You began working as a professional musician early in 67 ?
Yes, but actually I started playing the harp way before that. I began performing live while I was still in short trousers, in fact! I remember one of my earliest concerts was supporting Line Renaud at the Olympia when I was 11. At that time, though, music wasn't yet my profession. It was a Musicorama concert organised by Europe 1 - one of the very first Musicoramas, in fact. Back in those days the support act was meant to play for quite a long time, so the organisers were often on the look out for something original. And you don't get much more original than someone playing a solo on the Celtic harp - an instrument which practically dates back to the dawn of time! The concert didn't have any great repercussions at the time though. I remember I was too shy to look up at the audience and I spent the entire show staring down at my strings and not paying the slightest bit of attention to anything else. But my performances on the Celtic harp during those years did have consequences for the instrument itself. My concerts helped start a Celtic harp revival and even led to the instrument branching out on the international scene in a way which was totally unimaginable back then.

How was traditional Breton music perceived back in those days when you supported Line Renaud at the Olympia?
When you talked about Breton music back in those days people just laughed in your face. People in France - and particularly in Paris - thought it was the most old-fashioned thing imaginable. However, together with several others involved in the Breton music scene, I managed to go a lot further than I'd have ever thought possible when I was younger. Of course, when you believe in something, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll succeed. But when you have conviction in what you're doing, you do have the power to change things. You can give a little hope to a lot of people.

Some of you - I'm thinking of people like yourself, Dan Ar Braz and Tri Yann - went on to become famous. But other equally talented Breton musicians such as Erik Marchand and Mélaine Favennec have not enjoyed the same kind of success. Would you say there's a certain type of Celtic music that's successful and another that's destined to fall by the wayside?
I think people like Yann Fanch Kemener and Erik Marchand are actually pretty successful in their own way. I mean, I don't know whether either of them actually dream of performing stadium concerts at Le Zénith or Bercy - I don't think they do. I don't suppose Yann Fanch Kemener is particularly unhappy when he performs at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris. The way I see it, some types of music are better suited to more cultural settings. Other types of music appeal to 'the masses' and they inevitably end up getting a lot more coverage. It's a question of where you're coming from - personally, I've got very diverse tastes when it comes to music. I can enjoy everything from the very intellectual to the totally mainstream.

What counts most for you in your own music - getting a groove going or putting across a message about Celtic culture?
The music comes first. I believe you put across the essential things through music, even when there are actually lyrics as well. Let's face it, when I sing in Breton my songs are more about music than words because most people in the audience don't speak Breton. My music is music you feel rather than understand. The most important thing as far as I'm concerned is to get people to accept that Breton music is as valid a genre as any other. When you get to the point of accepting that one type of culture is as legitimate as another, then I think you've said a lot already!

In your extensive tours around the world and your encounters with other musicians and other cultures, do you find that people are generally sensitive to Breton culture? Do you think they understand it?
One thing that's fascinated me since childhood is the sheer diversity of the world. There's an extremely rich mix in Brittany itself - you only have to go 10 kilometres down the road and you'll find completely different rhythms and different styles! I believe that all cultures which have kept in touch with their ancient roots can end up understanding each other pretty well. If they've kept in touch with their ancient roots, they'll have enough things in common. It's like having 50% of yourself made up of your own personal characteristics and 50% made up of things which are common to the rest of the world, the rest of humanity. This means there's always a part of yourself which can communicate with other people. You know, I've always found it surprising that if you make a few alterations in the way you play a piece of traditional Breton music, it ends up sounding like Vietnamese or American Indian folk music. On my latest album "Back to Breizh" I try to communicate with people in a very direct, down-to-earth way. That's why I chose to sing a third of the album in French, my mother tongue. After all, we do have to acknowledge the fact that Brittany's a bilingual place!

The title of your new album, Back to Breizh, means Back to Brittany. But your last album I douar - which means One Earth - experimented with a very fusional sound, featuring contributions from world music stars such as Youssou N’Dour and Khaled.
Jim Kerr from Simple Minds and Paddy Moloney and John Cale also guested on "I douar". For me, the album was saying that I'm first and foremost a citizen of the world, and after that a Breton. Now that I've made that clear, I feel I can focus much more on Brittany. I know that as we move into the 21st century what I really want to get across is my Breton 'baggage'.

Breton culture, like Breton music, is extremely rich. Why do you think this is? I wonder if mythology has something to do with it - despite the fact that Breton mythology is actually a lot less well-known than Greek or Roman mythology.
All aspects of Celtic and Breton culture are less well-known. The problem is that Celtic culture reminds the French that there was a period in their history when they were Barbarians. And that's something they have a problem with - although there's nothing to be ashamed of, the Barbarians were far from being barbaric! But for centuries the French have had this complex about it. The problem was France wanted to promote itself as the 'first daughter' of Rome, the torch of a civilisation handed down by their great classical Greek and Roman ancestors. Anything that could possibly remind the French that they'd not always been fine upstanding Roman citizens, but that before that they'd been Gauls and Celts, was problematic. When I was growing up, for example, nobody at French art schools would admit that there was such a thing as Celtic art. It took time before even the most obvious things were accepted. When it comes to Celtic mythology, I think people are still fairly ignorant today. They may have heard something about the Arthurian legends, but it's generally all pretty vague in their minds and not necessarily tied up with Celtic culture. It's all become a bit of a mix. These days there are very few people who really know about genuine Celtic mythology.

Armoricaine is a hard-hitting song which attempts to settle a few old scores and dispel certain prejudices about Brittany and Celtic culture.
That song's basically about me sounding off and venting a bit of my personal anger! There's been this major polemic about the charter for minority and regional languages in Europe, which France and Greece still refuse to sign up to. Personally, I'm really shocked that France has refused to revise its constitution and accept the European position on cultural rights. But what's shocked me most of all is to witness the outcry from people like Gisèle Halimi - a woman I used to admire enormously for fighting for women's rights. People like Madame Halimi have suddenly turned round and started waving the sword of Bonapartism against other cultures, totally refusing to accept their right to be different. Accusing us of being communautaristes is like accusing women of being communautaristes because they want to stand up for their rights. When women fight for equality, when they demand the same salary as a man for the same work, nobody accuses them of splitting hairs over EC laws. And yet Bretons are fighting for exactly the same thing - all we're asking is for people to respect our culture and our language, to accept us as we are. If you speak a language, it demands as much respect as any other language. It deserves to be treated like any other language.

Interview: Frédéric Garat
Translation: Julie Street