Axel Bauer is an author, composer, guitarist and actor. His song Cargo met with enormous success in France in 1983, just like the title Turn off the light in 1992. His duet with Zazie, In my place, in 2001 sold over three million copies. He’s releasing a new album Radio London.
franceinfo: Radio London is the extension of your story, the one transmitted by your parents. We think of your father, Franck Bauer, whom we hear on the first single and who was the announcer for Radio London. Is it a resistance album?
Axel Bauer: It’s an album in which, through my father’s voice, there is this soul of strong resistance. For Here, London, he had re-recorded his messages at almost 93 years old. I was surprised by the youth of his voice because the messages from Radio London had been recorded when he was 22. Yes, it’s a resistance album. The theme of the Resistance didn’t accompany me when I was making the album, but it imposed itself on me a little when I looked at the songs a little like It’s smart and then the resumption of Aragon, Ferré, Is this how men live? There was this atmosphere in the album.
I would like to talk about It’s smart. An incredible song because there is a letting go. I don’t think we’ve ever heard you give yourself up so much.
To be honest, I’m not very aware of it. I kept the voice of the model, that is to say that when this text arrived, I was composing and then all of a sudden, there are these words which arrive. And as often, this model, we redo it cleanly, as if it were a draft. In the studio, we re-recorded instruments over it, of course, but in the end, I decided to keep the voice of the demo, the voice of that particular moment which is often when we compose the song. So there are the imperfections, but at the same time, there is effectively the emotion which is the primary emotion when the text arrives.
We have the feeling that you are having more fun today. There is a serenity.
It’s not false. It might even be true!
No, but there was a lot of work. It’s a quest, a bit?
The quest for serenity concerns everyone. It depends on background of each, but mine was definitely a bit difficult so it took me some time.
Even in terms of clothing, it’s true that we saw you arrive the first few times with this somewhat ‘rebellious’ side. And there, to make an album on the resistance but with gentleness, it’s still quite a snub. The circle is complete ?
Yes. In fact, it’s a difficult subject, the resistance and besides, at the beginning, I had trouble doing the song, Here, London. It was Boris Bergman, who found the sentence: “In other times, we were more resistant“. He solved the problem because it is a bit of the bond he has woven between us today who have not known these atrocities, the war and my father who told me precisely how it was at 22 years, under the bombs in England.
I would like to talk about the writing. Why don’t you invest more than that?
I would answer you, easily, that it’s laziness because in fact, I work the guitar a lot, I play it sometimes eight hours a day. And my recognized author friends, they write in little notebooks almost all the time. They are really in the word, in the literature and me, even if I read a lot, I write impulsively, that is to say that when I have something to say, I say it.
You were talking about this journey, this quest for life. It is true that you are much calmer over time. Does it take time to find yourself, to find your place?
We find ourselves a little more by accepting who we are.
It takes time to find yourself. Me, I started with Cargo, which was a huge hit that propelled me very, very young anyway, into the lights of fame, when I was quite a shy boy. But since I had a pretty good face, people imagined that I was always taking drugs or in a hotel, breaking rooms or even being with girls, when in fact I was more like working on my guitar all the time or working on the music. So a sort of misunderstanding of images, like that, was created and I had to make peace with that a bit and let myself go to pursue my path as a songwriter.
I would like us to talk about the stage because when we say Axel Bauer, we imagine you on stage, you are a stage beast. What does it mean to go on stage today, after this pandemic by the way?
The stage is liberation, it is joy.
Besides, we did a concert a short time ago, it was really fabulous. These are great emotions. As we were deprived of it, of course, we realize how lucky it is to be able to live from your music, then to make music, to share it with the public. Yes, indeed, I can’t wait.
So you are definitely the man who runs!
It is a metaphor for the life of an artist. Yes, I find that it suits me well even if, in fact, I walk quickly.
Axel Bauer will be in concert on July 2 as part of the Festival Music en Ciel, on July 21 in Cassis, on November 15 at the Trianon in Paris.