Press: Tribu move interview

[Toc De Mac]

Fifth page:

You are 23 years old, so how can you love so much of this new wave?

I was born in 1984. I still remember the very particular sounds which were used in the 80s when I was only a kid.

What groups or artists have made an impression on you?

I grew up with Madonna from 1984 to 1990 and I still remember "Like a Prayer." It sums up my childhood, because it's the kind of music that I listened to with headphones like her album "True Blue" with "La Isla Bonita," "Papa Don't Preach..." By the way, I'll let you in on a little something, I put "Papa Don't Preach: as my ringtone on my cellphone when my dad calls me. (Laughs). For me, the eighties belonged to Madonna. After that, I really liked Depeche Mode... But in my album, I was not only influenced by the 90s, there's also the 70s with Simon & Garfunkel...

One also feels the influence of The Cure in the song written and composed by Daniel Darc and Frédéric Lo: "Lonely List."

At the same time, it's very German in its sounds. It's a rather somber song which, at the same time, resembles me. Even if I have la joie de vivre and I have a lot of fun, I have days like everyone else where things aren't right. My life isn't like EuroDisney every day! This song reveals my melancholy, nostalgic, and sad side!

You end your thanks by saying, "Thanks to Mylène and Laurent without whom the fairy tale would have never began." When you open the Digipack Limited Edition, there is marked, "Fairy tales are made to be undone." What were you trying to say?

(Huge laughter). It's a very pretty phrase! It's a little like the beginning of this album's story: if I had never undone my personal fairy tale with Mylène and Laurent, it would have never been born. Before listening to the album, you have to read this phrase!

There are other double meanings about the past in the album. Was it intentional?

No, but Jean Fauque couldn't keep himself away from them! (Laughs).

In "Mademoiselle Juliette," you say, "Mademoiselle takes wings - Don't smash herself to bits - In her role she only wants her - No replicas in the whole piece." Is it a reference to your own past?


We didn't do it in that spirit! When one sings a song written by someone else, whether it be Mylène or Jean Fauque, one discovers months after yet other interpretations, and one says to oneself, "Neat, I never thought it could be interpreted like that!" So, indeed, months after I realized that it could perhaps be wrongly interpreted, but at the same time, I really like this song.

In "Jamais Plus," you say, "Hier nevermore - But yesterday was wrong - Today, do you see - It's never more - To forget that I love - It happens without trying - It has quickly disappeared - And never more."

It's just a song about a love story. You see vice everywhere! (Laughs).

It could also be a farewell letter!

Yeah, if you want, but it's rather a farewell letter to a guy... (Laughs).

Let's talk about the clip of "Mademoiselle Juliette," you embark into a lewd and decadent 18th century universe. What's the story behind it?

Indeed, I arrive at this château as a visitor. At the heart of it, in "Romeo and Juliet," there are two families: the Montagues and the Capulets. I didn't want to relate the ordinary story of their battle, so the families are represented by two colors: white and black.

[Toc De Mac]

Sixth page:

Juliet doesn't want to chose between the two and at the end, she is no longer just one.

The clip is tendentious [How's that for a untranslatable word?] and sexy, you are surrounded by female dancers and there is a sort of unrestrained sexuality. Is this a reference to lesbianism?

In the song, Juliet doesn't care at all about her man, and what she wants to do is have a great time. Guys are therefore excluded. There are only girls who are partying, so you can indeed imagine things. It's not explicit, people can interpret it as they wish. I like when people adapt the story to fit themselves or find their story. The last time I met a gay guy, he told me that he could relate to one of my songs called "Lui ou Toi" (Note: included on the album "Gourmandises") which speaks of a girl who doesn't know how to choose between two guys. It could have been a girl who told me that, heh, but no, it was a guy! (Laughs). Things must always be done subtlely in the clip so that people can have their own interpretations...

How many tatoos do you have?

I have a salamander on my ankle and the big one on my back.

Is it the famous Tinkerbell that we find everywhere at your house and follows you around?

(Laughs). I think that she's my guardian angel. I had her tatooed on my back, so I don't see her and can't grow weary of her. I glimpse her only when I get out of the bath. She's a character that I have always liked ever since I was little, firstly because she is kind and discrete. She seems to be like me from time to time! She is a little of what I am.

I saw that a fan had your image tatooed on his back. That didn't frighten you?

A little, I must admit! It's me with Tinkerbell's wings.

Like you, Lorie has a teen and a gay audience, she is independent today and is her own producer. Is there a sort of parallel between your careers?

I heard her single "Je vais vite" but not the album. It's very Kylie, but one must love her as well as Madonna. Anyways, I love Kylie's latest album, "X," and the 80's sleeve speaks to me greatly. Lorie, like myself as well as all of the other young girls who launched their careers at the same time as us, today we are growing up, we are changing, and we do not do the same things. People always talk about the US, we all prove that people can do different things in France.

Do you have a special message for our readers through our humble middleman?

They can write to me on my Myspace (Note: www.myspace.com/alizeeofficiel) because I receive many messages. I read all of them, but I can't respond to everyone. I even try to accept them as friends. I think all of them because they have wished me much. Between the moment where I ended my tour and the release of this album, the time was great. I put two and a half years to do it and when one is inside too much, one doesn't see anything else and one doesn't know if what one is doing is good or not. The fact that I received so many messages made me feel like going even further, it gave me ideas, to do things and that an interpretation was needed for such a public so as not to lose it, same with the image... I hope that they liked the album or that they will like it, but above all I thank them for having waited for me!

[Ben]

Originally Posted by Toc De Mac

I saw that a fan had your image tatooed on his back. That didn't frighten you?

A little, I must admit! It's me with Tinkerbell's wings.

Oh my, hah!

[Deepwaters]

Yeah, that was funny.

Re that last question, just so people know, she is no longer reading MySpace PMs. Probably this is for security reasons, because her account was hacked a while back, and it was probably by a virus carried on a PM. She still reads the comments, or so I assume from this statement.

Toc de Mac, thanks for picking up the ball but neither of us did page 3. Do you want to do the honors? If not, I'll get to it later this evening.

[Paulina]

Originally Posted by Toc De Mac

But in my album, I was not only influenced by the 90s, there's also the 70s with Simon & Garfunkel...

Awesome! I love Simon & Garfunkel

[Toc De Mac]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

Toc de Mac, thanks for picking up the ball but neither of us did page 3. Do you want to do the honors? If not, I'll get to it later this evening.

You're more than welcome to, if you want. I started at page four so as not to infringe upon material that you might had already been in the course of translating.

It's up to you, really.

[Deepwaters]

[out of order]

You have read yourself in the press: "You would be nothing more without them!"

Yes, it's true! I have read and heard that.

That you would be contractually blocked for years with them ...

Yes, but it's false!

How have you lived with all this? Did that not reach you or wound you?

No, it's maybe the fact that it is I who left. It would have been different if they had returned my contracts to me saying they didn't want to work with me any more. If that had been the case, then after all these malicious tricks had been propagated, I think that I would have been six feet underground and in depression. [Note: "six feet underground" is a literal translation - it means, figuratively, "buried" or "dead" in English - does anyone know what it means in French? The English figurative meaning does seem to fit here, so maybe it means the same.] The fact that it was I who wanted to part from them and to go and see and discover new things allowed me to hold out! It may be that people will find that conceited. In any case, I learned many things with Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat. They gave me a lot. If today the gay public is with me, it's by their grace: they were the intermediaries. I am extremely conscious of the luck that I had and that I have! All that I learned, I will have it for always, for all my life. I just wanted to do other things and to take things in hand. I have learned only one way of working: this was in the studio, for the photo sessions, the dances ... I saw how to manage it all and to create myself and I wanted to put it into practice. Before applying the recipes to me, Mylène applied them to herself. I said to myself: I am 20 years old, I am rich with all that she taught me, and now I want to do it for myself. I have the means to produce an album and now I will give myself the means to do what I want, in going to see the people that I appreciate. For me, it was a luxury to be able to choose the people with whom I wanted to collaborate: Daniel Darc ... They all accepted because they had a good image of me. The blow, that justified me in going even further, and above all to forge ahead.

Personally, do you think that you were in a straitjacket, that you were artistically frustrated so to speak, that you had no say ...

No that's not how it was! I told myself more: "What you do musically, if it were not you who sang it, would you listen to it on your iPod?" That was the real question!

You had to bear the evil?

No, because I was amused really! I benefited well from it. When one is an artist, one is likely to be able to sample many different universes.

The first person to whom you sent your new album were Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat. I read in the press that there had been no reply. So, how should this silence be interpreted?

I did not ask myself too many questions! They knew that I was very grateful to them. The least I could do was to send the finished album to them before everyone else, and that is what I did. Personally, I am very proud of my album and I hope that they think good things about it!

I am intrigued by your personality. I know that at root you are shy and reserved. Do you think that you even belong in show-business where it's demanded of artists more and more: the starisation, the peoplisation, tele-reality ...

It is true that I am a bit bothered by all that! I have the impression that I am there to give what I can give, that is to say of the music, the dream, the image ... But today everything is changed because of the collapse of the record market. I have the impression that it is necessary to give more to sell more records, but I am not in agreement with this! I think that if an album is good, then it's good! There are still people who sell thousands of records: Mylène, for starters.

The market is currently glutted, there are too many releases, everyone wants to be on the big media decision-makers (NRJ, T.F.1...) and if you aren't on top you have a bad existence.

Of course, but besides someone like M has never ...

[Amigo!]

Thanks for the translations Deepwaters & Toc De Mac

That was a really great interview

[espire]

Yes, Deepwaters, "six feet under" is a universal expression. It originated from after the Black Plague, in which people were buried so much that graves were not deep enough, and corpses would eventually be seen above the ground in graveyards. Since then, six feet under has been the minimum to ensure that that does not happen

[Deepwaters]

OK, I just thought that the "foot" was a strictly English (and former-English-colony) unit of length. The Black Death was pre-metric of course, but I had no awareness that the French had ever used that measurement system.