“The song lights up my life”

You have just published a book, you start a tour … Nice start to 2025!

Yes ! This show is an adaptation of my book, with texts, songs, behind the scenes of my life as an artist. I created it with the director Johanna Boyé (named for many Molières, editor’s note). I just started the tour*, in Aix (Bouches-du-Rhône) and in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime). People are moved, laugh, I get a lot of messages.

You are a self -taught. How did you get into the world of music?

At 12, I listened to Nikka Costa (Young American singer, editor’s note) And I was a fan of Donkey skin, by Jacques Demy, with Catherine Deneuve and the music of Michel Legrand. We lived in Port-de-Bouc (Bouches-du-Rhône), near Marseille. My father, technician and trade unionist at ArcelorMittal had a battery, of which my brother took. I got on guitar, and our garage served as a place of rehearsal. My father listened to Anglo-Saxon music, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys…; Mom, Anne Sylvestre, Léo Ferré, Georges Moustaki.

When did you play your first concert?

For the very first music festival, my brother and I had invested the college with a dozen songs, “Canary Bay” ,, D’Indochine, “Biche, oh my doe”,, by Frank Alamo. Later, I went with my guitar on the beaches of Marseille, and I saw that people listened to me. So, I stopped the Fine Arts and went up to Paris.

How did your parents see your future artist’s life?

I can never thank them enough. They always told me to do what I liked. And my mother instilled in me that I had to be independent financially. They always support me, by the way. After reading my book, my mother sent me a long letter. In my work, I call them my “orangutans”, because they only feed on fruits and vegetables (with some food supplements) to stay in shape … I phone them every day.

You say that you are the first woman in your family to have chosen your life.

My mother was at 19 and a half, she had to work, she obtained the nurse competition and it was gone. My maternal grandmother, Simone, was a cleaning lady, my railway grandfather and my paternal grandmother woman at home in the countryside, her husband being colonel. I was also very lucky, my husband, who could have left abroad for his work chose to stay in France for me.

How was this story born, Suzanne every day ?

I have always written and I like the letters, these meetings that we give. Suzanne is my imaginary correspondent, who appears in my album Place du Fantôme In 2012. At the edge of the fifties, I wanted to come back to my journey. It is an age that can destabilize. I said to myself: what have you done so far? I wrote (almost) every day.

What do you say in this book?

My thirty years of music, stage, my determination, my arrival in Paris: I was fine like a twig, arms like matches, I wore my big case and my guitar in the metros and rer and I was going to play everywhere , on the small scenes, in bars, on the sidewalks … I was not afraid of anything! I’m also talking about my great moments, my first album, Olympia, the discovery of the Tourbus (coach furnished for artists editor’s note) . And on stage, I immerse the spectator in my creative work, I broadcast the model (pilot version, editor’s note) From my title, “courage”, I sing, play the guitar … I also talk about the course of the fifties, this look of the society that changes to you, and these expressions: “Ah yes, it took …” The Men is different, we say “he is charming!” »»

At the same time, you are used to! You write that at the Montreux festival in 1997, an Anglo-Saxon producer launched you: “28 years old? Too old. »»

Youth is still so unbearable. Society is struggling to accept that an artist is aging, transforms. In record companies, I am a diplodocus! But there is a place for everyone: children, teens, young adults, quadras, quinquas, sixties, older people … In my book, I quote the Australian singer Nick Cave: “The more you Aged, the more invisible you become. »Three solutions: playing in Fantomas, finding another passion or turning into a bulldozer. I chose: Bulldozer. No one can take my strength. What does I like to do? Sing, go on stage, tour, and I intend to continue! You have to believe in your destiny.

You have thirty years of career, what are your great moments?

First, the whole period preceded my first album, The big Sophie is growing, In 1997. Then there was my first big tube, “courage”, in 2003, and my victory for music scene. My less rock and more acoustic turn made with the album Waves and streams . I worked more on my voice, I put it. My great surprise was to win a second music victory in 2013 when they were appointed with me Françoise Hardy and Benjamin Biolay … In the room, the public is still present.

Victories of music, gold records … What has changed?

Such awards are happy, of course. They give you credit, notoriety, but all of this is fragile.

You talk in your work your friendship with Françoise Hardy. How did you meet her?

I have a bounded admiration for her. One day, her son Thomas told me that she enjoyed my music. It was an icon in my eyes; I dared not approach it. Then I wrote to him. She replied. Immediately, we were on the same wavelength. I offered him a song, “the sea”. Now that she is no longer there, I have her voice left, a voice of the intimate, very posed, in the breath. She was not in performance, but in proximity.

You are also known for the energy that you release on stage …

A show is a trip to emotions: there is energy, humor, calm, joy … I learned to dose all of this, and in particular thanks to the novelist Delphine de Vigan. In 2010, on the occasion of the Tandem festival, in Nevers, she asked me to accompany her for a show. I had read Nothing is opposed to the night, She loved my songs. We worked together, to create musical reading Both . She taught me silence; To put my body, not to move under the spotlight. Delphine has become a friend.

What has changed in the musical universe?

I lived a pivotal era: the 4 -track tapes, the 45 laps, the vinyls, then the CDs and the sound card. The first studios in which I played had video recorders. Today there are the Home Studios, transportable everywhere. With your computer and a sound card, you have your own installation. I was doing my leaflets by hand, photocopia, cut them and distributed them!

In the 1990s, to unravel in the song, it was necessary to produce a disc, to show models to the producer, to the label. Now what matters are the followers (people who follow your page on the internet, editor’s note) or pierce the star ac ‘. It is different and very creative too. The system of Autotune, which allows you to modify the voice, is widely used by young people. It’s a bit like in the Ye-Yu-Yu years, when the accordion has given way to the electric guitar … The tools are transformed, they must be used. I myself create my models, my images, my videos; I listen to the young generations.

“A song will not change the world, write yourself. But she brings together, she gives humanity … “

It illuminates, creates human warmth. Beautiful. It is essential in life.

* To come: Rosny-sous-Bois, Nantes, Lyon, Massy…