RFI Musique - - French chanson - Michel Delpech in his prime

Michel Delpech in his prime

Sexa, new album

Paris

22/07/2009 -

With a new original album and a tour on the horizon, retirement is still not on the cards for Michel Delpech. According to his website, at over 60, the singer may even be at the prime of his life, with a newfound sense of artistic ambition, wisdom and vitality. An impression that is confirmed by his highly accomplished Sexa, the fruit of a long-standing collaboration, and a telling reflection of his musical passions.

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RFI Music: How did you come to work on this new album after the duet episode?
Michel Delpech: The success of the last album [Ed., Michel Delpech &…, where duets sing versions of his old hits] meant I had to do it. I needed to come back with a record that was completely new, but that still had the amazing energy of the previous one. So I kept the production with Jean-Philippe Verdin, who had updated the old songs and arrangements with so much intelligence and elegance.

And the result is pretty exacting …
I think it is. I wanted Sexa to be a record for the people and to be accessible to everyone, and yet still be exacting and retain a degree of orchestral refinement, which is always very difficult to achieve. But that’s the price to pay for producing a good album.

It took two years to finalise the album. Why was the process so long?
With Francis Basset [Ed.: the album’s co-author], the album was practically built up line by line, during the course of conversations on the phone or in the car or over a meal. His job was to put together all of our exchanges and then he would suggest a first draft that we would refine together in detail. In fact, he’s just finished a book on the making of the album. I’ve got into the habit of immersing myself into writing an album over a long period. But I can end up by changing my habits, like stopping going to restaurants, my secret vice.

Songs like Johnny à Vegas and Lettre à tous ceux-là seem to be directed at your generation, who were around in the 70s. Are you nostalgic about that time?
Not at all. A part from some of my songs. Nothing I did in that period seems important to me now: all of that burning the candle at both ends, playing with fire and doing that huge, vain seventies “pissing around” thing. Musically, it’s different, though. A lot of pop singers from back then are still my bread and butter and are what inspired Verdin in producing this album, like Bowie, Robert Wyatt, George Harrison and Roxy Music. There’s something quite Bowie or Brian Ferry in the really deconstructed, aerial melody in Lettre à tous ceux-là.

This album moves you one step further away from the new French chanson, which is more nationalistic, even though singers like Bénabar claim that you were an influence.
We are both chroniclers, but that’s where the resemblance ends. Musically, this generation of young singers is closer to pre-rock songs from the cabaret tradition. My imagination took me to America. I wanted to make songs with French stories, but I needed my music to have a physical, almost sexual effect. I’ve been in love with dance music all my life. For me, the ideal singer was Marvin Gaye. He had everything: he was sexy, spiritual, uncomplicated and cerebral. That’s what I go looking for in American and British music.