What was your first encounter with music?
I am someone who has always been attracted to music. I had an iPod Touch with GarageBand and from the age of 12, I was producing and composing. I was writing in a language that didn’t exist, rather than writing in French. I had this received idea that French was corny in song. And I had more interest in what came from America, musically. Time passed, I started to sing in English. And finally, when I was 18, something clicked and I switched to French. I posted a song [en ligne] and a comment, nasty but very useful in the end, said that my accent was atrocious. And I said to myself that instead of singing in another language, I was going to try my own. I realized that I could tell things much more faithful and close to who I am.
Excerpt fromOne day I will marry an angelby Pierre de Maere
You studied at the Beaux-Arts in photography before really getting into music. Do the two disciplines coexist in your project?
I started to take an interest in photography when I was 14 years old. I took pictures of my sister and her friends, then my friends. I was in charge of the artistic direction, the styling, the make-up…And I started making music a bit by chance, because I was in love, I wanted to impress someone and it is more impressive to write a beautiful song than to take pictures of models . Then, the baggage that I had in relation to the visual, to the image, I used it. I told myself that my project would be like that of a Stromae or Rita Mitsouko. A project that would encompass both music, of course, but also image, fashion. These are all passions of mine.
PHOTO MARCIN-KEMPSKI, PROVIDED BY THE ARTIST
Pierre de Maere
At the time of these first musical attempts, were there artists or works that guided you, influenced you and inspired you?
The film Bohemian Rapsody made me dream and gave me the ambition to do something [comme Freddy Mercury]. My true icon, the one who has a role as important as my own mother in my education, is Lady Gaga. She has this audacity, she makes no apologies for living as an artist. We see a lot of French-speaking artists apologizing for existing and all the time thanking the whole world. Lady Gaga has the courage to assert herself. She reclaimed her body by becoming almost monstrous, but voluntarily. It fascinated me. A David Bowie is the same thing. He fascinates me almost more for his image than his music. In France, there is Yelle, which I find extraordinary.
Was the artistic direction for your sound crystal clear in your mind when you started your career?
Not really. Because it was brand new for me to write in French. And it had been a long time since I had made music, since I had stopped to do photography for four years. My artistic director, Théo, was the one who defined my sound. I roll my “r”, I go for Polnareff treble, my production is a bit hybrid. I was very carefree about all that. Besides, the album goes in all directions, it’s an album of exploration, I didn’t forbid myself anything at all. I didn’t want to limit myself to a specific theme or grain in terms of sound.
You talk a lot about love in your lyrics and you talk about it as something that hurts a lot or the greatest good, but never in between.
Yes, I have a totally idealized view of love, which I’m not even sure I believe in. But I don’t believe that one day I would want lukewarm love. It must be hot or cold. A relationship where you say to yourself “yeah, it’s fine”, but without more, you might as well end it. That’s how I’ve always experienced my relationships, even if I haven’t had many. I think it comes from novels I’ve read, movies I’ve seen. We are sold all that. On the piece Romeo, for example, it’s freezing, it’s a sad fact. While Day -3it’s the slightly corny ballad, which talks about love that’s going well, of the moment when we hope to get married when we’ve only had one date.
So you are a great romantic at heart?
I like to dream. There are realistic artists and romantic ones. As in painting, it is found in music. Realism doesn’t affect me that much. I like the idea of art as an alternative vision of reality or a possibility of escape. My life, I’m already living it, I don’t want anyone to tell me about it. Even if artists depict reality with great accuracy and it’s extraordinary. Me, I like more free, abstract texts, which lend themselves to dreams and the imagination.
Excerpt fromchild ofby Pierre de Maere
And why the title Look at me to style this first record?
One could imagine something very egocentric: look at me how beautiful I am. But it is rather the opposite: look at me and find the beauty that is in me. It’s a cry from the heart, a call for help from the artist who is just starting out, who is treading the boards for the first time, whom no one is looking at and who is looking for a benevolent gaze at all costs. On [la pièce-titre], I say: “Tonight, I’m doing stupid things / I tear myself away with a tise / The crowd loves my sad comedy”. It is this artist who is ready to do anything to be seen. I find it touching.
Pierre de Maere, on stage, what does it look like?
It’s a bit of a fashion show, a bit of a stand-up, and between the jokes and the outfits, there are songs! I like the somewhat absurd and grotesque approach, I like to keep myself wildly free on stage. Telling myself that I do what I want is my moment, whether people buy in or not – and usually they end up buying in. In the clips, you see me dressed nicely, with curly hair, smooth and retouched skin. But on stage, you see me as an animal. I had also been to see Hubert Lenoir [en spectacle à Paris] and he almost made me punk. On stage, I have a lot of energy, it’s not smooth at all. I am not Celine Dion, I do not sing divinely well, on the other hand, I give all the energy in the world.
You will be at the Francos in a few days. How do you approach this presence on Quebec soil?
I have never left Europe. […] I feel like the culture is more open. The French are very academic. You have to understand the text to be able to like it, they need to identify themselves. You have a Hubert Lenoir, completely crazy, brilliantly charismatic, half Versailles, half Kanye West. Me, I want that. I want to meet the Quebec public, I’m curious to see how it will be.
Pierre de Maere will be performing at the Francos on June 13 as the opening act for Thierry Larose, at Club Soda (paying), then on June 14, solo (free), on the Loto-Québec outdoor stage.