Well, Alain, your new album appears to be in your usual nostalgic vein …
Alain SOUCHON: – The thing is memories make up such a large part of life. We're all affected, marked for life even, by what happened to us between childhood and the age of seventeen... I'm just pointing out how things really are ... You have to tell things straight now and again, don't you?

Did you know Saint-Germain back in the good old days, the way you describe it in the song Rive gauche?
In the early days of my career I used to go and audition in the cabarets on the Left Bank. It was a really great neighbourhood, the kind of neighbourhood where people would just go and hang out. You'd always end up bumping into poets, singers and all those kind of people. I'd often spot Romain Bouteille riding round Saint-Germain on his Solex and Coluche was often around too. He was just starting out with his mates at the Cheval d'Or in those days ... I was always really fascinated by places like L'Échelle de Jacob and L'Écluse - they evoked such memories. And I always liked the fact that Saint-Germain had all that history attached to it. You know, the stories about Juliette Gréco and Sartre hanging out there in the past.
I loved stuff by Elvis Presley and the Beatles, but I was also really into the music which came out of the Left Bank. Saint-Germain was a real hotbed of musical talent, you know. That's where the stuff on the current music scene all comes from - from people like Léo Ferré, Guy Béart, Jean Ferrat and all those people who were writing songs in the 50s and 60s, writing the kind of songs which have just lasted and lasted. Modern French music is all about assimilating what's going on elsewhere in the world, but it's also closely tied up with the country's literary tradition. In France, we like singers to say meaningful things in their songs. We like it when MC Solaar gets a bit sarcastic in his lyrics, you know - and that's what I'm talking about, that's what grew out of the Left Bank tradition.

So you'd say MC Solaar and yourself are heirs of the Left Bank tradition, whereas singers like Lara Fabian aren't …
There have always been two different sorts of music. In my day there were people like Claude Nougaro, Serge Gainsbourg and Georges Brassens on one side of the divide and Claude François, Dalida and people like that doing much lighter stuff on the other. And that's the way it still is today - you've got Dominique A on one side, and Lara Fabian on the other.

In the early days of your career when you were struggling to make a name for yourself, when you had to wait quite a while for your career to take off, weren't you ever tempted to swap sides and start doing lighter stuff?
I feel like I'm a bit between the two actually, because I do a lot of popular stuff. What's really great is when there's a bit of movement between the two sides - for example, there was a time when singers managed to mix yéyé (French rock'n'roll) with the tradition of humour and sarcasm. That's what Dutronc did – he sang the kind of songs Claude François might have sung, but he had these really funny, sarcastic lyrics. And I'd say that's what my generation was good at. We took the rock we listened to in our teens and mixed it with lyrics which tried to say something.

It took you six years to record this new album. Are you a bit lazy when it comes to work?
Yes, I'm pretty lazy. But then I reckon everyone else is too ... I can't say I'm a really hard worker, but I'd say I work at a normal pace. I don't feel I could go any faster in any case.

Do you ever go long stretches of time without working?
No, I'm always trying to work. The problem is sometimes I can go two months without coming up with anything.

And have you always been this way?
Well, I feel like I've always functioned this way, but when I look at the dates of old album releases, I realise that I used to make albums a lot more regularly than I do now. I've got more difficult over the years. Maybe I've actually just got older and slower.

Are you involved in choosing which singles are released from your albums?
Yes, always. On my previous albums it was easier, there was always a song which really stood out from the rest. But that's not the case on the new album. Either the songs are all as dull as each other - or they're all hits in the making!

So there was no really obvious choice for the single this time round?
On the last album it was really obvious. Foule sentimentale was just an obvious choice for the single. But this time round I wasn't sure. Maybe that's a bad sign in itself? I don't know. Anyway, they ended up bringing out Rive gauche as the first single. But we spent a long time hesitating over whether to choose Pardon or Tailler la zone instead...

And you never considered the title track Au ras des pâquerettes?
I don't know whether slow songs don't just end up boring everyone ... The people in the marketing department at Virgin actually wanted Caterpillar. But I think it sounds a bit too downbeat for a single.

Do you ever listen to what younger bands and singers are doing?
Yes, I keep an ear out for what's going on. I'm particularly interested in all those young singers and musicians who are trying to do something original. There's a whole lot of them bubbling up right now, people like Thomas Fersen, Dominique A, Mathieu Boogaerts, M and Axelle Renoir. All those young artists are really struggling to break through, but it's hard for them. They have to take a longer route because they go through alternative circuits. But I'm pleased to see there are some pretty good new acts coming through, people like Pierpoljak and Louise Attaque for example.

Do you feel that radio and TV programming directors don't give these kind of groups enough support?
It's frightening to see how nervous everyone gets when money and ratings figures are involved. They think that if they ever dared broadcast a young unknown whose songs they liked, people would immediately switch to another channel. And it's true that if people have the choice between getting all nostalgic over an old Claude François hit or listening to a song by Dominique A, who they've never heard of, people are instinctively going to go for Claude François. But things have to change. You have to start playing new stuff, even try out music which is a bit difficult to listen to at first. I think France Inter's started doing this a bit, but the problem is money's got such a strong hold on everyone... You can see that on TV in particular where they really stick to the established stars. I'm lucky, the system's never worked against me. They've been playing my songs on the radio for the past twenty-five years now. I'm lucky, people have always liked my songs and I've always been able to do exactly what I wanted. But I know a lot of people who are struggling and who've got pretty tough futures ahead of them.