Make them uncomfortable to make them comfortable again
Lewis OfMan talks about 50KWTTS, the rawest and most electric album of his career, how he builds trust with the audience throughout a show, the surprise cover he is preparing for Mexico and a life in which everything, absolutely everything, revolves around music.
Lewis OfMan has made French pop a game of twisted melodies, analog warmth and dancefloor romance. With 50KWTTShis third album, he decided to change the rules: a colder, more brutal album, designed for a new generation of listeners and played with the energy of someone who turns up the volume without asking permission. After touring Guadalajara, Monterrey and Querétaro, he closes his time in Mexico on October 31 at the Indie Rocks! Forum, with more than an hour and a half of show, a headset microphone that lets him dance without letting go of the keyboards and a surprise that will only be heard here.
IR!: The last time we spoke you were a month away from releasing the album you released this year, and now it’s been out in the world for four, five, six months. How do you see this new album, the public reception, the tour part? How have these months been since the launch?
IT: I think it’s an album made a little bit for new people. I think the usual fans aren’t that into it, because what they like are my melodies, the loving aspect, those warm sounds. And this album is a little colder, a little more brutal. It’s for a new type of people, I guess. I more or less noticed it like this.
Obviously, when you play live you see that older songs always get a little more reception. If I play “Las Bañistas”, people scream all the time. And when I play other tracks of 50KWTTSit’s like: okay. But what I noticed is that when I finish playing the song, they scream, and I can feel that maybe they felt something new that they didn’t quite understand. And I like that. It puts them in a new position. I think it takes a little time to get used to this new sound.
IR!: But I think it can work very well with your previous stuff. How are you putting together the concert setlist for this album? Do you play new songs, old songs? What is the accommodation like?
IT: I’m working with a kind of balance: give them what’s 50KWTTS and then play an old song they know very well. After playing a new one 50KWTTS that they do not yet know, mixing it with elements that they do know. And then do an old song in a new way. Make them comfortable to make them uncomfortable, and then make them comfortable again. And thus build trust throughout the show.
GO!: Very interesting. I think sometimes that’s what music is like: not getting so comfortable, innovating and moving forward with the sounds. And I think it’s a very good album; I’ve been listening to it since it came out and I love it. I want to hear it live.
IT: Thank you.
IR!: I want to ask you about the configuration of the concert. The last time I saw you you were with a group of people and there were some digital drums that you played and all that. What is the configuration of this new tour?
IT: The setup is my usual three synths. I have this little guitar to play the big riffs. And I have something new: a microphone that I don’t hold. Like the microphone on TV, the one you wear on your head. It’s new because it allows me to dance a little more, do funky things. I can sing and run. I can also play keyboards. And I’m playing new versions, like “Halo,” which I play in a very different way. Since I don’t have to hold the mic, I can play it as piano, synth and vocals. All of these new things have me a little more excited.
IR!: I love the idea and I’m very excited to see it live, because the last time I saw you you were going from left to right and from right to left, from one end of the stage to the other, moving everywhere. So I think that microphone is going to help a lot. And I was looking at your Spotify and I found something new, I don’t know if I should call it an album, which is called Mexico Tour Setlist. Tell me, what is this? I was surprised.
IT: In what sense? Good or bad surprise?
IR!: No, good. I was listening to it in the morning and it seemed like a good setlist. Is this exactly the setlist you are going to play on the tour?
IT: I think it’s just a way to share with people a little bit of what’s going to happen in the show to get them excited. It’s just a way to get people excited.
IR!: I find it interesting. It’s a new way of experiencing concerts, because I know people who don’t like having a concert spoiled, they don’t want to know what song comes next. I love seeing the setlist before the concert and listening to the artist before going, and I think it is an interesting way to present this tour to the public.
IT: It’s something new. I wanted to try it. Let’s see how it turns out. I’m glad you find it interesting.
IR!: Yes. Maybe if it works in Mexico you can try it in other places.
IT: Yes, let’s see.
IR!: Speaking of your performances here in Mexico, what can we expect? Did you plan something special? It’s also Halloween, so maybe something with that.
IT: I prepared a special song that I’m only going to do in Mexico. There are four shows: I think I start in Guadalajara, then Monterrey, Querétaro and Mexico City. And I’m going to do a cover, a special one, only for the people of Mexico. You’ll see. It’s my little surprise.
IR!: You can leave it as a surprise, I think it’s more exciting that way. And do you plan to bring friends on stage with you, or not for now?
IT: That’s a bit of the issue: it’s complicated, because this already costs a lot of money, obviously. Bringing friends from other parts of the world isn’t really possible in 2026. But I’m finding my own ways to make it exist and have fun. I would say it’s going to be more of a moment really between me and the audience, something that, to be honest, I haven’t had in a long time. The last time I played was at a festival, and you had like 35 or 40 minutes. It’s very short, you have to go fast. This time I’m going to play for about an hour, an hour 40. Longer than a soccer game.
So it’s going to be a really dedicated time, which I should have had for a while. Also because the last time I played was with Crystal Medium Bluetwo years ago, and it was great, but it was with a band, which is obviously incredible, but we were playing especially the second album. Now it’s really everything, many things. It’s going to be more like an intimate madness.
IR!: For true fans, I think this concert is going to be a blessing. Just curious, because you mentioned it: what’s your soccer team?
IT: Do you mean football? Because I don’t know how you call it; In Europe, football is soccer.
IR!: Yes, here in Mexico too. Only in the United States they call it different.
IT: Are you referring to my team in the World Cup?
GO!: No, no. What team do you go for in general? The clubs.
IT: The truth is I don’t watch football. I only see it during the World Cup. I don’t watch the clubs, I don’t care much about them, with all my love for football. I only see him at the World Cup because he has something that is crazy and that I love. It made me happy to see that the Mexican team had a very good relationship with South Korea. They are my two favorite countries in the world. It made me very happy to see all those people vibrating together in Mexico. It was very fun. I loved it.
IR!: Here in Mexico we love South Koreans, especially in soccer, because not in this World Cup but in the past they helped us get to the next round. So we are connected to them. Speaking of hobbies, what do you do outside of music? Who is Lewis OfMan outside of the artist?
IT: Music is really my whole life. I listen to music all the time. I think that’s what’s different. Maybe I’m not going to make as much music, but I’m going to go to the record store to buy or discover records. I’m going to read biographies of, I don’t know, Ryuichi Sakamoto right now. I’m going to go see all those DJs. I’m going to listen to interviews from DJs I respect. Everything revolves around music. I wake up and put on music. I listen to music. All the time. Always.
Obviously I read a lot. These days I discovered a French comics author called Moebius. He makes sci-fi comic drawings, incredible, a little psychedelic in a way, and I love them. She spent a lot of time in Mexico when she was a teenager, because I think her mother, who was French, had an affair with a Mexican man, a husband there. So he went to Mexico City at about 16 years old and spent time there among underground artists and painters who showed him things. And I love it, because hearing that, and loving the art that he makes, I understood that he was really inspired by his life in Mexico City. I love that.
GO!: I love it. I think you can relate a little to that comic: going to a city and seeing art.
IT: It is a very inspiring place. I love when I spend time in Mexico.
IR!: And I think the Mexican public also loves you and really enjoys having you here. I know you have a huge community. We don’t have much time anymore, so the last questions. Continuing with the record conversation: If you could show me your holy grail, do you have an album that is very special to you on vinyl?
IT: These days I wouldn’t say it’s an album. They would be more specific songs. Lately I’ve been looking for a long time for a Theo Parrish song called “Solitary Flight,” and the other day I was in a record store in New York and I finally found it. I was happy. There’s also a song by a French house producer from the early 2000s; The guy’s name is Pépé Bradock. Same: These days I like to listen to just the song more than the entire album, because sometimes it amazes me how a song can be so iconic, so perfect, and so beautiful in its own way, rather than a complete body of work. Sometimes the whole album is a bit heavy. So I think these two songs are kind of my holy grail these days, and they’re interesting, but they’re more house stuff, because these days I listen to more house, club stuff.
GO!: I’m going to look for them. Today’s final question: If you could describe Lewis OfMan in just three words, what would they be?
IT: Two or three words? Three. Passionate, excited, romantic.
GO!: I love it. Thank you very much Lewis, it’s always a pleasure talking to you.
