Alizee
Psychedelices
FAIRYTALES ARE MADE TO BE UNMADE...
The artistic birth of Alizee starts like a fairytale: Mylene Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat leaned over her cradle and they made of her a glamour lolita that sings pop-dance nursery rhymes. In 2000, her clip "Moi...Lolita" (2.5 million copies sold in the world) got number one on the charts in several countries (Israel, Japan, Italy, Spain...) and Alizee even had the luxury of getting into 9th place on the prestigious and very sought-after Top 40 British. There hasn't been such a keen interest in a female French artist since "Joe the Taxi" of Vanessa Paradis (Top 3 in 1987)! The Alizeemania is a pure wind of craziness that blows across the world and she secures the shows and the album: "L'Alize" single from the album "Gourmandises" (2000), and then "J'en ai marre", "J'ai pas vingt ans" and "A contre-courant" singles from "Mes Courants Electriques" (2003). She next goes on tour at the end of 2003-2004, and then disappears... Her artistic rupture with the duo author-composer-producer Mylene Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat is complete and Alizee decides to fly with her own wings! Today at the age of 23, she is an independent artist and she is her own producer: she applies the recipes and lessons that Mylene taught! She will have needed two and a half years to concoct this new album, "
Psychedelices, that is pure pop with electro-rock and vintage new wave samples.
She is working with Jean Fauque (word juggler, of double meaning and double reading that he wrote for Bashung, Vanessa Paradis...), Bertrand Bergalat (Christophe Willem, Valerie Lemercier), Kore ("Rai n'B Fever"), Oxmo Puccino, Daniel Darc (ex Taxi Girl) & Frederic Lo as well as her husband Jeremy Chatelain (ex-candiate of Star Academy 2).
At the end of January, "Mademoiselle Juliette" will be released as a CD Maxi Digipack (9 remixes including 2 unedited ones) and in Maxi 45 RPM Vinyl Picture Disc (8 remixes including one unedited and the Acapella), Limited Edition 1000 copies. Alizee comes back without taboos about her career, her artistic rupture with Mylene Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat, the two and a half years used to make her album, her relation with the gay population and her filming project in 2008. Like she says herself so well in the introduction of the album (in the limited edition C.D.-Digipack): "Fairy tales are made to be unmade..." but the Tinkerbell, her guardian angel, always watches over her!
Are these "Psychedelices" more edible than the "Gourmandises" that you lured us with in 2000?
(Laughs). Today, I would say yes! Its a bit strange to say this because I adore my two previous albums, but "Psychedelices" matches me exactly. It represents the young 23 year old girl that I have become. Maybe in 3-4 years a new album will resemble me more and "Psychedelices" will resemble me less...
A mixture of pop, rock, vintage new wave with many samples and electro, a universe fresh and coloured, warm pastel colours, plays on words and candy... Is this a good definition of your artistic universe?
Its a bit difficult to define my music! I think that tangy pop is the most exact and appropriate term. Its also possible to find what I did before: the omnipresence of candy and multiple meanings. Except that its not the same person that does it and she doesn't do the same play on words as Mylene. She and Jean Fauque are masters of amusing themselves with play on words, to play with words and to always try to find double meanings. This album is an evolution in contrast to what I used to do: It was much more dance. I have met many people who have brought their touch, and that is what makes there have several different things and a unifying theme at the same time in the album. My voice is the unifying theme between the songs.
You have said about the single "Mademoiselle Juliette": I could not have come back with a urban title like "Decollage", I therefore chose a bridge between the old and new Alizee. How do you see yourself in several years, as a diva of R'n'B, like an urban singer like Gwen Stefani?
I don't really know! Even I ask myself a lot of questions. But in any case I what I know is that in France, we can't come up with too much, we are always required to stay the course, a certain road. While in the United States, if we take the example of Gwen Stefani: she has started her group No Doubt by making punk-ska, then rock, and little by little she has gone towards urban thanks to Pharrell Williams... and at the same time I think that its still very rock and roll. I don't say that I am going to go towards urban, electro, or rock, but if its the case I will mix the genres while trying to let people follow it and to find themselves within it. In France, if we do something that goes counter to what is done, people go away!
I adored your song "Decollage" with the big dancefloor R'n'B sound created by Kore with Oxmo Puccino's words. Is this a first for Alizee?
To let me get that song down smoothly, I was coached by Oxmo Puccino (big laughs). Moreover in the remixes of "Mademoiselle Juliette", I did what was a bootleg urban with "Maneater" by Nelly Furtado: the Deefire 2 Remix. For me, Timbaland is the best in this moment. In France, we can't imitate it, but we can at least get inspired by its style and its sound. Outside of Kore who created "Rai n'B", and who made many different things, I think that the French R'n'B world is a well-oiled machine. Even if we stay in Hip-Hop, now everybody wants to get inspired by Pharrell Williams' or Timbaland's American sound and to import it to France. In fact, the whole world has their eyes pointed towards them...
In fact everything adds up since you like Gwen Stefani a lot who worked with Timbaland and the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams), Nelly Furtado who worked with Timbaland, you like the new wave and the last album of Duran Duran was made for Timbaland and Nate "Danja" Hills and finally Madonna is working on her new album with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.
I know, its weird! I think that thoses guys are the most avant-garde because they take a urban universe that the whole world knows and an urban sound that nobody has listened to yet! That works on a lot of people. for example, Madonna has never done R'n'B in her life and I am sure that it is going to be a success and that it will be cool. They know that they are making a sound that everybody can sing to.
Did you attend Gwen Stefani's Great Ecumenical Mass at Paris-Bercy?
No I regretted it because I wasn't there and I really wanted to see her in concert. I was very disappointed!
Have you seen her clothes collection "L.A.M.B"?
Yes, I like everything that she does. She has a universe that is simultaneously personal and original. I like the way she is directing her career, the way she brings things whether it be in fashion, music... Everything is well placed and above all done in good taste! Good taste is not easy in our day, it is not given to everybody, and whether we like it or not, she manages her career like a great professional.
Let's now flashback to the past: how did you go through the tornado of media craziness about the end of your artistic collaboration with Mylene Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat? The gay community was very worried about you so can we talk about it?
Why of course!
You yourself have read in the press: "That you will no longer be anything without them"!
Yes its true! I have read and heard about that.
That you were contractually blocked during the years with them...
Yes, but its false!
How did you deal with all that? That didn't injure you or get the better of you?
No, its maybe that fact that it was me who left. It probably would have been different if I was given my contracts back, telling me that they no longer wanted to work with me! If that was actually the case I think I would be six feet down under and depressed. The fact that it was me who wanted to leave and to go and see and discover new things allowed me to keep my head up! Maybe people will find that pretentious. In any case, I learned a lot with Mylene Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat. They have given me a lot. If today the gay public is present, its thanks to them: they were the intermediaries. I am very well aware of the good luck that I had and still have! All that we learn, we have it forever, for our whole lives. I just wanted to do something else and to take things into my own hands. I was only taught a single way to work: whether it be in studio, for photoshoots, for choreographs... I have seen how its possible to manage by yourself and to create by yourself I wanted to pass to the practical stage. Before applying her recipes on me, Mylene applied them on herself. I told myself: I am twenty years old, I am filled with everything that I have been taught and I want to make it work for me. I have the means to produce an album and now I want to give myself to means to be able to make what I want while trying to go and see the people that I appreciate. For me, it was a luxury to be able to choose the people that I wanted to work with: Daniel Darc... They all accepted because they all had a good image of me. All in all, that motivated me even more to go even further and to above all forge ahead!
Personally, do you think that you were caged in, that you were artistically frustrated, that you didn't have your word to say...
No it wasn't the case! I told myself instead: "What you are doing musically, is it that if it were not you singing it, you would listen to it on your iPod?" That was the real question!
You therefore had a hard time taking charge of things?
No, because I really had a good time! I got the best out of it. When one is an artist, one has the chance to be able to fully taste different worlds.
The first people that you sent your album to were Mylene Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat. I read in the press that there was no reply from them. So, how should this silence be interpreted?
I don't ask myself too many questions! They know that I am very grateful towards them. It was the least I could do for them in return to send them my album before everybody else and that is what I did. Personally, I am very proud of my album and I hope that they have good thoughts about it!
I was intrigued by your personality. I know that in the core, you are timid and reserved. Do you think that you still have a place in show business or do we ask more and more of artists: star-making, people-making, reality TV...
It is true that I have a little bit of a hard time with all that! I have the impression that I am there to give what I can give, that is to say music, dreams, images...But today everything has changed due to the collapse of the record market. I have the impression that its necessary to give more to sell more discs, but I don't agree with that! I think that if an album is good, it is good! There are still people who sell millions of discs, Mylene, the first.
The market is now filled to the brim, there are too many releases, everybody wants to be on the big shows (NRJ, TF1...) and if you don't stay on top of that you have a hard time staying alive.
Yes, but besides that somebody like M is never on NRJ and he has sold millions of discs, so there are exceptions and I hope to be one of them! We'll see...
During your 2003-2004 tour you were confronted by the public. People thought that you were a singer for adolescents and there they discovered that you have a real gay fan base?
Its true that I really didn't know what kind of audience that I was going to have! It has been four years snce I have sung and those were my first shows. With singers of my age who each have their own audience, the question that was asked was: "What is Alizee's audience"? This was very eclectic, but I went along with it very well. My songs have double meanings so kids have taken it to the first degree and others have interpreted it in another fashion. I am very proud of having a large audience and to include gays. They are in fact more loyal than the others!
Today, your audience has grown like you have. You will go on tour in 2008 so are you going to change with this evolution and conceive a different kind of show?
I definitely am in the process of thinking about it. For the time being I have no clue what this is going to become, but my album brings up so many different things, it is so coloured that it can't be an acoustic concert. The show will reflect my own evolution! When you look at the CD insert of my last album, it is different from what I did before and more... I eat a cake there while one of my previous albums was called "Gourmandises"!
Exactly, while on the subject of delicacies, it is said that candy have a sensual, even sexual connotation. Do they have a double meaning?
(Big laughs). (Editors note: Alizee makes a mischievous grin to answer this fundamental question). My two previous albums exactly revolved around the double meaning with the sexual connotations. The last one was quite a bit less and the better for it! At the same time its Jean Fauque who writes so its not the same pen as Mylene.
Aren't you a fan of "Desperate Housewives" since there are many references to the series: Wisteria Song, Wisteria Studio and in the words of "Lilly Town" we find Bree Van de Kamp?
I am a big fan of the series and I would like to have a clip that resembles it! Its also the picture of a clip with Nicole Kidman:"And the man created the woman".
Is Bree your favourite character in the series?
Definitely. I also like Susan Mayer, but Bree is so charismatic and Marcia Cross, the actor who interprets that role, is the one who acts the best!
Do you know who is the deseparate housewife that elects the gays guys the most?
Gabrielle Solis (laughs). To sleep with her little gardener! (Big laughs).
In "Lilly Town", is there a reference to gays?
Yes, I sing: "And every night some men, who play the women". (Big laughs). I thought that was very subtle on the part of Jean to integrate that sentence because I like it a lot and it goes very well in the song. Its light and funny!
You are 23 years old, so how can you like new wave so much?
I was born in 1984. I remember still the particular sound that was used in the 80s while I was just a child.
Which artists or groups have influenced you?
I have grown up with Madonna from 1984 to 1990 and I still remember "Like a Prayer". That sums up my entire childhood, because thats the music I have listened to over and over again like her album "True Blue" with "La Isla Bonita", "Papa don't preach", I will also tell you a little secret, I put "Papa don't preach" as my ringtone when my dad calls me (Laughs). For me, the 80s belonged to Madonna. After I liked Depeche Mode a lot... But in my album, I was not only influenced by the 80s, there is also the 70s with Simon and Garfunkel...
Its possible to also feel the influence of The Cure in the song written and composed by Daniel Darc and Frederic Lo :"Lonely List".
At the same time, the sound is very German. Its a song more somber and at the same time it resembles me. Even if I have the joy of living and I have a lot of fun, there are days just like everybody else has when things don't go well. My life is not like a theme park everyday! This song reveals my melancholy, nostalgic, and sad side!
You end your thank yous saying: "Thanks to Mylene and Laurent without whom this fairy tale would never have started". When we open the Limited Edition Digipack, there is: "Fairy tales are made to be unmade...". What did you mean to say?
(Big laughs). Its a beautiful sentence! Its kind of the start of the story of this album: if I had not unmade my personal fairytale with Mylene and Laurent, it would never have seen the light of day. Before we listen to the album, we have to read this sentence!
There are other double meanings about the past in the album, was this intentional?
No, but Jean Fauque couldn't hold himself back! (Laughs).
In "Mademoiselle Juliette", you say "Mademoiselle takes off, Don't break herself apart, In her role she only wants herself, No replicas of all the shows". Is this a transposition to your own past?
We didn't do it in that state of mind! When we sing a song written by somebody else, whether it be Mylene or Jean Fauque, we see several months afterward even more interpretations and then we say: "Cool, I didn't even realize that it could be interpreted like that!". So in effect, I realized a few months afterwards that it could be interpreted badly, but at the same time, I like this song a lot.
In "Jamais Plus" you say: "Yesterday nevermore. But yesterday is wrong. Today you see. It's never more. To forget I adore. That happens effortlessly. It disappeared quickly. And never more".
Its just a song about a love story. You see the vice everywhere! (Laughs).
That could also be a goodbye letter!
Yes, if we want it to be, but its more a good bye letter to a guy... (Laughs).
Lets talk about the clip "Mademoiselle Juliette", you go into a free and decadent universe in the 18th century. What is the story about that?
In fact, I go into that mansion as a visitor. At the foundation of Romeo and Juliette, there are two families: The Montagues and the Capulets. I didn't want to portray the boring story of their battle, so the families are represented by two colours: white and black. Juliette doesn't want to choose between the two and in the end she only makes one.
The clip is pretty hot, you are surrounded by female dancres and there is a bit of unbridled sexuality. Is this a lesbian reference?
In the song, Juliette completely doesn't care about her guy, what she wants is just to have fun. The guys are therefore excluded. There are only girls having the party so in fact its possible to imagine things. Its not explicit, each person has the right to his or her own interpretation. I like it when people put their points of view forward. Last time I met a gay person who told me that found himself in the same place as "Lui ou Toi" (Editors note: this is in the album "Gourmandises") and talks about a girl who doesn't know how to choose between two guys. It could have been a girl who told me that, but hey actually no, it was a guy! (Laughs). It is therefore necessary to do things subtly in the clip and to allow people to have their interpretations...
How many tatoos do you have?
I have a salamander on my ankle and a big one on my back.
Is it the famous Tinkerbell that we find everywhere at your house and that follows you?
(Laughs). I think that it is my guardian angel. I had it tatooed on my back, so I can't see it and I can't get weary of it. I can only see it when I get out of the bathroom. Its a character that I like a lot since I was a little girl, mostly because of her character because she is gentle and discreet. She appears like me from time to time! She is a little bit like me.
I have seen that a fan has tatooed you on his back. Didn't that scare you?
A bit, I must admit! Its me with Tinkerbell wings.
Like you, Lorie has a gay and adolescent audience, she is independent today and her own producer. Its there a parallel between your careers?
I have listened to her single "I am going fast", but not the album. Its very Kylie, but we have to like it as much as Madonna. Moreover, I like Kylie's last album, "X", and her CD 80 Insert speaks to me a lot. Lorie like me as well as the other young girls who have started in this job at the same time as us, today we are growing, we are evolving, and we don't do the same thing. We are always talking about the United States, we all prove that we can do different things in France.
Do you have a particular message to our readers that you want to give through our humble intermediary?
They can write me on mypspace (Editors Note:
www.myspace.com/alizeeofficiel) because I receive a lot of messages. I even try to accept them in my friends. I thank them because they have supported me a lot. Between the moment when I stopped the tour and the time when I released this album, it has been a long time. I have put two and a half years into doing it and when we really get involved in it we don't see things anymore and we don't know anymore if its what we are really doing or not. The fact that I am receiving so many messages has made me want to go even further, that has given me ideas, to make things and that it was necessary for a performance for such a public so that they don't get lost, same idea in the picture... I hope that they have liked the album or that they are going to like it, but I above all thank them for having waited for me!