RFI Musique - - Interview - Mathieu Boogaerts drums it up

Mathieu Boogaerts drums it up

New album: I Love You

Paris

03/11/2008 -

Mathieu Boogaerts upped sticks and moved to Brussels in February 2007, spending eighteen months working on his new album in a converted rifle range. Boogaerts radically altered his working methods on his fifth album, I Love You, composing all his material on drums. RFI Musique hooked up with the singer to find out why.

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RFI Musique: Why did you feel the need to spend one and a half years in Brussels making your new album?
Mathieu Boogaerts: Well, to be honest, I've always had a bit of an urge to roam. I've never been any good at staying put in one place. And it's easy for someone like me without kids to just up sticks and go. That's exactly what happened with Brussels. One minute I had the idea, the next I was packing my bags. I love the atmosphere of Brussels, the way it has this totally different rhythm to Paris. When you live in a city that's as densely populated as Paris, you really appreciate somewhere like Brussels where there's a lot more space and a lot less noise.

Did you work on I Love You the way you've worked on other albums in the past - i.e. essentially on your own?
Yes, I did. That's the way I always work. I can't really explain why, maybe it's got something to do with the fact that for a while now I've played quite a few different instruments. I grew up as an only child and I think that's made me a bit of a loner. I never like to feel dependent on anyone else. This album started out the same way the other ones did with me strumming away in a corner, noting down possible beginnings of songs on my dictaphone. Two years on, I had around twenty songs in embryonic form. This was obviously enough material for a new album but suddenly, for the first time in my career, I decided I didn't want to use this as a starting-point. I felt like I'd gone as far as I could with that method in the past. Basically, I felt the time had come to kickstart my inspiration with something other than acoustic guitar. And that's when I turned to my drumkit and started composing on that instead.

So that's what makes I Love You sound so similar to previous Boogaerts albums and yet so different…
Well, it explains why I needed to spend so long in a recording studio and take my time over things. And it's definitely one of the reasons I ended up in Brussels where property's three times cheaper than in Paris! I ended up renovating an old rifle range to work in. After Michel and the long stint I spent out on the road on tour after that, I felt like I needed to give myself a bit more freedom to experiment. The way I worked on this album was: first I came up with a drum beat, then I added a bass line, then I came up with the chords and I didn't bring in the vocals until right at the end. This was exactly the opposite way of working to how I've done things in the past. But I'm not sure that at the end of the day I Love You actually sounds all that different from my other albums.

Working on drums must have changed the whole songwriting process though?
Well, each track basically started out as a drum roll, then a riff. That way I didn't lose myself. As I said, the vocals came in right at the end and that's when the song started to take shape with a proper verse-chorus structure. When I was working on my last album I wanted it to sound beautiful, romantic and melancholy. But this time round, not at all! This time, I let my inner rocker take over - it was all about drumsticks and plectrums! Having said that, though, this album still revolves around love songs. I can't help myself in that respect! But I've definitely tried to approach things from a different angle this time round and make the songs more sexy, more playful, more detached.

You've already used English in your songs in the past, but this time round there's even more emphasis on it. Even the title of your new album is in English…
I've been throwing a bit of English into my songs since Ondulé really. But this time, you're right, there's a lot more emphasis on English because the way I set about composing the material generated a different kind of phrasing. I was looking for a different tone, a new musical language that fitted in with the way I was building the songs up from a basic drum rhythm and working with much shorter, tighter sequences than when you build something up from chords. I started singing more in English. That came to me quite naturally, but there's also an element of naivety there, too. That's why I chose the title I Love You. It's English, but it's a simple, child-like phrase that a non-English speaker would typically use. The most important thing to me in the making of this album was that my voice should play a major role. Working with drums and two basic chords meant that my voice automatically came across louder. It's as simple as that. It wasn't a process that required a lot of intellectual working out beforehand.

How do you explain the fact that Boogaerts songs have never been big chart hits? Do you think that your songs could be hits if you simplified them a bit? Are you being deliberately complicated?
No, not at all! I'd be over the moon if I sold a million albums tomorrow! The more people I can reach out and touch with my music, the happier I am! The thing is, every time I give my OK on a single I imagine it's going to be a big international hit. I don't understand what's so complicated about my songs… I don't know, maybe I do have a tendency to make things complex? Maybe somewhere deep down on an unconscious level I'm scared of success? I don't know. All I know for sure is that I take out anything that sounds too showy or over-the-top in the final mix.

You're scheduled to go out on tour again at the beginning of 2009. Will you be playing drums?
Yes, but only sporadically. I'd originally intended to play drums right through my concerts. But I've given up on that idea now. I'm trying to find the right drummer for the job instead. I've just been auditioning and I think I've got the perfect drummer for the tour. Whatever happens, it's obvious that drums are going to be the stars of the show. The scenography is going to be really important, too… I don't want to say any more about that right now. But, trust me, the decor will be completely out of the ordinary!