How Thomas Dutronc became a musician thanks to Django Reinhardt and Georges Brassens

INTERVIEW

He may well be the son of two icons of French song - Jacques Dutronc and Françoise Hardy - Thomas Dutronc fell in love with music relatively late.

This is in any case what he explained in "Icons", on Europe 1. But the singer also returns to the artists who triggered a real passion for this art at home, at the age of 18: Django Reinhardt and Georges Brassens.

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"All of a sudden, I got passionate about music"

After a "happy and carefree" childhood, Thomas Dutronc has "a little slack" between 16 years and his majority.

"Suddenly, I was told that I must choose a profession. The weight of my parents' success fell on me suddenly," he said at the microphone of Michel Denisot.

Enrolled in a university course in visual arts with cinema option, the musician does not feel out of place.

"It didn't lead to anything and it didn't interest me."

And it is at this moment that a monument of music made a sensational entry into the life of Jacques Dutronc: Django Reinhardt.

"All of a sudden, I got passionate about music and that allowed me to have an icon that was ultimately stronger than my parents," he says.

Not wanting to walk in the same sounds as them, the singer "is interested in jazz, instrumental music and gypsy guitar".

The same style of guitar that has allowed Django Reinhardt to be considered today, 67 years after his death, as one of the most influential and respected jazzmen in history.

>> TO DISCOVER - 

Isabelle Morizet with Thomas Dutronc

Brassens, the "Reinhardt of the texts"

But as a song is not limited to musical notes, another French artist will also have a capital importance in the life of Thomas Dutronc: Georges Brassens, "the Django of the texts" as the singer calls him.

"When the artist gives you so much tenderness, smile, love ... He is extraordinary!", He explains, specifying that he "discovered Brassens from his beginnings with

and

".

"When you start loving someone like that at 18 and want to build your life by thinking of guys like them, it's true that afterwards you find yourself on a bit of a lonely path: I don't like anything except them. I exaggerate but it's hard to like a lot of things. "

A love of French song that can be found in Thomas Dutronc's new album,

, available since December 4, which includes duets with Jane Birkin, Jacques Dutronc, Eddy Mitchell, Clara Luciani and Etienne Daho.