Paris (AFP)
It's a great record: Benjamin Biolay returns to pole position in French pop with "Grand Prix", an album with his love of motorsport and his gaze on the passing of time.
This concept-album irrigated by his passion - since childhood - for Formula 1 allows him to open his "diary" while remaining "in the dark" as the artist confides to AFP.
"Ma Route" thus sees a few turns of its existence in the retro, while "La Roue Tourne" has under the hood a delicate continuation of one of its classics ("Your Heritage", where he addresses his offspring , on the album "La Superbe").
Without giving a lesson. "These are tips that are not, + here is the manual but it may be a bit messy, look at this and look at it but only you can know +, because it 'is presumptuous to imagine that we know our children ", exposes the forties, incarnation of cool in interview.
References to legendary F1 drivers - like Ayrton Senna - in no way lock the listener into a cockpit: Biolay never stops "opening drawers" with emotion. It is thus the appeasement, after the rupture, which points at the end of the track of the jewel "Comment Est Ta Peine?"
- "A story" -
"It's very rewarding for F1 because it's still a category in sport that has a history, heroes, and to have a current singer who talks about heroes, who talks about sports cars, I think it's great ", rejoices with AFP Jean Alesi, ex-star F1 driver.
In the title track "Grand Prix", this "little French who dreams his life" is a bit Biolay, a little all aspirants to the best. It is also Jules Bianchi, a young prodigy who died tragically. "I followed his races, I heard what they said, he was gifted, he had to go to the Scuderia (the prestigious Ferrari team) unfortunately he could not exercise his profession for very long".
The parallel with music is never far away. "Jules Bianchi, this is terrible, it is sad, it reminds some musicians like Nick Drake or Brian Jones who did not have the destiny that they should have had", says Biolay.
The cover also invites the two universes, musical and mechanical. Biolay is seen there, in combination with a vintage pilot, in an interview, while in the background, another pilot advances in flames. A nod to the Pink Floyd cover "Wish You Were Here" where a man on fire shakes hands with another?
- "Myths" -
"A bit, it was not my idea, I wanted a reconstruction of the era, but for the photographer, fire is an essential component of motorsport. He has a stunt friend who loves to be a torch-man (laughs) ). From the first attempts, we were happy with the result. It reminded me of Pink Floyd but also Rage Against The Machine with this fiery bonze on the cover ".
"It also reminds us of all those rockers who throw fire on stage, the fire that guitars can create. Like Jimi Hendrix who sets fire to his guitar or Jerry Lee Lewis who sets fire to his piano", continues Biolay.
We also obviously think of Niki Lauda, a severely burned pilot who has nevertheless resumed competition at the highest level. His disfigured profile captured the first time in close-up in an interview marked the young Biolay in front of his TV. "He is a martyr of his sport," he breathes. "But his very name was remarkable. It is like Keke Rosberg, as if they were not real people, but myths."
And in music, who is on his Olympus? "The biggest Formula 1, for me, it's still a rolls, it's + Melody Nelson +". Signed Serge Gainsbourg, who only followed his own rules of conduct.
© 2020 AFP