- You certainly took your time recording your new album ...
- Oh, it hasn't been as long as all that really! My last album Soul Music Airlines came out four years ago, then I did a stint at the Casino de Paris and after that I spent a year on tour. Then you have to factor in a year's work on the new album, Pôle ouest - actually before that I'd already started writing a few songs while I was on tour. Normally, I don't like to mix things - writing and touring require two completely different kinds of energy - but this time, for the first time in my career, I sat down to write material for the new album while I was still on the road.

- And this time round you decided to record your album at home…
- Yes, most of it, in any case. It's something I couldn't possibly have done with Soul Music Airlines. The atmosphere and the songs on that album really required me going into the studio to work with musicians. But this time round I found keyboards and machines were better suited to expressing what I'd written. Whether you choose to work with a jazz trio, two musicians or ten musicians, the format's not an end in itself but a means to achieve an end.

- Do you find it difficult to write songs?
- No, it's not difficult, but writing a song can take a long time sometimes. Sometimes I can finish a song in two nights, but at other times the process can drag on five whole years! I love "chanson" - that very specific genre which allows you, in the space of just two or three minutes, to tell the listener an entire story.
- Is "chanson" a bit of an old passion as far as you're concerned?
- My very first memory of seeing a live concert was when my father took me to see Edith Piaf at the Olympia. I must have been about twelve at the time and I remember my father saying to me, "This is something you absolutely have to see!" That night I found out what being a singer was all about, but the thing that really stuck in my mind was the atmosphere, the incredible emotion generated by all these people sitting together facing the stage, not saying a word. It was really bizarre from a child's point of view to see one person standing up there on stage and two thousand others sitting there watching her. As a child, you don't particularly think anything to yourself at the time, but you feel the emotion and intensity of it all in your veins. And the feeling I got hearing that tiny woman up on stage singing was just overwhelming!

- Have you ever taken any kind of professional training for your voice?
- Well, around four years ago a friend of mine told me about this American teacher who specialises in jazz improvisation. Anyway, I went off and worked with him for ten days or so and I found it very useful. He didn't really teach me anything - I mean, I knew the techniques he showed me as I'd already used them myself, techniques such as alternating singing from the throat with singing from the head where you let your voice vibrate through all the natural resonators in the body and the head. I was already familiar with these techniques, but the fact of having worked through them with him so intensively made me want to push things further in that direction. I actually started using these techniques on Soul Music Airlines, but I've taken things a stage further on the new album, Pôle Ouest.
There are very few points on the album where I really sing full throttle. This time round, I'm not interested in highlighting the power of my voice, I'm more concerned with subtleties, catching a certain interiority or warmth, a breath. This kind of singing may appear to be a lot less impressive when you listen to it - it certainly sounds easy - but, in actual fact, it's a lot harder for me to perform. Showing off vocal prowess isn't what interests me. I don't want people to react by saying, "Oh, he's got such an amazing voice!" I want them to be moved!

- Is this a recent development in your career?
- The way I sing now is certainly very different from the way I used to sing at the beginning of my career, but maybe it's linked to the fact I've attained some kind of interior tranquillity. You know, when you launch your career, you're fired with this hunger to succeed. You're totally wrapped up in your own ego and in many ways you're a lot more demonstrative. The thing is, there just isn't room for all the human beings who want to become singers and musicians. In the first few years of your career, you're really fired by this powerful energy and temper. And I can feel that force has calmed down in me now. These days I can do concerts when I feel like it - I can quite happily play to an audience of 500 instead of 5,000, it doesn't bother me! I'm quite happy if my album sells 50,000 copies rather than 300,000 - I'll still carry on writing songs, I'll just have to make my albums cheaper instead! These days I can afford to be more relaxed - I don't have to fight to make a name for myself any more.

Interview: Bertrand Dicale
Translation: Julie Street