– Why were you initially reluctant to sing these songs yourself?
– Precisely because I found myself too categorized as a children’s singer. It almost seemed counterproductive to me to change audiences after so many years, to sing songs about themes that children can’t understand, like burnout, for example. And these are two completely different methods of inspiration. Children’s songs are fueled by observations. This new album, it is my well of life which provided the raw material.
– Who are the people who inspired you some of these songs?
– For Alone with her cats, for example, this story of a woman who has experienced a lot of love setbacks, it’s my partner Nathaly. For Le Café des amis, he is the friend who, sixty years ago, introduced me to my wife Mary-Josée, who died four years ago. With this friend, we have called each other every Sunday morning since we were widowed, to talk about the rain and the good weather.
– Is a song clearly autobiographical?
– To butter my sandwiches, perhaps. It’s about a layabout, a guy who doesn’t even have the energy to butter his sandwiches himself and who is looking for a girlfriend to do it for him. It could be me. I played this song to someone in Paris, but this person advised me not to release it, warning me that I would have feminists on my back. But I’m not praising this kind of character, I’m just saying that guys like that exist, that’s all.
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