Calogero’s confidences before a new album

Calogero is a singer, composer and musician. He is from this family of artists who like to master their art. His passion has been music since a young age. At just 16 years old, in 1987, he formed the Charts band with his brother and a friend. 12 years later, he embarked on a solo career with his album among the others, dropping his jobs as a plumber and an apprentice butcher. With this solo career, he has definitely become Calogero, an essential artist of French song, with his little pop and rock touches. His titles have integrated our playlists with each time the memories that go with it. We think in 2004 of yalla, In front of the sea, If only I could miss him, Nathan (2009), One day in the wrong place or The portrait in 2014.

>> Our behind-the-scenes report from the Calogero concerts before the tour

This Wednesday, May 24, 2023, Calogero is back with a new single The departures hall announcer of a new album LOVE to be released on September 8 and a tour in early January 2024.

franceinfo: This title that you offer us is in duet with Marie Poulain. The departures hallit’s a cinematic love story, romantic and happy, it seems.

Calogero: Yes. Finally, love stories are not always happy. That’s why the album is called LOVE, this is very important, there are dots between each letter. Because love can last a lifetime, like my parents, for example, and it can also last five minutes, the time for a look you meet or a kiss without lips.

Your parents are the starting point for this notion of love.

Yes. My parents have a very romantic story and of course that inspires me. Well, it’s not exactly the same story as me since for me, it’s more dotted, but in any case, there is something that makes me want, perhaps, to go more towards music of movie. And maybe you can hear it a little bit in this song.

In this title, these lovers are alive and well. We feel them indestructible in their love and yet, they separate to find each other better. It’s like a yo-yo.

Oh yes ! We talk about arrival and departure. It’s a bit like a yoyo and then it’s above all a slightly uncertain base. That’s what’s strange about love and what’s both magnificent, if we knew the end exactly, it would be very boring. What’s great about love is not really knowing. Anyway, that’s my view.

Love is what motivates you, is it your engine?

My driving force is music.

I love music so much that it finally joins love. It gets confused. And I have such an immense love for music… For me, yes, it’s almost religious.

What is amazing is the evolution of your voice. In this title, she is extremely posed. Does that mean you’ve finally found the key to letting go?

In any case, in music, I think so. Afterwards, I have my faults, but they disappear when I make music.

Does it touch you that Marie Poulain can write like that for you? It feels like it’s tailor-made. I’m not going to lie to you, but when I listened to the title and listeners might do the same, I listened and there were times when I was unable to tell if it was you or her.

That’s what everyone tells us!

She went for the bass, you the treble. There is a huge fusion between these two voices. It’s also your trademark, that! Even when you have sung, for example with Grand Corps Malade, in a completely different register, there is always this concern for harmony.

I find it magical when two singers like that meet and manage to convey emotion through their voices, because it’s not always simple in fact, it’s rare.

Yes, I love when the voices also complement each other because, for example, there, in this album, there is also a duet with Gaëtan Roussel. It’s a song called The night is never dark and in fact it is the same. There, the voices go really well together. They are very identifiable because they are the opposite. Yes, for me it is a question of harmony.

Of course, music has been with you since your earliest childhood. When did you realize that she was going to be part of your life?

In fact, I was failing at school, I know that I disappointed my parents a lot. And from the moment I started looking at myself in the mirror and taking a hairbrush as a microphone, imitating the singer from Dépêche Mode… I said to myself: maybe I could do something something interesting in my life and something that, in any case, would get me out of this academic failure. And from the first times I started playing, my father had given us a Farfisa organ and an old Korg TV800 synthesizer that I still have and work with all the time, I realized that there had a future, that there was a light and that I could first perhaps enjoy myself by prolonging childhood and adolescence, because that can go away with time. When we become adults, we leave this freshness and thanks to the music, I keep this freshness. And then also, it was a joy for me not to disappoint my parents and to show them that I could do something with my life.

The album will be released on September 8. Can’t wait?

Yes I am looking forward. I am very jealous.

This album is very special for you!

He is a bit special. I believe that we feel even more the influences of film music and at the same time the energy of the scene and there, I can’t wait because there is this energy in the album to find the public .

This tour will begin in January 2024. Is the stage your most beautiful playground?

Ah yes, this is the moment of truth. I like it so much. I’m not afraid of anything on stage. I no longer have any complexes.