Daran's Interview
Alignment of planets
– Hello Daran. I’ve just learnt you’re releasing a live album. Watching you on stage gives the feeling that a live album was the obvious. So why only now, after a more-than-25-year career?
– I’ve never been very for the live albums, because I think they lack essential data, which are the image. So I might have preferred a live DVD, where the imperfections fit because there is the image, there is the concert ambience. And then I like the idea that a concert, you had to be there. Some people were there, and some weren’t. I like the fugitive aspect of concerts.
This live wasn’t scheduled at all, the opportunity made the thief. I said to my sound engineer: “We could drop by your home to pick up an interface, we could pick up a multitrack, let’s see what comes out.” So it was recorded like that on an impulse. And that night the planets were aligned, I think it was a good concert.
And then this live really won’t fool anyone. Many people do lives and then they redo half of things in studio because they don’t take on what they did on stage. But in my case we had an issue: I found myself in the recording with the lead voice on the drums. That is, from that point you just can’t adjust anything. It’s already a miracle it sounds good this way. So it’s a real live, nothing was re-sung, nothing was re-played, it’s the exact concert as it unfolded.
– How do you choose a tour setlist?
– I’ve got a floydish principle, that I was often reproached, that is, when I’ve got a new album I play it in its entirety. The artists did it before, and it was good, in the 70’s. Today some people replay lots of old songs to spare the audience, to prevent it from being destabilized by the novelty. I play head first the novelty. So this setlist is in two parts: the first part of the concert is Endorphine from A to Z as it unfolds.
– And then the choice of songs of the second part?
– Then, honestly, it’s what I want to play. I’m no prisoner like can be someone who did 15 hits in his life, people wait for the 15 mandatory songs. As for me I’ve got only one or two mandatory songs and I like them, so I have extremely free reins. I do like I feel, I say: “Hey, what haven’t I been playing for a long time?” Or “What have I played recently that I really want to go on playing?”
Afterwards, the sequence is a kind of science. Once you’ve got the songs, playing them in the right order is a little work too. But here, this is the first choice I did, and it’s still the same.
– Do you have tricks to spare your voice, especially on tour? Herbal teas, potions...?
– No. Nothing. I think it is psychological. The only thing is sleep. This concert is rather demanding vocally, because Endorphine is rather demanding and then some of the pieces I’ve chosen are, too. But there is no mystery, you have to take 7 hours of sleep, and the voice on the next day is perfect. If you start not sleeping enough, then you are in danger.
– You rather define yourself as: a singer? a guitarist? a musician? a composer? an artist? other? And why?
– Not as a musician, I’m not good enough. Not as a singer either, I’m not good enough.
– We make do with it, eh! I make do with it.
– Actually I’m really self-taught. I probably don’t do really forbidden figures, or dangerous for my vocal cords because given the concert rate I have they’d given way since a long time. But I touch wood.
I’ve got an artistic streak, so it emerges from everything I do, it’s a necessity I think. It’s a gift, or a drag finally, because I never had the choice to do anything else in my life. When you’ve got it from your birth, your only luck is to manage to cope with it. But for one artist who lives from it, there are 1,000 who are in the gutter, so this isn’t necessarily a gift, you see, at the very beginning. People find it fantastic, but indeed it will rule your whole life, it’s almost a constraint. I may have loved being a plane pilot, well I just can’t. (laughs)
– We know from you very few duos, very little collaboration. Since several albums, it even seems you record almost everything alone. Do you prefer solo work? Would you end like a Gérard Manset?
– No, it’s only a completely different exercise. The previous album was a voice-guitar so obviously an album to make alone. For this one, I took the recipe of Le Petit Peuple du Bitume that I had loved to make. But L’Homme Dont les Bras Sont des Branches really is an album made and arranged with musicians. I think you just don’t make the same album, whether you’re alone or not… There are advantages and drawbacks.
When you’re with people you have to be in a position where you accept that what you do may be brought not necessarily where you’d bring it all alone, but using the positive sides they bring. So you are more like a conductor.
When you’re all alone, no exchange is possible, so the step back is taken with time. Your ally is time. If you’re mean enough to yourself, when you get something out the next day, you know if you have to throw it away or keep it. But it’s more introspective. You’ll work until you ear exactly what you want.
– And you don’t prefer one or the other?
– I like both. It’s like people asking you if you prefer studio or stage. They’re the necessary antipodes of this career. You have the totally introspective side in studio and the completely extrovert on stage.
– You talked of takes or tries you could throw away. Have you got any "reserve" or any "leftovers", I mean songs that you don’t release?
– (immediate and categorical reply) None! Zero. I’ve never got leftovers. I’ve got a small Dictaphone with me when I’ve got an idea I note these starts of fire, all these small pieces of yarn. A small guitar arpeggio, a small thingummy, a small vocal idea …Then when I’ve got to work I listen to these small starts again, and sometimes one will bring the ball. But I know it rather quickly actually. Then it’s easy or it’s difficult. But it isn’t a token of quality. There’s no rule.
– You signed the OST of Monsieur Papa by Kad Merad (2011). Is it a work you liked and you could do it again in the future?
– A lot. But cinema environment is really distinct from chanson environment. As Kad is fan of what I do, he asked me to make this soundtrack and it was a super adventure. But that doesn’t mean that I’ve got a foothold in cinema. It isn’t my core target at least in people’s head. If Monsieur Papa had done Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis for example, maybe I’d have been asked for soundtracks again, you see, these dynamics that allows you to do OST’s again.
– Although in Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis, nobody remembers the music.
– It’s a bad example, I should have mentioned a success movie with a marking music.
– Amélie Poulain for example.
– For example, yes. He did straight a career with this.
– Do you still follow French politics?
– Yes.
– In 2017 we got the return of "la haine au bois dormant" ("Sleeping Hatred") at 2nd round of the Presidential election, and it didn’t stir up the same emotion (or the same commotion) as in 2002. How do you look at this?
– Classic. Worldwide geopolitical trend. There’s such a mess in Middle-East, simply speaking. All these wars, these migratory flows, are suddenly perceived by people like an infringement to what they are, so the fallback solutions are often this one. So you can see it grow averywhere: in Austria, in Italy, in Poland, in England… I even think we aren’t doing so bad in France, compared to some other European countries. There was also this worldwide protectionism, it goes with Trump and Putin too. Like I said the other day, two things we can be sure of in life are: we will die, and Putin will be reelected.
– A part’s done already.
– That’s it. 77% of votes it’s an African banana republic.
– You moved away, but you come back to play in France regularly, what had changed in terms of culture and show policy?
– I think there was a hard blow with Sarkozy, who really cut lots of subsidies. Lots of venues had to close. Under Hollande it was rather stable I’d say. Under Macron we lack perspective.
But I’d say there’s a kind of mixture of genres, a kind of “Manif pour tous” puritanism that is a bit spread over all culture, it disturbs me a little.
I think the big difference in culture is all that drags you down by the social networks. Everybody’s got a wonderful opinion about everything, everybody thinks their opinion matters. People don’t live things, they do selfies of their life permanently, they sell themselves. They try to sell themselves. They aren’t who they are, they are in constant demonstration. When they make wonderful trips, the photos they take are not the landscape to remember it when they come back. They are staged photos to let their friends see how wonderful their life is. That’s not the same at all.
– Here is a nice theme for a song.
– Yes, of course. But these subjects are complex and hard to synthethize into a song.
– Pierre-Yves Lebert [his lyricist (editor's note)] manages very well.
– Yes, certainly.
– We’ve got no doubt about it.
– Neither have I.
– I propose you to have a look at the list of the albums reviewed in japprecie. Which ones do you know? Which ones do you like?
– With Gaël Faure we know each other well because he opened for me several times in Montreal. He sings very well... Alphaville? are we talking of Alphaville ?
– Oh yes! They’ve had a very interesting musical evolution, they didn’t stay with their 80’s synths.
– Like Tears for Fears.
– Yes, exactly.
– Volo, I know without knowing. La Maison Tellier too. Obviously I know the names, but… In France I follow things less now.
Is there audio in your website?
– Normally there isn’t. But since I didn’t want to make a music website without one slightest second of music, well I put two seconds. So there are two seconds of each album.
– That’s not bad.
– It’s a principle I’ll try to keep. Even for the interview, I will upload two seconds. (laughs)
– De Palmas too, he’s not dead?
– No, still moving. And doing good stuff.
– Yes he’s a cool guy.
– Do you have some more to suggest me? Things you like, in the moment, which would fit in the list you have right in front of you… Which you want to make people know…
– No, I am no specialist. Actually I listen to nothing and no one. From time to time I listen to things for some reasons. I never have background music at home. Because if there is music, I just do nothing else. I can’t cook listening to music, I’m going to cut my finger. I don’t like to drive listening to music, because I am not attentive at all. Music inspires me, so it’s a thing on its own. I listen to it in my studio, totally concentrated. It’s a behaviour with music that I thought extremely odd, for someone who’s inside. And actually I realized it isn’t, many people doing the same job as me, I think, have this relation to music.
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– How do you deal with time, duration, in your songs?
– I’ve got no rule. If everything’s said in 3 minutes, the song will last 3 minutes. If I get involved in something that will lead to a 7 or 9 minute song, it will go up to 7 or 9 minutes.
– And in concert? Ditto?
– Ditto. I’ve got no rule, actually.
– You aren’t going to especially extend a song in concert? It’s already happened, with time-doubled versions of "Dormir Dehors".
– Yes, that’s it. If it lends itself to it … I don’t extend "Dormir Dehors" anymore because I fin dit too old to be extended. And I did it so many times that it is too predictable. No, I extend a small instru part of Endorphine, which lent itself to. I play "En Bas de Chez Moi" again and there is an extension.
And then there are free moments, with a solo or something, it’s a bit how the guitarist feels on that night. If the guy feels good he goes where he wants. There’s only a very clear marker for everybody to know he ends his turn. There are one-night extensions too. -
•reading (more and more)
•flying (he finds strange that people take a plane like a bus, without looking outside)
•eating (close to a composer or an author, a head chef assembles. Talent is lego) -
Auto-Tune (he can’t stand the sight)
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The sentence
“People don’t live things, they do selfies of their life permanently”
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himwww.daran.ca (339 Hits)
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...And now, listen!
- daran.bandcamp.com (225 Hits)
- www.deezer.com/en/artist/58966 (237 Hits)
- open.spotify.com/artist/02PgZANyX6s8J9Gm2N8sc9 (239 Hits)
- www.youtube.com/channel/UCvnXTmIX0jl6bJ-jferwV6g (185 Hits)
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Created12 April 2018
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Words recorded on March 22nd 2018.
Thanks to Daran, Chloe (VS COM), Eddy, and Joro for Skype tests.