You were born to an African father and a Caribbean mother. Musically, do you also feel you have one foot on each side of the Atlantic?
Absolutely not. My musical background is really Anglo-Saxon. My mother listened to a lot of American music, from jazz to Tom Waits. The Beatles too. I grew up immersed in that atmosphere. And I only discovered the sound of French chanson much later. It was more books that led me to write songs in French.
Is that what prompted you to record this new album in the United States?
Yes, absolutely. I've always had this fascination with those countries, and I've wanted to record there for a very long time. For the past three or four years, I've been touring quite a bit in the United States, Australia, England, countries like that. There was also the filming in the United States of the first season of "Tété et Dédé" for France 5 with André Manoukian. It was during this filming that the desire to record abroad became clear.
And why did you choose Portland on the north coast of the West Coast and not the legendary cities of the United States?
Because we had filmed in Portland, because I have friends there. We were debating whether to record in New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, or Portland. And I chose Portland because I don't drive, it's a city where you can get around on foot, and there's a good quality of life. A city that reminds me of home, near Saint-Dizier.
Over the course of your albums, you've evolved towards an increasingly refined pop-folk sound.
Is it a return to your roots, a maturation?
It's both. It's a way of returning to my first love, in the spirit of Delta blues. But it's also a maturation in a way. With time, you try to get rid of your youthful flaws, like being too talkative or just listening to yourself talk. You want to evolve towards a more stripped-down style.
Your posters announce "10 years, 1000 concerts." Is that essential for you?
The stage is what made me want to do this work. It's an incredible freedom to be able to be on stage every day. To reinvent the songs each time. Even if there's a framework, being able to add more and more blues riffs creates musical forms that are very vibrant. And above all, it's the audience that gives the song its full dimension. And since the audience changes every time, it's constantly evolving. Audiences give different feedback, depending on the identity of each country, each city. The same guitar note, played on the same guitar, doesn't sound the same from one concert to the next! We hope the audience enjoys the concert as much as we enjoyed preparing it.
