2023-10-30 12:12:23
For the 120th anniversary of Harley-Davidson, we are all invited to the concert which will be held at the Olympia on November 6. In the program ? Little Bob, Axel Bauer, Yarol Poupaud, David Hallyday, Haylen… serving the Petits Princes association. The AD of this anthology evening was entrusted to the leader of the Devil Blues, Manu Lanvin. Crazy interview.
You have been a Harley-Davidson France ambassador for two years. What is your first motorcycle memory?
Manu Lanvin: Imagine that it was a PW 50, Yamaha! As a spiritual grandfather, I had a family friend, an Iranian political refugee who wanted to please me with this little motorcycle. In the early 1980s, Gérard [Lanvin], my father, loaded the bike and we went for a ride on the northern beaches. Then, at the age of thirteen, I did enduro, I toured in the Landes, then I did some competitions.
And your first Harley?
It came very late, when I had the Harley-Davidson fantasy since I was little. When I managed to make a living from my music, earning enough money from my concerts, I went and got myself a Sportster – usually, it’s the first Harley to buy, because they are easy to handle, and you can customize it to death. I made it my art object!
THE ART OF THE BIKER_
Manu Lanvin has two passions: the blues from Mississippi and this beautiful car born 120 years ago in Wisconsin.
Is it the American spirit that seduced you with Harley?
It first came with music and cinema. My Harley-Davidson trip is closely linked to the guys whose look, attitude, posture, character, personality I liked. I always remember the film Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969, editor’s note), these kinds of hippies on the fringes of society, who rode Harley choppers. It’s the taste of freedom, of the getaway, the desire to carve out the road to California and go where the sun sets. It’s the conquest of the West.
A universe that we find on the cover of your single with the Devil Blues, “Make my escape”. Which song best represents the Harley spirit, in your opinion?
I composed my new song “Make My Escape” for exactly that! I collaborated with Neal Walden Black (Texan guitarist and author, editor’s note), we made a text which talks about this search for freedom and escape on a bike. On the cover, I ride my Harley Low Rider. Otherwise, there’s Steppenwolf, “Born to Be Wild”! (Manu Lanvin takes out his cell phone and starts the song). From the first bars, we understand, you see? For me, it’s the anthem of Harley-Davidson! Discovered with Easy Rider, obviously.
You played and opened for Johnny Hallyday. Did you go biking with him?
Never, no. In fact, he was very shy and reserved, and even though I had known him since I was little, I was impressed by him. On the other hand, I knew that if I started talking about bikes, guitar or tattoos with him, then we could talk together for four hours!
At eleven years old, you started playing the guitar, the one you picked up from the film Marche à l’ombre (1984), the masterpiece by Michel Blanc in which your father played. Two meetings will be decisive: that of the singer and guitarist Calvin Russell first, then that of Claude Nobs, the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival…
And Quincy Jones, my third big meeting! When I met Calvin, in the 2000s, I had just been thrown out of my label (Warner, editor’s note). They couldn’t understand what musical madness I wanted to go into. Each time, they tried to influence my AD towards paths that really did not suit me. Calvin, at this time, had also given up on record companies. He wanted to quit and take care of his dogs in Austin. One evening, I went to see the concert of Paul Personne, who had invited Calvin for a piece. Calvin had not been to Europe for four or five years. As soon as he went on stage, his magnetism amazed everyone, so much so that La Cigale was transformed and he couldn’t leave the room without doing several duet songs with Paul. Seeing the power he had over people who loved blues and rock convinced me to immediately go find him in Austin, where he was living. He comes to pick me up at the airport with his pick-up, a Ford F-150, their model made with Harley, and I tell him: “You realize, the French adore you! Let’s make an album together.” He replies: “Record companies are over for me!” » So I said to him: “But who told you about a record company? I have a studio, I know some really good French musicians, and you, here, you shake a branch, there are fifty of them falling! “.
And you made the album Dawg Eat Dawg (2009, XIII Bis Records).
Initially, I only offered to produce the album and organize the work; to play the role of a record company, in fact. As studio days approach, I get a call from his wife, Cynthia. She was anxious and told me that it wasn’t going to work, that Calvin had no inspiration. He was taking medication that was making him stoned. So I stuck to it, I locked myself away for a week, I put myself in his character, asking myself: what would Calvin like to sing? I send him lots of songs, then, no answers. The panic.
Did he not like it?
I was actually freaking out. We had become friends, so it’s hard to tell a friend that what he offered you was bad. A week later, he calls me: “Manu, there’s a fire. I papered my entire room with texts. You know what ? You’re not just going to produce the album, we’re going to do it together, and you’re going to co-write it! “. It was great. I took him to Morocco to do pre-production: can you imagine a Texan in the medina of Marrakech (laughs)? The culture shock was incredible, the connection maximum, and 80% of what we did there, we kept, including all his voices.
Did you have a studio?
We had transformed the suite of the riad into a studio. He came out of his room, came to record, “one, two, three takes”, bingo, he planted the song. Like that. Finger in the nose! He killed me every time. And he went back to his room. With firecrackers and all that, of course. We made this album as independents, and then we obviously found a record company, because we wanted to develop it. The album was a real commercial success. It gave me confidence again. Nobody was interested in my music, people thought that I didn’t know how to compose or write, so I was full of doubts, you see. Unfortunately, Calvin died shortly after (in April 2011, editor’s note). We did a tour, but we had to stop it, because he had some health problems, and then he left. But just before, he had said to me: “There you go, Manu, you know the road. The album we made together is no more mine than yours. So, keep going.” I formed Devil Blues shortly after.
Right after, you played at the Montreux Jazz Festival with the Devil Blues?
Well, at first we were just struggling to find gigs. We showed our first album (Mauvais Casting, released in 2012, editor’s note) to everyone, but no one took the time to listen to it. Until Claude Nobs spotted me during the shooting of a film, for a Swiss director, where I had a piece to perform. He asked me to come and play on the open and free stage of his festival. At the end of the concert, Claude, dressed in white, comes up to me and asks me if I mind playing at his after party, at the Claude Nobs Lounge. I jammed there until 6 a.m.! Quincy Jones was there, he wanted to speak to me: “You’re not French”, which he repeated to me for ten minutes, over and over! He invited me to play for the Jazz Foundation Of America, which raises funds for all aggrieved and disenfranchised jazz players. I played at the Apollo Theater in Harlem with Steve Jordan on drums. After that, the Devil Blues was sealed off everywhere. It wasn’t easy, we started from nothing, we played wherever possible, campsites, naturist camps… If you start a band with your friends, hit the road and play everywhere! It makes you invincible.
On October 16, a concert in Le Havre from the “On the road again!” tour will be broadcast on Culturebox. » by Gérard Lanvin on which you are orchestra director. Is a sex, drugs & rock’n’roll tour possible while working with your father?
Oh, that’s okay, he’s seen it… He comes from the 60’s, you know, and the sixty-eighters did worse than us! But it’s true that I keep my cool when he’s around, it’s normal, right? (laughs)
“WITH THE OLYMPIA, THE IDEA IS TO REUNITE THE HARLEY FAMILY! »
For Harley’s 120th birthday, you are in charge of the AD of the anniversary concert at the Olympia, on November 6.
Stéphane Sahakian, who organized all the major Harley events, like Morzine (which brings together tens of thousands of people), called me. He wanted to mark the occasion, as the United States and Eastern Europe did, and have a big party. So we put together a backing band, with artists whose talent I recognize. There will be Axel Bauer, Haylen, Little Bob, Fred Chapellier, Johnny Gallagher, Norbert Nono Krief… David (Hallyday, editor’s note) will be on drums, and many other artists. The idea was to reunite the Harley family, because it exists. It is made up of fans, musicians and artists. We will only have two hours to express ourselves, so we couldn’t invite everyone, but there will be diversity, fun and movement on stage.
The songs you plan to play?
The idea was obviously to make songs that bikers and Harley enthusiasts know, so there will be essentials. But I didn’t want karaoke or for the artists to come and do their individual promos.
So it will be a big band with improvisation and artists taking turns on stage?
Exactly, and who sometimes end up together too. With virtuoso guitarists like Fred Chapellier, or even Axel Bauer – people don’t know that he’s a monster on the guitar, he has an incredible voice, certainly, but, right now, I really want to play Hendrix with him, because I know he will be in his element – the idea is to have fun. There are also titles from the repertoire of some of my guests that I really like. I asked Axel that we do “Turn off the light” together – he was ok, so go! We have already started rehearsing with the backing band and we will have two days before the Olympia, with the guests, to rehearse all together.
THE HELMET OF THE CENTURY_
Our French bluesman can be proud of the line-up he brought together for the anniversary of Harley, his favorite brand. On his arm, a flagship helmet from the French brand Roof: a Roadster in Iron version.
Celebrating 120 years of Harley is celebrating the American spirit. What does he mean to you, besides Steppenwolf and Easy Rider?
It’s very mixed, because as soon as you get out of the myth, you realize that you don’t like everything about Americans, so I try to keep the things that animated me as a kid. We are celebrating the 120th anniversary of the brand. You see, the guys who ride Harleys in Europe, I know them, because they come to my concerts. So, these 120 years, for me, are those of European Harley enthusiasts. I know that I will meet bikers that I know, who like the music that we offer them, that I meet at rallies and at blues and rock concerts. For me, this birthday has that taste.
Do you find that the Harley and blues audiences are renewing themselves?
I see that, yeah. A way of dressing different from the old-fashioned guys, who had the perfectos. They have another look and I find it really good, a more Californian style, wide pants and sneakers. I love how they appropriated the bike, how they designed it to ride while dissociating themselves a little from the older generation.
Are you a Harley gear collector?
It comes back seriously, that. I wandered through vintage stores, the Harley look is very present in thrift stores. Old t-shirts sell for 250 euros, it’s crazy. I have a few pieces, but I don’t collect.
“THE HARLEY IS A PASSPORT TO ESCAPE!” »
Your definition of Harley?
It’s a… how should I put it? It’s a passport to escape. For the escape. For the quest for freedom. There’s that in two-wheelers. But with Harley, I find that it carries him even more. Because it’s a motorcycle that also inspires travel. You know you can ride for a very long time with this kind of bike. It’s very comfortable. You can dream, ride, let your imagination run wild. For me, it’s the bike of someone who wants to get away, very far away.
www.manulanvin.com
www.harley-davidson.com
Interview Alexis Lacourte
Photos Davide Carson
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