Songwriting guest stars

Following on the heels of Wax (1996) and Dancetaria (1999), Indochine's latest album, Paradize, completes the musical trilogy the group embarked upon in the mid-90s. From a historical point of view, Paradize is also the first album in Indochine's long career to feature one sole surviving member from the group's original line-up, Nicola Sirkis. On the group's latest offering Sirkis is joined by an impressive host of musical guest stars including Melissa Auf Der Mauler (former bassist with The Smashing Pumpkins) who co-wrote a number of songs on Paradize.

"The thing is I've never been someone who likes the idea of being alone," says Sirkis, explaining his penchant for musical collaboration, "I like to surround myself with people. Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that I come from a bit of a divided family, but I've always felt the need to have people around me all the time!"

Sirkis has certainly chosen his songwriting companions with care this time round, collaborating with everyone from Gérard Manset, Jean-Louis Murat and St Etienne rock group Mickey 3D to novelists Ann Scott and Camille Laurence. "The people who wrote the songs on the new album come from radically different backgrounds," Sirkis explains, "They're people whose work I've read or come into contact with in my personal life. But I never expected everyone to react so positively when I asked them to write something for me. (Such a mixed input) gave an incredible boost to the album. When we got round to setting the words to music it gave an incredible force to the melodies. It was amazing, I got on the phone and asked one person to write for me. I was absolutely gobsmacked when they agreed and then so did the next person and the next... Everybody ended up saying yes!"

Although Sirkis interrupted his Indochine projects to bring out a solo album, Dans la lune, in 1992 the group's outspoken frontman has always been a fervent supporter of musical collaboration. "I feel very comfortable working within the framework of a group," he says, "I'm not at all interested in pursuing a solo career and competing with all those so-called 'variété’ singers on the French music scene. Being in a rock group is the best thing you can do as far as music's concerned these days. It's like being part of a big family. And I love the whole collaborative side of things. That's where my own musical experience and training comes from, after all."

However, while Sirkis is open to working with songwriters and musicians from diverse backgrounds, the committed rock fan is adamant there's no question of adulterating the cult Indochine sound! "We haven't changed the basic Indochine style one bit," he says, "Sure, we've moved on and evolved a bit musically speaking, but we've never betrayed what we set out to do or sold out on a musical front. If we'd wanted to be opportunistic and jump on a commercial bandwagon we'd have gone off with a big multi-national or started doing techno or rap. But I don't really think that's the way forward given that we're a white band!"
Back to Rock Basics

Renowned for his frankness and his personal integrity (doubtless two of the reasons his lyrics manage to span the generation gap so successfully!), Sirkis is adamant that Indochine songs do not need to play the "emotional marketing" card to get their message across. Musically speaking, Paradize is a raw, uncompromising rock manifesto which ploughs the same musical furrow as The Cure or The Smashing Pumpkins. "My personal opinion is that this is the best album of the past twenty years," declares Sirkis with no hint of false modesty, "When you listen to a group like Daft Punk claiming that they set out to 'pay tribute to the 80s' - and then, in my opinion, going on to take the very worst from that period - all I can say is I'm proud to have brought out an album like Paradize. As far as I'm concerned, the best music of the 80s came from acts like The Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode and Marilyn Manson."

Sticking to his rock guns for over two decades, Sirkis has survived the ups and downs of the music world, managing to navigate Indochine through a significant fall from media grace in the early 90s. "Success came without us asking for anything really," he reflects, "and Indochine ended up being totally over-hyped in the media! Then we fell from grace and everyone started laying into us. But over the years we've realised that people still go out and buy our records no matter what. The media totally demolished us at one stage of our career, dismissing our music as rubbish and telling everyone our days were numbered. But somehow our music has survived all that. Even when the media ignore us, when we're not the flavour of the month, people are still attracted to the Indochine sound. They're prepared to go out and discover our music for themselves. Our fans are pretty powerful when it comes to lobbying too. They play our records to friends and other people who don't know us and the reaction is often 'Oh, really, I didn't know Indochine did stuff like that!' And that's something I'm very proud of. I'm pleased we've proved music fans aren't just a bunch of sheep who can be led by the nose!"

Sirkis, who appears to avoid PR and marketing departments like the plague, prefers to trust in Indochine's music and his own gut instincts. "I'm delighted to see we're not popular across the board!" he says, "I think it's great that there are still people out there who're not sure whether Indochine are still together or not! Most people think this new album means the group are making a comeback - but the truth is we've never gone away! We're the only group who've survived over twenty-one years in the music business and we've still got a following of fans spanning three or four generations! That's what I like about Indochine. That's what makes us stand out from the crowd!"

The eternal rebel

Renowned for his love of provocation and controversy, 41-year-old Sirkis - who proved his teenage rebel credentials covering the Dutronc classic L’Opportuniste on Indochine's debut album - describes his motivating force as "the desire to continue getting up everyone's nose. Whatever happens, the Indochine story goes on - and I don't have to go round shaking Pascal Obispo's hand or anything to get on in the music world!"

There's no doubt about it, in the Sirkis philosophy music marches hand in hand with militancy. And don't be surprised to find him carrying on the fight on the group's website either. Castigating the merciless marketing policies of the mainstream record industry - "which isn't even ashamed of its own indecency any more!" - Sirkis recently brought a court case against Indochine's former record label BMG (who released an Indo Greatest Hits compilation without his authorisation a few months after his brother Stéphane's death).
Sirkis also singles out the current vogue for manufactured TV pop groups, criticising the emergence of recent shows such as Popstars and Star Academy. "I can't bear the kind of people who spend all day gazing at themselves in the mirror, dreaming of becoming the next Britney Spears. Frankly when I see programmes like Popstars and Star Academy I feel like shooting myself in the head! It's like we've suddenly got all these Robocops making music. If you can call it music, that is! … And to think there's someone actually sitting there formatting these groups! It really is the EPO¹ of the music world!"

The guitar-toting Don Quixote is not afraid of tackling the 'system' head-on either. "It's no good attacking the prostitutes," fulminates Sirkis, "If you want to get to the heart of the problem you've got to look at the pimps who put them on the streets in the first place! And the most shameful thing about it all is that it's all going on on prime time TV. The shows are all going out at 8.30pm! And that's the reason I'm so disgusted with the record industry, why I said people that working in it have no shame any more. If only the people who'd invented that crap had come from somewhere outside the music industry... The worst thing is I've actually got friends who were involved in the making of those shows, guys who actually like rock music and yet who're prepared to get involved with stuff like that! That really does my head in! I feel like people are willing to selling music down the river these days! And there's no justification for any of it either. OK, so shows like Popstars have proved to be a huge commercial success, but please let's not go round calling that kind of thing 'music'!"

The final curtain?

For Nicola the sacred rock fire is still burning stronger than ever - and on Paradize he sweeps away all the musical clichés, proving Indochine are far from being written off as sad old 80s' 'has-beens'. The group's latest album fizzes with more spark and energy than ever, in fact - even if it does end on a sort of adieu, Murat's song Un singe en hiver evoking the idea of the group finally laying down their guitars.

"I think it's fair to say that whatever happens this album marks the end of an era," Sirkis concedes, "For a whole variety of reasons this may well be the last Indochine album fans get. I have to take my age into consideration for a start - I've spent twenty-one years making music now and maybe it's time to move on and do something else instead! As things stand right now the album's out there and we plan to go out on tour and play a lot of live shows over the next eighteen months, maybe even two years. After that I'm sure I'll want to go on and write other things - but it's hard to say what form they might take right now!"

"It's possible this will be Indochine's last tour," Sirkis continues, "But I can't say for sure right now because I don't want to use this as some sort of marketing ploy, you know, tell fans to 'go out and buy this album because it might be our last!' The question I have to ask myself at the end of the day is: is there anything worth fighting for any more? I have a few ideas when it comes to that, but they're not clearly formulated in my head right now. All I can say is, come back to me in eighteen months' time and we'll see! I don't feel I can sit here and guarantee there'll be another album straightaway - even though I'm still under contract to give Columbia another two albums!" One thing's for sure, it looks like there's plenty of teenage spirit left in Nicola Sirkis yet!

¹ A drug used in sport

Indochine Paradize (Sony/Columbia 2002)