My life with KoЯn
“I will never forget it. KoЯn changed the culture of metal, not only with their lyrical content, but their lifestyle, their look and the sounds of the seven string guitar. They set off a tidal wave of change throughout the music industry. What I was witnessing was a revolution in sound.”
“Their music spoke to me on so many levels, so it was natural that I would fast become their biggest fan in France! I was totally obsessed. I dressed like them and spent my entire day listening to their music and even started speaking English to all of my friends, even though I was living in rural France. My appreciation for their music was so intense, I kept thinking 'how can I give back in someway'? There's gotta to be something I can do to help them.”
“Their lyrics saved my life. So much of what they were saying through music I could relate to myself. And so I kept thinking, they could help more kids like me. Then their third album 'Follow the Leader' explodes in 1998, and I am thinking, I've got to do something now! So I buy a thousand envelopes and stamps, I print out a thousand fanzines and build a website about KoЯn. At 18 yrs old, this seems like a totally logical thing to do with my life!. And so this is how the whole monkey business of fan stuff started with me.”
“Later in 2000, KoЯn headlines in France with the 'Sick and Twisted' tour. This was an epic moment, not only because it was the first metal concert I was to experience, but I was getting the chance to interview the band. As a KoЯn fan to have that sort of experience was unimaginable, but here I was about to achieve my life's dream. I still can't believe what happened next.”
“After the interview with Munky and Head they take me to another room to play a new song they had been recording on the tour. They had just demoed that song and here I was listening to it 2 years before its release! I couldn't believe that they had just shared their music with me. I still can't believe that moment happened to this day. What mega band does that with a fan?”
“And so after the concert, I go back to my life of working on the fan club, until a Sony Music executive in Paris calls me. They want to sell more records in France, and they ask if the fan club can help. I say sure, but is there a chance of an internship as I really want to get into the music industry? So for the next two and half years, I get up super early every morning and work on the KoЯn fan club, before doing Sony all day, and then at night, I am reporting and photographing bands for rock magazines. These were crazy 16 hour + days, that all blurred together.”
“Shooting bands from the photo pit was ok, but the real action was up on stage and that is where I needed to be. Wanting to tour with KoЯn and live in America was my dream. I did everything I could to surround them with my energy and creativity. So in 2004, I finally packed my bag with more CDs than clothes, and left France to live in America.”
“I did what so many people have done before. I arrived in LA with no job and only one phone number in my pocket. After a while, somebody from The Firm Inc (KoЯn's management) called me back saying that Jonathan Davis wanted me to work for the band. The band were between cycles with a lot of things changing, including a new record label, so they wanted a new photographer, cinematographer and webmaster.”
“So being with the band for their 30th Anniversary concert in LA was one of the greatest moments of my career. Not only was it a celebration of their music and the band's legacy, but it was an epic culmination of their entire journey. And it became my privilege to document them at such an important moment in KoЯn's history. If I could go back and say to the younger version of myself, that I would be documenting KoЯn thirty years later. I would say that was insane. But after all of these years, KoЯn have become like brothers to me.”
“On the night of the concert just before Jonathan walked out on stage, he turned and said 'wow, Sebastien this means you've also been with us for 30 years!'. It was kind of a big moment for me. All I could say to him, was, 'Your music saved my life when I was younger!' He then turned around and hugged me burying my face into his dreadlocks! He is a much bigger guy than me, you see.”
“And then like mythical beings, Jonathan and the band went up the stairs on stage to a sold out stadium, full of KoЯn fans. The fans went absolutely ape-shit! It was epic. You couldn't explain the energy if you tried!”
“Even crazier, is at that exact moment, the KoЯn 30th Anniversary video I directed was being shown on the two massive LED Jumbotron screens on either side of the stadium. The video was commissioned for the sole purpose of building momentum for the fans just before KoЯn went up on stage for this specific show. At that moment, I realized the video entirely summerized my life's journey with KoЯn. This concert was a big moment emotionally for everyone.”
“Just to add some more to the craziness, I had pitched this idea to KoЯn of having the fans help with documenting this concert. Using the cameras on their phone, we had more than 200 fans filming the concert as a parallel to what I was shooting. The night of the concert was pretty much the first time this had ever been done. I don't know of any band or artist that has empowered 200 fans to film them from their own perspective on their own devices. And then to be able to share the footage and include it as an official recap of the 30th Anniversary concert was priceless!”
“There were a lot of golden nuggets from the fan content. Some really cool stuff. Like people travelling to the concert from across the world, sharing their excitement before the show. And then there was that crazy perspective of fans being buried in an ocean of sweaty bodies in the mosh pit during the concert. You can never get those sorts of shots as a cinematographer shooting with expensive gear. And no fan wants a lens pushed in their face while moshing either. So this project gave us the sort of immersive footage that I have never had before.”
“To make all this work, we sent the fans the Blackmagic Camera app which can be synced to the Blackmagic Cloud. And then using Blackmagic's DaVinci Resolve, I could just scrub through it all instantly in the Resolve project. There were hours of stuff for me to play with. I already shoot with Blackmagic cameras, so all the footage was pretty much the same color science for me to work with”
“So marrying the fans footage with my footage from that day, is an 'emotional love letter' to an entire generation of KoЯn fans. KoЯn live for their fans, so having their stories added to the piece I was shooting was very special. They have generations of fans who love KoЯn as their favorite band, because they are not some kind of macho mega machine with nonsensical lyrics. Jonathan is one very sensitive person who is expressing his emotions through music, supported by his band of brothers!”
“This is why this 30th concert really spoke to me at my core. KoЯn is a band that created a musical genre that is still going strong, and is arguably bigger and better than they have ever been in their career. There is some sort of crazy symbiotic link that I have had with KoЯn since I was 15yrs old. And in a way, that is what this 30th Anniversary concert is all about. All of the fans are just like me! They too have this symbiotic link to KoЯn and their music. And just like me, they were sharing their love of the band and their experiences of the concert through film. It truly felt like the band are my brothers, and the fans are our family. I document some of the biggest bands in the world, and I can say that the symbiotic connection KoЯn has with their fans, is completely different.”
