As a precursor to his forthcoming debut album, Crayon released the reflective single and video for the title track ‘Home Safe’ at the close of 2024, featuring French-Cameroonian artist Yamê and JPL of Australian band Tora. Now, he unleashes his new track ‘Diamond Miner’, featuring French multi-instrumentalist FKJ and English soul-pop singer ELIZA, continuing to explore the rich sonic world of Home Safe.

A central figure in the Parisian music scene and a trusted producer for French rappers like Josman, Dinos, and Prince Waly, Crayon now steps into the spotlight with a deeply personal, genre-defying, communal solo project. Home Safe traverses soul, folk, jazz, hip-hop, and electronic landscapes, drawing inspiration from his roots, community, and the complex idea of home.

The album’s genesis took place in a shared Paris apartment, where Crayon and jazz pianist Bastien Brison hosted intimate Sunday jam sessions. These gatherings blended live music, dance, and visual art, creating an atmosphere of spontaneous creativity and raw emotion. Musicians, singers and rappers, Leo Walk and members from his dance company La Marche Bleue, together with visual artists Enfant Précoce and Julien Bernard, all came together in this unique collaborative space, shaping the spirit and energy that permeate Home Safe—a record that marries the grandeur of jazz orchestration with the intimacy of bedroom production.

Following this vibrant period, Crayon faced a challenging personal chapter, retreating to his childhood home on the outskirts of Paris. There, over three years, he refined the album’s lush, warm sound—a seamless fusion of orchestral richness and quiet introspection.

“Home Safe is about reconnecting with all the music I found comfort in in our little suburban home where I grew up on the outskirts of Paris,” Crayon says. “Remembering the smell of the fire in the chimney, with my stepdad’s folk records playing in the background.” The album’s cozy, intimate sound reflects this nostalgia, wrapping listeners in a warm embrace. “I had this need for quiet music,” he adds.

At the heart of Home Safe is a question Crayon posed to his collaborators: “What does home mean to you?” The answer is heard across a stellar lineup of voices, including anaiis, Rhye, ELIZA, Yamê, Arthur Teboul (Feu! Chatterton), JPL (Tora), and painter-turned-singer Lossapardo, each contributing their unique perspective to this evocative sonic world.

“How I started making art, it was always about drawing what I was hearing,” he explains, hence the name Crayon. “And then when I started writing music, it was about being able to paint with sounds and create palettes. It's about harmonising textures together, like fabrics and shapes.” It’s an approach to production that’s guided him ever since. “You can hear the shapes, you can taste those shapes, I find it all very connected.”

The visual element to Crayon’s music is central to the world he is building. He’s brought this surreal edge to his visuals with the help of artist and Home Safe Creative Director and choreographer Sulian Rios, whose vertiginous papier-mache masks bring to mind the 1970s New York avant-garde. “It’s the meeting point between reality and something that will never be real,” says Crayon. “This is exactly where I try to exist.”

Rios created the movements and visual textures that would express the boldness and the beautiful simplicity of the songs he had been writing. Crayon didn’t want the album to be faceless but it didn’t feel it was right to put himself at the centre of it either. The characters created by Rios have allowed Crayon to feel safe and step in front of the camera for the first time, albeit not alone.

Home Safe invites listeners into a richly layered world where sound, image, and emotion intertwine. This debut marks the emergence of an artist with a clear vision, profound sensitivity, and a unique ability to translate the intimate concept of home into a bold, genre-blurring musical statement.