Hot on the heels of his new album My God Is Blue I caught up with the French bearded electronic maestro Sebastien Tellier to talk about the new album, the meaning behind “Pépito Bleu”, a film soundtrack that never happened and much more… oh and he reckons he’ll be back in Australia over the Summer. Read on!
Mr. Tellier! How are you today?
Fine thank you! I’m at home. I’m in my living room, just on the sofa wearing nothing but underwear!
What a beautiful picture that creates for our readers!
Yes very much *laughs*
When you were last in Australia you were talking about been very busy and serious at home, what are you working on now?
I am working on my tour, because when you’re touring it is very important to keep the energy alive. I work on my performance, I also work on my guitar picking. And now I start to record my next album, because I finished My God Is Blue one year and a half ago. So now I really need to compose some new music. I want to discover new styles of music and everything.
It’s a weird life though because while I’m doing this I have to talk about My God Is Blue and I have to play my music all around the world, my music, because that’s the nature of it… But at the same time I have to start on my next album! Some times in the morning when I wake up, I don’t know who I am because I don’t know if it will be old album day or a new album day; I’m a two different people! And its hard for me to work on two different projects which are very different.
When you were in Australia you mentioned you were working on a soundtrack for a Pete Doherty film. Did that come out?
It’s true but how the project is in the garbage! It was very good I mean im proud of what I did and I think that one day it will be a beautiful record, but at the end of it all, the film was just so bad. So bad. At the beginning of the project the filmmaker was so nice, and all the pictures from the movie were beautiful. But step by step the filmmaker became crazy, completely crazy, and filled the movie with pitiful thing.
And so at one point we decided we wanted be completely out of this project because it was just so bad. And I went to the studio and recorded all the soundtrack. So now I have a kind record sitting there. It’s music for a movie but it’s not in the movie. so I don’t know what to do with the record. Because even from my point of view it’s a really great record. But it’s not an album, it’s for a movie. But maybe one day I will release it, because maybe for my fans, it’s always cool to listen to something new. I’d imagine. So we will see with that but yeah, so far the music isn’t in the movie.
You’ll just have to release your own movie for it!
Well yes, I would like to make my own movie. I have a lot of friends who make movies, in French and everything. I think it’s a really hard job to make a movie. You have to be a kind of leader. You have to be a kind of a king of the company, soething like that. Because you work with a lot of people. The actors. The technical staff. The light. Everything, everything. Me in my life I need to be comfortable, just with you people, you know. Work is something I enjoy. Its when I working with 2,3 or 4 people. It’s a small crew. I seem very comfortable. And cinema movies, it’s too much. You have to work outside. Very early in the morning, it’s always cold… the spirit of the French movie experience it’s not so good. Bad vibes, it’s hard to explain.
When we talk about your music videos, I don’t think that we can have that conversation without talking about the amazing “Pépito Bleu” which came out at the beginning off the year. Its such an epic, epic music video. Can you explain how that conceptually came about?
“Pépito Bleu” is a theme of the album, of course which is called My God Is Blue and that’s about faith. Usually when we talk about faith or religion, it’s of very serious weight. And me, I wanted to replace something serious with something crazy, because serious is boring. And so that is why “Pépito Bleu” is the name of the song… in French it is the name of a little cookie. They are very good! And that is why I talk about this cookie in my song, to say to everyone OK, I will speak about this spiritual side of life in a good way, not in the usual tradition of taking about God – it’s having a bit of a fun when talking about God.
And this is a theme that runs through the record…
Yes because I chose this as the subject before I composed the music. For me it’s really important to have an idea before I start. Because when you sit in front of the piano, anything is possible. Every kind of music is possible. Sometimes too much freedom, kills the freedom, because you are so free at the end you are lost. So I need something to reach out to, a goal, so that’s why I write the subject of the record before the songs. After that, usually, I chose a topic taller than me. I want to stay a child in front of the world, in front of my subject. So I pick subjects like politics, family, sexuality… because in my head, I don’t know why but I’m small. The rest of the world is some kind of a huge wave. I try to keep that and make naive art, naive music… not music for children, just naive.
I’m a person who discovers the world again and again you know? I have no judgement, I have no position, I’m not sure of my political view, I just try to explain what I’ve discovered in my music.
When you take that music to the stage… we saw a band perform with you at Parklife… is your show still similar or has it changed since then?
No it’s really different, because now with my new album I try to create a blue church of light on the stage. Before it was just me and my music. But now it’s me, my music, a big light show and very very good musicians. It’s the next step of my show. The light show is quite amazing. I feel very comfortable with that! My shows are now more powerful and energetic, with more “bigness” and mystery.
Will we get to see the show in Australia any time soon?
I think I’ll be in Australia in December! Nothing is official yet, but it’s on the way… almost for sure I’ll come back to Australia at the end of the year. It’s a pleasure, with Parklife, it was for me such an amazing opportunity to discover the country. Sydney for me was one of my favourite cities in the world I’ve ever visited. Very cool, quite a great nightlife.
———
My God is Blue is available now in all good record stores!
