I don't dislike the principle of karaokes, I think cover songs can be thrilling.
In 2001 I started thinking about doing an album of covers, mainly linked to my childhood and adolescence, to the memories of what music meant for me at that time.
So I started to dig up emotions and old vinyls, including beautiful and famous songs by The Cure, Talk Talk, Wire and Prince to name a few, as well as others like Sting, Imagination, Madonna and Jeannette. Mainly everything dated back to the 80's.
The release of my first album in late 2001 postponed this need to reexamine the idols and references (from the most serious to the most absurd) of my adolescence. I was sure it was a good way of "killing" them and I made to myself a promise: that I would face them all at once.
Yes, one of my favorite subjects is the necessary adversity of one towards his Father. I though this would be a perfect way of starting a project about this. I realize while writing these lines that it's also a research or therapy of sorts.

In 2002, I moved to a new flat. It took me a long time to fix up everything in the apartment. One of the first song that I recorded at home, with dried white paint all over my hands and arms, was a cover of "porque te vas" (originally by Jeanette). I actually recorded nine different covers. It was the start of the covers album project. But I was not convinced with the initial result (is this them?, is this me?, what's the point?) and then thought I would get back to this later on, which happened sooner rather than later. More precisely, I proposed to French musician Sylvain Chauveau to do a show at les Instants Chavires with the theme of covers. That was in April 2003. We rehearsed a bit and played the show. It was a nice experience, for the very first time in my life I was performing more than one cover on stage at once. Around that time I also wrote a few songs for French singer Francoiz Breut and we practiced a bit. I plan to record these songs sometime.

Sides, all of this, I wrote a film-script entitled "La Fenetre" (trsl."The Window"). In February 2003, I started to shoot the movie with my friend and filmmaker Bernard Roelandt. For one sequence, actor Jean Yves Duparc played the role of a giant (conceptually the father) fighting with the main character (conceptually the son) played by Quentin Rollet. This fighting sequence is really important to the movie and I'm happy with the initial result. I managed to do a 7 minute edit of the rushes for a live performance at les Instants Chavires on December 13th of 2003. I plan now to restructure the script and start again to shoot some sequences. This movie is really important for me, so I'm really looking forward to catching up on it.

After all the don nino shows and the nlf3 trio tours at the end of 2003, I started to record new songs for a new album. Songs of mine. I sometimes worked on really old songs or worked on very new and fragile material. Some songs were written in 1997-1998, but the rest are very recent, dating mostly from 2003. It took me quite a long time to choose the sounds for each arrangement and I did funny things like beating an armchair in place of playing th kick drum or recording the piano seven times because of a microphone stand changing its position during the take. I have great memories of the "Real seasons make reasons" recording in 2001 with my brother Fabrice and the musicians Jerome Lorichon, Ludovic Morillon. But this time I really wanted to reach a very particular level of intimicy. I forced myself almost to do everything alone, in my living room, surrounded by nothing but instruments and mics. At the very end I asked my wife Marie to do some back vocals on one song and asked musician Benoit Rault to record some flutes arrangements for two songs. Fabrice helped me as well to complete the mix.
I wanted a wide variety of sounds and intentions.I wanted an album of many colors. Let's call it colorist. I'm still really impressed by albums that shift colors, references and atmospheres, while keeping the same solid identity of the band or artist. That was certainly my main goal for this album.

As soon as the mix of "on the bright scale" was finished, I started to record new versions of the cover songs. This record should be ready soon… see obsessions follow their track and keep knocking at your door.

Covers with sylvain chauveau, montreuil, france 2003.

pictures of "La Fenetre", a short-movie in progress.
dream scene, fight of Quentin vs the Giant.