Indochina: We are closer to the end than the beginning

For over twenty years, Nicola Sirkis has been saying that he is the guardian of Indochine’s soul. But you only have to see the group on stage to wonder if the real angel watching over them is not rather their audience. Loyal for over four decades, a generation of fans joining the previous one. On Tuesday, September 3, 2024, they were there, young and old, near Paris, applauding their idols who came to play ten tracks from their 14th studio album, “Babel Babel” for the first time. Barely 300 places were available, by competition. There were 50,000 applications.

The day after their private concert, singer Nicola Sirkis and his guitarist and co-composer Olivier Gérard – known as Oli de Sat – begin a promotional tour in a Parisian palace that will take them to the four corners of Europe. At each stop, their fans are already waiting for them. “We owe them everything. There is a very special bond between Indochine and the public, which goes beyond the music,” confides Oli. He himself was an aficionado before joining the group twenty years ago.

At his side, Nicola is amused. “We must be blessed by the gods… or the devil! We have seen our audience completely renew itself. I don’t know what it is due to. Maybe it is because we have had different successes years apart. It is magical, and quite curious, this transmission between generations. For a rock group, it is a paradox since rock is the break with the past. But we are always the exception that proves the rule.”

“Babel Babel” (available from September 7) confirms that Indochine never does anything like everyone else. On this double album, almost all of the 17 songs last more than 5 minutes, even 8 for the title “Babel Babel”. An opus imbued with the state of the world around us, from the war in Ukraine to the feminist revolution in Iran, including the populist conservatism that cost Sanna Marin, former Finnish Prime Minister, her job. And which makes Nicola say: “The human race sucks.”

Although it was founded in 1981, Indochine wants to be a band in tune with the times. “We’re like a beginners’ band,” comments Nicola. “With each new album, the page on the previous one is turned.” But while keeping an immediately identifiable sound. “We don’t parody ourselves, but it’s still Indochine. It’s our DNA,” continues the singer.

This identity also involves a refusal to participate in a system “where everything is profit, profit, profit”, according to Nicola, by fiercely monitoring the prices of their concert tickets. The Babel Tour, which will pass through the Vaudoise Aréna, in Malley-Lausanne, on May 16 and 17, 2025, will not escape the rule of 80 euros maximum, assures the leader of the group. “We want to guarantee our audience a certain ethic in an increasingly violent and capitalist business.”

The tour will take them until 2026. After that, Nicola, 65, is not planning on anything. “That would be unreasonable. Time is getting shorter, it’s horrible! Every ten years, I say to myself: in the next decade, I’ll stop. But the clock of time means that we can’t put it off until ten years from now. Whatever happens, we’re closer to the end than the beginning. And then we get to an age where we realize that no one is eternal anymore, while rock music allowed us to be. It’s annoying.”