Kepa

About Kepa

“He is just fine”, says the French solo band KEPA. However, he plays the Blues. He likes the reduction on one voice, one guitar. He sticks to this tradition but with his own style. KEPA draws one’s inspiration from bluesmen like Boukka White, Fred MacDowell or Blind Willie Johnson giving the saddest genre of music a more positive undertone. In songs like “No Goat Cheese” or “Hello Babe” joy is mixed with the spirit of optimism, partly due to his vigorous and impelling way of playing: he plucks and slides on his guitar, stomps his feet, plays the harmonica. He calls his sound "post modern blues". His silver shimmering guitar is a Resophonic, build in the 30s and it was the first guitar with a mechanic amplifier. With the purchase of this instrument he started his first serious attempt to become a musician. Just a few years before, he taught himself how to sing and how to play the guitar. And he gave himself a pseudonym: the nickname of his grandmother.
KEPA just opened for Gregory Porter at the legendary Olympia in France... And still a professional skateboarder. Since eight years he is participating under his real name Bastien Duverdier in international competitions and is skateboarding over rough terrain from France to Burma. Meanwhile, music and skateboarding became equally important. After two EPs and several gigs in Japan, France, US, Germany and UK, KEPA is going on an extended tour in Europe this winter. His musical path is unstoppable. So there is absolutely no reason to feel blue...