Since your beginnings, in 1987, what memories do you keep of your visits to Brittany: from the Trans Musicales de Rennes (1988) to the Filets Bleus, in Concarneau (2019), via Tamaris in Morlaix (1990), Les Vieilles Charrues ( 2018)…
I scoured Brittany where reigns the dynasty of musicians that is best in France. It really is the best French land for music. It is enough to walk elsewhere in France to understand it. Brittany really has a connoisseur audience and there are real places where you can play, places that don’t exist anywhere else.
What has changed in the Green Negresses in 36 years?
In 1987, I was 27 and I am 63 today. More seriously, musically, nothing has really changed. When we play the songs of Les Négresses Vertes, they animate a flame that we had put on the back burner but it still remains present in us. This music revived an energy, which we reproduce at each of our concerts.
It was the 30th anniversary of the release of the album “Mlah” and after 17 years of stopping, we still heard our songs on the radio, which is not given to everyone. We then said to ourselves that we had to do it again.
Why do you say that “The cement of our friendship is our songs”?
In a band, like ours, we may not agree on a lot of subjects but when the light comes on and we are on stage, our songs bring us together and we all agree on the same thing, that is to say to give the best of ourselves, to share with the public the moments that we have lived and that we bring back to life.
How do you explain that you are still so popular with the public?
Success can be explained by our songs, but it’s not just that. Beyond the repertoire, there was the attitude of an era, which was much more carefree than now. There is also this nostalgia for a time that has passed and which leaves good memories to everyone. It was a time when life and relationships were totally different. We thought we had then put far behind us, notions of religion, skin color, social belonging… But 30 years later, everything is resurfacing.
As in France, no one wanted us, we went to England where we played in rooms with more than 8,000 seats, while we have never had the equivalent in France.
In your opinion, why, when you started out, were you the only French group to have been so successful in England?
Our producer had sent our disc to a musician, William Orbit, who made a remix of “Zobi the fly” and it was a hit. As in France, no one wanted us, we went to England where we played in very large halls with more than 8,000 seats, although we have never had the equivalent in France. In Paris, we have never done Zenith.
Which titles from your repertoire are the most successful on stage?
There are the flagship titles (“Under the sun of Bodéga”, “Zobi the fly”, “Here is the summer”…) but also the others which have made their way such as “It’s not the sea to drink” “ The man from the swamps”… It’s crazy, too, the number of people who told us that they had called their daughter “Orane”, the title of one of our songs.
Do you have any new titles and projects? An album ?
No, because how do you, over 60 years old, write the same songs as when you were 20 years old. It’s impossible. We are well aware that we are in a period where people are not rushing to the albums that come out. Apart from the rap, everything breaks the mouth.
What would you say to the public to come and see you at Bout du Monde and Saint-Loup?
We will be there and be there too. I hope the public will make the trip and we will do it together. At the concert of the Négresses Vertes, you don’t get bored: it sings, it rocks, there’s energy.
At the time, rock was not in the state it is today, especially in France. It was a time of encounters, life and energy.
Your best memory within the Green Negresses?
There are thousands of them but maybe this 30th anniversary tour since 2018. I particularly liked the Carnavalorock festival, in 2018, in Saint-Brieuc. It was the first year that the festival was back and it was a great moment because I liked the musicians who performed there, as well as the atmosphere… In Saint-Brieuc, there is a nest. It’s cool.
And the worst memory?
Obviously, the deaths of our singer Helno and our drummer Zézé (José Verbal). For me, Helno (died in 1993, at the age of 29), he is still alive. When you lived with such a singer, whose songs are still playing 30 years later, and you continue to perform them, there is nothing more alive than that.
How do you explain the longevity of certain groups which started, like you, in the 80s, and which still tour such as Ludwig Von 88, Washington Dead Cats, the Sheriffs, the Wampas…
We are all in the same vein. At the time, we made real bands. He wasn’t a guy who wrote songs and surrounded himself with musicians. A group is a group and there are several individuals who are able to write, sing, play… At the time, rock was not in the state it is today, especially In France. It was a time of encounters, life and energy.
In four years it will be your 40th birthday. Do you plan to celebrate this event?
We will see because we have already celebrated the 35th and we live from day to day.
* Les Négresses Vertes in concert on August 5 at the End of the World Festivalin Crozon (full) and August 18 in Saint-Loupin Guingamp (22).
2023-08-04 15:00:22
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