So… i’m french, living in paris… when i began to write songs, i wrote english lyrics for them, then soon decided to write them in french. I used to think it was probably the easiest thing to do, because, of course, i’m very fluent… It’s my mother tongue…
The problem is i never really felt confident with it. It was fun to play with words, quite easy sometimes, but when recorded it often sounded awfull. Sometimes i thought it was decent so i kept the song… Actually i gave up a lot of songs because of that, too… I trashed them… a lot of them…
That’s why this website is in english. It’s some kind of a training for me, also because i met a lot of people before i had to speak english with, so i find it cool to speak to them in a language they can understand.
In a former post i told you i’m currently working on new songs… I decided for them to write english lyrics again… and i didn’t trash anything… Anyway, i actually feel far more comfortable to act like this. Different spoken language, same thoughts… it’s quite a hard work, but it was quite hard too when i had to write in french… about the same, the meaning is the same… the more important is to get something that sounds cool, hope you’ll enjoy when i’ll release it online…
So what is “The new factory of writing” ? It’s a book. The french title is “Le nouveau magasin d’écriture”, written by Hubert Haddad, and is only available in french. It’s about creative writing. I spent a lot of time reading it, beginning in the middle of the book, starting an idea reading the last pages, then back to the introduction… Even if it’s in french, the ideas are relevant whatever language you use. I still read it, picking ideas around. A definitely great book.
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Back in 1991… Walking around with a really good friend in a record store… She decided to listen to the last Talk Talk album, “Laughing stock”. I found it weird… At that time i remembered mainly their hits, “such a shame”, “it’s my life”… How could I connect anymore with that kind of music ? Then i listened to it… A shock !
6 songs only… most of them about 10 minutes long… no standard structure, no chorus… jazzy drums, sparse instrumentation, strings, pianos, classical instruments. And the voice, soooo sad… I deeply sinked into it… Actually I listen to that album about twice a month… For 18 years… Sometimes more… To my mind, the best album ever made… Of course I also listened a lot to the former one, Spirit of Eden, but Laughing stock is the perfect ending for that band before they decided to split…
My own music is probably influenced by it, but i don’t even think of trying to do the same. That music is so unique, so personal, that it should remain unique. So, i just learned to play with silence… I try to, actually… One note at the right time…
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The mellotron is an instrument born in the 60s. It’s the first sample player ever made. Sounds were recorded on analog tapes, that’s why they’re sometimes weird : strange artifacts, noise floor, pitch issues… A lot of people used it, from the famous flute intro on the Beatles’ “strawberry fields forever”, to Radiohead or Sparklehorse. Maybe the main reason why i love the Nine Inch Nails “Hurt” cover by Johnny Cash is the use of mellotron.
It’s quite hard today to find one, even if a swedish company produces new models, it’s really really expensive, really heavy, and it’s quite hard to find instrument tapes too… Fortunately some companies decided to turn it into a software instruments. I decided to buy a model called m-tron, produced by GForce Software. Hundreds of different sounds, really cool controls in a convenient software product. I use it for a long time now. They just released a new version called m-tron pro, with more options and sounds.
So when you hear cello, violin, flute, organ, or anything else except guitars, pianos and bass guitars into my tracks, be sure it’s a mellotron sound. Even some drum sounds sometimes !
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