Jean Castel Debuts WHAT HAPPENED TO US at Billboard

Los Angeles-based, French-born singer-songwriter Jean Castel releases his shimmery summer earworm of a debut single "What Happened To Us" today via The Artist Method, LLC.

A percolating, tropical-pop single "What Happened To Us" was mixed by Spike Stent (Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, & Julia Michaels) and mastered by Chris Gehringer (Vince Staples, Rihanna, & Twenty-One Pilots). "What Happened To Us" is the first single to be released from Castel's forthcoming EP Orange & Yellow - to be released winter 2018.

The video, shot at EastWest Studios in Los Angeles and directed by George Mays, was premiered today on Billboard. In describing what they call Castel's "forward-thinking pop," Billboard noted, "The lyrics are casual and affable, as if Castel is working through the situation with his estranged partner in real time. As a transplant from southern France, the singer-songwriter is especially tactful with how he chooses his language and wording."

Hailing from Bordeaux, France, Jean moved to the US in 2014 to study at the esteemed Berklee College Of Music before transferring to UCLA. Now permanently based in Southern California and working with master engineer/producer/mixer Mark "Spike" Stent (aka "my mentor"), Jean isn't your average maker of scuffed-heart pop-R&B. Rather, he's that unusual proposition: a singer-songwriter who has both a grasp of groove and a countering European sensibility. Having fallen hard for the sounds of Pharrell, Jamiroquai and Kanye since arriving in America, he was influenced by them when he started recording his own music - but he's still French at heart. "I'm very interested in those grooves," he says. "But I grew up in Bordeaux and that means I have a French way of thinking. I see America with my French eyes, and I think it comes across in my lyrics."

As well as working on his own music, Jean is part of the songwriting/production team Infrared, who write for other artists. His priority right now, though, is working toward the release of his first EP, Orange & Yellow, which is due in Winter 2018.

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