Translation
I don't look good from very close. I'm comfortable on stage if there's at least some distance. With a camera, everything is observed from very close. And I don't know, maybe it's something in my head, psychologically I don't have the idea of being observed from as close as a camera. Generally, making movie soundtracks, which is what I wanted to do when I was a student in college, no not in college but at school, I wanted to create soundtracks, I wanted to write for movies; for me it's the perfect job for a musician like me who likes melody but also comes from classical music, because I started with opera. So for me it was simple, ok, movies, it's fine; there are melodies, arrangements, orchestra, we can mix all the different genres of music. It's a bit of everything. But because I'm dyslexic and I can't read music, I can't write music on a sheet, it was almost impossible. So I knew I had to find a career one way or another so that I can have a start in music and then maybe one day I'll be able to make soundtracks. I'm really tempted by it. But to be in the movie? Oh there are thousands of people much better at this than me.. but honestly I think I could make soundtracks.
You did manage to get Fanny Ardant to play in your video
I like movie actors very much...
The aesthetic of the video is very reminiscent of François Ozon's cinema
Yes I'm a big fan of François Ozon, I've known him for years, I've met him 7 years ago, he was at one of my shows in London. I'm a fan of his work, aesthetically it is something I love and also I like Truffaut and all this. So when I met Fanny Ardant, it was completely by chance, we were at a dinner in Paris and a few weeks later I called her to ask if she wanted to make a video with me, to be in it. And that's what happened. In fact... In fact... Yasmine, wasn't it here? Wasn't it here, that I called her? I think that the first time I had the idea to make a video with Fanny Ardant was when I was in Tunisia. I was in Tunisia in my hotel room. And I started.. yes it was in Tunisia! And I called Fanny Ardant from my phone and I had a whole conversation with her before going on stage, telling her really formally 'Hello, I like what you do a lot, I have an idea for a video, would you like to be in a pop video? ' She said 'No, but tell me why you're asking' And I told her. And it took several months and finally it worked. It took a lot of time but it started here.
To answer your question about what's happening in Syria, it is something that I follow, every morning, every night, and also once or twice during the day, I check on websites to see what's happening, to see if there are new videos of what's happening in a very strange environment where everytime there's something new, there are some people saying 'it's a lie, it's not true, it's not that, it's a wrong perspective' and so we have to spend enough time to see what's happening and not fall into propaganda because for me, what's happening is atrocious, it's violent, it's macabre. I don't know why it lasts so long and there are more than 16000 people who have died there now and internationally it's just as if we didn't know what to do, as if it was not even worth it.
(So nothing about the album but nice interview anyway, and now we know he had been planning EMD's release at least 8 months in advance )