Octave Lissner

Octave Lissner was born in Paris on June 30, 1993 to a musical family. At twenty-three, following the success of his debut EP featuring the single ‘Silver Rain’ (2014), with over 24,000 listens on SoundCloud, he is preparing the release of his first album: Wildflower. Recorded in Serbia with some of the country’s best session musicians, the album exhibits Octave’s mournful, soulful, hard-grooving blues rock at full force. It might make you feel like you’re in an open-top car, one careless arm draped out the window over the hot metal, with someone beautiful in the passenger seat.

Octave’s music takes particular influence from musicians like Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, Neil Young, Burt Bacharach and Paul Simon. But his musical attractions range widely and are diverse, including the more contemporary—Radiohead and Kings of Leon— It’s not surprising that he draws on such a wide range of artistry; he started learning the violin at age six and the guitar at eight; and at eleven he discovered he could sing. Forming a band in which he co-wrote songs with his friends, none of the precocious and embarrassed boys were comfortable putting themselves forward as lead singer. Taking turns at the microphone to see who could sing best, Octave found he had a voice.

Since then it has continued to serve him well, and Octave has composed and performed music in a number of bands, and as a solo artist in venues across London and Paris. In October 2014 he opened for Mr Big at the legendary venue Koko in Camden, London, and in Paris he has played solo concerts at Bus Palladium, Le China Club, La Favela Chic, Le Perchoir and Pile ou Face, to name but a few. Earlier this year at Le Baiser Salé, one of Paris’ most celebrated jazz clubs, he gave weekly performances in a one-month residency for a tribute to jazz guitarist John Scofield.

In April 2016 Octave won a prize for best composition in ‘The Best Musical Mind’: an international competition held in Belgrade. This allowed him to attend a Summer program offered by the Berklee School of Music in Perugia, Italy. A restless composer, Octave has written music for web series (www.mylifeinsourdough.com) and film soundtracks; his song 'Little Mary' featured in Valley of Love (starring Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert, directed by Guillaume Nicloux), part of the official selection during the 2015 Cannes film festival. He currently lives between Paris and London, where he spends his time composing and drinking chocolate milk.