The 40 years of his first album, Mythomaniac, Etienne Daho celebrates them with dignity, with a reissue, two new lives and a new single, VirusX.
franceinfo: Etienne Daho, how do you look at these four decades spent on stage?
I didn’t see anything go by. When you have a job full of joys, excitement, fantastic projects and meetings, it goes very quickly! Time passes, we run with time, and suddenly we say to ourselves “40 years is gigantic”.
Call up a first album Mythomaniac, be brave !
That’s right, in hindsight. I think that when you’re a teenager, you tell stories, you imagine your life much prettier, more beautiful and exciting than it is. I think I was like that, and so did the people around me.
The doomed man celebrates his 10 years. This tour with Jeanne Moreau was very important for you, moreover when she died she wanted you to represent her, that you become her administrator.
Yes, to continue his memory. I didn’t know it when she was alive, every time she wanted to tell me, but she told me that now was not the time. When I found out, I wasn’t sure I wanted to accept because I was very busy, and I didn’t want to promise things that I couldn’t do. And at the same time, when someone has that strong enough trust in you, it’s hard to say no.
“We met, we understood each other, something happened. She was a bit like an impetuous young girl, always put the artistic at the center of her choices, and that is something that pleases me, which is important to me. “
Etienne Dahoto franceinfo
The live with Jeanne is strong. The lyrics are magnificent, but when you are immersed in something you don’t realize. But when I saw myself, with hindsight, these ten years apart, I asked myself “How could I have done that?” There are monologues that are very raw, very sexual, which make you look naked in front of people. I was pretty proud of myself.
You needed to relaunch yourself, new challenges!
I need projects that bring me back to my basic desires, to Mythomaniac. The doomed man it was a free project, luckily I had finished my record contract, so I was able to make a label with which I recorded this album in complete freedom, by financing myself, by taking the time that I needed, I was totally independent. It was an important freedom. Sometimes you need to go back to your base, to say “I am that, and not something else”.
On December 2, the Académie française will give you the big medal for all of your songs, is that a source of pride?
First of all, I didn’t know that the Académie française had an eye on the song, so I was extremely surprised. It is a great pleasure because it means that what you have done leaves pretty traces. It grows in the back too.
“We could say to ourselves that when we have this kind of reward it’s kind of the end, me that pushes me to look towards tomorrow.”
Etienne Dahoto franceinfo
It’s not just a personal victory, I got a lot of messages from friends of strangers, it’s also for my mother, for my family, the people who have been there, raised me, c t is a joy and a collective reward.
Your last single is called VirusX, we obviously think of the pandemic, but also of love, of the toxicity of certain people and certain things, is that the message?
Between personal life and what we’ve all been through there was a coincidence, and it was fun, I layered the two together to make it something a little light.