Album review

Alain Chamfort

The Pleasure Principle

Paris 

26/09/2003 - 

Alain Chamfort, the Dorian Gray of French pop, makes a long-awaited comeback this month with Le Plaisir (Pleasure). Chamfort's last album, Personne n’est parfait, was released the day his daughter was born. As young Tess Chamfort prepares to blow out six candles on her cake, Chamfort senior celebrates the arrival of his 11th album.

RFI Musique: Eleven albums in thirty years! Pleasure for you seems to be a question of taking your time...
Alain Chamfort: Yes, of course, it is – and I have to say I'd highly recommend that approach! For me, pleasure's a question of finding your own rhythm in life. I know I'm someone who needs to let things mature a bit and I mean that on all levels, too. Claude François once said you have to have two powerful moments when you perform on stage: the first song and the last! I'm not someone who knows how to seize the moment and use it to my advantage. I need time to get my bearings and adjust my inner rhythm.

So that's where the Zen side of your new album comes from?
(Laughs) Well, I don't know whether I'd say the new album's Zen or not, but it feels right. It's a very honest album in terms of who I am, the sort of music I want to defend and the way I want to make that music. I think all of my albums have given me the same feeling of freedom and been equally demanding – well, demanding's maybe too strong a word – let's say I've felt the same need to find myself in my albums and feel I'm making them with integrity. Maybe this album has just happened to come along at a better time, a time when people are a bit more open to the idea of listening to it and having a little more consideration for me.

I must say you're not always very considerate of yourself. There was a rather derisive song on your last album called Ce vieil Alain (Old Alain). And on this one there's a track where an ex-girlfriend takes back all her records but leaves the Chamforts!
I think it's better to be able to laugh at yourself instead of making jokes at other people's expense. I also think a bit of self-derision does you good every now and then. It's healthy, you know, it's a way of relativizing things that crop up – or don't crop up, for that mater! I'm someone who does things with passion, who invests a lot emotionally. But I never lose sight of the fact that at the end of the day it's just music – although having said that I don't consider music to be a minor art form like Gainsbourg did… My music has its own importance and I'd like it to be considered with respect, but I'm aware of my own limitations, you know. I know my voice is a bit weak and I've got the temperament that goes with that, so I can never take myself too seriously. If I did that would be the end of it all. Actually, I think a lot of my colleagues in the music world could do with taking themselves a bit less seriously too!

It seems highly appropriate for your new album to open with a song called Le grand retour(The Big Comeback)...
It was a way of making a big entrance, yes. But there was also a risk involved, because I was setting myself up for a fall in a way. It was like, "What if this comeback never happens?" There's an element of giving someone a stick to beat you with! But at the same time I think people can feel we're having a little fun with things – it's not to be taken too seriously!

When you say "we" you're obviously referring to your songwriter Jacques Duvall. It's got to the point where there's such a fusion between the pair of you now it seems as if you communicate via telepathy!
Well, almost. I don't know really. It's not something you can even try to explain. I think there's just been this incredible meeting of minds somewhere down the line.

You and Duvall have been working together for nearly 25 years now, haven't you?
It was Lio who introduced me to Jacques. He'd written her first chart hits, Banana Split and Amoureux solitaire. And I think he was a bit wary of me to begin with, he definitely eyed me a bit suspiciously at the start. But time ended up working in our

There seem to be two Alain Chamforts on this album. There's the nostalgic/melancholic Alain and the sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek Alain. There are even some downright funny songs on the new album too, such as Les spécialistes, with its 60s Motown feel...
I think all the musical influences I've ever absorbed show through in my work. And I like working like that, it's a way of reviving things I've loved myself at given moments of my life. The new album's a bit of a run through of all my musical favourites, in fact.

Like Sinatra, for instance?
I was always really impressed by Sinatra's mastery and poise. He was the ultimate crooner in my eyes. He presented this sort of idealised image of how a glamorous, 'bad boy' singer should be. And he had this extraordinary vocal capacity for swing, for playing with the music, for being so wonderfully at ease with himself on stage and yet at the same time getting real emotions across.

There's another song on the album called Les amies d’Emilie. Apart from the obvious alliteration, this seems to be a bit reminiscent of Sapho et Sophie...
There was Gainsbourg's Lucette et Lucie too. I guess we always end up going round and round the same themes. That's the line I take in my music, you know, my songs touch on sex, relationships and 'troubles of the heart'… There's one thing I've always wanted to steer well clear of and that's any kind of 'committed' songs.

Your new album certainly couldn't be accused of being socially and politically committed!
There's a big vogue for that right now, you know, with singers like Vincent Delerm and Benabar. They go in for that kind of sociological observation thing. But we've essentially stayed on the theme of love.

Your parting word on the album is Fuyons (Let's Flee!)?
My favourite line in that song is "Only the cowards are well." We're prepared to own up to the kind of cowardice very few people in life dare to admit. Once again, I'd say it's healthier to try and be honest about these not-so-wonderful aspects of yourself. I'm a bit suspicious of singers today who see themselves as some kind of saviour, taking on all the causes of the world. I think my approach of trying to be more in touch with my faults and shortcomings and admitting them to others gives me a much greater complicity with people. Well, people who are trying to be honest with themselves in any case.

So after taking a selfish pleasure in making your album you're sharing that pleasure with others?
That's the way I've always tried to go about things really, I always do things for myself first. I've never bothered myself too much about what kind of public I'm intending to reach with my songs. That seems way too complicated to think like that! And it's a bit money-grabbing too, really. I don't see my public as customers or consumers, but as people who could be close to me. So, yes, I sought personal pleasure in what I was doing, but at the same time I couldn't see any reason why that pleasure shouldn't be shared!

Le Plaisir (Delabel/EMI)

Gérard  Bar-David

Translation : Julie  Street