Lucien Ginsburg, known as Lulu Gainsbourg, 35, is a musician, composer, arranger, performer. He is also the son of Serge Gainsbourg and Bambou. He made music his profession. His new album is out today and is called: Replay. Unlike his previous album which was very refined, this one overturns the table of the so-called “classic” French song.
franceinfo: On your first three albums, you were looking for yourself a bit. There, it looks like you’ve finally managed to find yourself.
Lulu Gainsbourg: Yes, kind of. We will say that I discovered a new personality that was hidden deep inside me. In my work, I really try to push the artistic, to discover other horizons that I do not know.
The sound is quite amazing, that is to say that we did not expect that at all and it feels like you yourself did not expect it either.
Yes. Replay is a pretty special project for me. It’s the first time that I’m in the studio and that I don’t come with melodies like I did on my previous albums. I came to improvise. We improvised hours and hours of music, and these improvisations brought this improvised album to life.
You worked backwards, with the music first and then the lyrics. You polished them with your other half, Lilou. She has been with you from the start and is at the heart of this confidence building.
It’s true that I really feel comfortable working with Lilou. She knows how to find the right words that suit me. She also knows me by heart, so it’s really this bond that unites us strong enough that makes it easy to work together.
In this album, there is a lot of resonance with your father. He liked, throughout his life, to mix styles. There is electro there. He himself played with electro, he was one of the first to play it elsewhere. Does he inspire you?
Obviously he inspires me afterwards he inspires a lot of people. He will always be a part of me anyway. Music, I think I got that from him.
You have taken a long time to accept this legendary weight. And there, you finally decided to say that you were there, that you existed on your own.
Yes that’s it. Replay, this is really a new project for me. I’m really glad he’s finally here.
“Replay, personally, it’s a step forward and I’m going on, I’m making my way.”
Lulu Gainsbourgto franceinfo
Was it hard to let go? When we listen to the song Respondent, we feel that you are going all the way. We didn’t suspect you were going through this inside at all.
I have a good author! She can write really well, she has a good pen. After, Replay is not necessarily an album that traces my life. I am no longer the narrator of the story, the one who tells it. Respondent is a bit of a declaration, a love story. In this album, I leave, a little, the listener this chance to see if he goes through lived experience or I leave the imagination to the listener.
There is also a song called Childhood. For once, it’s autobiographical. You talk about yourself, we can not say the opposite. The first time you go on stage, it was in 88. It is your father who takes you on the stage of the Zenith in Paris, you are two years old. At five, you start playing the piano. At eight, you enter the Conservatory of Music in Paris and you study piano and music theory. When we look at your background, you have followed all the studies possible and imaginable, you have been received everywhere and yet you still have doubts.
I will always doubt, but I move on. And that’s why I need to be well surrounded and to have a good team like Jérémie and Lilou. They gave me a little more confidence in what I do and also to find who I am.
We have the impression that when our name is Gainsbourg, it’s easy. It’s far from easy to find your place when you have a sacred monster as a father.
It is not easy, but it is not impossible. I believe it.
I would like us to talk about your mom, very important to you.
He’s a bit of a hero, my mother. She raised me alone, she knew how to make me, the man I am today, it’s ‘made by’ mom and dad. My mother is a lot of love. He is someone very important to me and always will be.
We found the ‘real’ Lulu Gainsbourg. Who is Lulu Gainsbourg?
He is someone quite reserved, rather intimate for once. No, I am a very dreamy person. I have always been a dreamer from a young age and I think that it is also, perhaps, that pushes me to go further, to move forward, in my path.