He is back after eight years of absence. However, Stromae has not been idle between the end of his tour Square root and the exit of Multitude, his new album, on March 4, 2022. On the professional side, he worked in the shadows for Mosaert, both a music label and a clothing brand. Above all, he took a long, very long time to complete all of his 12 unreleased titles which began to appear… more than 60 months ago.
“During all this time, I never really stoppedhe explains to Madame Figaro. I started writing pieces of Multitude five years ago: the words of Hell and of The Undefeated came to mind at the time of the tour of Square root. I remember the click that took place between 2017 and 2018. It was a complex year for me, but rich. I felt the urge to come back and the conviction that I still had things to say.“
My ability to be a good dad, I owe it above all to Coralie
The year 2018 has indeed been rich for the 37-year-old artist, whose real name is Paul Van Haver. Stromae, who married Coralie Barbier on December 12, 2015 under the thumb of Guy Gilbert, the hoodlum priest, welcomed a little boy in September 2018. And his life, inevitably, was turned upside down. “I don’t have a clear paternal role modelhe recalls. The reference at home was my big brothers. My ability to be a good dad, I owe it above all to Coralie, my wife. My son is 3 years old, I protect him and I don’t even want to reveal his first name. We are very well in our small family nucleus. We listen to music all the time, and i am an omnipresent dad.”
I manage to be an artist without going overboard
To ensure a balance, Stromae worked on his album Multitude from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. He took his son to school before, picked him up afterwards, and managed to release 12 titles “without suffering“, while enjoying the simple joys of being a family.”The danger is that passion can turn into obsessionhe points out. We no longer count the hours and we end up overworked. This is what happened to me. But I no longer fall into this trap. Thanks to my wife and my son, I manage to be an artist without falling into excess…“
Find the full interview of Stromae in the magazine Madame Figaroedition of March 18, 2022.