For a man addicted to speed - Sinclair is renowned for zooming across the capital on his scooter! – four years is a long time to wait for a new album. In fact, Sinclair's project for his new album was ready to roll after the live album he put out in '99, but owing to various problems with his record label, his fourth album was put on hold. Not one to be beaten by bureaucratic red tape, however, Sinclair locked himself away in his private studio, "Labomatic", and spent the next few months honing his vibrant, upbeat, super-funky sound, as he explains in our interview below:

Sinclair, with the exception of the full orchestra on your new album, you were responsible for arranging, producing and writing all your own material. Doesn't that make it a bit difficult to stand back and take a critical overview of things?
I go with my own instincts and I'm happy with that situation. Maybe I have a bit of an ego problem somewhere, but I couldn't bear the idea of someone else expressing doubts on my behalf. I want to take full responsibility for everything I do. It's funny, but every time I've tried to work with a producer, I've ended up packing things in before we're through. When it comes down to it I'm a bit of a pitbull. I need to be on my own. The thing is, I've got all this surplus energy buzzing round and I feel I've got all these things I want to express through my arrangements and production – and I've got even more to say through my songs! I guess this battle I'm trying to wage through music is actually a battle against myself!

The final three tracks on the album, culminating in Qu’est ce qui me pousse? (the only song to feature backing vocals from muso friends Gerald de Palmas, Franck Monnet, China, Gladys, Emma and Martin) revolve around the same musical theme and almost segue directly into one another. You played with the same idea on your last album La bonne attitude too…
It's funny because the songs you're referring to are actually about totally different things. But in a way you're right, there is a bit of a thematic link there. In fact, I could easily have called my new album Qu’est ce qui me pousse? (What Makes Me Tick?) because the big question behind all this is really 'What is it that keeps driving me onwards?'
And I don't have any firm answers to that right now. It's not love, because it feels a bit too general and wide-sweeping to say that, but love definitely comes into it somewhere. I guess it's tied up with a desire for self-worth, an urge to do something you can feel proud of. Don't get me wrong, it's not about turning the whole thing into an ego trip, more about following your own road and accomplishing what you set out to achieve. That's what the whole album's about really. Even the first song, Ca m’fait plus mal - which has been chosen as the first single release – revolves around the same idea really. It's dedicated to the woman I love and the message in the song is really that whatever tough times you've lived through, whatever grief and trouble and fights you've had, you can always patch things up and start again. I'm a really positive person – I always look on the bright side of life!

So, in the Sinclair take on the world, the glass is always half-full not half-empty …
(…) And you know, even if there are times when it looks like the glass is half-empty, I always manage to convince myself there's a way of filling it up a bit more! Having that kind of outlook has helped me get a lot of things done in life. I mean, you try filling a major venue like Le Zénith… You just have to get out there and go for it and not ask yourself any questions, because deep down you know it's possible to do it!
You know, when me and my Dad sat down and listened to the demo tapes for this album, I could see in his eyes he was thinking "Wow, that's really ambitious!" And it's true, it is really ambitious to get such a heavily-arranged album to slip down easily - because that was one of my main aims, the idea of producing an enjoyable, 'easily digestible' album.

Ca m’fait plus mal is a powerful first single release, with its Stevie Wonder-style horn section and its nod to the Hendrix classic Cross Town Traffic …
Yes, and intentionally so! I've always been a huge fan of Hendrix. I learnt to play guitar with him – well, with his music, actually. Hendrix has been a totally major influence on my work!

Is Ca m’fait plus mal (It Doesn't Hurt Any More) a song about getting over an unhappy love affair?
The song's main message is: "OK, so you get hurt sometimes, but all wounds heal with time."
I speak from experience, you know. I was off ski-ing somewhere a while ago and I had this really bad fall. I crashed down 7 and a half metres and I was in a really bad state. I almost died, in fact. But that didn't stop me getting back on my skis again and going back up the mountain when I'd recovered. You see, my philosophy on life is as simple and as stupid as that. And you can turn round and say to yourself, 'God, that guy's sussed!' or 'God, that guy's totally off his head!'. It all comes down to the same thing in the end.

And being let down in love doesn't mean you'll never fall in love again …
Yes, exactly. It's like even if you fall flat on your face with one album, that doesn't mean you should never go back in the studio and make another record! That's the spirit I want to get across in everything I do.

So the public knows there's a happy ending – Sinclair finally gets the girl!
Well, nothing's for ever, you know. People get married, but they get divorced too. Look at us, for instance. My parents got divorced, my wife's parents got divorced, anyone can get divorced, but we don't care, we've got our own story to live and that's fine. We didn't get married for some kind of contract. We got married because we love one another and we want the world to know it. And, then, maybe getting married means you get to push things on one step further … and maybe, who knows, you'll feel like separating in six months' time. But who cares? It's not really about that.

Given your wife's background (Emma de Caunes, daughter of French actor and TV star Antoine de Caunes) and your own (Mathieu Blanc-Francard, son of the famous French sound engineer, Dominique Blanc-Francard), you can't help but be perceived as THE showbiz couple of the moment …
You know, it's funny, but our getting together meant that my uncle and Emma's father – who'd been sworn enemies for years – had to get together and make their peace. Talk about Red Indian chiefs coming together and burying the hatchet!!!

There's a track on your new album called Supernova Superstar . Is the title some sort of reference to the Oasis classic Champagne Supernova ?
Well, I can't say I'm a big fan of Oasis actually. So, no, I'd say I categorically wasn't inspired by them. I chose Supernova Superstar as the title track of my new album because that song really marked a turning-point in the making of the album. I have my own particular way of working and that is I usually write and produce things simultaneously. What I mean by that is, I start 'constructing' a song and when the melody begins to take shape I fit the words round it. Once I've worked out the musical theme, the arrangements follow and I consolidate the whole thing. Supernova Superstar may appear to be a light and easy song, but it's actually pretty deep. It took a lot to write, because I really drew on my own experience. With the new album I really felt this need to express more personal things in my music, so I got out there and started living life hell for leather! I destroyed everything around me so I'd really feel the pain of it all - and that's the link with the title of the first song on the album. I just spun into this total nosedive and started doing any old thing, going out all night and messing things up. It got to the point where I just exploded - like a supernova ! Everything I had inside imploded. And once that happened I felt I finally had the strength to finish the album. After that I locked myself away in the studio night and day and worked like a madman!
The first recording I made of Supernova Superstar featured totally electronic arrangements, but somehow it just didn't work. So I chucked everything I had away and started again from scratch, sitting down and reworking the melody on the piano, then re-doing the drums and the bass – and suddenly the whole thing just gelled. I wanted the album to have real staying power, so it was essential to sit down and wrack my brains until everything sounded exactly the way I'd imagined it.

And you can afford that kind of independence, of course, because of the Labomatic studio …
Yes, absolutely. I learnt to be independent from watching my father (the French sound engineer Dominique Blanc-Francard, renowned for his work with the likes of Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin and Stephan Eicher). He taught me how to love my work too. That's another thing I learnt from watching him work all the time, and my brother (Hubert BF, aka Boom Bass and 50% of French electro outfit Cassius).
They'd both be working away all the time. I used to watch them shut themselves up in the studio to experiment with things and come up with solutions to musical problems. It didn't even matter whether what they were working on ever saw the light of day or not – what mattered was you did what you were doing with a real passion! Because when you do something out of love, you don't count the time and effort you put into it. And all the money all three of us have ever earned has gone into "Labomatic", so that we'd have our own little music laboratory where we could shut ourselves up and create. With "Labomatic", we've always had something to fall back on. Even when we were going through really tough times, when we didn't even have a recording budget, we had our own creative space where we could go and work. You know, I don't have anything to my name these days. I haven't got a villa on the French Riviera. I haven't got a car – or even a driver's licence, come to that! I don't own anything!

Apart from shares in Labomatic …
I own a third of "Labomatic", because Dominique's also put everything he ever earned into it, like my brother. So we own the studio between the three of us … One thing I've come to realise with age is that money's not important. It'll come along in its own sweet time …if it's meant to!

You've always been renowned for your live performances. Are you planning to hit the road again some time soon?
S: Yes, I am. I'm going to warm up with a mini-tour of small clubs, you know, the kind of venue that holds between 300 and 500 people, so I can have direct contact with the audience and get to look my fans in the eye. I want it to feel like I've just leapt up on the living-room table with my group and get a real vibe going! This year my main aim is to go out there and start throwing some real punches!

Sinclair, the new album: "Supernova Superstar" EMI France
Sinclair's club tour kicks off on November 1st
A major national tour is scheduled for February, March and April 2002