For more than a year now, authors, composers and friends Ben Mazué and Grand Corps Malade have been forced to write to each other every week to tell each other and discuss their visions of their professions and life in general. Maintenance.
We learn from your exchanges that Fabien Marsaud ( Great Sick Body ) is the best morale booster in France, isn’t it Ben?
Of course ! There are people who make you nicer, cooler. When I’m with Fabien, I feel like my morale is better.
Fabien?
I don’t know, probably a little. It is a story of synergy. Maybe I’m the best moral shooter in France for Ben’s character. It turns out that there is a complementarity between us, which means that we get along well and do each other good.
Well, you write: People seek and find each other little by little throughout their lives »…
We have one thing in common with Fabien: we weren’t meant to be artists. We have done studies that have led us to a profession that we no longer practice (doctor for Ben, sport for Fabien). Me, it took me a while to find out who I was, in precisely small pieces. Because yes, it can take some time. Yes, you can change your mind and that’s fine.
While writing your songs, Fabien writes: ” I seek the subtle balance between giving myself sincerely and not revealing too much. ” And then : ” I draw on my emotions, the ones I want to share, without worrying about what it will reveal about my private life »…
Fabio : Ben lets himself be carried away by his emotion, without asking too many questions, even if this means being a little too immodest, exposing certain things, especially those around him. Me, that’s especially where I pay attention.
Well : The difference is that for me, success took a long time. So I had no problem writing what I wanted, there weren’t many people at my concerts. When the album The perfect woman, which is essentially about my girlfriend, worked a little better, the question arose. Later, when my inner news was breakup, it was out of the question for me not to make it the subject of my next record. I have this possibility, unlike a banker, of being able to use my suffering. However, I let the person concerned listen to it. If he’d said no, I wouldn’t have released him.
I really like this expression from Fabien: ” Being known does not give me any particular pleasure. Being recognized is a privilege »…
I understood that very quickly. When people call you on the street to say they recognize you, it’s kind of boring. When they tell you they’ve seen you on TV, I don’t get any pleasure, it’s even a little embarrassing. While – this is what I write in the book – when someone tells you about a song or a sentence, saying that you have the impression that you wrote it for him, that it did him good, that he knows it by heart, is absolute recognition and that’s why I do this job.
In the disc-book you published, with Gaël Faye, there is an illustration showing Fabien in the mountains, Ben in the river and Gaël in the forest. What do you think ?
Fabio : It is Charlotte Moreau’s vision as an illustrator that has seen us evolve in the studio. The mountain suits me. Due to my physical condition, it is true that I am not very mobile. Well in the studio, spin a bit. He needs to move on, not me. And then if this mountain generates a kind of image of a calm, somewhat serene boy, I’m happy with it, it’s fine with me.
Well : Movement, yes. If Fabien writes calmly enough, I have to go in circles. Gael is a little different. He doesn’t write on the phone, but in pen, in a notebook. And he needs to isolate himself. It takes a lot of time to prepare, to be perfect when recording.
The correspondentsJC Lattes, 212 pages, 17€.
Short termbook-disc 7 titles, Anouche/Sony.