Louise Attaque obviously wants to enjoy the festivities marking the 25e anniversary of the release of his first album, one of the best-selling in the history of French pop – almost three million copies! —, preceded only by a record by Cabrel and one by Bruel.
Last April, the trio gave six concerts in a single day at the Élysée Montmartre, fully covering the album that bears their name and their successes. Your invitation and I bring you with wind. It offers today Earthtitle drawing the common thread from “Louise observing these humans we talk about with empathy, love, and a certain tenderness”, specifies Arnaud Samuel.
Backtracking, from the first bars of the austere Out of the ordinary, opening the album. The rock drums, the distinct voice of singer Gaëtan Roussel, the melodic momentum of the violin. This violin, held firm by Arnaud Samuel, distinctive sign of Louise Attaque! A group which, like no other on the French music scene, has been able to combine song, folk and rock.
“Someone influenced me at the beginning, says the violinist. When I was little, there was this album that was touring at home, Longed for [1976]by Bob Dylan, with Scarlet Rivera”, the most rocker of American violinists, evident from the classical Hurricane, which opens the album. “Scarlet Rivera was doing the backing vocals throughout this album, and it actually gave me the opportunity to think the same way. The interesting thing is to have thought of playing my violin also against Gaëtan. My violin flows a lot around his voice, it’s not quite like a soloist score, like an electric guitarist doing a solo,” he says, also citing the influence of 1980s French alternative rock band Passion. Fodder.
You guessed it, we feel on this Earth as in our memories of the late 1990s when Louise Attaque was one of the most exciting newcomers to the French-speaking scene, whose popularity had soon reached the shores of Quebec — yes, Louise Attaque will be going on tour again next year, ” and yes, we hope to come back to see you, we have kept good memories of our concerts in Quebec”, says Gaëtan Roussel smiling at the end of the camera, seated with his Arnaud and Robin Feix.
music brothers
Time passes, the sound of the trio remains, except for a few details.
“When recording our second album [Comme on a dit, en l’an 2000], says Arnaud, we said to ourselves that we would try to do something different, but respecting what makes up our DNA: our acoustic instruments, Gaëtan’s voice, his way of writing and making French sound. That’s our way of working, we’re not going to do violence and eliminate them to make a change. On the other hand, the interest of an album, it is to take a polaroid of the group to see where it is made, but also to make an album different from the preceding one. Then, it is true, [Planète Terre] sounds more like our very first. »
“Another journalist used this formula: these two albums are brothers, continues Arnaud. Afterwards, you have to hear the details: a more panoramic sound, outside contributors who put a few bursts left and right, where you wouldn’t have had the idea to put any — a piano solo on Out of the ordinary, for example. »
In terms of themes, Louise Attaque observes, sometimes with a worried gaze, our world and comments on it. That hasn’t changed either. On the rhythm The freak, Roussel evokes the fear of commitment: “The fear of kissing you tonight / of not jumping in puddles, hope”. On the delicate not see each other, it is the individualism and the lack of empathy that are underlined. More surprisingly, on music that could have been recorded by the trio in 1997, My dear, today my dear dares to approach gender identity from the perspective of a parent.
Right after this series of concerts last April, the three musicians locked themselves in a studio every day for 25 days to see what would come out of it. “We didn’t invent anything,” says Roussel. Constraint blocks or liberates. And that released 11 mock songs. “We, it allowed us to find ourselves. I remember above all the human experience”, says the musician, who launched his fourth solo album last year, Do you know ?.
“Gaëtan writes by immersing himself in what he saw when writing the song, adds Robin Feix. We arrive with little bits of existing music, and the songs take shape in our studious company. ” Roussel: “We form a group, and what’s nice is that no one will take the place of anyone and that the faults of each are integrated into the whole. It’s chemical, and, in this context, you shouldn’t hold back, say to yourself: “Here, I found this, I’m going to put it aside [pour mon projet solo].” The songs are born in a specific context, and you have to play the game. Sincerely, and that, I believe in it. »