The Press in France | Behind the smile of Philippe Katerine

The apparent casualness of the artist and his new record hide an unsuspected depth

(Paris) The elusive Philippe Katerine continues to play on us with his new songs, although less rosy than his cute guys seen in Montreal and Quebec last summer. In an interview in Paris, he talks about the scandal caused by his character of Dionysian Smurf in the opening show of the last Olympic Games and his desire to bring roundness to a world that has hardened.

Canal Factory, to the west of Paris, houses film sets where several Canal+ Group programs are filmed. Philippe Katerine has been locked up there for a good hour in a studio disguised as an apartment. He records an episode ofAs an asidea program during which a personality answers questions from a journalist who is not in the same room as her and which viewers hear in voice-over.

The artist, best known as a singer in Quebec, lends himself to the game with good grace. As is tradition, the show ends with a song chosen by the guest. Philippe Katerine places a vinyl by a certain Daniel Johnston on the turntable. “He didn’t know how to play the guitar that much and didn’t know how to sing that much,” he warns, while we hear the first bars of a folk rock that is indeed very approximate to the obscure songwriter American.

This choice is hardly surprising. What would have been surprising is rather that the improbable icon of French pop opens his soul by offering a song that has moved him since childhood.

He says he likes the DIY side of Johnston’s songs, this desire to create “without knowing exactly what we’re doing.” “That’s a bit of what I do, too,” he adds in that casual and gentle tone that was already his when he played the dandy and sang Fuck you in the late 1990s.

Track game

It’s been a long day for Philippe Katerine. The same morning, he was still in Brussels, where he had given several interviews to talk about his new collection of songs published at the beginning of November. His album is called Zouzou. It’s the name of his dog. Not that this is particularly revealing of the content of the 17 pieces cobbled together by the author of The bananawho here subverts the codes of groovy pop and hip-hop with a fierce smirk.

Just in Under my bobthe track that opens the record, it makes nods to the rapper Snoop Dogg, the French duo PNL and the Irish flute of My Heart Will Go Onthe theme song of the film Titanic. He histrionics thoroughly while addressing his penis (What are you becoming?), has just as much fun on Total West (an expression which means “off the mark”), where, on a rhythm inspired by reggaeton, he abuses the AutoTune software like many pop artists today. “I listen to a lot of radio and I discover a lot of things there,” he says, displaying one of those smiles full of innuendo that he is used to.

According to him, Philippe Katerine is only instinctive. An autodidact who writes and composes out of necessity, without preconceptions or plans. Above all, without wanting to take a critical look at the world around him or to provoke or make fun of him.

A predictable scandal

One of its contradictions is the following: in France, Philippe Katerine’s songs are less known than his character. A situation that his participation in the opening ceremony of the Games and the outcry caused by the table of which he was a part have of course exacerbated. Rather than a bold depiction of Dionysus surrounded by drag queens, some have interpreted this proposal as a degrading representation of The Last Supperthat is to say the last meal of Jesus.

“I only sang for a minute,” Philippe Katerine initially defends meekly when we talk about the famous sequence where he performed his song Not. He quickly adds that he is not surprised that the image shocked people.

He said this in a neutral tone, seeming to take neither embarrassment nor pride from it. “I find it so absurd,” he adds. As for me, I proposed something tender and peaceful, and it had to provoke events. It’s part of the game.”

Make up the ordinary

Philippe Katerine insists: he does not have the soul of a revolutionary. He believes neither in authenticity nor sincerity in art. “I try to come up with something that’s not boring,” he says. I try to get away from what I am, from the dark songs that are often my daily life. I try to make them up differently. »

Zouzoubeneath its sometimes slightly stupid festive exterior, is in fact a record punctuated by anxieties. He shares his daddy concerns in tender Father (still is). His thoughts also go far beyond the mind of the boot when he talks about his aging. The clown looks more serious than before.

“This record is close to drawing, to the way I draw. I think his songs are quite rounded, not very thorny, he emphasizes. The world has become a little tougher, I didn’t want to toughen my words. I remember telling myself that there was no point in adding chaos to chaos. »

No malice shines in his eye when Philippe Katerine pronounces these few sentences. For a moment, the sincerity he was fleeing caught up with him. Behind the mask, it is indeed a sad smile that we see.

POP

Zouzou

Philippe Katerine

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