Bouc Bel Air is the fourteenth album you've recorded to date. Fourteen albums in one career! That's pretty incredible, wouldn't you agree?
Well, the thing I find most incredible about it all is being able to write the material for a fourteenth album! I launched my recording career in 1973 and if anyone had said to me back then, "Louis, in 28 years' time you'll be putting out an album that will still attract a lot of interest" - well, to be honest, the whole thing would have seemed a bit abstract and unlikely to me back then!
What seems really amazing to me looking back over my career, which has lasted almost thirty years now, is the way I've come through the past three decades! I've never really had any notion of time running out - and, let's face it, in the profession I'm in, careers are generally short-lived. Every time I start work on a new album the big question I have to ask myself is this: "Am I still capable of producing something that, besides holding my own interest, will touch other people in some way?" And the thing is, I'm never able to answer that question until I've finished what I'm working on. Obviously, while I'm working on a new album I'll question the people who are closest to me and try and get a second opinion. But, when it comes down to it, I don't actually ask that many people. They always reassure me and tell me what I'm doing is good, but I'm never able to get enough personal distance to actually know that myself.

Is that why it's taken you four years to record your new album?
No, that's just the time it takes these days. Bouc Bel Air is about to hit record stores and I'm going to have a lot of work ahead of me, what with tours and everything. I won't be free to work on anything else until the end of 2002. So that means I'm basically tied up for about two years all in all - and, as it generally takes me about two years to complete an album, we're looking at an overall total of four years! Back in the old days we used to bring out albums much more frequently, because the shelf life of an album was much shorter. But these days an album will go on selling for anything between one and two years after its release.

One of the most surprising things about your new album, Bouc Bel Air, is the amount of different musical styles you experiment with. One minute listeners are being regaled with a simple vocals/guitar combination on L'enfant qui joue au ballon and the next minute the whole thing switches to complex electro arrangements on Combien.
It's funny you should mention that, I was talking about that just the other day. There was this young guy who asked me how it was I came to decide that on some tracks there'd be all these elaborate arrangements and on others we'd use next to nothing. And I explained how it is that on the records you make at the beginning of your career you tend to make things as elaborate as possible and try and fill up the maximum number of tracks in the recording studio. But over the years you come round to the idea of paring things down to the essential. It's true that on a song like L'enfant qui joue au ballon there's nothing but guitar and vocals. The whole thing's so simple it sounds as if it could practically have been recorded live. The thing is, when I stopped and listened to the song after the first couple of takes, I realised the emotion was there already - if I added anything else, even just a few simple string arrangements, I'd weigh the whole thing down and spoil the natural side of things. But it's just the opposite with a song like Combien where it's the elaborate music and the highly orchestrated arrangements, which add an interesting kind of, tension to things. To be honest though, I never think too deeply about things when I'm working on the musical arrangements for a song. I don't stop playing every two minutes to question this or that. The music comes out naturally and I tell myself that's exactly how it should sound!

From a lyrical point of view, Chaque jour est une vie - the first single release from Bouc Bel Air - is very representative of the rest of the songs on your new album. Your overall philosophy appears to be "Make the most of life while you can because time's ticking away and there might not be a 'later'". That's a profoundly optimistic take on life …
Yes, absolutely. It's a way of life which revolves around making the most of each moment - and what could be more natural than that? I mean, there's nothing wrong with making plans and working out exactly what you're going to be doing in a year or two years' time. I'm not criticising that approach to life at all! I'm just pointing out that there's this other way of looking at things and that is to say to yourself "What's the point of putting things off till tomorrow when we don't know whether we're going to be here or not?" . The way I see it, it's not so much a question of not being able to make decisions about things. It's more to do with Eastern philosophy, you know, the idea of things being out of our control and in the hands of Fate... As we're never really sure what tomorrow will bring, we should live in the present and make the most of each moment.

In fact, no song on your new album is either completely upbeat and optimistic or totally bleak and pessimistic. When it comes down to it, you're a bit of a realist, aren't you?
That's absolutely true. I'd agree with you there. The way I see it, nothing is ever completely black or completely white. It's stupid to go round saying "The world's ugly and awful", but it's equally stupid to go round saying "Everything's coming up roses! Things are wonderful!" There's something that exists between these two extremes - and that, quite simply, is people's lives!

Is that your own personal observation or something you've gleaned from other people?
Well, I guess it's fair to say it's a bit of both really. I don't believe you can write books or songs if you stay locked up in an ivory tower and never mix with anyone from the outside world. Obviously, your material comes from what you yourself are feeling inside too. But the thing is, people always feel they have their own unique emotions and reactions to events, that no-one else could ever feel the same way. And that's just so untrue!
The way I see it, there's always some element of autobiography in writing. Things are never entirely made up. They always have a connection to you and what you've experienced in your own life somewhere. And I think that's especially true when you work as a songwriter. One thing I've come to realise with hindsight is that the songs I thought were completely divorced from my own life, my own experience, are actually totally tied up with it. Sometimes it's only years later that I can turn round and say to myself, "Ah, yes! Now I understand why I wrote that particular song at that particular time. It was back around then that there was such and such going on in my life… " I don't believe it's ever a question of chance or coincidence!

There's one particular battle you've always fought and it's a battle that surfaces again on Bouc Bel Air with the song Combien. The battle I'm talking about, of course, is your battle against racism and your ongoing fight for people to accept everyone as equal. This is something that seems to have been important to you throughout your career…
Yes, it is really important to me, as long as the song itself is good. I don't wake up in the morning, you know, and say to myself, "I really need to write a song about that for my new album". I'd describe myself as a very lucid kind of Utopian. I mean, there are plenty of awful, ugly things in the world. But back in my teens I had this very strong belief in my own kind of Utopia and it's something I don't want to lose touch with completely. I want to stay in touch with that kind of idealism and desire for change… It's something I still feel very strongly, despite the fact that over the years I've come to realise that global equality and absolute justice are not exactly round the corner! So basically, that's where I stand today - somewhere between the two!

You invited a lot of guest musicians into the studio to work on Bouc Bel Air. I'm thinking of Youssou N'Dour's musicians, for instance…
The way that came about was that two or three years ago I was on tour and we stopped off to play a few dates in Africa, including this concert in Dakar. And there was this guy who took us to the club where Youssou N'Dour plays when he's not off on tour. Anyway, I was really impressed by the musicians I heard playing with him that night. They really stuck in my mind and it so happened that when I started working on the first demo tapes for Bouc Bel Air, the director of my record label listened to them and said, "It would be great to invite a group of African percussionists to play on a couple of tracks!". I thought it was a brilliant idea and, as you always do in those situations, started dreaming about getting the best musicians. And that's how I decided to ask Youssou N'Dour's musicians! Those guys are really good, you know… There's one guitarist in particular who's just absolutely brilliant!… Anyway, to cut a long story short, when we were working in the recording studio in Paris, Youssou N'Dour's musicians happened to be doing a concert at Bercy stadium. So we got them to come along and spend two days playing with us in the studio.
What about Alex Gopher? How did he come to co-write the musical programming on Combien, the track we were talking about just now?
Well, I heard Alex's single (The Child) a long time ago. In fact, it must have been over two years ago now. The director of his record label actually got me to listen to it before it was released and I remember being really fascinated by the way he used sounds and samples. In fact, I remember thinking that it (The Child) was the first electronic record with real class! I mean, there were all these really original sounds on it and the whole thing was so well arranged… Anyway, I remember thinking to myself at the time that if I ever did a track which came close to Alex's musical universe I'd ask him to work on it with me. That's just how it happened. I tucked the information away in a corner of my brain… And then Combien came along and I got straight in touch with Alex!

The string arrangements on your new album were orchestrated by two very different composers. David Whitaker took care of the orchestral parts, while Nathaniel Mechaly looked after musical programming…
Yes, I decided I wanted to have two very different musical ambiences on the new album. On Combien, for example, the string part is very rhythmic and entirely made up of samples, in fact. The strings were played by Nathaniel himself -he's only around 25! And then there's David, who's 72! It's fun to have people from two completely different generations working side by side on the same project. The idea of working with David has actually been a personal fantasy of mine for some years now. I've always been a great admirer of the work he did with Michel Berger, Etienne Daho and Serge Gainsbourg - and then, before that, there was Elton John and the Stones! David also wrote the soundtrack to "Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien" (a film by Dominik Moll which came out on general release in 2000)… Anyway, to cut a long story short, I'm a huge fan of David's!
When we'd laid down the first few tracks for the demo tape of Bouc Bel Air we sent him a copy just to see how he'd react. And then one day he turned up at the studio where we were working, sat down at the piano and showed me a couple of ideas he'd come up with. I thought they were really superb. David went on to work on the orchestral arrangements of the album and we ended up recording the string sections at Abbey Road. And that was really something, I can tell you, working in the legendary studio where the Beatles played! It was a very moving experience, especially when the string instruments started up. But it wasn't all simple and straightforward, though. It's one thing working in the studio with a drummer or guitarist. You can hear whether it works or not straight off and if you don't like it you can get them to do it again. But when there are 26 musicians all playing together at the same time… Well, things can get a bit difficult!

There's someone who plays guitar on two songs on your new album and who we haven't mentioned yet - and that's your son, Matthieu. Matthieu, or M as he's known to his fans, has spent the last few years having to answer questions about you in interviews. Now the tables have turned and, as far as I know, no journalist has spared you the honour?
That's true - and I have to say I'm delighted! I wouldn't have liked it if no-one had brought Matthieu up at all. I think my son's managed his career really well and been very definite about where he wanted to go with his music. So it's more than fair that the tables have turned today and I'm being asked to talk about him. When Matthieu started out, you know, he was bombarded with questions about his relationship to me and I think he got pretty annoyed about that after a while. It makes me very happy and proud that everyone brings his name up to me these days - that shows that he's made a success of things and counts for a lot of people! But I'd just like to point out that I didn't wait for Matthieu to become famous before asking him to play on my albums! The first time he recorded with me was back in 1992 and he hadn't put out a record himself at the time. I've believed in my son's talent for a long while now. I think he's a truly excellent guitarist and when we've been able to get our schedules and other activities to coincide, I ask him to come and play guitar on my albums.

I've got one final question concerning the black and white photo on the cover of Bouc Bel Air. The photo's of this little boy who's smiling with his eyes closed and he's pointing his face up to the sky… Are you the boy in the photo?
Yes, I am! It's a photo my mother took in Bouc Bel Air and I asked her if I could use it on the cover. It's there for two reasons. Firstly, the album was named after the place where the photo was taken and secondly, because I wouldn't be the man I am today if I hadn't been the little boy in the photo at some point!