There are appeals to readers that elicit more reaction than others. The least we can say is this: come and meet Indochine on the eve of the NRJ Music Awards in Cannesheated up our mailbox.
Six of them were finally able to spend an hourthis Thursday afternoon, with the entire group, in a superb suite at the Carlton hotel in Cannes, with a bird's eye view of the Croisette.
Whether they are 20, 34 or 54 years old, they all have a history with the group, whose route they know like the back of their hand.
Questions and answers, souvenir photos, signings, Nicola Sirkis, Oli de Sat, Boris Jardel, Marc Eliard and Ludwig Dahlbergnever stingy with their time when it comes to sharing it with their audience, offered our six lucky people an ultra-privileged moment.
Tour memories, inspiration and creative process, but also state of the world, relationship with fans and even concert ticket prices… The group with a 40-year career has seen it allgood days and bad days. For over twenty years and the release of Paradizehe enjoys his love rating always at the top.
Even more so the day after the release of a brand new studio album, Babylon Babylon – which has sold more than 112,000 physical copies in 7 weeks, at the time of almighty streaming – and on the eve ofa tour of 17 Zenithsthe Arena Tour, which will see them perform between two and four evenings per city.
>>NRJ Music Awards, live from Cannes, this Friday November 1 on TF1, from 9:10 p.m.
Back at the NRJ Music Awards
Already distinguished three times at the NRJ Music Awards, Indochine is nominated this year in the “French-speaking group” categorywith Calema, Justice, Kyo and Shaka Ponk.
“What made us want to make music was not the fact of finding ourselves in competition. But what is rather interesting about the NMA is that the public votes. And in this case, receiving a prize is always honorary. It's also a big show-business circus, but it's part of the game and we come to pay tribute to the fans.”
“They are our friends. They are the ones who allow us to lead the life we have always dreamed of. People in the profession are not really our friends. That is why, for example, we We have decided to no longer go to the Victoires de la Musique.”
Great tours… but not at any price
For his Arena Tour, which will begin on January 28, 2025 in Aix-en-Provencethe group decided to contain the prices of places between 55 and 75 eurosrefusing to raise the bids as high as other artists, instead inclined to accept the principle of “dynamic pricing”, where prices increase according to demand.
A controversy has recently emerged on this question, when pit tickets for Oasis at Wembley soared to 415 euros.
“You have to keep an eye on this subject. When you are an artist, normally, you can control, if you want, the ticket prices. Afterwards, it's a long discussion. But as long as Indochine's motivation is not financial during the tours, we can afford to present something coherent, and reduce the cost as much as possible. We say good at best, because it's not always easy. What is certain is thatwe'll never want to do things like 'golden lawns' and all kinds of VIP access.”
Concerned by ecological issues
While Indochine was expected at the Palais Nikaïa on November 16 for the first Nice edition of Ocean Festa charitable and ecological event supporting associations and NGOs like Sea Shepherd, we learned this Thursday, October 31 that the meeting imagined by the musician Worakls and the journalist Hugo Clément, was postponed to Saturday October 4, 2025.
“We agreed to play long before Paul Watson [le fondateur canadien de Sea Shepherd, ndlr] be imprisoned(1). But we understand that the organizers don't really want to party at the moment. It's true that it's a bit inappropriate to do concerts during this period. We postponed the date, hoping that by then, Paul Watson's request for political asylum will be granted by Emmanuel Macron, and that he can be at our side.”
Ecology remains one of the major concerns for the members of the group. “We all have children, it obviously affects us. We are at the COP I don't know how many, the United States, China and India are polluting more and more…”
1. Environmental activist Paul Watson will remain in detention in Greenland until November 13, the date of the Danish government's decision on Japan's extradition request, for a case linked to his fight for whales.
In the secrets of their creative process
One of our readers wanted to know if it was possible in Indochina to make something new out of something olddrawing on ideas initially planned for older albums.
“It’s super rare. We're really trying to start from scratch, like we're a new band. Pour Babylon Babylonwe wrote more than 50 tracks (17 were ultimately included on the double album). But we still made an exception with The New Sunswhich we had put aside since 2005, when we released the album Alice and June. While we were looking for ideas in the studio, we came across this gimmick. There was also No name who was hanging around there.”
Embarked on the preparations for their live performance, Nicola Sirkis and his band say they were surprised by the power of their most recent pieces.
“What surprised us a lot, when we started rehearsing the songs from the new album, was to see the strength they had. We absolutely didn't realize it during the recording. still a delta between the pieces of the other albums and these It's three times more work to make the other pieces sound like. On the cross, Babel Babel, Beauty and the Beast are very impressive.”
When we work with five people, do we do everything with ten hands when designing a record? This was another question from one of our guests.
“We each start in our own corner. Ludwig immediately said that he doesn't compose. He stays at home and comes when he needs drums! Oli and I continue to bring songs and, once “we have made the models and our choices are made, we end up all meeting up in the studio”detailed the singer.
Let it be said!
“We don't write songs about us, we write songs about what we feel, what we receive, what we face. And we think a lot of people find themselves there. It's incredible to have texts that are quite timeless, quite complicated to explain. A song like ''3e sexe'' is almost forty years old…”
“We are still angry. For everything. We don't know if it's a source of inspiration. But in any case, it allows us to face the world, it allows us to talk about something other than ourselves. Our ego is far behind.”
“The big challenge of this tour will be to retain the gigantic side that was on 'Central Tour'while having an intimate dimension. We also like it when it's raw. Afterwards, people want to see a show. And we get smashed when we play smaller places (laughs).”
