At 30, I already felt old. To start singing at 30, you actually have to be a little stupid. First, I didn’t want to become a singer, but there was no one around me to sing. At 60, we are perhaps less old than at 40, because we have less worry about the work to be done, the future and all that. Turning 60 raises less anxiety.
Are you going to do something special to celebrate your 60th birthday on December 24?
Celebrate little Jesus like every year since the beginning.
The idea is to defend the album “Simplifier” and there will also be some old stuff
Where are you with your next and 13th album, which is scheduled for release in spring 2026?
I have things going on but I have no idea where I’m going. It’s really foggy. It’s actually a pleasant moment to stay in the fog and not know where you’re going.
A tour is planned soon (2). What can the public expect?
The tour will be a trio: guitar-keyboard and no drums, but a drum machine. The idea is not at all to do an acoustic tour with a small sound but a normal tour with sound where I will defend my latest album, “Simplify”, and where there will also be some oldies.
In one month, we saw Souchon father and son pass through Brest and the region, Peter Doherty solo, Manu Chao in trio… Why these concerts in small groups?
This is not my case, but for others, I think it’s in reaction to all this big bazaar and music industry where the light show takes up more space than the musicians. It’s a pretty healthy reaction to go back to the bone.
Did you miss the stage during your convalescence?
Oddly enough, no. The scene is not an innocent thing. Being on stage can be very enjoyable but at times, I feel like I’m failing.
Fabulous to see how much joy Stade Brestois brings to Brest residents
After Johnny Hallyday, Jane Birkin and Juliette Gréco, do you continue to write for others?
I wrote for Mirabelle Gilis (his partner, Editor’s note) and I continue to do so for her.
Do you still have your fan club based in Ushant?
The fan club no longer exists but the president (Fifi La Boulange, Editor’s note) still exists and that is the most important thing.
What do you think of Stade Brestois’ performance in the Champions League?
We are really on course to qualify for the eighth. It is a renewed pleasure to read this ranking every day and to see Brest, far ahead of PSG. Of course, I remember Stade Brestois from the great era of the 80s. But the great era is now today. It’s fabulous to no longer live in nostalgia and to currently see how much joy this club brings to the people of Brest.
A concert that left an impression on you on and in front of the stage?
On stage, it was during a tour in Mexico, in Metepec, in the suburbs of Mexico City. During the concert, I was made an honorary citizen of Metepec. It was completely surreal. I’m not much of a fetishist but it’s a diploma that touched me and that I kept.
As a spectator, there was the Astor Piazzolla concert at the Brest Auditorium. It was incredibly violent even though it was an acoustic concert. For my album “Boire”, I always kept that in mind, this aspect that we could be violent with acoustics. Marquis de Sade with the brass instruments, still at the Auditorium, it was also enormous.
I don’t see myself dying on stage
What music are you currently listening to?
A bit of everything, as usual. I don’t necessarily listen to French songs, even if, at the moment, I like Léonie Pernet in whom there is poetry and sound.
And among Breton artists?
There are people on the balcony. There is the next Lesneu which should be released. I also like the sound and laid-back nature of Trunks, a group that comes together for fun.
When is retirement? you who declared to Le Parisien, on October 11: “Unlike some, I don’t see myself pushing this work too far. I love my job, but I can live without it. »
Initially, I thought that my retirement would have been early and that, by popular demand, the mess would have been stopped. But we continue. However, I don’t see myself dying on stage. My ego and my person don’t need the stage to have a good day.
1. “1964” (Pias). Released Friday, November 8. Double CD (€20.99, FNAC price) and double LP (€54.99) with booklet containing numerous unpublished photos and texts.
