2023-09-16 16:20:57
Fifty years already. It was in the fall of 1973 that Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine took the stage for the first time. The name of the show, Like a dog in a cemetery, already announces the rock poetry of this modern troubadour. “ Let’s say it was the moment when I stopped doing odd jobs because it stopped me from doing what I wanted to do. From 1973 to today, I am really into music and singing”he tells us.
Happy coincidence, the Fête de l’Humanité will welcome this humble monument of French song for its half-century of career. Before hitting the big stage for the fourth time, Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine gave us an interview where it is as much a question of madness and surrealism as, of course, of rock.
On the cover of Geography of the void, your last album, your statue seems to be cracking. Is this a way of rejecting the icon that some see in you?
If there hadn’t been any cracks, I think I would have refused (laughs). It’s the cracks that are interesting, you’re right.
Especially since, in this album, you take a musical opposite that may have disturbed those who have followed you for a long time…
It’s possible, but it’s not the first time I’ve had escapes. I follow my intuitions and I listened to bands like LCD Soundsystem or Metronomy. It allows me to go elsewhere and, above all, not to go around in circles.
You always claim to be rock. How did you get there?
Around the age of 12, I gave up, as they say. I escaped from music lessons because musical dictations bored me. I said to myself: never again music. Then, in the early 1960s, I heard adults say, speaking of the Beatles: “But that’s not music!” » If it wasn’t music, it must have been interesting… I listened and that’s when I started writing songs.
I was especially influenced by yéyés. And I saw that interesting things were happening on the other side of the Channel, notably the Rolling Stones as far as I was concerned. Since it wasn’t music, I gave myself the right to go there.
You always manifest, in your music as in your lyrics, a form of disquietude. What is its origin ?
I was in boarding school for four years and I had a great need to express myself. Let’s just say I already had the blues. We didn’t go on vacation often… I was really feeling down. It’s something I’ve known almost since I was little. And rock immediately attracted me. The melancholic side of pop and the effective side of rock suited me.
In Geography of the void, one might believe that melancholy has given way to pessimism. Do you take a pessimistic look at the world as it is?
I find myself neither pessimistic nor optimistic. For me, these are words that don’t mean much. Whether we are one or the other, deep down we are not in control of situations, especially when they are external to ourselves. And, you know, it’s a little late for me. I wrote Alligators 427 in the mid-1970s. I already wanted to shout to the world: “Be careful, we’re getting lost!” » But before, it was all my imagination working in this direction.
“I wanted to be a singer or nothing, it was life or death. »
Now this is raw reality. Deep down, I think that humans are always surprising and can turn situations around quite quickly. There’s no point in trembling in fear or shouting to the sun that everything is okay. Above all, you must try to be efficient. I am thinking in particular of everything that concerns ecology. It’s not very original what I’m saying, but we shouldn’t delay too much.
You have always explored themes of madness and evil. Why this perseverance?
When I was in college, I did a little psychology. Above all, I wrote a lot of songs. I didn’t go to class often, but often to patient presentations. And, obviously, I identified with them. A whole imaginary world accompanied what did not fall within the social or mental norm.
It inspired me because I felt close to them and found beauty in what they said. And I often thought of myself as a… I’m not going to go into details, you’ll understand (laughs). The atmosphere around me at the time was still “sex, drugs and rock’n’roll”. We were close to madness, surrealism, psychoanalysis.
Where does this taste for words and metaphor come from?
When I was young, I opened atlases and dictionaries every day. It was important for me to look at the words and their meaning. And then, it’s very musical, the words. With them, we can broaden the field: one word plus one word, that doesn’t just make two words, it makes a third.
The English do this sort of thing a lot. And, for me, we are already in the music when we are in the text. It is therefore important that the words sing together. Often, I start from the sound of words to arrive at an idea. Then I let my unconscious speak, which is rarely wrong.
You have examined the company’s margins, but also built your success on the fringes of the industry. Does marginality continue to inspire you?
Marginality is already political. I prefer to talk about loneliness. This need for solitude, even if it hurts, inevitably takes me to the margins. But I don’t think I have the set or the costume to go with it. Maybe I had them at some point…
What memories do you have of your previous visits to the Fête de l’Humanité?
I have an anecdote that echoes what is happening today. It was one afternoon, in 1999 I think. Firefighters were spraying water on the public because it was already very hot. There were prolegomena, as they say, and that does not reassure us. The stage decor was black, I was dressed in black, and so were the musicians. I had rubber sneakers, and they burned my feet. I ended up singing crouched down, in the shadow of the keyboards.
How do you explain the public’s attachment to you?
I wanted to be a singer or nothing, it was life or death. Afterwards, I stayed faithful to what seemed to work for me. By staying the course, above all, and working, so as not to forget that you get nothing for nothing. And I want to always be there for the public. The audience is the great surprise of the story.
In concert Sunday, at 5 p.m., on the Angela Davis Stage at the Fête de l’Humanité.
Itinerary of a castaway. The complete songs of H.-F. Thiéfaine, to be published on October 13, 2023, by Points editions. On tour throughout France and at the Olympia, May 17, 2024. In concert Sunday, at 5 p.m., on the Angela Davis Stage at the Fête de l’Humanité.
Itinerary of a castaway. The complete songs of H.-F. Thiéfaine, to be published on October 13, 2023, by Points editions. On tour throughout France and at the Olympia, May 17, 2024.
1694884633
#wanted #singer #life #death