Six years after his last album, the artist and ex-member of Casseurs Flowters unveils a new album, Hypersensitivethis Friday, in which he shares a song with his long-time sidekick, Orelsan.
Gringe is officially back. Six years after his first album Moon childthe former member of the duo Casseurs Flowters returns this Friday, September 20 with a new solo album, called Hypersensitive.
On this 14-track album, the 44-year-old artist opens up about his emotions and experiences, including the song Feelings with his long-time Caen sidekick, Orelsan.
Returning to music after many years of absence, Gringe believes he has “reached a milestone” in his evolution as an artist since Moon child in 2018.
“‘Enfant lune’ was a laboratory album. I was still very influenced by my Casseurs Flowters years, so very influenced in my choice of music, in the very light writing, a little on the surface…”, he confided to BFMTV.
“But I had to make ‘Enfant lune’ to lay the foundations for what comes next. This album is a kind of bridge between the guy I was before and the artist I am today,” Gringe continues.
“I said to myself ‘I’m closing the rap parenthesis'”
However, the return to music was difficult for Gringe. After the mixed success ofMoon childthe artist then turned to cinema where he appeared in films Damien wants to change the world, Les Chatouilles Or By Gracebut also in the series Nudes Or Illegal citizens.
The artist also tried his hand at literature and released his first work in 2020, Together we bark in silencean autobiographical novel in which he tells the story of his brother, Thibault, diagnosed with schizophrenia. Experiences that gradually distanced him from the world of music.
“The result of ‘Enfant Lune’ was not conclusive and as I had a little toe in the cinema and a literary adventure that was beginning I said to myself ‘I’m closing the rap parenthesis’, except that it reopened quickly”, indicates Gringe.
It was during a seminar by a friend of his, Sidney, that Gringe got his foot back in the stirrup. There he met a young composer, Tigri – who would become the producer of his album – and the spark was immediate.
“It had been two years since I had managed to write anything conclusive and then it came automatically. On the first sounds that were given to me, I found the words straight away,” the artist remembers.
A record in “resonance with the political and social context”
From this meeting the first pieces of the album were born Hypersensitive: Confession of a hypersensitive person, Wild Night And Sensitive chord. “Tigri was immediately able to translate my writing desires into music by varying the colors,” says Gringe.
If the artist explores very personal themes such as depression or parenthood in his album, he was also keen to discuss subjects more closely related to current events.
“I address themes that are dear to me, but I couldn’t do something that didn’t resonate with the political and social context. When you see how dark the times are, I couldn’t not talk about police violence, the question of Palestine…”, assures Gringe.
“Orel is my brother and we don’t forget each other”
Hypersensitive also marks the return of the Gringe-Orelsan duo. The two friends and former members of Casseurs Flowters are reunited on the title Feelings. An obvious presence, according to Gringe, who himself collaborated on the piece. Infinity Flowters Breakersin Orelsan’s latest album, Civilization, in 2021.
“When you’re on a personal project and you’re reclaiming your character, your message and your story, you need to do it with people from your family, whether artistic or of the heart. Orel has always been my brother and we don’t forget each other,” confides Gringe.
And to add: “On this track, he arrives with a trip that has nothing to do with what I propose. It is very flowy, very technical, very ego trip rap à la Casseurs Flowters but it comes to defuse the slightly serious tone with which I scratch my first verse”.
To defend Hypersensitive In front of his audience, Gringe announced a tour of around twenty dates, which will start on November 7 in Metz and end on March 21 in Châteaurenard. His dates at La Cigale in Paris and (on December 5) and November 30 in Caen at the Cargo, are already sold out.
While he tells us that Orelsan will be present on “the important dates” of his tour, Gringe nevertheless rules out a return of the famous duo Casseurs Flowters for the moment. “It would taste like reheated food,” he says.
“We created this group and these projects at a time when we were digesting the period of adolescence we were emerging from and we had all the material to transform it into music, a mini-series and a film. Today, we could make a concept album but I don’t think that’s what we want at the moment,” he concludes.
Carla Loridan with Nicolas Béhar
