Wearing a jersey and nonchalantly knotted scarf, the blue-eyed Raphaël meets us at the bar of a grand Parisian hotel to talk rock. "Telephone? I used to listen to them on headphones under my duvet late at night. I'd listen to their live album over and over again. Bowie? He said some very kind things about my album when I opened for him.". Just thirty years old, this young novice talks like a seasoned music pro. Although it has to be said that over three albums, he's penned a series of songs which have definitely made him a man to watch, and possibly the next French act to make it huge.

Raphaël is one of two or three acts that the major labels have poured money into in the hope of seeing a quick return on investment. It's a pressure that the singer seems to be coping with admirably. Perhaps it's because he's hung out with so many of the music greats, such as Gérard Manset, father of Raphaël's own manager, or Jean-Louis Aubert with whom he duetted on his hit Sur la route. His current single is the title track from Caravane, and he has high hopes for its hit potential. It seems like a good bet, judging by the strengths of the album. With his quavering voice recorded without studio effects it's hard not to think of Saez, but the compositions and arrangements reflect a true musical maturity. "I was really pleased that David Bowie's guitarist Carlos agreed to record with us, and the work of Dominique Blanc-Francart is really fantastic" explains Raphaël enthusiastically, with plenty of details on his meeting with the alter ego of Ziggy Stardust.

Heroes

His admiration for his elders shows in his song dedications as well. There's Chanson pour Patrick Dewaere, a surprising dedication from someone whose generation had hardly begun watching movies when the celebrated actor killed himself. "He's someone I find amazing but thinking about it, I could just as easily have dedicated the song to Philippe Léotard. I like his melancholia and the fact that he was so unpredictable. Of the films he made, I love Préparez vos mouchoirs (Get Out Your Handkerchief), there are some fabulous scenes, like the one where he's listening to Mozart with Depardieu, and is totally mesmerised by the music." It's a short step from Dewaere to the singer Renaud. And it is hard not to think of  Renaud's "Chetron sauvage" when you hear the way Raphaël sings certain songs such as La ballade du pauvre or Et dans 150 ans. "I got that line from my maternal grandfather. He was someone I adored and when I had problems he used to say, don't worry, you're sad, but what difference will it make in ten years or a hundred years, when you won't even be here any more? That was his way of showing how relative things were, and of showing me that nothing lasts, not the good nor the bad things. He was a very "zen" guy, he was great. It was a notion of the beauty and fragility of life which makes everything relative."

Raphaël has Moroccan/Russian/Argentinean antecedents, and his multicultural background takes on a whole new dimension with the track Schengen. The melody is as beautiful as the theme is tragic. Raphaël wanted "a bit more Bamako", in other words, more of a Mali feel to the track and a bit less rock. "I can't stop thinking about the Sangatte centre [a refugee centre outside Calais], and the illegals who get forcibly flown back to Africa. I'm not a politician and I don't claim to have any better solution, I'm just saying I find the situation abominable.". Indeed, Raphaël makes no claims to having an answer to all the questions that the hordes of journalists ask him about the world, the student strikes, the scent he wears (yes, he does!), the cancer of the pancreas or the European constitution. There's only one thing he's really sure about: he's a lucky man to be where he is today, as one of rock/pop's young hopefuls. Even the polemics on music pirates makes him smile: "As long as the pirates leave enough for me to live on… Whether people steal my records from the record store or from the Internet, at least it means they want to listen to me. If they steal my album rather than someone else's it means they prefer mine, and that's ego-boosting, isn't it?"