RFI Musique - - French chanson - Ageless Sylvie Vartan

Ageless Sylvie Vartan

New album, Soleil Bleu

Paris

06/12/2010 -

After a career spanning nearly 50 years, Sylvie Vartan is back with a brand-new album, Soleil Bleu. Singing lyrics concocted by Keren Ann and the singer Doriand, who Vatran chose to produce the album, as well as Etienne Daho, Benjamin Biolay and La Grande Sophie, the uncontested icon of French chanson gradually reveals her inner self. Ever modest and cheerful, the artist confirms her unwavering enthusiasm, her relish for playing live and her love of life.

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RFI musique: What was the impetus behind producing Soleil Bleu so quickly after your preceding opus, Toutes peines confondues?
Sylvie Vartan: It was because I wanted to work with Keren Ann and Doriand. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t in a hurry. I was just starting to get some songs together when Keren’s name came up during a discussion with my friend Etienne Daho. Over tea at and cakes Etienne’s, Keren and Doriand presented Je fais la moue to me. I loved it! Then one thing led to another. They created four other songs for me, and I brought them a selection of tracks, which they adopted (Ed.: by David Hallyday, La Grande Sophie, Etienne Daho, Benjamin Biolay). When they did the production and instrumentation, they unified and honed the album’s sound with their sumptuous string arrangements. I did the recording fast, sometimes in a single take. The album was all sewn up in six months. And for once, I totally assume all of the numbers, from the romantic ballads to the really pop tracks. It’s a miraculous output!

Is the fast production a reflection of the complicity between Keren Ann, Doriand and yourself?
I’d say it was more like artistic love at first sight! There was no shilly shallying, we immediately and totally hit it off. That has only happened to me once in my career. When an artist you know personally proposes a song to you, it usually goes wrong. But those two really knew how to figure out my personality. For example, I suggested a title on detachment to them. They came up with Je me détacherai, which I didn’t change in the slightest because it felt so like singing my own words. Keren is an amazing woman; she’s extremely sensitive and very elegant. I like her unobtrusiveness, the way she stays outside the cliques. She’s just all music.

Would you say this album bears an uncanny resemblance to you?
To sing is both liberating and revealing: you give a shape to your joys, heartaches and mistakes, and so it’s a really bold thing to do. You express your personality in the titles you choose and how you interpret them. So I can only sing what I feel personally. And in Soleil Bleu, with its sad yet happy tone, there is this freshness and slightly yé-yé* sound that coincide with my private side. I find that my voice comes out differently and sounds more like it did on my first records.

Have you ever thought about writing your own lyrics?
I’m capable of composing, but when it comes to the words, I put too much in to it and I’m never satisfied. It takes up too much time, which is rare commodity for me. So I leave the lyrics to people who do it better.

Tell us about your two duets with Julien Doré and Arthur H. Did you know them before?
I didn’t know either of them, but I went to Japan with Julien and we had a real laugh together! As to the duet with Arthur, Sous ordonnance des étoiles, I think it’s wonderful. The listener becomes a fly on the wall watching an unusual love affair like a voyeur.

Are you flattered by the way the new generation perceives you?
I wouldn’t say flattered, but I find it fantastic that after all the songs I’ve recorded I still manage to feel as enthusiastic. It’s unusual to feel this renewed desire and it comes from meeting such exceptional people, and artists who have the same outlook on life as I do. It’s always amazing to recognise yourself in someone else.

You set out on your career back in the sixties. What has changed since you started?
When I look closely, everything has, but in fact the main contours don’t change. I stay the same age, because the entertainment business transcends time. When you are lucky enough, as I am, to have an audience and live out your passions and dreams, and express your art as you want to in complete liberty, this wild happiness gives you the impression that time is standing still. And it’s still the same: the fans, the tours, trips, hotels, the musicians and the atmosphere. Still the same madness and enthusiasm, the same worries and stage fright, only bigger.

Does that mean you still enjoy playing live as much?
On stage, you forget everything. It completely rubs out daily routine. The day you start feeling weary of it, the dream’s over. You don’t do this job for the wrong reasons, in a forced way, for the money or the fame. You do it for the joy of forgetting everything and blotting out your pains, to escape reality for just a moment.

So would you say that you felt fulfilled?
When I look back over all those years, what I see is the good times. Singing gives you intense, highly sensual emotions, like sharing vibrations with the audience. So I think I’m really privileged to have done all these trips, seen so many countries and had so many adventures, which have only made me a more rounded artist. Having a child, feeling joy, pain, living, or simply surviving…. they all intensify your feelings and sensitivity and ultimately make you interpret emotions differently. Much more deeply.