Album review

Mathieu Boogaerts

Michel

Paris 

22/04/2005 - 

A lo-fi minimalist, a wacky free spirit...  since the release of his previous album, Super, Mathieu Boogaerts has been called many things – and the labels have been as off-the-wall as his music. Mathieu's teenage voice has never disguised his anguish and his problems growing up, although his songs have always had an ironic edge. But with his new album, Mathieu aspires to greater seriousness and demands closer attention. RFI talks to the man behind Michel.

RFI Musique: Is Michel the other Mathieu?
Mathieu Boogaerts: Michel is nobody. I had a really hard time thinking up a name for the album, because I don't do concept albums, each song speaks for itself. I could just have easily called it Record No. 4. Michel is my favourite male first name. I don't know why, it's all very subconscious.

You don't look so great on the cover, is it your more adult look?
On the others, I was pushed back into the background on the sleeve. On this one, I wanted to have a real physical presence. The well-known portraitist Paolo Reversi took photos of me with no makeup, just using lighting. Also, I was exhausted by the recording sessions. I'm really happy because the cover exactly reflects the album. More basic, sad, stripped down, with less humour and seductiveness than the earlier ones. 

Was it also a way of changing your image?
French chanson bores me. I'm a bit of an elitist, I need something to differentiate me from the others, to feel something personal and not just fashionable. When I started ten years ago, everyone was very serious about everything and I went the other way, using humour in my songs and clothes. On the other hand, over the last few years, I've got the impression that a lot of artists have got more humorous. As a reaction, I need to move on to other things. That's why I did a more serious album.

You said you were disappointed with the sales of the last album. How did you see Michel turning out?
The arrangements and songs were great and I had all I needed to move on to the next stage. I find it a bit frustrating compared with other things in the same genre which sell well and I find not so good. Subconsciously I think it gets to me, I feel a little bitter. Even though I'm perfectly happy with 2000,  there was a sort of game of seduction there, like a girl who before going out for the night puts on makeup and stockings, carefully chooses her clothes but ends up meeting no one. The next time, she decides to go how she is. This album is more unvarnished. And that's the way I want it.

Why this return to a simpler style?
I wanted an album that had a carnal feel. I recorded just guitar and vocals because it was more sensual. I wanted to be stirred. With each chord, the vocals, the songs... I listened to what I felt not with my ears but with my body. I wanted depth and feeling. Like the female voice on some of the tracks, like a sort of siren. I used more first takes, left room for variation. And now, after this album, I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll stop singing and start doing instrumental work. Or I might write for other people...  I don't know.

You usually travel while you write. Africa last time, and now Europe. Did Europe have an influence on the album?
I don't think so. Whether it's written in Melun, Ouagadougou or Oslo, it's still the same song. If I travel it's not for the local colour, it's in search of a sense of danger. I have a mission to accomplish – to write the songs for the next album. Even in Paris, I'm in touch with different communities. I'm always hanging out in the Japanese, Chinese or Indian quarters. It's suffocating just being French.

How did you get the idea for the DVD (limited edition on the album's release)?
I always like to keep photos, and the things that I write, I'm afraid I'm going to forget them. I start filming as soon as something important is happening in the writing. In all, I had eight hours of rushes, two in Barcelona, one in Berlin, one in Paris and four in the studio and during the mixing. I talked about it to people, then very nervously showed the rushes to them, and people were enthusiastic. A film editor suggested I do something with them. The resulting one hour was good, so I went with the idea of a limited edition on release.

With the sleeve and the DVD, there's a radical change in your public image. Are you afraid of this change?
On my previous albums, I developed a certain mystique, creating this character that was a bit comic book, very staged, always wearing the same clothes. On this album, I'm inviting people into my home. It's very intimate. I'm very scared, not so much at what people will hear on the CD but what they will see.

Mathieu Boogaerts Michel (Tôt ou tard) 2005
On tour in France, 24 and 25 May 2005 at la Cigale, Paris.

Pascal  Bagot

Translation : Hugo  Wilcken