Étienne Daho spends the week with us on franceinfo to relive the highlights of his life: five days, five songs. While Etienne Daho celebrates his 40-year career, he takes the opportunity to reissue his first album Mythomaniac, while blowing out the ten candles of his album The doomed man including a duet with Jeanne Moreau. He also just released, a few weeks ago, an unreleased single: Virus X.
Today, Like a boomerang, Jungle Pulse or Oh ! Sorry you were sleeping …, fruit of some of his many artistic collaborations.
franceinfo: On December 2, you received the great medal from the French Academy for all of your songs. You are also an artist with multiple collaborations. You have worked a lot with and for others such as Jacques Dutronc, Alain Bashung, Daniel Darc, Françoise Hardy, Jane Birkin, Debbie Harry de Blondie or even Catherine Deneuve, Marianne Faithfull, Dani, Jeanne Moreau. Have collaborations also contributed to your development?
Etienne Daho: Yes, it’s part of my journey. I started producing for others in 1987, when I created my own label and so I did a few productions where I got a little fanged and kept going. As I meet, things get done and it turns out that the people who appreciate me, I also appreciate them a lot. After a while, we meet and the best way to meet is to record together. What happened for a lot of albums, especially for Jane Birkin’s album recently, Lou Doillon’s album and then many others.
There was also a very nice duet with Jacques Dutronc. Lots of women in these collaborations, but few men?
Dominique A, Jacques Dutronc, François Marry, Malik Djoudi, there are plenty, but it is true that the women with whom I have worked are mostly icons, so it is very impactful.
In particular Brigitte Fontaine, of whom you produced four of the titles of her album Human race (1995). You co-wrote Jungle Pulse, a very important song for you on this journey.
First, it was a meeting with Brigitte, who is nevertheless an exceptional artist. Really, I have a lot of affection and admiration for her. Those were the beginnings of some form of rap, and this title is a form of rap. It was a way of getting into something else, having fun with something else, getting out of the nails and getting out of pop to do something else.
“It’s always fun to step out of your comfort zone.”
Etienne Dahoto franceinfo
There is also The other me for Jane Birkin, and this album that you made with a master’s hand Oh ! Sorry you were sleeping … which nevertheless seals a dramatic disappearance in the life of Jane Birkin. It also allowed him to put words to cure ailments?
Yes, that was the first song we worked on on this record. Jane had a lot to throw out. It was truly an extremely powerful, extremely painful drama. How can I say ? We always ask ourselves questions when there is a disappearance. Is it an accident, a suicide? And I remembered: Is it an accident? The question mark, I think it’s beautiful. It was an opening.
When I proposed it to Jane, radio silence for two days, three days. It was the first song we finished, so it was very important to us. And at the same time, we move forward with a lot of precautions, because we do not know at all how it will be received. It’s a drama and we will never be able to experience the drama of a mother. And so, after three days, she sent me a message saying “I really like“. And then after, it was”I love it, I listen nonstop, etc.“
We started the album like that and once we got through that part of this song for Kate afterwards, the rest was extremely smooth. It was almost all fun, with great ease.
You have always reached out. It was also the case for the album Places with Lou Doillon, she was looking for someone and it was obvious that it had to be you. Same for Like a boomerang by Dani, it was a gift, this song written by Serge Gainsbourg.
It’s a gift beyond Serge’s sky, really. Because during Serge’s lifetime, I saw him a lot.
“I really had a great relationship with Serge Gainsbourg, but we never worked together.”
Etienne Dahoto franceinfo
I was very afraid of being stamped. I’m stupid, because with hindsight, I would have loved to have a record with him, of course. But I do not know, with the pride, perhaps the arrogance of my nascent success, I said to myself: I prefer to do things on my own. Besides, I would never have dared to ask him either and therefore, we did not work together.
When Dani told me about this song, which he could have given to Catherine Deneuve, to Jane or even to Charlotte and indeed when I listened to it after having found it, I said to myself: But it is not not possible, this song must exist. Basically, it had to be a single for Dani that I was producing and funding. She absolutely wanted a duet to be a duet and I said to her: The text is not at all a duet, it’s a mistake!