And Noir Desir returned the favour by recording a cover of Baby Boum Boum on your new album ...
Yes, that's right. The first version of the song appeared on an album I made a long time ago. I was never happy with it or with the album as a whole, in fact. I recorded it with a band we chose right at the last minute and the song just didn't work at all.

It's great to hear your voice with a hard-edged rock sound behind it for a change ...
I like hard-edged rock and I like old French 'chanson' classics too - I've got this wonderful boxed compilation of 10 CDs that someone gave me at home. I enjoy listening to things like Mozart and Bjork too. I've got very eclectic musical tastes !

That's obviously why you chose to cover an old French classic like Y'a des zazous (which was a big hit during the war years) ...
Well, it was actually Virgin who rang up and suggested I should record a cover of an old 'chanson' classic and I immediately turned round and said "OK, I'll do Les Zazous!' I've had a copy of the Andrex record for four years now and I can honestly say I listen to it all the time - It's so keke!

Areski's been very much at the heart of the songwriting and the production on your new album ...
Yes, he was in charge of absolutely everything. He was present at every single session. But there are four songs on the new album which he didn't write:Y'a des zazous, written by the wonderful Andrex, NRV written by his son Ali Belkacem, Je t'aime encore which was set to music by Georges Moustaki and God's Nightmare which was written by my bass-player. But I never usually work with other composers. Areski composes such personal, deeply emotional music. As far as I'm concerned he's far and away the best composer on the contemporary scene - and that's all there is to it!

There's one other outstanding personality on your new album besides Areski and that's M ...
Well, I didn't know M at all before I recorded the new album either. I'd heard a couple of songs by him and I can't say I was very impressed. In fact, when it was first suggested I should work with him I have to admit I was against the idea. And then when I actually met him I just thought he was the sweetest, most adorable man - and once I'd heard him talking about music I was totally won over! And then, of course, I heard him play guitar and that really bowled me over too. When we started working together the idea was M was just going to do one track, but I ended up asking him to do three! Working with M was just such a perfect balance of fun and hard work !

Are you an easy person to work with ?
Well, I'm very nice ...

That's not an answer to my question though !
Well, I think I'm an easy person to work with - and my sound engineer and studio musicians, who also work with Higelin, say it's a lot simpler working with me than him! What happened with this album was that we spent a lot of time working on it in a home studio before going into the studio to record it for real. And I have to admit we ended up changing quite a lot of stuff between the home studio demos and the final mix. But the thing is by the time we got into the studio I knew exactly what I wanted. M was more or less perfectly free to do whatever he wanted on Rififi ...

He also came up with some very impressive arrangements on Pipeau...
Well, strangely enough, Virgin turned down his arrangements twice! M came up with this really fun idea of recording Pipeau live as an acoustic tango and then we did another slow rock version. I really don't understand why Virgin turned down the tango version. It-s great - we ended up doing a final mix of it anyway so it's all ready to use as a B-side.

The other big surprise on your new album is the involvement of the band Sonic Youth ...
Well, I didn't know much about them either before this project. They rang me up out of the blue and told me they were big fans of my work, that they'd been buying my records for years. Anyway, I went along to see them when they played in Paris last year at l'Elysee Montmartre and I was blown away. Things worked out really well in the studio too considering they don't speak a word of French and my English is practically non-existent! Areski had to work as our linguistic go-between.

When you sit down to write a song do the lyrics flow easily ?
Yes, but when I start writing I never know exactly what it is I want to write. I kind of work that out as I go along ...

That's pretty adventurous of you ...
Well, I'm a pretty adventurous kind of person !

And when are you planning on performing the songs from your new album live?
Well, I don't really know yet - probably some time towards the end of November. Maybe I'll perform at the "Opera comique" or maybe it will be somewhere else - I'm not sure yet.

You've been performing for over thirty years now - do you still enjoy doing live shows or is it something you have to force yourself to do?
No, I still get the same pleasure out of performing live. I never get pre-concert nerves. I'm generally a bit anxious and over-excited beforehand but as soon as I'm out there on stage I start enjoying the ceremonial aspect of it all. Because that's what my shows are really, they're a kind of ceremony.

You never play an instrument live on stage ...
Well, actually, when I used to perform live with Areski I used to play this big metal drum - it was like a sort of giant derbouka which I strapped on round my neck. And I played it throughout pretty much the whole show too. But then I got lazy and I didn't work at it enough - and these days I'm out of practice!

Do you ever miss playing an instrument ?
Well, you know, there's one thing I'd really, really like to have done at my concerts - and that's dance! When I play I always end up improvising this sort of crazy dance. For instance when I play Caravane - a song I wrote to the Duke Ellington classic - I always end up doing this half-Oriental, half-Breton jig. I really can't say why! But seriously though, I'd love to have studied dance - and, strangely enough, what appeals to me most is classical dance. I had a real talent for it at one stage, you know, but I guess you can't do everything in life!