Têtes Raides take us off to tomorrow

New album, L’An Demain

Paris 

31/01/2011 - 

The three-year wait, which was one year longer than usual, had become excruciating. Têtes Raides are back at last with their new studio album, L’An demain, and it’s pure joy to discover exactly which poetic lands they will take to us this time, after over twenty years in the business. The voyage is no disappointment.

The first thing that strikes you is the picture. It’s the first time in Têtes Raides’ history that the face of Christian Olivier, the group’s writer and singer, has figured on the cover. “We wanted to work using portraits from the start. I’d met Richard Dumas, who also did all the photos that we used for the booklet illustrations with the Chats Pelés. There was something quite timeless about that particular image. On each album we’ve done, the title has been linked to a personality. On L’An demain it’s mine. Some people have been wondering about a possible solo album by Christian Olivier, but it’s still the Têtes Raides, I’m still working with a group.”

This album’s angle is to look towards the future: “L’An demain is very much about the year tomorrow {Ed.’s note: in French the title translates as ‘the year tomorrow’, but sounds like ‘lendemain’, i.e. the next day}, it’s both about desire and the quest for something.” The eponymous song that opens the album resounds like an ode to nocturnal flights of the spirit, which, like a moment of lucidity and redemption, give us the strength and will to live through the day when morning comes.

The familiar edge of social and political commitment is still there, even though the approach is “Less full on that in the other albums, like Fragile. Although we always write about very personal things, we keep in step with the times.” The energy rises in crescendo in the musical arrangements, like Fulgurance, where the strings gently lead up to a break in the chorus brought about by the arrival of an electric guitar and some energetic drum playing. The dancing, joyful atmosphere of Angata carries with it an unambiguous message set to a ska rhythm: “Scraps of culture/Cans full of trash/Aeroplanes in walls/Democraship”.

Guest appearances

In Emma in particular, a tango sung with Jeanne Moreau, the emphasis is on dance. Even though tangos are for two, the track hasn’t been conceived as a duet, or “maybe, but subconsciously,” Christian Olivier “leaves that door open”. In the autumn, Têtes Raides and Jeanne Moreau were at the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris taking part in a homage to Jean Genêt. “The track was almost finished, and when I listened to it again I had a kind of flash. (…) I could hear her voice singing, it seemed obvious. I played it to her and she was on for it. The song stands on its own, but there are two characters, it’s calling someone who’s answering.”

Another guest appearance comes in the form of Martyn Jacques from the Tiger Lillies, on two tracks including the punk number, So Free, unusually sung in English. “Martyn is from London. Our two vocal ranges are at extreme opposites, which creates a fairly cabaret atmosphere, quite offbeat, with some funny lyrics, and he was happy to sing a few words in French. It could be the last song I’ll ever write in English because I really stretched myself to my limits there!”

The final guest is on the album’s last track, Je voudrais. It’s become a tradition to invite a writer to participate on each disk. This time it’s an anonymous poet. “It’s a text that I heard on Daniel Mermet’s France Inter radio programme, Là-bas si j’y suis, where people leave messages on an answer machine. This one really got to me, so I kept it. It might be a good way to find the guy, maybe several people will come forward, we’ll see! It made us work differently musically. I wrote the chorus, but because the text is pretty raw, I felt that I wanted to speak it, so it finishes up pretty much as slam. It’s quite like what we do with Genêt or readings that I also give.”

Têtes Raides’ “roller coasters”

If the lyrics are supposed to be read in context, one sentence from Météo is particularly striking: We have left singing behind/But don’t worry we’ll be back”. “Although in this album we’ve gone back to singing in the broadest sense, we still have fun doing roller coaster rides. We’ve got physical things to say too, that’s another side to it, like when music accompanies lyrics. Now we want to explore that further, by putting people in different situations, to do things they wouldn’t normally do in strange places, and we’ve always worked with other artistic forms.”

On rhythms, we find two newcomers, Antoine Pozzo di Borgo on bass and Eric Delbouys on drums. "Changes in bass & drums are crucial for a group. New people bring something different, both to the way the writing actually holds together, and as a group. There’s a really strong desire to go out on the road and play together.”

The forthcoming tour also promises a few surprises. “We’re bringing out a five-track disk, Les Artistes, that we’ll only be selling at concerts. We started with eighteen songs that we pushed as far as they would go. It turned out that five of the tracks worked well as a whole so we put them together. At the concerts, that’s not going to leave a whole load of space for the old tracks, and we want something pretty compact. So we’ll just perform a few titles we haven’t played for a long time, which will make us go out and look for other stuff.”

And because the Têtes Raides clearly have a taste for adventure, the dates of their tour will cross over with La Côterie, another fun collective project they participate in, offering original shows for young and old alike. They are also aiming to schedule Genêt again for next autumn. As they say: “When we talk about the year tomorrow, that means we’re on our way, and we won’t be stopping there!”

Têtes Raides, L’An demain (Tôt ou Tard) 2011 On tour throughout France starting February 2011 and playing at the Bataclan, Paris on 14, 21, 28 March and 4 April 2011

Marie-Catherine  Mardi

Translation : Anne-Marie  Harper