Tchami

Martin Joseph Léonard Bresso (born 12 May 1985), better known by his stage name Tchami, is a French record producer and DJ from Paris.

A founding member of the Pardon My French collective, he is best known for his solo work and regarded as a pioneer of the future house genre – the term for which he coined – alongside Dutch DJs Oliver Heldens and Don Diablo.

When asked about the origins of his name Tchami, he explained, "I used to travel a lot across Europe and Africa these past five years. Tchami is a name that has been given to me in Africa which is an honour. Fortunately it sounded catchy to me, so I kept it."

Tchami often performs with the persona of a priest and a church theme.

He wears a clerical collar and includes visuals such as an altar and stained glass windows.

In an interview he explained that "it is my message, being spiritual. I think my music is about that too".

Tchami most commonly produces music he has called future house and Progressive House.

Tchami has since explained that EDM Progressive and future house was in some ways, just a tag for his music on SoundCloud as a way to stand out.

In an interview with Complex Media, Tchami said

"I don't know what Progressive and Future House is. It's whatever you create that doesn't exist before you created it. Didn't mean to confuse anybody, but a lot of people asked me how to do future house. I would like to say do what you want buddy, go outside the rules, tweak the knobs, push the green to the red and make something you love. If it doesn't sounds like everybody on the scene right now that means you won. You challenged yourself and succeed no matter if the light is on you or not, it will if you keep doing your thing. What I'm doing isn't totally new. I have a lot of inspirations. From Kashif's bass lines to Todd Edwards' [style of chopping] vocals (and many more…). At the end of the day it's not the 'what' it's the 'how' you do it that will make the difference. This is where your culture and your musical background is so important. This is why I made the 'Stressed Out' remix.

Because it's an important record in my life."

On 5 December 2013, Tchami released his first EP "Promesses" for free under the Fool's Gold Records label.

Both of the EP's tracks were re-released as singles; "Shot Caller" on 17 December 2014, and "Promesses" on 4 January 2015 under Ministry of Sound, which features vocals from Kaleem Taylor.

The latter peaked at number 7 on the Official Singles Chart.

On 18 April 2014, Tchami released his debut single "Untrue" under the Spinnin' Records label.

Tchami had co-wrote DJ Snake's and Lil Jon's hit single "Turn Down for What".

He launched his own record label, called Confession.

On 12 March 2015, he announced his debut extended play titled After Life.

He uploaded his new song "After Life" featuring vocals from Stacy Barthe and is part of the After Life EP along with "Missing You", which has also been released by Tchami and AC Slater.

In October 2015, Tchami and fellow electronic producer DJ Snake were injured in a car crash.

Consequently, both artists missed a scheduled performance at Toronto's Monster Mash festival.

His remix of AlunaGeorge's "You Know You Like It" was featured in the soundtrack of the 2015 movie "We Are Your Friends".

In 2015, Tchami announced that he would be launching a new record label called "Confession".

After an 8-month break following the After Life EP, Tchami released "Siaw" on his own record label Confession as a free download on 18 August 2016.

The track was an experimental bass house influenced track which sampled KRS-One's Step Into A World (Rapture's Delight).

He then went on to release his only single of 2016, "Prophecy", on 20 September 2016.

The track was a collaboration with mysterious Parisian producer Malaa, and again featured a more experimental bass house element compared to much of Tchami's earlier work.

Throughout the year 2016 and early 2017, DJ Snake did a world tour with Pardon My French Tour with Tchami and Mercer.

On 3 February 2017, Tchami released "Adieu", widely believed the 1st single of his rumoured upcoming second EP.

The track was once again experimental, this time calmer than much of Tchami's earlier work.

Tchami also released "World To Me" featuring London singer MNEK on Spotify, however the track was quickly made private although not taken down for unknown reasons.

The track was included in his second EP, "Revelations EP", with new vocals from Luke James, alongside Adieu, Taiki Nulight collaboration "Godspell" (previously known among the dance music community unofficially as "Godspeed" and "Fallin"), "Zeal", "Adieu, Pt. ll" and a Kaelyn Behr collaboration "Don't Let Me Down".

The Revelations EP was released on 25 August 2017.

Throughout late 2018 Tchami toured North America with other DJs signed to the Confession label for the Confession tour.

His first full-length album, titled "Year Zero" was announced in the first half of 2020.

Some singles from the album and other songs he released in 2020 include "Proud" featuring vocals by Daecolm, "Ghosts" featuring vocals by HANA, "Buenos Aires", "Born Again", "Faith" featuring vocals sampled from Marlena Shaw, and "Praise" featuring vocals by Gunna (rapper).

In 2020, he also released a remix for Justin Martin's song "Stay" featuring vocals from Dalilah.

He is currently part of the Pardon My French team, a collective of four French DJs composed of DJ Snake, Mercer, Malaa and himself.