Benjamin Biolay by Juliette Gréco

Portrait of a multi-talented artist

Paris 

27/10/2003 - 

Over the past three years Benjamin Biolay has not only recorded two acclaimed solo albums, he has also written material for a host of big-name stars including Henri Salvador, Stephan Eicher, Julien Clerc and Valérie Lagrange. Hailed as a talented young prodigy by his admirers and dismissed as a Gainsbourg wannabe by his critics, Biolay is preparing to play his first Olympia on 28 October. And, as if this were not accolade enough, the legendary French chanteuse Juliette Gréco recently enlisted Biolay as an arranger on her new album.

When Benjamin Biolay emerged on the French music scene in the spring of 2001 with his first album, Rose Kennedy, few people were aware that the boy with the striking part-devil, part-angel face had already staked a claim in French music history. Together with his songwriting partner Keren Ann, young Biolay had written most of the songs on Chambre avec vue, the album that catapulted veteran crooner Henri Salvador back to the top of the charts in October 2000. The album went on to become a huge hit on the French music scene, selling almost 2 million copies to date. But it was Keren Ann who benefited most from the media frenzy surrounding Chambre avec vue. Biolay was largely ignored at the time, an oversight which he admits made a little dent in his pride.

However, while the French public may not have recognised Biolay's talent at that stage of the game, his name was already being bandied about in the music profession. Biolay's arrangement work on Salvador's album soon made him a sought-after collaborator. Major stars such as Jane Birkin and Françoise Hardy began queuing up to work with him and a rumour soon circulated that Juliette Gréco had expressed a wish to meet the young mystery man.

Biolay's rise to fame was no overnight affair. The young musician served his apprenticeship the hard way, graduating as a trombone student and teaching himself to play guitar. By the age of 20 Biolay had already acquired an impressive musical culture and vast experience ranging from the classical (the National Conservatoire in Lyon) to the rock world (with the group Mateo Gallion in 1994). Somewhere along the way Biolay developed a fascination with Gainsbourg and 60s muse Françoise Hardy. After making several attempts to make a breakthrough on the French music scene, the young songwriter went on to release two singles on EMI (in '96 and '98). Neither failed to make any impact on the charts, but Biolay was already earning a reputation as a gifted arranger. And the determined young music prodigy went on to put his arranging talent to good use for Isabelle Boulay and his friend Hubert Mounier (the former frontman of L'Affaire Louis Trio).

The turning-point in Biolay's career came in '99 when he met a young singer-songwriter by the name of Keren Ann. Discovering that they shared the same musical sensibilities for classical arrangements, intimate lyrics and a tremulously whispered style of singing, the pair pooled their songwriting talents and came up with Keren Ann's album, La Biographie de Luka Philipsen and Biolay's debut, Rose Kennedy. But it was producer Marc Di Domenico's action of putting Henri Salvador on their path that really changed the young pair's destiny. Salvador's album Chambre avec vue hit the jackpot! Although Biolay was overlooked at the time, he rebuilt his self-confidence reading the rave reviews garnered by his debut concept album about the Kennedy clan. Rose Kennedy went on to win "Best Album by a Newcomer" at the "Victoires de la Musique" awards in 2002 and sold a respectable 70,000 copies. Biolay was touched by comparisons to Gainsbourg's seminal concept album, Melody Nelson.

At the end of 2001 Biolay put his songwriting talent at the service of his sister, Coralie Clément, writing her album Salle des pas perdus (released on EMI Capitol). Then at the start of 2002, he began work on Valérie Lagrange's comeback album, Fleuve Congo, which came out on BMG in the spring of 2003. Meanwhile, after adapting a series of songs for Julien Clerc's new album, Studio, (released on Virgin) Biolay got his head down to work on his second album, Négatif. Packed with a fairly dark bunch of killers, voyeurs and runaways, Biolay's follow-up album was nevertheless a more positive, 'loving' album than its predecessor, the young songwriter feeling comfortable enough to reveal a softer, feminine side and assert his quiet pride.

Meanwhile, the shadow of Gainsbourg continued to hover over Biolay's life and work. Interestingly enough, Valérie Lagrange, Julien Clerc and Juliette Gréco had all worked with Gainsbourg in his lifetime. And in the spring of 2003 Biolay came closer to the Gitane-smoking legend still when he married the young French actress Chiara Mastroianni (whose mother Catherine Deneuve sang on Gainsbourg's Dieu fumeur de Havanes).

Biolay certainly has much to celebrate this year. What with his second album rocketing straight to no.15 in the French charts (and selling an impressive 100,000 copies to date), a stack of celebrity collaborations, his wedding, the arrival of a baby daughter and his 30^th birthday, 2003 has been a bumper year. And he is set to end it in style, performing at the legendary Olympia music-hall in Paris on 28 October.

After that, Juliette Gréco's new album, Aimez-vous les uns les autres ou bien disparaissez (Polydor), arrives in record stores on 3 November. Needless to say, Biolay's name features on the credits as a major contributor. RFI Musique spoke to Juliette Gréco, still glowing from her recent encounter with the ubiquitous Biolay:

RFI Musique: If you had to give us a snapshot of Benjamin Biolay how would you describe him?
Well, Benjamin's a good-looking guy which doesn't do any harm in this business. And he's young – with a great future ahead of him – and absolutely full of talent. Benjamin really is a very, very talented guy. But don’t ask me to sum him up like that. It’s impossible! I think at the end of the day he’s someone who’s pretty withdrawn and secretive. He’s someone you have to try and grasp. You have to make a real effort to get to the real Biolay because he doesn’t say much.

How did you come to meet him?
I was the one who instigated the meeting. Benjamin hadn’t released any of his own albums at that point but I’d heard what he’d done with Henri Salvador. Benjamin came to our house and I got him to listen to some music by Gérard Jouannest (Gréco’s husband and accompanist). Benjamin had come with two songs he’d already written which were absolute gems and then we got him to work on Jouannest’s compositions and he came up with some absolutely wonderful things. It really was a superb collaboration! I feel very happy to be singing his lyrics because he has such a wonderful sense of language.

So Benjamin Biolay has been another significant encounter in your career?
My career’s been made up of a series of encounters which have all been wonderful, miraculous and exceptionally rich. So it’s not easy for anyone to come along and fit into that ‘club’ but Benjamin slotted in with no difficulty at all.

Comparisons have been made between Benjamin Biolay and Serge Gainsbourg...
Well, it’s true there’s something Gainsbourg-ian in the way Benjamin sings but his songwriting is all his own. Any Gainsbourg influence in the writing is at a much more subtle level. I’d say Gainsbourg’s influence is more evident in his gestures and physical attitude and in his voice, but Benjamin’s very much his own man when it comes to songwriting.

Would you like to work with Benjamin Biolay again at some point?
I’d love to!

Catherine  Pouplain - Pédron

Translation : Julie  Street