BIO
Half french, half Spanish, the Paris-born and bred KESSADA is a young drummer, composer, and singer. And a leftie.
KESSADA might not have picked up a pair of drumsticks at age 14…
He might not have been rocked by Linkin Park, Brian Eno, Nirvana, Hans Zimmer or Imagine Dragons…
He might not have become a musician or been immersed in the music of Steve Nieve, the first who believed in him…
He might not have grown up running around the backstages of musicians like Elvis Costello and Sting.
And he might never have played at Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, nor at the Chatelet Opera in Paris with Sting. Nor with Steve Nieve (Elvis Costello), Glen Tilbrook (Squeeze) François Poggio (Lou Doillon), Joe Sumner (Fiction Plane), Vanessa Paradis, and more…
He might very well not have toured in Taiwan with traditional Chinese instruments… an unusual and eclectic aspect of his work…
Worse even, he might not have collaborated on the last two albums of Elvis Costello (2021) and with Iggy Pop and Isabelle Adjani.
He might have listened to the people who told him he had to pick a genre…
He might not have grown into the almost 7 foot tall giant he is today…
But he did.
The following press is in regards to KESSADA’s collaboration with Elvis Costello on his album Hello Clockface (Concord records), as well as collaborations with Iggy Pop and Isabelle Adjani and Tshegue on the French version of the album.
Before coming out with his first EP, KESSADA collaborated under the name AJUQ.
The included songs are unmastered, high-quality demos.
“In a better world, every band would have a one-named, all-capital drummer named AJUQ.” — Rolling Stone
“Drums, percussion and high harmonies of Ajuq.”
— Rock Cellar Magazine
“One of Paris’s coolest alternative rock bands”
— Standard Sounds
“[His] music is a very powerful rock music […] it brought a new dimension.”
— Glide Magazine
Photos by Spencer Ostrander