“Happiness is theft, these are moments stolen from unhappiness”

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Friday March 8, 2024: The author, composer, performer and writer, Raphaël. He is releasing a new album: “Another life”.

Raphael is back. With his 2.5 million records sold, his three Victoires de la Musique and a Goncourt Prize for his novel Return to the sea in 2017, it occupies an important place in the French musical landscape, but also in the world of books. The meeting with the public took place with his song On the roadembarked in his Caravanthe album that launched his career.

After the album High fidelity in 2021, Raphaël releases a tenth album on Friday March 8 Another life with a first single Hope. Ten new titles between pop and song with which he tells us more about himself.

franceinfo: Is it difficult to put feelings into words, especially romantic feelings?

Raphael: It happens naturally. Me, I like writing songs and what I prefer to write are love songs. Song has a kind of ability to synthesize love that no other art form has. I have the impression that a little love song can say as much as a huge novel.

“In periods of romantic turmoil, songs are of much greater help than all the philosophy and personal development books that can be found in train stations.”

How did you look like a child?

My outlook as a child is very close to the one I have today. I don’t feel like I’ve changed much between when I was seven or eight years old and now. I learned a few things that I forgot. I have a look that is both revolted and full of tenderness.

How are you revolted?

Often the world goes on its head. There are so many things that seem absurd to me, that lead the world to the edge of madness. We don’t really understand why. But I find that there is a lot of tenderness too.

How do you protect yourself from this world that is going wrong?

With music, literature, it’s really with art. Art is the thing that protects the most from current events. And if I had to give one piece of advice, it would be: “unplug from your screens, you are at 7h20 per day of screen time, it’s not possible”. We are robotic, we are being brainwashed terribly.

“Take a good book, listen to a good record and things will be much better.”

What we discover through this album is a look at the world that is a little outside of time. Has writing your short stories sharpened your pen more?

Perhaps they helped me to write simpler texts, at least simpler, more direct things. When we write books, we often make sentences and then say to ourselves: “Is this sentence really necessary? “So afterwards, actually, if we think about it, no sentence is necessary, we could just leave the back cover of a book, it’s a summary. So we can’t really get to the core. On the other hand , we can always try to be as fluid as possible, as simple as possible, as direct as possible. That’s what I try to do.

In Overtimeyou talk about happiness, you say that “Happiness is theft” and “It’s an invisible bird“. What is happiness ?

It seems that happiness is theft. These are moments hidden from misfortune. I think it’s a way of seeing the world. Perhaps to say to yourself that it is an incredible opportunity to have access to it at some point. But in this song, The invisible bird, it is perhaps to say that we should not try to catch it, to tame it, to understand it. It is something totally intangible and mysterious. This is why I sing it with my youngest son who is nine years old at the time he sings. We don’t know which of the two knows what happiness is. Probably, he has much more access to happiness than me. When I see him in the morning or when he comes home, he does moon dances while talking about his day. If I did that, I would probably be locked up after a week or two.

In Nostalgia, you approach nostalgia. Are you at times?

Yes, I’m quite nostalgic. But how can you not be? I think nostalgia is one of the principles of existence. What is nostalgia? It is the desire to return to a place where we can no longer go, for example childhood.

“Everyone is exiled from childhood. It is the very foundation of literature and music.”

Bob Marley is just nostalgia. The Odyssey of Homer, it is the very definition of nostalgia, it comes from there, nostalgia in Greek is the return, therefore it is the journey of Ulysses.

What does this album represent, this Other life ?

These are very beautiful songs. They have something very original. There are certain pieces like The brideas The last chimpanzee of the futureas On the shoulders which I have never heard elsewhere in French song. There’s no matrix, there’s no such thing. I think it’s not bad to do something new. It may displease, it may please, but in any case, it’s unprecedented.

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