RFI Musique: Why did you choose to call your new album Bungalow!?
Albin de la Simone: Because I wrote the songs sitting in a bungalow in Bali! What happened is I went off on my own for a month to get a bit of peace and quiet. I actually wrote 80% of the album over there and then finished things off when I got back to France.

You’re renowned for having this quirky take on songwriting, coming at things from totally unexpected angles…
Things only interest me if you look at them a bit differently. You don’t need me to look at that chair over there [Albin points to a chair in the room], but where I come in is I can tell you how great that chair is if you get down on your hands and knees and look at it from underneath. Right back on my first album there was a song called Ton pommier about someone committing suicide by hanging themselves from an apple tree and I described the tree as the guilty party. So I was attacking things from the same angle even back then. Let’s just say that somewhere down the line I need to feel justified in what I’m writing. I may choose a theme that’s been done a countless times before, but I need to feel that my take on it is absolutely my own. If my take on things is different from the 18,000 songs I’ve already heard on the subject then I let myself write about it.

Your lyrics are always very carefully crafted, using a lot of puns, wordplay and distortions of French expressions…
Well, I don’t read all that much, but I love writing and the more I write the more I enjoy it. It’s fun, it’s become a form of entertainment for me. It’s like working out all these little equations in my head all the time. Yes, it can be a laborious process but I’ve really been enjoying it since I got into it at the age of 28. I’d never really written anything before that. It was discovering this taste for writing that made me want to become a singer, in fact. Music, on the other hand, is something I do constantly - I’ve always played music and I always will! Music is something that just comes to me naturally and instinctively.

There’s a much greater sense of derision, of you making fun of things on Bungalow! compared to your last album…
Yes, I’m definitely moving towards something lighter now. I really wanted to get beyond this instinctive urge I have to make a big drama out of things. I guess that’s some sort of left-over from my dark teenage years. But I’m not a depressive type at all so there’s no reason why I should write depressing songs. After all, I’ve already made two albums like that! These days, everything’s geared towards pleasure. But I have to say it’s actually hard work trying to keep things simple, light and spontaneous. This is just the beginning of a long road ahead of me…

Listening to your lyrics I actually get the feeling that you’re pretty funny in real life - but someone who likes to keep himself to himself!
It’s strange you should say that because I always think I come across as someone who’s talkative, extrovert and pretty silly. But people often end up thinking that I’m this quiet unassuming guy. I can’t believe it! It’s like when I’m in the studio recording my songs I feel like I’m being really theatrical and over the top. But when I listen to what I’ve done afterwards it actually sounds pretty neutral. There’s obviously some sort of perception gap there. But it’s so weird because I feel like I’m laying it on with a trowel!

Does it annoy you if people say that you’re a better songwriter and composer than a singer?
No, it doesn’t. Anyway, I think I’m a better singer these days than I used to be. I really feel that live on stage. I’m beginning to get a big kick out of singing now… Between the concerts I did a couple of years ago and the ones on this tour, I’ve come to have a very different perception of things. I’ve finally got to the point where I get more pleasure out of singing than playing keyboards. The thing is, I didn’t feel comfortable with singing before and so I used to suffer. But now I’m on my way - on the way to finding the brilliant singer lurking within!

One of the most interesting features on Bungalow! is the weird female backing vocals that are so hard to pin down. They sound a bit like robots or something …
They came about because I wanted female backing vocals on the album and there was a complete absence of all-girl choirs in my bungalow in Bali! So I had to come up with a way of getting round that. I ended up messing about distorting my own voice thinking that once I got back to Paris I’d get the vocals done properly. But when I got back to France I realized they were all over the place. I’d used the backing vocals on a lot of songs and in the end I decided it would be better to keep them as they were. They fitted in with what I wanted, in fact, because they’re this quirky imitation of something real. It’s funny how something that starts out as being a bit of a flop, something you intended to be temporary ends up as reality on your album. That’s something I’ve always appreciated in the artistic process, that you can find a mistake and then decide it actually sounds good that way!

Those really high-pitched vocals almost sound like something you’d get in Indian or Asian music…
I assure you it’s a pure coincidence - or then again maybe it’s my unconscious at work! Because you get those really high-pitched vocals in Malian music and I get the impression that’s what’s coming to the surface now more than anything else. You know, it’s been ten years since I accompanied [the Malian kora-player] Salif Keita but I still get bursts of kora running through my head all the time. But that’s a long, long way from what I’m doing because my music isn’t African at all. If I carry on at this rhythm, in ten years’ time - once I’ve properly digested things - you might start hearing Balinese influences in my songs!

You actually started out playing jazz. Have you ever been tempted to go back to it at any point?
Well, the idea was to find a vehicle through which I could express what was in me. And for a long time I thought that vehicle was jazz. I thought jazz was the freest form to develop who I was. But I ended up constantly banging my head against walls because I wasn’t actually in the right place at all. I went round feeling like I wasn’t any good all the time and the whole process was very painful. And then one day I heard Katerine’s album Les créatures, this totally free, totally wild record with no complexes at all. Katerine was accompanied on the album by Benoît Delbecq, a jazz pianist I’m a really big fan of… And it was then that I understood that there was a style of music out there that was much better suited to me. I don’t think I’ll ever play straight jazz again. But there’s one thing I’m sure of and that is that I’ll go back to improvisation at some point.