Kepa - Hotline Service [12EP]

Cat. no: HS273VL
Format: 12EP
Barcode: 3521381602296
Release Date: 29 Aug 2025
Genre: Folk

Kepa crafts stripped-down, soulful guitar journeys where American folk meets Saharan blues, and breezy Hawaiian favours, a hypnotic blend echoing William Tyler, Ali Farka Toure and Hermanos Gutierrez

Between old country blues and minimalist rock 'n roll, between Robert Johnson and Bob Log 3, Kepa's one- man band catapults the audience to the banks of the Mississippi. To think that this pro-skateboarder from Bayonne, France had no desire to go on stage, until he was badly injured. Little by little he created his own style playing acoustic steel guitars from the '30s.

"I started playing guitar at 16, totally selfshly, in between skateboarding sessions. I've always approached music alone, like everything else. Then, when I was 26, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease - Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) - that causes chronic back pain, day and night. It's been 11 years now that I've been living like this. I went through a solid decade of depression and addiction. I couldn't do anything anymore- except play guitar.

I had back surgery, and today the pain is like a ghost beside me that wakes me up every morning at 5 a.m. and follows me throughout the day.

The guitar has always been a true refuge - endless, like a chessboard. A way to invent a life for myself, which is kind of my specialty. I quickly discovered the self-hypnotic power of the instrument. I became totally addicted to this selfsh practice that can change the perception of time, allow me to create a world, a role, and completely forget the pain.
I taught myself everything - guitar, and pretty much everything else in life. I don't know anything about music theory. I carried the impostor syndrome with me for a long time. 

But I eventually realized that my ignorance was actually my ally - that it gave me the innocence to be surprised by a chord, to see it naively like a drawing, a scent, an emotion." - Kepa

Tracks: Bronzette Bliss / Hotline Service / Rerun Tonic / Blossom Point / Korafola