After many years as an actor, Kavinsky's musical career started in 2005 after being inspired by his close friends Jackson Fourgeaud and Quentin Dupieux, the latter director also including Kavinsky's music in his film Steak. Kavinsky produced his first single "Testarossa Autodrive" which was inspired by the Testarossa model of Ferrari. Kavinsky presented the single to Quentin, who in turn presented it to a record label he had access to because of his filming career, and Kavinsky signed with Record Makers.

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Subsequently Kavinsky went on to release three EPs on the Record Makers label: Teddy Boy in 2006, 1986 a year later, and Nightcall with Lovefoxxx of CSS in 2010. Kavinsky has since toured alongside Daft Punk, The Rapture, Justice, and SebastiAn in 2007. He has also been remixed by SebastiAn and other notable electro artists.

 

The SebastiAn remix of "Testarossa Autodrive" off the 1986 EP is featured in the video games Grand Theft Auto IV and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Kavinsky's single "Nightcall" was featured in the opening credits of the film Drive, and became a major hit soon after.

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In December 2012 he released "ProtoVision" and on 25 February 2013 released the studio album OutRun. After a brief hiatus, Kavinsky reappeared with the single "Sovereign", released in November 2014.