Sébastien Devaud, aka Agoria, is a French electronic record producer, composer, DJ, and digital artist. He has released four albums and is the founder of the record label Sapiens. He also helped to create the music festival Nuits Sonores. More recently, Agoria ventured into biological generative art and digital fashion, discovering a new audience of digital art collectors.
Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and Google.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
[2:30] Touring life as a DJ.
[5:00] How was the beginning of Agoria’s career? “Nobody was paying attention during the early days. In the 90’s, electronic music was forbidden, and DJs were referred to as drug dealers.” Agoria sees something similar to the beginning of the Web 3 space.
[10:00] The challenges of creating a music festival —Nuits Sonores— together with Lyon's major. It was hard and took time to grow to over 100,000 visitors. He finds, again, similarities in the NFT and digital art space.
[14:40] How to balance a touring life with his art, working with Philippe Parreno for exhibitions at Tate Modern and MoMA and deciding to pursue his own art. He mentioned [ {Bohem-IA} collection in collaboration with Scorpios Mykonos and Stéphane Mallarmé.
[19:40] Getting the idea for biological generative art and working with Oscar award winner and sound engineer Nicolas Becker.
[25:00] Studying the seeding of ideas in our brain and testing different kinds of experiences like shamanism and the influence that had on his art. Mentioned: {Comp-nd}.
[33:30] Agoria on community building and finding a new wave of fans and supporters that didn’t know his music.
[38:00] Focussing, doing as many projects as you want, and following the muse.
[42:30] Where are the best parties in the world? Mentioned: Sónar Festival, Aphex Twin, Non Fungible Conference in Lisbon, Glitch Residency.
[48:30] Starting a career as a DJ vs. starting as a digital artist in 2023.
[50:40] The meaning behind his recent collaboration with Sandbox — The Agorians, and his top 3 artists: Pierre Huyghe, Joanie LeMercier, and Philippe Parreno.
Until next time,
- Kaloh
Did you enjoy this Podcast Episode?
Like it (❤️) so more people can discover it on Substack and follow me on Twitter or Instagram.
From Electronic Music in the 90s to Generative Art in the 2020s ft. Agoria