Every day, a personality invites herself into the world of Élodie Suigo. This week, Julien Clerc, author, composer and singer is the exceptional guest of Le Monde d’Élodie. He looks back on the highlights of his career through five of his cult songs.
Julien Clerc is half a century of songs, concerts, love of a faithful public now made up of several generations who have fallen under the spell of the artist he is. It is told all this week through five episodes, five titles that have become essential. After releasing a 26e scrapbook: earthlingJulien Clerc is on an acoustic tour with the show Happy Days in which he covers songs by artists like Barbara, Bécaud and Trenet.
franceinfo: Your 26th album is called earthling. “An Earthman with his head in the stars” would be a nice summary of the man you are, right?
Julien Clerc: Yes, it’s true that it always surprises the people who share my life, and even some of my children each say it with different words. It’s true that singing and making music is part of my daily life. It’s all the same person and I’m pretty good at going through this life and mixing it all up. When music comes to me, it can be when I’m cooking, but it can also be frankly when I’m in the middle of four or five or more people and all of a sudden I’m going out because it bothers me. came up with an idea for music. I’m looking for a keyboard to try to fix what I just found. What I mean is that music is always in my life.
“My daughter Jeanne always said, ‘Dad, he can go from sautéed veal to writing a song’ and my daughter Vanille said, ‘Dad, he’s always a bit to the west’. Both are right.”
Julien Clercat franceinfo
You are on an acoustic tour until next August. The acoustics require a one-on-one and it’s true that you realize how much there is like an umbilical cord between you and the public. That is to say that some consider you as a brother, others as a father, others as a friend, others a bit like a lover in relation to the songs you have been able to interpret.
Yes, while being, I find, very respectful. That is incredible luck. You can’t be friends with everyone. So my way of being friends is to respect them while trying not to disappoint them. It is very important for me. Especially those who come very, very, very, very often. I see them, I know them and it’s usually to them that I say at the start of the show: I’m going to start with that, is that okay with you? It’s a good summary, we are both intimate and at the same time, we are distant. It’s like that. But having a faithful audience, I would never have dreamed of better than what happens to me, that is to say people with whom a relationship has been established through the songs. My way of respecting that is to try to do the best I can.
Your voice, from the first notes, we know it’s you. You’ve been part of the family for years. What place does this voice occupy in your life?
When we go to see someone at the concert, we go on a date with his own life, since I’ve been there for a while anyway. So when you liked my work, when you come to see me on stage, you have memories and you have to respect that. That’s what I try to give back to people. I don’t go see certain artists anymore because I know I wouldn’t have that. I too am a fan of many artists. And when, for example, I know that the high notes are no longer going to be there, I prefer not to go there. I prefer to stick to my memory. My memory of the concerts where there are high notes and in memory of the records in which they do them well. I try not to betray that. So that’s my relationship with my voice. And also because it is a great pleasure to work on it.
How do you view this career then?
I’m not going to surprise you by telling you that it went very quickly, of course. That’s how it is, that’s a life. Lives pass quickly. We’re passing through, but it’s quite fast. That’s why you have to make the most of every moment.
“I had this chance to be able to invent melodies and sing. What is better than that on Earth? Not much, I think. That and love.”
Julien Clercat franceinfo
In your latest album, you talk about Brexit, a teacher, a text by Didier Barbelivien, as well as this “young girl on fire”. We talk about violence against women. It is a text by Jeanne Cherhal. It is a text that is very close to your heart.
Yes, because it’s a nice text, which is not in the pathos and where everything is said. That’s the talent of songwriters, it’s to manage to find the few words that paint a picture for you, that explain or summarize an idea, something. That’s what very great novelists fail to do from time to time who try to write it, but don’t succeed. It’s a different mindset. This is what Jeanne Cherhal has achieved in this text, when she says: “How many girls on fire. Teenage burn victims. Have become vacillating women?” All is said.
Julien Clerc will be, among others, on March 4, 2023 in Vittel, on March 9, 2023 in Gap, on the 18th in Cap d’Agde, on the 25th in Boulogne-Billancourt, on April 6th in Bollène, on the 29th in Bayonne, on June 30th in Bouillargues etc.