Before we get round to talking about your new album, Rodolphe, I'd just like to ask you how you felt when Alain Bashung decided to include one of your songs on his new album "Fantaisie Militaire" ?

I was over the moon. I'd always wanted to work with Bashung, but before now I'd never really thought it would be possible. I have a lot of respect for Bashung and I know he appreciates my work too, but neither of us could really see how we could collaborate together. You know, we used to meet up a lot at one point as Bashung was pretty interested in what Kat Onoma were doing. And then, one day, I sat down to write a song using lyrics by Olivier Cadiot. The song was called "Samuel Hall" and when I sat down to write it I could just hear Bashung's voice in my head as I composed. Anyway, I told Bashung about this next time I saw him and he found the whole thing really funny. In fact, he left saying "I'll have to listen to that song of yours one of these days!" Anyway, Bashung went off and set to work on his new album and at that time he didn't want to know anything about anyone else's work, he was just interested in his own compositions. And then one day, completely out of the blue, he called me up and said, "OK, you know that song you were talking about, well, I'm ready to listen to it now!" So he came over, I played "Samuel Hall" to him and he decided that the song fitted in really well with the rest of his album.

So what does it feel like hearing Bashung perform a song you wrote? You must feel very proud, I imagine …

When I first heard Bashung's voice singing my lyrics I was really moved. He gives "Samuel Hall" such a special feeling. I mean, I always knew he'd be very sensitive to the lyrics and pick up all the little nuances … But all the same, when you actually hear the final version, it just sends a shiver up your spine. Bashung's got this really amazing way of singing "Allez au diable!" (Go to hell.") It's really unique and it just gets me every time!

Your new solo album "Météor Show" has proved a huge hit with the critics. I mean, you'd barely put the finishing touches to it when it won the 'Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros'. Were you surprised when you heard you'd won the award?

Yes, of course, the 'Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros' is a pretty prestigious award. I was really pleased to get it because I remember when I was younger I used to see these really good albums in the store, stuff like Patti Smith, you know, which had this little sticker on the front saying "Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros". I was really surprised to get the award for "Météor Show" because at the time the album hadn't even been released! But the thing that surprised me most of all was that L'Académie Charles-Cros had chosen to give the award to an album which wasn't at all in their usual style. I thought that was great!

It's true that the 'Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros' has also been awarded to artists like Claude Nougaro and Les Casse-Pipe - artists who fit more easily into the typical "French chanson" category than you do …

It's true. When I look back at the things I used to listen to when I was growing up, French 'chanson' didn't really play a major role in my record collection! When I was a teenager I was really into English and American rock. That's all I used to listen to - I didn't even hear the classical music that my Dad used to listen to all the time! From time to time I'd see Jacques Brel or Georges Brassens on T.V. but their music just passed me by really. I couldn't get into it. And I only discovered Serge Gainsbourg later in life. But I got into Bashung's music straight away. I loved his sound. He was one of the rare artists who achieved the really difficult feat of tracing a line from rock music to French 'variété'. Bashung really managed to carve out a unique path for himself - and he's still taking his sound even further today!

Talking of rock music, your new album features a lot of covers of songs by legendary rock idols such as Hendrix, Dylan and The Rolling Stones. And these songs were co-produced by yourself and Docteur L., who's famous for his work with Neneh Cherry and the rap group Assassin...

Hendrix's "Hey Baby" was the starting-point of my collaboration with Docteur L. I'd practically finished recording my CD album at that point, but then I suddenly got the urge to do a cover of the Hendrix song and I called up Docteur L. and asked him to work with me on that. We recorded the song in his studio in just one night, like we always do when we end up working together. We always like to do everything in one go, recording and mixing an entire track in just one session. Anyway, when I listened to the sound we managed to achieve on the Hendrix track, I really wanted to take things a stage further. But I never imagined for one moment that we'd end up remixing the whole album together!

Listening to "Météor Show", you get the impression that your songs give priority to the rhythmic side of things and melody takes something of a backseat on this new album …

It's true that rhythm really comes to the fore on "Météor Show". Docteur L started out his career playing drums, and he's a really excellent "rythmician". But it's not just Docteur L, I also wanted "Météor Show" to have this really heavy rhythmic feel to it. The melody side of things is played down on the new album, but I don't think it's fair to say that melodies don't come into it at all. What I've done is that I've pared the melody line down to its essence - it's there in the background all along but you can only just make it out. We toned down a few guitar mixes in the end, but you can still hear them hovering in the background like ghosts. You can still hear a vague melody line in the background, it's a bit 'unstructured' but it's still there and I think it makes it feel more musical, in fact. I'm generally a big fan of the minimalist approach when it comes to music. Basically, I tend to go for less rather than more!

It's easy for you to understand the intricacies of "Météor Show" because you actually wrote it, but don't you think listeners - who aren't au fait with the different stages the album went through - might end up feeling a bit lost?

I think listeners do discover all the different structures on the album - it's just that they go through the whole thing in reverse! Listeners can play the same track time and time again, and each time they'll hear something different, they'll discover another level to the sound. The things you don't hear when you play a track the first time round come out slowly as you play it over and over again. For us, it's the opposite of arrangement. Rather than adding things in to embellish the track, we take things out, paring a song down to its musical essence. Call it HI-FI minimalism if you like!

And how do you transpose an album like "Météor Show" to the stage?

Well, I don't actually know if I'm going to try and perform "Météor Show" in concert. I'm not really a big fan of recording an album and then doing an "after-sales service", by playing the whole thing again in concert. I really want to leave the songs on "Météor Show" alone, let them exist on the album and that's that! Which doesn't mean I'm not interested in the idea of live albums. I am! Like the other members of Kat Onoma, I'm particularly pleased with the last live album we made together - "Happy Birthday Public".
Interview by Frédéric Garat