RFI Musique: Did you have to go back and revise your Brel classics before recording this album?
Florent Pagny: No, I knew them all by heart. I’ve been listening to Brel since I was 11 or 12. Back then, of course, I didn’t really know what he was singing about but I felt like I understood it all. Obviously when you’re 11 or 12 you haven’t lived anything like Ne me quitte pas. That’s all still ahead of you. But then you grow up and live through life’s experiences and you realise that if there’s one guy who’s already lived it all and told the tale, it’s Brel. For me, Brel will always be the big brother who explained what life what all about. Having said that, however, I didn’t follow in Brel’s footsteps when it came to women because one day I managed to change my bad luck and find my other half. Brel taught me everything in life I know - the friend who steals your girlfriend (that’s what La Fanette’s all about), military service (I never did my military service but in order to get out of it I did find myself in the same position as the guy in Au suivant). And as for Le dernier repas, that song’s a sort of synthesis of all my little obsessions…

I’ve always been familiar with Brel’s work. When, around a couple of years ago now, I went back and listened to the entire anthology of his work again, I could sing every one of his songs. It’s amazing, I sometimes forget my own songs, but I’ve never forgotten one of his! I’ve known his entire repertoire for 35 years now!

Can Pagny chante Brel be seen as a sort of self-portrait when it comes to the songs you’ve chosen?
Yes, absolutely. What Brel’s essentially talking about in his songs is what it’s like to be a singer and a man - and by that I mean a man who’s fully understood the way human beings work. I think I’ve pretty much followed the same education in life as Brel. And as I’ve more or less taken the same options I’d say he came up with a great many answers in his songs I agree with.

When it came to choosing songs for your album you seem to have avoided classics like Madeleine and Les Timides. Why’s that?
They’re simply not me! And Les Bonbons isn’t either! Madeleine is about this nerdy kind of guy under this woman’s thumb. I’m not saying I’ve never been under anyone’s thumb. That did happen to me once, but it didn’t last long! Basically, I can get pretty vicious defending my corner and I have different reactions in those kinds of situations. But that doesn’t mean that Brel and I don’t come to exactly the same conclusions about love sometimes! It’s amazing, all these songs have been around for over forty years now, but I really identify with the ones I chose for my album. Otherwise I could never have launched myself into a project like this. It’s funny, I’ve never really identified with Brassens or Ferré songs, but Brel…

In the early ‘90s, when you released the single Presse qui roule, you used to tell interviewers that you were ready to pack it all in and go off into exile like Brel…
Well, it doesn’t surprise me that I said things like that. At the time I was living with someone who got it in the neck every single day (Ed.: Vanessa Paradis). She went on to become a sort of trendy icon, but when I first started going out with her she was the most hated person in France. And, believe me, that really wears you down in the end!

I still have this idea that I’ll end up going into exile or at least go off and live a bit of a hermit’s life at some stage. When I get old and grey, I see myself living like a hermit rather than doing the old pop star thing, turning up on TV shows night after night. I think at some point I’ll lead a sort of anti-overpopulation lifestyle, living alone with just me and my little wife, slipping gently into old age, you know, tending the vegetable garden out back and doing a bit of cooking, feeling fulfilled just watching the sun rise and set every day. I hope that I’ll get to the stage that when death comes I’ll manage to meet it with a smile!

Coming back to the album for a moment, you called in Yvan Cassar and Daran to arrange the songs. What stipulations did you lay down for the arrangements?
You know, François Rauber set the standard so high when he did the original orchestrations for Brel that Cassar and Daran had to stick pretty close to what was already there. Apart from Mathilde - which is a bit more out there - there’s not really a significant difference in the arrangements between Brel’s versions and mine. This was a pretty big challenge to take on really. When Cassar and Daran listened to Brel’s originals again, they both said, " Wow, the production’s amazing!" I think François Rauber was an absolute genius who never got the recognition he deserved. And that means you can’t really stray very far from what he did in the first place.