instruments, storage and equipment were, so I could have everything and just be isolated. It was in California, in Los Angeles. I stayed for two weeks in this house, just creating the whole concept. Then the world was going crazy – COVID was coming in. And when I flew, I landed in Southeast Asia, where I live with my wife. The world closed just three days after I landed. It would have been a totally different story if I stayed a bit longer in that house in L.A., because I wouldn't have been able to come back at all.
So those three days could have changed everything. But I arrived in the space and then I just finished what I started for a year. We live in our bubble, in this place that's very luscious and calm, very quiet and contemplative. The concept that came from this album is really going back to that lost innocence that we all had when we were kids — that creative innocence that everyone has. Every lyric, every title, and even the album art is all inspired by this concept of lost innocence. I almost called this album "Lost Innocence," but I decided to call it V I N C E N T, because Vincent is the name I grew up with. It is a symbol of that lost innocence.
It's really about leaving your adult mind, leaving all the overthinking behind, going back to instincts, and creating with your instincts. I could feel that I was being more self-conscious about being a known artist. I could feel that sometimes my innocence would go away, and I didn't want it to. I think it's the most precious thing, to keep that innocence when you are creative. So I wanted to make an album that talks about it. I wouldn't say I made the entire album in a childish state from start to finish. There were some moments where, of course, my adult mind was coming back, overthinking was coming back. But I'm happy to have made an album that talks about it.
So when you first started the album, you didn't know that the world was going to deal with a pandemic. Your concept of lost innocence seemed to tie in nicely with what the rest of the world was experiencing as well, during lockdown.
Yes, the situation in the world brought me back to what I felt when I was a kid and making music. I had limited choices. I was just in one space, I wasn’t able to move out of the space, exactly like when I was a kid with my parents at home. I was being limited. When I was younger when I started making music, I didn't have total freedom. I had limitations, and limitations, like boredom, for example, is a very good element for creativity. I remember being bored when I was young and telling my mom like, "Mom, I'm really bored right now." I grew up in the countryside of France, surrounded by nature. And my mother always said, "You're bored? Well, you know what? That's great. Keep being bored." We weren't allowed to watch TV, and we didn't have any gadgets either. So boredom definitely helped stimulate me to create. With the pandemic and lockdown, it felt like a similar situation, so it was interesting that it took place as I was developing the album.
Which one of the tracks on the album was the most creatively striking thing to produce? Do you have a favourite on the album?
For my favourite, it changes. But I think I always loved the mood that I created with "Different Masks For Different Days," because it's so powerful. The mood went exactly where I wanted it to go, with this song. It's like a good movie soundtrack, and it would be a great movie soundtrack. I think it's difficult for me to pick a favourite song. But I'm trying to stimulate myself in every song that I create and trying to make something new, and I enjoyed creating all of them during the pandemic.
How do you think that your multi-instrumentalism helps to create the different moods in your album?
I'm a multi-instrumentalist not because I wanted to be a multi-instrumentalist, but just because I wanted to have more textures to make my music and I wanted more toys to play with. It was never a goal for me when I started music to play many instruments. It came gradually because I started composing with my guitar, but then I wanted another sound. So I found the little keyboard that my parents had offered us when we were very small, that was almost like a toy keyboard. I started recording some layers on top of my guitar composition, and it just went on and on. I found some instruments here and there that I started incorporating into my music.
Over the years I realised that I was actually learning to play them properly. It was almost a realisation at some point that hit me, that I actually know how to play these instruments now, because I'd just been recording with them over and over. My music has always been multi-instrumental from the start, apart from my first compositions when I was only playing the guitar when I was very young, say 13 or 14.
To me, it's just having many things on your shelf to cook with. So instead of mastering one ingredient, I'm using a lot of them and not really mastering any of them. I love to cook, I love to create with these different textures and sounds. So it just gives me more freedom and inspiration, as a multi-instrumentalist.
So then do you think your background in sound design has helped to shape your sound as an artist as well?
For sure. When I studied sound, it was really because I wanted my music to sound good. The reason was music. When I started looking for a sound school, it was all about music. But I couldn't go into sound school for music because in France, the schools for music are mostly private schools. And my parents could afford only public school. So I went to public school, and the public school that I was in was a film school. That's where I really learnt sound designing for actual movies, which helped a lot with my music because I could add storytelling into the music through sound design. Thanks to the knowledge I learned in mixing and editing sound for cinema, I was able to apply it to my music. It brought me a step up in terms of textures and sound quality, for sure.
Do you feel that your sound has transformed since your eponymous first album, French Kiwi Juice, in 2017?
My sound is always evolving because I'm just like a sponge. I take things from outside and I use them. I get information from everything all the time, and from my environment, in particular. When I made my first album in 2017, I was in studying in Paris. I was based in Paris, but I was already travelling a lot because I was touring. But if you listen to my first ever EP, Time for a Change, from 2013, I was not touring yet. I was in Paris, and the EP sounds like its environment. It's way more clubby. I was really into the Parisian music life and music scene, going to concerts and going to the clubs. So the music is more electronic and dancey. It's meant for the environment that I was in.
Then in 2017 I was already travelling a lot but based in Paris, so the music from French Kiwi Juice was a mix of both. It starts to have some very contemplative elements in it, but the whole record still has a more punchy and more dancey feel.
This latest album is really a pandemic album. I was in this beautiful isolated space with a lot of beautiful nature, and beautiful lights coming in all the time. So the music just reflects that environment. I couldn't make music that was too punchy, or made for the dance floor. I didn't try to, either.
This music is just the music that came out naturally from being in this environment and being a sponge, absorbing all these different things. It's really complex, what it does to the brain — you get visual things, you can hear things, you can feel things on your skin. All these things influenced my creativity. The music that came out of all that is very slow, very contemplative, but also harmonious. Now I'm in London, and it's a different environment already. Even though the pandemic is not totally over, it's a new era. And the music is also going to change. It's going to be like that forever, as long as I keep changing environments.
Do you have a vision for yourself as an artist?
More globally as an artist, I just want to make tracks, but it’s difficult to put into words. Sometimes I want to actually talk about something and other times I don't want any words. I only want notes and I just want to create a soundtrack for something. I know the thing I love to do the most is play instruments on instinct. I'm a musician and composer before I'm a songwriter, that's for sure. I make soundtracks for different moments and different places. I don't really want to go into the studio and say, "Today I'm making a dance track" or "I'm making a song of this particular genre." I want to always go and create according to the mood, the time and the place. Then, we'll see what happens. That's what I want to keep doing, and that's what I love doing the most.
