Pigalle is back. Although the “group” hasn’t recorded an album since Alors, in 1997, its sole permanent member François Hadji-Lazaro – a major figure on the French rock scene – has hardly been quiet. “I’ve done three albums under the name of François Hadji-Lazaro and, as usual, I wanted a change. Changing names has never bothered me, even if it has cost me, as people tell me. It’s difficult for the media, record stores and maybe even the public. I’ve already had four different identities: Les Garçons Bouchers, Los Carayos, Pigalle and François Hadji-Lazaro. Why create another? Les Garçons Bouchers have been dead for a long time. As for Los Carayos, Manu Chao is on the road across the world. Pigalle allows me more diversity, more deviance.”

Des espoirs blends a range of influences, from Parisian street songs, Cajun, bluegrass, punk, and a hint of the Mediterranean. François Hadji-Lazaro plays everything on this album: guitars, accordions, hurdy-gurdy, various wind instruments… “It gives the music a consistency that I don’t necessarily find working with other musicians. It’s a bit like cooking: you might add new spices to bring out the flavour, but in the end the spices cancel each other out and the dish actually loses its flavour. By playing all the instruments myself with my sometimes eccentric arrangements, I end up keeping a certain flavour that feels like me."

There’s one exception to his multi-instrumental approach to music: “I can’t play drums. The drum parts are done vocally or with a sampler, but they’re treated so much that you can’t tell the difference.” From album to album, his musical expertise grows: “I get bored very quickly and so I’m always learning new instruments.  On this album I learned the Chinese pipa lute which, traditionally, is usually played by women. I also often change the recording and production setup. I’ve been a fan of production software tools from the beginning and I record my albums myself.  I record everywhere, at home or when travelling, day and night, without having to manage a group or plan or work to studio times. At home in Paris, I have 90 instruments. In the country, I record above the cellar, and I don’t have to waste time going out to eat. I spent around a year and a half of working sporadically to finish this album. I don’t have any particular composing method. Sometimes the lyrics come first, sometimes it’s the music, as it is with a lot of people. But sometimes I start with just a musical atmosphere with no melody or lyrics, and that allows me to try out all different kinds of things. But often the bits I started with end up lost in the mix. I like this approach to music, a sort of high-tech DIY.”

A realist approach

On Des espoirs, there are songs about a young worker who decides to rob a bank (Chez Mme Eulalie), a woman who is the victim of domestic abuse (Il tape), an adulterous couple (Ils se voyaient deux, trois fois par mois), a woman’s anonymous fate (Qui voudrait parler d’elle?), or a customs officer asking questions (La Frontière). Are they true stories? "I’ve always liked realist songs. But what I write comes from my imagination. Nobody believed there wasn’t really a bar on the rue des Martyrs when I wrote a song about it. On the other hand, I’m good at observing, and in the street or in the bar or at friends’ houses I often see people who inspire me. But the song I’ll then write has nothing to do with them."

There is also a punk-style cover of Graeme Allwright’s Il faut que je m’en aille. “I didn’t necessarily like many of his songs at the time. But I was learning the guitar and I was a monitor at a holiday camp and so I had to learn them. He had a huge impact right up to the generation who are around 30 now. I’ve always liked doing covers, and it was when I was in the country listening again to old records of mine that I thought about him.”  

In 2008, François released a Pigalle compilation, Neuf et occasion (new and second-hand). Des Espoirs is released on a new label, Saucissong Records, a name that echoes the legendary Boucherie (butchery) label François created in 1998, and finally retired having released 140 albums. “I was no longer signed to Universal and I put out the Pigalle compilation on a small label based in Lille. My manager wanted me to do a new album, so I talked to a number of independent labels. Everyone was interested in Pigalle and wanted to sign me, but the trouble was no one really wanted to invest in the project. The record business is doing so badly that the labels are signing with the hope they’ll break even on it. They’re investing as little as possible so as not to lose everything. So instead of waiting around to see if a label was going to do anything, I decided to set up my own label.”

His next project will be a book/CD for children, to be published at the end of the year, with new versions of children’s songs from Les Garçons Bouchers, Los Carayos and Pigalle.