Philippe Katerine is this iconoclastic artist outside the codes, we could say that he is original, but it is clear that this term does not correspond to him in any way. With him, we love or we hate, like his title which has become a hit Luxor, I love it. From the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games via Boris Vian whom he played in the film Gainsbourg (Heroic life) by Joann Sfar or her performance in The Great Bath by Gilles Lellouche, which earned him the César for best supporting actor, we learn to speak Philippe Katerine. Monday November 11 he releases his album Zouzouor 17 little stories that tell it a little more.
franceinfo: There is constant fun. So is fun the watchword of the man that you are?
Philippe Katerine : Perhaps you have defined me in one word. It’s true, I love the game, I love the ball, but now, I play a lot less ball. On the other hand, making songs is a little bit like that. Besides, we often record as a team and play hide and seek, Colin-Maillard, so I invent games like that, with the listener, with myself. Yes, I like to play.
Previously, you tended through plastic art, in any case drawing, to succeed in expressing what you could not say out loud. And there, we have the feeling that you are finally able to put words to words, to write and express out loud what you feel.
I have never been frustrated by not expressing myself.
But there are still things that are more difficult to say.
Of course ! But it’s a question of gear. When we go fishing, what equipment do we take? Fishing is what is related to songs, to writing songs, we go fishing. In this case, for me, it happened to me to write an entire album with post-its, two or three words were enough. For this disc, I bought a large notebook, bigger than A4 format, and it’s true that I was able to correct in more depth, in more detail. So my texts, on this occasion, are perhaps a little more… I had more fun writing texts and it was fascinating for me.
You say: “the more we know, the less we know“. You are an addict of intellectual nourishment.
“Opening a book, listening to a record, that saved me.”
Philippe Katerineat franceinfo
I still needed something else. It allowed me to find myself, somewhere, and to understand a little where I was, who I was because I was still in a total fog.
In the song What are you becoming? You speak directly to your penis. We laugh about it, but ultimately you tackle a subject that is really taboo, it’s the male libido. Somehow, this is also your strength. This is because through humor, you succeed in “bringing to the forefront” subjects that we are afraid to approach.
There are definitely a lot of songs that I throw away. There are times when I get into things that I can’t handle, it’s not possible. And then there are songs for which I say to myself: well, anyway, I’m not going to be alone in this case, there are people who will recognize themselves in it. It’s true that libido after 60 is still the great mystery. I still have five years ahead of me! I was almost forced to write this song! It did me good and I still composed it with my friend Jean-Sébastien Bach.
It is indeed Bach’s prelude. Isn’t that what defines you the most? To go searching like a laboratory assistant?
A laboratory assistant isn’t a bad idea! Yes, I like this definition. As a researcher from the CNRS, the National Research Center of the ‘Sanchon’.
In Total to the westyou say “I was born to be a troubadour, without trumpet or drum“When did you realize that this was going to happen?
“As a child, people listened to me more when I sang than when I spoke. It still appealed to me.”
Philippe Katerineat franceinfo
I sang a lot at mass. I was asked to sing a verse solo so I felt that singing was something… When I sang, it pleased me. It comes from this sort of thing. Afterwards, I like being photographed and acting in films. With my mother, we simply looked through the photo album and she said: “Look at Philippe, you’re still photogenic“. Oh well, what does that mean? “You still look better in photos than in real life“It wasn’t quite that, but not far off! I believed it, it’s this kind of sentence that makes you take one path rather than another, to tell the truth. They make you believe that you sing well, you are photogenic. Well, let’s go! That’s what I have to do!
This record is very positive. We want to dance, we want to have fun, everything is very light. We will end with your grandmother’s adage “When there is no solution, there are no problems“.
Absolutely. It’s not my grandmother, it’s Pépé’s who is our manager on the tour that I salute, Pierre Philippe. And it’s true that this sentence helped me a lot. It’s true that it’s an adage ‘total personal service’, that is to say that when there is no solution, there is no problem. So it gives you a good night’s sleep like that.
Philippe Katerine’s tour starts on April 11, 2025 in Rouen. It will be on the 16th in Toulouse, the 17th in Lyon, the 29th in Lille and at the Zénith de la Villette in Paris on the 30th.
