Gaëtan Roussel, singer of the group Louise Attaque, looks back on the timeless success of their emblematic song “Je t’emmène au vent”, but also on the Deluxe reissue of his latest album, Eclect!que.
The singer of Louise Attaque has just released an album, composed of duets with notably Calogero, Vanessa Paradis, Matthieu Chedid, Soprano, Hoshi, and Louane.
This album “Éclect!que”, it’s what ? An anthology of current French variety songs?
These are encounters that I had the chance to have or encounters that I wanted to have and that I had the chance to have through this record. In fact, I started this record without knowing it about ten years ago, since on each of my solo albums, I always slipped in one or two duets. So I put them together and added others to continue the adventure.
How do you choose the people you’re going to do a duet with?
So either these are people that I was able to meet here and there and with whom I said to myself that it would be worth trying the adventure for the duration of a song. Either they are people that I wanted to meet like Soprano, people who, a priori, are from a musical universe different from mine. And that’s precisely what interests me.
The idea of calling him Eclect! that, it was precisely about walking here and there and bringing together things that, a priori, had no reason to come together and which become a song.
Were there people you approached who told you no?
No, because I took the time to build it. So, each time, we had to take a little time. With Soprano for example, it’s not at all that he didn’t want it at the start. The schedules were complicated. We ended up spending some time in the south of France, so I was pretty lucky there.
So there is in particular this new single called “Le sais-tu?”, with a young singer called Marguerite Thiam. How did you come to her?
How did I get to Marguerite? Because I really like her record, we share the same show producer. So the meeting happened. A song, a few words, a melody. See if she would like to come and share a little moment. I try to be curious. It’s part of my job, listening to music and that’s it. And in this disc, to launch invitations.
How are things going with young artists? You are a reference in the world of music in France.
I don’t know. What I do know is that these are times when we find ourselves trying to build something together. They’re not songs that I could really actually sing on my own and that’s what’s interesting. It’s really this mix that makes us move forward.
You say that “there is a story behind every song”. And behind this duo with Isabelle Adjani, what is the story?
It’s a story and a relationship that is primarily epistolary, because we didn’t have the chance to be in the studio at the same time with Isabelle Adjani. So we met while the song was being made, we sent each other messages beforehand to get to know each other, to know what we felt about this song. And then we met afterwards, mostly on sets, then elsewhere to defend this song. It’s a joy to share this moment, to write a text for her, to sing with her.
I like his work, I like his outlook on things, on society and its choices for a very long time. And then happy to participate in the fact that she returns to music. It’s been a long time since she sang, so I’m delighted to have been able to share it with her.
Louise Attaque will celebrate her 30th birthday with a concert at the Francofolies de Spa on July 21. And this song “Je t’emmène aux vents”, this song from 1957 which remains an anthem. What makes this song so special and what makes this song successful?
What I can tell you is that it’s a chance to have him with us. That when we sing it like when we sing the songs from Louise Attaque’s first record and we also sing the songs we did a few days ago, that is to say, for example those from the last album , one illuminates the other, so it’s nice to mix it all up.
And to talk about generations, we see that at the concert, there are generations mixing and that makes us extremely happy. This song, when we first sang it, even before recording it, we sang in places, in bistros, here and there, and it was already our friend. That’s everyone in these moments. A song like that was the one for us.
More than 25 years later, singing it doesn’t tire you, doesn’t it wear you out?
No way. Each time we went on tour with my friends from Louise Attaque, we left with what we had already done. This song is part of what we came to offer, which we had done a little bit before.
So at this point in our trajectory, we never went back on tour with just songs that we had done a long time ago. We leave with the desire to sing the new ones as well as the old ones. For the moment, some help others, we have no worries of weariness.
You will be at the Francos de Spa on July 21 with Louise Attaque. And then there is your eclectic album which will be released tomorrow in a deluxe version. Thank you so much.
Louise Attaque song Music Gaëtan Roussel
