Every day, a personality invites themselves into the world of Élodie Suigo. Monday, September 23, 2024: the author, composer and performer, Anaïs. She is releasing a new album, “Un Sacré Numéro”, and will be in concert at the Café de la Danse on October 9.
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On paper, Anaïs appears as a singer except that she is not a singer like the others, moreover, she does not like to do like the others. At the beginning, there was the group Opossum with concerts to learn the trade, then the solo scene with as companion a kazoo, a guitar and then especially a Sampler pedal, just to give her more voice. This voice is finally back with a brand new album entitled A Sacred NumberShe will be in concert at the Café de la Danse on October 9.
franceinfo: Aren’t you, as it says on the cover of this record, obviously with this wink and this Peugeot 205 car, quite a number?
Anaïs: Oh yeah, I think. There was a wink because it’s a bit of an old-fashioned expression and I totally assume that I do things a bit old-fashioned like Auto-Tune. I even did a song about Auto-Tune, where I did Auto-Tune with my voice. I’m quite a number!
I wondered what place this voice occupied and at what moment it entered your life.
I’ve always sung so much that I realized very late that it was my instrument. I’ve played a lot of instruments. After a while, I had a lightbulb moment, at 16, when I wrote my first song. I said to myself: but you’re actually a singer! It was obvious. I was one of the few people in middle school who went to the choir. And there you have it. Afterwards, I realized that yes, that was it. It was obvious.
What’s quite crazy is that each time, you kept this independence even when you were alone on stage with your instruments. The aim of the game was to not depend on anyone, to always be in control of what you wanted to say, to tell, to produce?
That’s it. I arrived at a time when there were a lot of record company buyouts, all that added a bit to it. I made two albums after that at Universal, but I didn’t feel very comfortable there. I think they didn’t understand what I was doing because I had this side of making people understand that old songs could be funny and social.
“I also feel like a bit of a transmitter of this realistic, fanciful song, which for me is very strong. ‘Mon cœur, mon amour’ really comes from it.”
Looking back, what does this song represent?
At first, it was really part of the live and my editor who was smart, said: “This one, I think there is potential, you should re-record it in the studio.“I didn’t realize it was going to be a hit because I saw that there was only…She only goes out with black guys which worked very well live. And then, there were bursts of acceleration with the Printemps de Bourges and the famous Victoires de la Musique where I was not afraid to be who I was. I said to myself: wow, I’m going to arrive, I’m going to do my little delirium where I’m doing Scotland, I’m putting on my “I Love Lorie” T-shirt as a joke because there were “I Love Madonna” and “I Love Britney” T-shirts and then obviously the freshness of My heart, my love it rained.
From the beginning, you showed us the way. Every time you perform a song, there are always characters. And again in this album, when we listen to it, there are lots of characters and each of us becomes a little actor in the songs, we are not just spectators or listeners.
But that’s it. I like making a mini-film, you really believe it. That’s what always interested me. Christina on The Cheap Showit’s a story, it’s a short story. That’s why I wanted to do the sequel, Christina season 2.
Writing songs, reaching out, is that also a way of de-dramatizing things?
That’s it. I really need to take the drama out of life.
“I am someone who must have something really sad, deep, who needs to bring back a lot of happiness and cheerfulness.”
What made you choose music to express yourself because it is your means of expression?
I have great instincts and I am guided by something quite deep. I don’t have much confidence in myself, which is why I almost became an English teacher, not doing what I felt deep down. But in fact it was obvious and then it took several paths. I started in a band. And when I discovered this pedal, I said to myself: it corresponds exactly to your love of characters. You have a very elastic voice with a good sense of rhythm because you have to manage to loop all these voices in the rhythm. Make people believe that it’s like Fred Aster, that it’s easy when you tap dance. And I think that’s just me. When I was little, I was quite withdrawn and I devoured all the musicals in the world and I liked this side of telling stories, taking people into a dream because that’s what musicals are, and then entertaining them. I think it’s really, quite simply, a deep part of me.
What does this album represent, A Sacred Number ?
I feel like the whole journey I did on my previous albums was to finally get to this point. To be able to make my songs with an instrument having acquired all the experience that I have now, without fear of going far because there are songs like Too Old for That Shitit’s nonsense, it goes in all directions, but why not? I think it’s my most accomplished album so far.