Less than a month before his performance at the Californian Coachella festival, Paul Van Haver, alias Stromae, made a trip to Quebec to appear last Sunday on the set of Star Academy and meet the media yesterday. Found in a lounge at the Fairmount The Queen Elizabeth hotel, the Belgian star talks to us about this “photography of the world” that is her very recent album. Multitude and the unsuspected effect that his songs can have on us.
In the chorus of his song sons of joy, Paul (he prefers to be called Paul in an interview) puts himself in the shoes of said son: “But oh!, leave my mom / Yes, I know, it’s true that she is not perfect / He’s a hero, and it will always be proud / That I’ll talk about it, that I’ll talk about it / I’m a son of a bitch, as they say, after all that she’s done for them . »
The images, imperial, of the music video were shot in kyiv in better times. “During the shooting, I was told a lot about the song hell “Excerpt unveiled on January 9 during a coup in full news, on the French channel TF1. “Then a girl who carries the coffin [dans le clip] told me that it’s a bit of his mother’s story that I tell in the song sons of joy, and it really touched me. She said to me: “Yeah, my mother will be so proud to know that I am in the clip!” We don’t realize that by telling stories like that, we sometimes tell a little about people’s lives. »
“And what’s funny is that what touches people is never what you imagined,” he adds. Except for the song hell, a text in which he evokes the mental health problems that have overwhelmed him with “suicidal thoughts”, but addressing this specific subject with the musician has been prohibited by his record company. Paul, anyway, wanted to talk about the song at this time Laugh” a song [dont la réaction auprès du public] surprised me. It’s a piece that I wrote quickly — well, not really quickly, but it’s a fairly simple piece, verse-chorus-verse-chorus. A rather serious subject too, the guy who has no papers; ultimately, it’s about those who die in the Mediterranean or on the Mexican border, people who want to be able to dream big. I never thought it would affect so much”.
“I write songs, but here it is, I don’t always have the perspective to say to myself: “Ah, that’s strong”. You can’t predict that. Hence this doubt which, he admits, gripped him, a few days before the release of Multitudea record aesthetically less dance, less electronic than its two previous ones.
“The closer the release date got, the more I was like, ‘Yeah, actually, maybe I’m completely off the mark and it’s not going to be okay.’ I think it’s healthy to ask yourself these questions. It’s in my personality: being sure of myself is not like me, so it’s normal for me to ask myself these questions. But, in the end, I’m quite at peace with what we did — because we really were a lot of people working on this album”, which draws on the musical cultures of Africa, the Orient and the Latin America to develop what Paul calls his “photography of the world”. “That’s what I said in an interview: World is the new pop. Pop music and world music are the same thing. »
In less electro-dance however, let us get up. True, admits Paul, adding a nuance: “I still like to dance, I still like to make people dance, and there are some dancing songs on the album, although we no longer find the kick on all time. I think the “danceability” — if I may say so — of the songs has evolved. Me, it’s not on dance anymore that I want to have fun, it’s more on more groovy stuff, like what we were talking about, Nigerian music, afrobeat, amapiano [sud-africain], more posed stuff, what. I feel like I’m looking more for the authenticity of the groove, that’s what interests me. [Multitude], it’s a search for grooves. It’s still dancing, but dancing differently. »
Enough, in any case, to expect beautiful moments with Stromae in concert. He offered three “previews” in Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam, a way both to discover his new songs before the release of the album and to rehearse for his performances at Coachella on April 16 and 23. next. “I can’t wait, but I’m a little stressed,” he says. Because it’s still Coachella, because it’s an important showcase. I just want to pull it off. Do my best, make it go well, make people happy and get what they pay for. »
And as in its first participation in Coachella in 2015, it is all the French song that Stromae will defend on the big stage with, moreover, a new album where the texts, heavy with meaning, are better than before tied to its music, more mature and ingenious.
“Ah! I’m happy to hear that because it’s something I really try to do,” Paul replies. And that it’s true that, from time to time, we may have a tendency in the French-speaking world to put the text too much in front and finally to no longer pay attention to the musicality, when it’s still music all the same. I put the two on the same level: writing and musicality are just as important to me. And I don’t think French sounds any worse than English, I’m really convinced of that! It’s something we said a little in the 2000s and 2010s: English is a language that sounds better than the others. I do not believe it ; it’s just that Anglo-Saxon music is everywhere, so of course we tend to believe it, but I don’t think it sounds better than Italian, Spanish or French music. »
Stromae will be in concert at the Bell Center in Montreal on November 25, 26 and 27
and December 14, and at the Videotron Center in Quebec City on December 11.