The essential: Your album “Twenty Years of Perfect Love” was released in mid-March. What is your feeling ?
Cali: Today, we often miss albums because we have to go very quickly, so we pick up songs here and there. For me, an album is always very important. It’s a birth, a celebration. A rebirth even for once. The feedback is magnificent, overwhelming.
Twenty years later, you cover the titles of your famous “Amour parfait” with other artists. How was the choice made?
I really admire all the artists on this album. Of their work, of their life, of their work. Some are friends, like Francis Cabrel, Stéphane Eicher, very close ones like Olivia Ruiz, Benabar. I came across Eliott Murphy by chance in the street. I knelt down in front of him and asked, “Would you sing with me?”
Were they easy to convince?
I carried everything myself, I didn’t want anyone else to have the leisure to do it. I called them like I was calling friends for my birthday. I wanted them to be the captains. And I’m the guest. I wanted it to be their song.
20 years ago, it was madness. How did you experience it?
It’s like someone put me in a washing machine and it’s still running. This shows that the wheel is turning, because the genesis comes from a terrible breakup. I experienced it in a dramatic way. To save my life, I wrote songs and these are the ones from this album. And since breakup affects everyone, these songs found their audience.
The audience is still there…
With ups and downs obviously. But the beautiful thing is that the public is always right. Sometimes you feel like you’re making an amazing song and you realize the audience doesn’t want it. And it’s wonderful because there is no recipe. Even if we try to calculate how a song could reach an audience, people are not stupid. We do what we can. I write parts of my life. Sometimes it affects people and sometimes less.
In public you do not offer a formatted show…
Yes because I have the chance to work with great musicians. Steve Nieve offers me different concerts every evening. I don’t know what will happen in Dudelange. Just that we’re going to play all the songs from this first album, perfect love. Afterwards, we will do other songs.
You never tire, offering another energy. Something different…
Completely and the public feels it. The audience is part of the concert. If anyone wants to sing on stage, they come. We do what we want. The aim of the game is that in this crazy world, where terrible things happen, we have a couple of hours where we can do what we want, be together, stop time together.
You are back in Dudelange. Do you have a special connection with this place?
I really like Luxembourg because in my head, it is the hub of life. I have the impression that there are all the countries that come there, being in the middle of the world. And this room is extraordinary. It’s a real tool with the conservatory and they have a director, John Rech, who is fabulous. He’s a singer, a musician who knows what’s going on. He is very protective and we share a lot. It’s “The place to be”.
Is there a particular audience in Luxembourg?
If I said yes, I would be a liar. But every day is different. The aim of the game is to light a fuse. And whatever the place, there has to be something happening. In the South, the public is more passive. In the North, it’s more rock’n’ roll.
