Together with the singer, we explore concerns about cyborgism, technology, his unpredictable music and the connections that bind us to each other.
As a writer, it is exciting when you immerse yourself in the world of those you write about, even more so when the world of the other is tremendously different from yours. Through Kai Landre, a well-known Catalan cyborg and singer, I have discovered an exciting universe made up of technology, nature and the desire to connect with our environment and our body and mind. Kai Landre is not only the first cyborg musician in Spain, he is also a restless artist that wishes to explore what the world has to offer not only through his acclaimed music, but also thanks to his own creations such as his enigmatic conduction implants. that is. And as Kai says, it is very important to accept change and evolve, to let yourself be carried away by life with all that it entails, regardless of what others say or may think of you. Kai Landre’s life is a journey into the unknown, a journey towards the best of destinations: oneself.
To do this interview, I took a look at your Instagram account and saw the post you uploaded about the talk in which you participated named “VOICES OF HYBRIDIZATION” in which you spoke about a mind coalescence that has been created by the flow of data that moves incessantly…
That idea came up in a conversation about technology today and i just put it in common with the rest of the participants. I don’t bet on a column mind, nor is my work linked to that concept, but I found it interesting to talk about it. constantly offering and giving data seems to generate a kind of hive mind about our interests, it is a consequence of the massification of technology.
How do you feel about that hyperconnectivity?
I have always been hyperconnected, being from the year 2000 I have never lived an analog life. Yes, I am very critical of everything that is happening with hyperconnectivity and I try, in some way, to control my connection and the information that I offer and receive, but I feel involved in this phenomenon since I do not know how to live without it, it is the way I have learned to communicate and interact with my environment and with the people I meet through social networks.
Isn’t a person who defines himself as a cyborg supposed to find meaning in this hyperconnectivity?
Not really. What we deal with with our cyborgism and with us I refer to the Cyber Foundation of Barcelona is sensory augmentation and it is not connected to the Internet, that connection is tertiary and is not part of our speech. The concepts can be intermingled since they are contemporary, but in the case of the cyborg, what we are trying to do is expand our senses and achieve a greater connection with our environment, which does not mean that we are looking for that hyperlink to connect our mind to the Internet.
When you talk about expanding the senses, I can’t help but think of superheroes…
We do not like to consider supermen if anything like that, that is a very transhumanist vision and what we seek is to better understand the world around us and ourselves. We do not believe that we have capabilities above or below any other being, we simply use technology to be more in contact with nature as it can be done in an extracorporeal way with a telephone, cameras, machines that analyze natural phenomena… we implant it in ourselves for comfort and for the need to be in contact and give our body something more, so to speak
Have you ever had a more immobile thought? In other words, perhaps we don’t have to know so much about our environment…
Well, the truth is that no (laughs). I have always been very curious and I have wanted to learn about what surrounds me and without really at some point I feel trapped by too much information what I do is do more meditation, inner work to separate myself from what is foreign. When it comes to my body, I really like to constantly learn and learn more.
Don’t you feel a certain fear that you will be disappointed by what you may discover?
In the end, I work on a theoretical proof framework. There is much more than just the perception or the input that I can receive once my prototype is done. There is also a process as to whether the prototype is going to work when applied to the body. I implanted bone conduction magnets in my temple without knowing if it was a good sound reception area, if I was going to be able to manufacture an external device that would allow me to listen inside the skull thanks to these implants… so all of that is a part of the process that already works and manages to fill me. It is true, that having more or less experience, what I can program is more or less interesting to receive data that may seem cool to me. In itself, it is a process with many aspects. It is a puzzle that is filled and each part that fits is a reward beyond what I can perceive that in the end it is the acceptance of nature because the universe behaves in a way and is as it is. It’s not about changing that, it’s about learning and being surprised.
Is your journey towards the cyborg concept about the search for your own identity?
Completely, they are interests that I have always had inside and are part of me. The fact of being able to take it to the physical plane is a very important part of discovering and understanding myself.
Have you ever felt that perhaps what you are and what you want to be will never be achieved?
We are all conditioned by physics, there are many things that even if you want them, you cannot get them. Thanks to technology we are closer to making many things a reality and the process of looking for the goal and what can really be worked on and also generates great motivation, perhaps not as direct as the initial idea but it is much more interesting now. that you have built it. At least that’s how I feel.
And understood? Would you say you feel understood?
I feel understood by those who wish to understand me.
And in general people want to understand?
I have met many people who do, although there is everything. I am lucky to be in an environment full of people dedicated to alter and research and we share experiences and experiences. The truth is that yes, my world is usually quite interesting and at a very positive level. The whole issue of implantation may perhaps cause a little more rejection, but I have never had a bad experience.
What would you say to all those who may think that you just want to attract attention?
I don’t know, people who think that don’t usually say it directly, they usually think and that’s it. No one has ever said it to my face, perhaps they have tried to make me understand but I haven’t noticed. When you begin a process within cyborg art that ends in implantation, everything is very dense and you must be very clear about it, you cannot let yourself be carried away by the opinions of others because if you do, nothing makes any sense.
Well, in general, we could apply that to everything!
Totally! But, imagine that you implant a chip in your head…
Do you think about when you’re older? In your own old age…
I always prefer to think about the present.
But the times you’ve done them, how did you imagine it?
In a very big library reading books (laughs). I have no vision beyond that. I have never thought of it any other way.
And since you are talking about books, would you implement any mechanism to stop using them?
There is something very beautiful in the fact of the action, of going to look for that information and the taxation of the books that allow you to have that information. It is something that even seems ritualistic to me and fascinates me.
It is a bit strange to hear you say that since it gives the feeling that the implants that cyborgs carry in their bodies seem to seek immediacy…
No, for me it doesn’t have much to do with it. There are many aspects of cyborgism and my case has nothing to do with downloading data or internet connectivity or any type of information source that is not natural.
Now that everything with Covid has passed, it seems that many people have felt the desire to get away from the artificial, from the technological… but that seems impossible for a cyborg since you have technology inside you.
In a dystopian event where the world is going to shit, the last thing I would worry about is whether or not my implants work. My priority would be to survive, not to think about whether I can hear through my skull or not. Doing that is something I can afford in the contact we live in where everything seems to be going well, but in a more catastrophic contact I couldn’t afford it. Everything always depends on the moment. I also have to tell you that I never usually ask myself these types of questions (laughs). It’s always fun to play what if?
Speaking of unknowns. I read in an interview a few years ago that you liked to change your name, have you found in Kai Landre your definitive identity?
I said that long ago! Good research! (laughs). Personality, in my opinion, is super malleable. With everything I learn I am always generating a new version of myself. I always see myself closely linked to the knowledge I have at a given moment and that determines my personality. I said those statements when I was eighteen or nineteen years old. I was at a time when I didn’t know myself and played completely crazy with the moldability of my person. Nowadays I feel much more comfortable with certain characteristics of my psyche that make up a more solid and less malleable personality, but I always like to play at constant reinvention while maintaining an essence.
I am one of those who thinks that reinvention is something slightly utopian. A tiger will always have stripes, never spots.
Of course! That is the essence! But thanks to learning you can mold yourself, you can evolve into another version of yourself. I am the same person I was ten years ago but at the same time I am not. It is like the problem of the ship that departs and on the way the passengers are exchanged for others from another ship and these change all the pieces of the ship. Is it still the same ship when it reaches port? It’s a bit of a metaphor. The structure is always there and the person too, but everything that happens at a consequential level in the end makes you keep trying again.
Do you know someone who has achieved it?
Completely! everyone around me reinvents itself.
I know very few!
Oh! Well, I believe that everyone is constantly evolving. It is never extreme. On a personal level you can perceive it if you make an effort to attend and listen. People tend to evolve a lot and if you find yourself in a constant search for yourself, it means that you accept change.
Would you say that music has helped people understand you more?
I think so. Music is a medium in which you can develop a lot of abstract and personal ideas. There are things that, unless you have a very long conversation, never come to light. In a song you have the listener’s full attention and you can transmit more blurred, more abstract thoughts, opening a space in which the expression of the intimate is the norm. I think it’s very nice and it’s something that I love. Cyborgism poses a very difficult conversation and there are people who don’t even ask you. That’s why every time I make more music, more people will be able to listen to my ideas, especially on a subject about which there is very little information,
When you meet someone new do you feel the need to explain who you are?
It depends on who. If I intend to establish an intellectual relationship with that person beyond the funny comment, beyond the party contact, then yes, I am going to talk about myself to allow them to know me better. . But when I’m partying I’m not a party attraction, I’m not going to give the badge to anyone.
While writing “Cyborg” is supposed to be a step towards the peace of mind you seek after understanding yourself a bit more during your transition. Have you at least gotten close to that emotional relief?
This is the first time I say it but thanks to the peace that I have obtained through the E.P. I have decided to take a break to rethink my musical project in order to create something truer and closer to me. “Cyborg” has allowed me to express everything I wanted and I have been left empty of ideas. Now I am coming back to understand myself from another point of view and from a different space. I am going to start a different new stage where I rethink everything and it is thanks to this E.P. which has been a catharsis.
Can you imagine that this is the last interview of Kai Landre as we know him?
You can be! (laughs). I don’t know, I can’t say more.
Do you think that people relate the concept of cyrborg with the coldness of character and spirit when connecting it with the machines?
Totally worse is understandable. Hollywood has sold the cyborg as a machine. Call us cyborg, simply because of the etymology of the word. We seek to connect with the environment and that is anything but cold (laughs).
What has becoming a cyborg revealed to you?
The fact of having an increased perception completely detaches you from the social system in which we live. Everything in the world is thinking for the senses but when you have a sense that you can’t get anywhere and you can’t be casted, so to speak, it’s like you live in a state of freedom since you know that what you are perceiving is not there. being altered by anyone. It is something pure, natural and I love it.
Do you recognize yourself in who you were before? For example, in the music you made at the beginning of your music career….
I recognize myself in a more premature state. Each project represents who I am at a given moment and I was the one who made “Outer Space” but I am also the one who made “Human” or “Cyborg” and I like it because I feel that I am never afraid to change and lose my style and generate a new one. I know that people who can listen to my music will understand it and I think that’s very cool. I’ve made completely different albums and I like it, I fully recognize myself and I like to see that evolution.
Don’t you feel a certain vertigo for being able to get too far away from who you were at the starting line?
No, because that makes me more of who I am. I’m very happy. Evolution is not that my being consists in changing, but that I accept the change that is part of the essence of life and I accept it in me. I don’t try to stay static because I know I can’t lose myself, I am me.
But, now thanks to the album, we can say that you are on a new starting line…
Yes, it has been a very long process of creation in which I have found myself a lot and I think that now I have a much clearer vision of what I want to do thanks to this album. I have found many of my values, of my purposes at a creative level and I have connected a lot with what I am, what I want and what I can do. It is what you say a completely new output and I feel more prepared than ever.
More about Kai @kai.landre
Credits
Creative Direction and Production: Adrián Rodríguez
Photography, Creative Direction and Postproduction by Diego Piqueras
Styling: Ché
Muah: Manuel Perera
Fashion editor and interview: Juan Martí
Brands: Alvaro Calafat, Concepción Miranda, Ester Ferrando, Arturo Obegero.
