Is
the process of making movies soundtracks different from composing pop songs music?
It's almost the same because it's still music in both case but at the same time it's very
different because when you score movie you have to enter someone else's dream, to help him
to realize his dream to make it true and you have to respect the fact that you are serving
a movie. So you can be yourself when you compose but you have to be yourself in this
situation of a movie. When you do your solo album then it's your own choices and your own
dream. You express everything through your music instead of being only a part of
something. So that's the main differences I would say. And then they are also a lot of
technical differences. When you do an album you don't have anything to respect exept your
taste and what you want to express. In a movie they are a lot of technical things like
synchronization, like taking care also of the sounds of the movie, the dialogues, a lot of
technical vectors that you don't have in an album.
Is this album RXRA the result of a long reflexive time or did you
produce it instinctively ?
This is an album I thought and I wanted to do for probabbly for ten years now. The reason
why it took such a long time is because the level of quality I wanted to have was
something I was not feeling able to have. Especially about the lyrics because it was the
first time I was writing lyrics and I wanted to write it myself. And second about the
singing because also I had song already but not a lot it's not my main thing. It took me
years and also for the reason that I was doing movies at the same time when I started to
compose the first songs of this album. This was before I scored Léon or "The
Professional" for some countries. So it means when I started then I stopped to score
Léon, Goldeneye, "The Filth Element". So I would say it's a three or four years
work but I think also it's the last time I will take such a long time to do it. I feel now
like doing the next one as fast as possible. Cause finally I realize that doing this is
not specially a good idea. It was difficult because it was my first solo album but I think
it's more interesting to go for it and do what you feel at the moment you feel it. and
then you will improve for the next album instead of trying to improve on one album.
This album was released with a band in which you are a
multi-instrumentalist. Is it a personnal work or a team work ?
Originally the conception of this album is very personnal. I wrote all the songs and the
lyrics alone and very isolated. But then for the recording and making of this final album,
I wanted to record it really as a band. Not as a singer or calling musicians to come and
play but really to have a feeling of a band. Especially because I want to perform this
album on stage and I really want to have this feeling of playing with musicians. what I
was doing when I was much younger and what I really love in music is to play with my
friends.
You are surrounded by an impressive technical studio which seems to
be inspired by "Star Trek", but "RXRA" sounds rather natural and
human. Is it what you wanted to do ?
It was obviously something I wanted to do for two main reasons. the first one is that I
wanted to go to the opposite of the concept I had when I was doing soundtracks. Because
when when I do sountracks in the studio it's a very lonely work. I'm behind my computer
and writing, and composing, and recording almost everything myself. The second reason
which is probably most important is that I wanted to go back to play with musicians
because that's what I need and that's what I miss the most when I was scoring movies. A
little bit like if you had a starship, so this studio is a bit like a starship, you go in
outerspace to visit galaxies, it's very exciting and very amazing but then afterwhile when
you do this for few years finally you feel like going back to see your brothers from the
human race cause I'm a human, so I need this. So it was interesting to explore by myself
but I don't want to spend all my life like this, I prefer to be with humans.
While listening to "RXRA" we feel jazz, funk influences
but also some oriental and middle east tones. Does ethnic music hold a place close to your
heart ?
I listen to a lot of different kind of music, I listen to everything, I mean rock, jazz,
funky music, rythm'n blues, classical music, ethnic from any country because to me there
is only one kind of music, it's music. As long as I'm sensitive to any kind of music
because I've listen to a lot of things when I compose sometimes I will use, I don't even
realize I'm doing this, I will use for example African influences or arabic or classical
or rock, funk influences because it helps me to express emotions more precisely. Little
bit like when you speak for example you will use sometimes one word in an other language
because this word is more precise for what you want to say and you don't have something as
precise in your own language. For me, it's the same in music if you stay in one specific
style then you lock yourself into something interesting but very small. The more I use
different styles the more I have colors to paint I don't just have basic colors.
It was the very first time you wrote lyrics. Was it difficult for
you ?
I must say that it's probably, well for me, more difficult than writing music because I
have been writing music since I was born. Also because when you compose music you can
always have a guitar or a keyboard in your hands and play with it even if you are
searching well you are playing at the same time so it's fun it's a game at the same time.
When you write the problem is that it's very difficult to play and to have fun with a
pencil. Now my album is ready, the memory and the feeling I have is that I had a lot of
fun and it was for me something new and very exciting now when I go back to write some
lyrics I'm as excited as when I write music. Maybe sometimes more because it's more
difficult but they are some more interesting things in lyrics also because everybody can
understand and music is very abstract and lyrics are very precise.
Who are your spiritual fathers ?
I don't really like the word spiritual father. I think it's ambiguous. When you talk about
that usually it means someone who made you discover a spirituality. So I don't have this
in music because I discover music before discovering fathers. I started to play music when
I was five, so it was before listening to it but, of course, there is a lot of people I
love in music and admire. In classical music my favorite are Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy,
Bartok excluding Mozart because he's somewhere else, he's an exception. In pop, rock music
my favorite band when I was a kid was Led Zeppelin so it has been a big influence for me.
It's the only band from who I had all the albums and I bought them again when they were
published on CD. Who did I love? Prince of course, Sting with and without Police, James
Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Jaco Pastorius because I think he completly changed the way bass
players play now as Jimi Hendrix changed guitar. Even if they don't know it, all the
guitarist have been influenced by Hendrix and all the Bassists by Jaco Pastorius. So
really a lot of people.
The album will be released in different versions, is it a way
get the attention of a worldwide audience ?
I did this album in different versions especially because I'm one the rare french person
to be lucky enough to be a little bit known in other countries. So I want to play my music
and now my lyrics to everybody who wants to listen to it. So the only way to do this is to
sing in english but I'm french so I wanted also to do this in french for France because I
think that music is one the only international language. So it would be stupid to suddenly
lock yourself into one language. I don't feel specially french, or specially anything, I'm
a musician and I want to talk to human people If they like what I doing they will
understand what I'm saying. So that's why I did it in english and french and then I did a
japanese version of one song. First because I like to speak in japanese and second because
Japan is one of the countries where people are very nice to me, they like my music,
everytime I go there I'm welcome like even better than in my own country. So it was a kind
of mark of respect for me to do one song in japanese for them. I did a spanish song too
for fun and I think it's a mark of respect to make the effort to try to speak into the
language of the people you are talking to.
If you had to do again your musical career, would you do it
differently ?
If you had to do again your musical career, would you do it differently?
If I could do it again with my experience now I would try to do it better. But I would do
the same because I always made my choices sincerly and with respect of music because music
is the thing I respect most of everything on earth. So I've no regrets because I've never
done something I'm not proud of and I had a lot of fun and I hope I will have a lot of fun
until I die. So I'm very Happy with my career. Maybe one thing I would change is that I
would have done this band much earlier...
Anthony Augendre |